‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them*, you did it to Me.’
*does not apply to non-Protestants and poor countries
You have to read the fine-print in the Gospel to truly get it.
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That there Chapter 3 (“Science and Religion in the 19th Century”) does not look like a chapter in an economics PhD dissertation.
In the introduction to Chapter 3, he states, “The current economics literature has not systematically addressed the relationship between Protestantism and the advancement of science.”
No kidding? I wonder why that is? Just maybe that’s not economics – just maybe that’s an even more diffuse and subjective business we might call “intellectual history” (if we want to be generous).
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I forgot to mention the newer monopolistic enterprises of BigAg and BigPhrma though I’m sure there’s more. Yeah, where’s a Teddy Roosevelt when ya need one???
American school children were sold a real warped sense of history when I was in school, particularly about Native Americans in this country. Luckily, back when I was in Middle School and H.S. African-American studies were offered as electives (electives mind you, not mandatory), but I took those classes when offered and it opened my eyes to an entire new reality about our country and the history of our evolving democracy and what we stand for as a people.
E Pluribus Unum. Out of many…one.
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Protestant work ethic?
Pshaw.
Drive around the Ozarks or Appalachia and witness fat, idle Protestant work ethic in inaction.
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Sounds like Max Weber with better stats. Nothing inherently lunatic, but I’m sure we’ll get to hear more as the media pushes him to stop dodging questions.
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South Korea is 18% Protestant. I don’t know about during the 1960s and 70s when the seeds of the economic miracle were sown.
Great point about the NIH and NSF. I’m really eager to see how an actual economist with a non-Liberty PhD handles his new obligation, as a Republican nominee to office, to join the War on Science.
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Of course, France was one of the first countries to industrialize and they were Catholic.
As far as science, I will guess he will propose R&D tax credits. While those are OK in some areas, there are huge areas that the private sector will not touch no matter how generous the tax credits.
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need a TL;DR version.
And this notion that science in 19th century France was inferior? Has this guy ever heard of Louis Pasteur? Pierre Curie (not to mention Marie Curie who was Polish - also a catholic country - but worked in France), Ampere, Fourier, Foucault, di Broglie, Broca, Coulomb, Ranvier?
Science also thrived in other catholic countries in the 19th century, including Italy and Spain.
His first mistake is that the whole of this thesis is based on a highly questionable assumption that 19th century science in Britain and Germany was superior to that in France.
His second unforgivable notion is that the only independent variable he uses in assessing possible reasons for this purported scientific superiority is the identity of the predominant religion of the country in question. This is simply astonishing in its simple-mindedness.
Seriously, it is hard to understand how this was accepted as part of a PhD dissertation.
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Rather than pulling out random examples, I think it’s good to be aware of research showing that countries that extracted wealth from their colonies left behind much poorer colonies than those that established institutions in their colonies. Catholic countries tended to the former, Protestant countries to the latter, but that’s not absolute (Acemoglu et al., 2001).
But this is way beyond what most people want to read about on political blog comments. 
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Human capitol of course is another word for labor. He of course thinks labor should be taxed and capitol should not be taxed.
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No, actually economists study this kind of thing all the time. Actually, economists tend to expand their bailiwick quite a bit into issues I would consider more traditionally sociological. The difference is in the tools and theories (and primarily the assumptions about human rationality).
Do you actually have any basis for your assertion?
However, his radicalism will bring his party down - maybe not in 2014, but for sure in 2016.
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Everything i learned aout native americans was in the movies (the Cowboys and Indians movies) - nothing in school and absolutely no african american studies whatsoever. What I heard in the home and surroundings about black folks, should not be repeated.
Beyond shameful indeed. Thank the goddess I got out of there as soon as I could
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Having actually absorbed a good bit of this prattle, ( I mean this “dissertation”) all I wish to say is that the institution that gave its author any academic standing at all upon the basis of this “work” may well come to regret their lack of reflection in the days to come.
We can but hope.
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He seems to have forgotten some older history. In the 17th century Galileo was brought before the Inquisition for the heresy of advocating heliocentrism. Galileo was held under house arrest for the rest of his life.
The Pope viewed Galileo as just another challenge to his authority, like the protestant reformation. The Pope used the Inquisition to suppress the challenge to the church’s authority from scientific research. The result was that most scientist moved to Protestant controlled parts of Europe, which were open to scientific inquiry.
By the mid 18th century the Catholic church had dropped its opposition to heliocentrism, although Galileo’s Dialogue officially remained on the banned book list into the 19th century. As Brat notes, at the beginning of the 19th century Catholic France began a government push to expand scientific research. What he fails to note is that most scientific research in the 18th century was in Protestant countries because it had been actively suppressed in Catholic ones. It was not until the 19th century that a Catholic country like France felt safe in promoting science.
Where does Brat stand on teaching evolution in schools? Where does Brat stand on government funding of scientific research?
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weeps.
I guess no Catholic ethnics need apply…
He probably had to edit the crazy out.
To me, it just sounds like he cribbed from Max Weber’s “The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism”.