Reconstructing economic theory : the problem of human agency / Allen Oakley.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Oakley, Allen.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Economics--Psychological aspects.

Economics.

Economics--Sociological aspects.

Economic man.

Physical Description:

xi, 234 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Northampton, Ma. : Edward Elgar Pub., [2002]

Contents:

1.2 Realism and human inquiry 6

1.3 Principles of folk psychology 8

1.4 The existential nature of situated human agency 12

1.5 Representing human agency in mainstream economic theory 19

1.6 A look ahead 28

2 Alfred Schutz: individuals as human agents 32

2.2 Schutz and economics 36

2.3 The structure of Schutz's human inquiry 40

2.4 Individual agents as isolated human beings 43

3 Schutz and socially situated agents 54

3.2 Social agents and their intersubjective relationships 54

3.3 Social agents and the structured life-world 65

3.4 Conclusion: Schutz's legacy and its lacunae 71

4 Karl Popper's ontology of situated human agency 75

4.2 Situational analysis in economic science 81

4.3 Mind and individual self-identity 84

4.4 The three-worlds representation of the human situation 87

4.5 Reason and circumstances 92

4.6 An ontology of human situations 95

4.7 Concluding critique 98

5 George Shackle and the temporal conditioning of human agency 105

5.2 Human agency in economics 109

5.3 Circumstances and knowledge 115

5.4 Expectations 121

6 Shackle's theory of choice and action under uncertainty 125

6.2 The nature of choice 125

6.3 Choice and action 130

7 Shackle and the situational conditioning of choice and action 146

7.2 Situational conditioning 147

7.3 Concluding critique 154

8 Herbert Simon and the limits of agent rationality 161

8.2 Problems with rationality in economics 165

8.3 Reason and the realities of agents' actions 169

8.4 Bounded rationality in operation 174

8.5 Organizational action in economics 178

8.6 Assessing Simon's contributions 185

9 Human agency, situational analysis and the reconstruction of economic theory 191

9.2 Agents as existential individuals in the real world 193

9.3 Situational structures and conditioning 197

9.4 An extension of situational analysis 201

9.5 The contingent remainder 208

9.6 Methodology and situational analysis 210.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1840641339

OCLC:

49260699