Author :
Release :
Genre :
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : /5 ( reviews)

GET EBOOK

Book Synopsis Revealed Preference Theory, Rationality, and Neoclassical Economics by :

Download or read book Revealed Preference Theory, Rationality, and Neoclassical Economics written by . This book was released on . Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: So it behoves the African student of economics to ponder the results of a meta-analysis of neoclassical economics as it strove to establish itself as a science in order to cement the claim that capitalist market economics describes the natural and optimal behaviour and decision making of humans. [...] The point is that whereas the behaviours of the objects of the natural sciences were to be studied purely in terms of their physical or empirical manifestations, the objects of the social sciences required study not only of external or empirical manifestation of human behaviours but also the non-empirical causes of such behaviours. [...] According to Samuelson (1938), the purpose of his novel approach was to lead eventually to the 'dropping of the last vestiges of the utility analysis. [...] Consider Simon's approach to the problem: 'Broadly stated, the task is to replace the global rationality of economic man with a kind of rational behaviour that is compatible with the access to information and the computational capacities that are actually possessed by organisms, including man, in the kinds of environments in which such organisms exist' (Simon 1955:99). [...] What this evolutionary approach achieves is as follows: the paradigm of program-based behaviour appeals to the concept of rationality to explain behaviour that is based on agents engaging in purposeful action that is constantly seeking to adapt to the conditions of the environment.