by From Asad Zaman Cold: we let our emotions influence our behavior. Callous: concern for others causes us to share our good fortune with others, instead of keeping everything for ourselves. Cruel: We feel pain for the suffering of others, and sorrow for the extinction of species, or destruction of their habitat, instead of joy at the resulting profits. Calculating: We are not concerned with maximizing our monetary gains, down to the last penny. The paper “The Empirical Evidence Against Neoclassical Utility Theory: A Review of the Literature” shows how each of these human failings causes us to deviate from the lofty standards of ideal rational behavior. The fact that all four of these characteristics are pejoratives in common parlance suggests that economists’ view of “rationality” does
Topics:
Asad Zaman considers the following as important: Uncategorized
This could be interesting, too:
NewDealdemocrat writes House prices may have bottomed, YoY price increases (leading inflation) have declined
Lars Pålsson Syll writes Economic methodology — Lawson, Mäki, and Syll
Merijn T. Knibbe writes Something about prices II. The introduction of Multi Component Pricing for milk…
run75441 writes Tax Deal Open Thread Theater
from Asad Zaman
- Cold: we let our emotions influence our behavior.
- Callous: concern for others causes us to share our good fortune with others, instead of keeping everything for ourselves.
- Cruel: We feel pain for the suffering of others, and sorrow for the extinction of species, or destruction of their habitat, instead of joy at the resulting profits.
- Calculating: We are not concerned with maximizing our monetary gains, down to the last penny.
The paper “The Empirical Evidence Against Neoclassical Utility Theory: A Review of the Literature” shows how each of these human failings causes us to deviate from the lofty standards of ideal rational behavior. The fact that all four of these characteristics are pejoratives in common parlance suggests that economists’ view of “rationality” does not agree with ordinary language usage of this word. Since the meaning of the word is contested, let us use E-rationality to denote what economists mean by rationality. In ordinary language, we would say that E-rational behavior is sociopathic. This is the framework for the question of the title: is it rational to be a sociopath, as economists claim? read more