Glenn Fox leads a Socratic Seminar in Austrian Economics...

Posted on Thursday, October 29, 2015

Glenn Fox led a seminar course in Austrian Economics, sponsored by the Institute for Liberal Studies, and organized by Matt Bufton, Executive Director of the Institute, in Ottawa from October 23-25, 2015. The course was organized as a Socratic Seminar, with formal discussion, based on a text, in which the leader asks open-ended questions. Within the context of the discussion, students listen closely to the comments of others, thinking critically for themselves and articulate their own thoughts and their responses to the thoughts of others. Fifteen students from across Canada, and with majors ranging from economics to political science, to history, to political philosophy, participated in the seminar. Topics included the Austrian perspective on economic methodology, the economic calculation debate on the viability of central planning, the economics of entrepreneurship, Austrian business cycle theory as well as applications or the Austrian perspective in political economy (the law and economics of pirates) and environmental economics.   The course was held in the new offices of the Institute for Liberal Studies in downtown Ottawa.