Nobel Prize-winning economist comes to BGSU

James M. Buchanan, Nobel Laureate in Economic Science, will speak at BGSU on Oct. 21. Regarded as one of the most influential intellectuals of recent times, Buchanan will present the keynote address at the Social Philosophy and Policy Center’s conference on Justice and Global Politics, to be held Oct. 21-23.

Buchanan will begin his address at 8 p.m. in McFall Center Gallery.

Best known as a founding father of "public choice economics," Buchanan was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1986 for the analysis of the contractual and constitutional fundamentals of the theory of economic and political choice. Public choice scholarship has profoundly influenced thinking in the scientific community and the formation of public attitudes. Economics traditionally focuses on the behavior of firms and consumers and how individuals interact in market settings. As a research program, public choice extends the tools of economics to analyze the behavior of voters, candidates, legislators, bureaucrats, judges and so on.

Buchanan remains Advisory General Director of the Center for Study of Public Choice at George Mason University. He retired in 1999 as Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Economics from George Mason and as University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Economics and Philosophy from Virginia Polytechnic and State University. Several universities around the world have awarded him the doctorate honoris causa.

He is the author of hundreds of articles and 13 books, the most famous of which was The Calculus of Consent (1962), authored with fellow economist Gordon Tullock.

Buchanan earned his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1948. He received a bachelor's degree from Middle Tennessee State University in 1940 and a master's degree in economics from the University of Tennessee in 1941. He served in the Navy for four years, receiving a Bronze Star for distinguished service, before returning to graduate school.

Conference sessions will run through Saturday afternoon. Fourteen distinguished philosophers, political scientists, economists and lawyers from the most prestigious universities around the country will discuss a wide range of issues of public interest, such as the legitimacy of the war in Iraq, challenges posed by the war against terror, the morality of preemptive attacks, the role of multilateralism in combating terrorism, and the role western nations should play in the promotion of democracy around the world.

In addition to Buchanan, speakers include Svetozar Pejovich, Professor Emeritus of Economics at Texas A&M University; Samuel Freeman, Steven F. Goldstone Professor of Philosophy and Law at the University of Pennsylvania; Irving Louis Horowitz, Hannah Arendt Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at Rutgers University, and Chandran Kukathas, Neal A. Maxwell Professor of Political Theory at the University of Utah.

All sessions will be held in McFall Center Gallery. For more information about this conference and other SPPC events, visit www.bgsu.edu/offices/sppc.