Experimental Economics—A Philosophical Perspective

The originally Hobbesian ideal of twentieth-century neoclassical economics as a discipline that studies human interaction “more geometrico” as a scenery of interactive rational decision making is rejected. “Explaining” overt behavior as (if it were) the equilibrium outcome of opportunity seeking rational choices is impossible if the requirement of approximate truth of the explanans is upheld. Stylized accounts of some central experiments (prisoner’s dilemma, ultimatum, dictator, impunity games, double oral auctions) show why this is so and illustrate basic contributions of experimental economics in an exemplary manner. A somewhat detailed account of an experiment concerning “equity” shows the explanatory potential and “workings” of experimental economics and how its findings can contribute to traditional philosophical and psychological discussions. Why the Humean “attempt to introduce the experimental method of reasoning into moral subjects” must remain incomplete until experimental economics and experimental psychology become fully complementary research strategies is indicated as well.