Steven Landsburg helped launch economics books for the lay reader with The Armchair Economist. His latest work, The Big Questions, uses the tools of math, science, and economics to tackle questions of philosophy. Here’s an informal review from Greg Mankiw.

I recently finished it, and it is much fun. Reading it is like having dinner and sharing a bottle of claret with a smart, creative, iconoclastic friend. The conversation jumps from topic to topic in math, physics, philosophy, economics, public policy, etc., in a seemingly random fashion, and your friend does not always convince you of his point of view. But throughout you are entertained, and in the end you are even edified.

Landsburg also posts a glowing review from Alex Tabarrok from Marginal Revolution at his own site.

Turning to epistemology, the theory of beliefs and knowledge, two chapters stand out for me. I learned a lot from Landsburg remarkable clear explanation of Aumann’s agreement theorem–and I say that despite the fact that in the office next to mine is Robin Hanson, one of the world’s experts on the theorem (see Robin’s papers on disagreement and also his paper with Tyler, but read Landsburg first!).

Landsburg’s skills of explanation are also brought to bear in a wonderful little chapter explaining the theory of instrumental variables and of structural econometric modeling – and this from an avowedly armchair economist!

I’m about halfway through the book myself. I loved The Armchair Economist, though the genre has advanced since Lansburg’s landmark book. Freakonomics and its kin tackle concrete problems than Landburg’s philosophical musings, and with more data to back them up. It’s still a good read for anyone who enjoys this sort of thing, but I find it a lot less substantial and relevant than I had hoped.