MISPLACED PRECISION? Professor Leiter correctly notes that the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics is a creature of a Swedish bank and not an award established in Alfred Nobel's will. Methinks he doth protest too much.

It's ironic, of course, that [Amartya] Sen should be the target here, since he is one of the few economists whose important work was not based on a scientistic pretense (indeed, Sen has done a good deal to undermine that disciplinary pretense). But the general point stands, and is perhaps worth making the next time someone says (and I've heard it many times), "You know, economics is the only social science for which there is a Nobel Prize.": in fact, no social sciences are recognized with Nobel Prizes, but economics is the only social science which has felt the need to pretend that it is so recognized.

Yes, but how many winners of the Economics award have emulated the winners of the authentic Nobel Literature and Nobel Peace Prizes and made silly statements shortly thereafter? That includes those individuals who won the Prizes for silly activity.