Read the following excerpt from levitt and dubner’s freakonomics. there is a tale, “the ring of gyges,” that feldman sometimes tells his economist friends. it comes from plato’s republic. a student named glaucon offered the story in response to a lesson by socrates—who, like adam smith, argued that people are generally good even without enforcement. glaucon, like feldman’s economist friends, disagreed. he told of a shepherd named gyges who stumbled upon a secret cavern with a corpse inside that wore a ring. when gyges put on the ring, he found that it made him invisible. with no one able to monitor his behavior, gyges proceeded to do woeful things—seduce the queen, murder the king, and so on. glaucon’s story posed a moral question: could any man resist the temptation of evil if he knew his acts could not be witnessed? glaucon seemed to think the answer was no. but paul feldman sides with socrates and adam smith—for he knows the answer, at least 87 percent of the time, is yes. feldman reaches the conclusion that most people are honest without receiving an incentive by making a claim about his individual experiences and looking for evidence. making a broad generalization about morality and looking for evidence. studying his individual experiences and arriving at a broad generalization. studying a counterclaim about morality and arriving at a broad generalization.

The correct answer is C) studying his individual experiences and arriving at a broad generalization. Paul Feldman quit his job as economist and started selling bagels at his former company and other workplaces based in an honor system. He left bagels and doughnuts in boxes and a tray for the money, he would later pick up the leftovers and the money. While he identified factors that increased or decreased the rate of people stealing, he came to the conclusion that most of the people, around 87% are honest and won't steal. Key factors for stealing included big offices, bad weather, holidays and unhappy employees. Key factors for being honest included smaller offices, good weather and a close connection to the person selling the food.

At the end his conclusion was that good people will be good no matter the circumstances and bad people will steal no matter how good the company they work for. Paul F has hope in mankind as his 20 year career selling bagels has demonstrated most people are good.

Studying his individual experiences and arriving at a broad generalization.

Further Explanation:

The title of the book is suggestive of the unconventional nature of the contents of the book. Levitt has included within the book a series of articles that do not follow traditional economic laws or rules. He has explained the most random subjects by the application of economic theory. At the end of the book, the authors try to arrive at a general conclusion, after a thorough examination of individual experiences. The conclusion is that economics is the study of incentives, which are general motivators, which spur and reward reactions held to provide an extremely desire outcome. The book’s chapters explain some very significant day to situations along with historical events on an economic framework, for example, it explores the subject of cheating as applied to teachers and sumo-wrestlers, from information control from the context of Ku Klux Klan, to issues from legalizing abortion, the economics of drug dealing, etc.

The book had several reactions from critics, some of whom hailed it as a refreshing take on economics, to others who have focused more on its sociological framework, rather than being a work of economics. The book undoubtedly digs out unconventional statistics, which somewhat feels unproven, and has hence been called ‘dubious’ by several economists. Some of the economists have felt that the book’s contents are disconnected from economics and have a very strong sociological undertone, going as far as to designate the work as ‘amateur sociology’. Several of their arguments have been contradicted, for example, their take on the reduction of crime after legalized abortion has been widely criticized.

Learn more:

1. Which of the following represents one of congress's electoral powers

2. While the lead architect of the new st. peter's project, what was Michelangelo's design contribution to the project?

Answer Details:

Grade: High School

Chapter: Freakonomics

Subject: English

Keywords:

Economics, sociology, unconventional topics, economic framework, perspectives, legalization, reduction of crime, criticism.

in   ¨and yet the books¨   by czelaw miloz the tone is positive since it tells us that when we touch a book, it starts to live and the perspective is in the third person and turns once into the first person. in "the rhinoceros" by eugene ionesco the tone is illogical and absurd   and the perspective is in the third person since it is a play.