Human Nature in Modern Economics

Human Nature in Modern Economics PDF Author: Anna Horodecka
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000605469
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Human Nature in Modern Economics offers a precise definition of the concept of human nature in economics, something that is so far lacking in the theoretical and methodological literature. This book develops tools for the analysis of human nature through the construction of the author’s meta-model – based on anthropological and psychological foundations – allowing for comparisons of anthropological assumptions made in economic theories. The model demonstrates that the normative functions of human nature may affect the economic reality. The chapters argue that the concept of human nature determines our thinking about the economy and economics, including fundamental methodologies, methods and theories. Thus, the differences between various economic schools may result from the different assumptions of these schools about human nature. Those evolving views of human nature proceed to explain the development of both orthodox (mainstream) and heterodox economics. The book marks a significant addition to the literature on the history of economic thought, heterodox economics, economic theory and economic methodology. For students, it is a supplement to standard textbooks as it explains the current state of economics, especially in its heterodox branches. It will allow scholars to discover the importance of what they assume about human nature and how it may influence their research process.

Human Nature in Modern Economics

Human Nature in Modern Economics PDF Author: Anna Horodecka
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000605469
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Get Book Here

Book Description
Human Nature in Modern Economics offers a precise definition of the concept of human nature in economics, something that is so far lacking in the theoretical and methodological literature. This book develops tools for the analysis of human nature through the construction of the author’s meta-model – based on anthropological and psychological foundations – allowing for comparisons of anthropological assumptions made in economic theories. The model demonstrates that the normative functions of human nature may affect the economic reality. The chapters argue that the concept of human nature determines our thinking about the economy and economics, including fundamental methodologies, methods and theories. Thus, the differences between various economic schools may result from the different assumptions of these schools about human nature. Those evolving views of human nature proceed to explain the development of both orthodox (mainstream) and heterodox economics. The book marks a significant addition to the literature on the history of economic thought, heterodox economics, economic theory and economic methodology. For students, it is a supplement to standard textbooks as it explains the current state of economics, especially in its heterodox branches. It will allow scholars to discover the importance of what they assume about human nature and how it may influence their research process.

The Good, the Bad, and the Economy

The Good, the Bad, and the Economy PDF Author: Louis G. Putterman
Publisher: Hillcrest Publishing Group
ISBN: 193829601X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
Despite the past century's extraordinary advances in technology and scientific knowledge, today's world is still racked by economic insecurity, vast gulfs between rich and poor, violent conflicts, and daunting environmental problems. What's stopping us from building a world in which there's less inequality and more nurturing of the individual's potential to lead a satisfying life? Does the central role of self-interest in human nature necessitate economic arrangements that condemn us to living on a treadmill of consumerism and insecurity? Will the gap between rich and poor countries ever be bridged? These are the key questions that Brown University economist Louis Putterman's "The Good, the Bad, and the Economy" addresses in surprising new ways.

Human Economics

Human Economics PDF Author: Sara Casagrande
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000927520
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
The term “human economics” is sometimes used within economic theory with the hope of repositioning economic discipline as a human and social science, but with scarce success. Indeed, although great economists have always carefully considered human nature, it has been largely neglected in modern economics. This book explores the potentials of a human economics, arguing that the complexity and peculiarities of human nature should be central to the study of economics. Complex economic phenomena are subject to laws and limits that reveal their internal order in spite of the apparent randomness and unpredictability. The book embraces the contributions of thinkers and economists who have tried to fully consider human nature and society within their biological environment. From these solid foundations, the book introduces a different Weltanschauung, offers an analysis of socio-economic paradigms, and develops an alternative theoretical framework. On the basis of a transdisciplinary methodology, the book investigates human nature, interactions, and systems up to the macroeconomic cyclical development of the capitalist system. Future perspectives and issues facing modern economies are also discussed from environmental sustainability to globalization and socio-political challenges. This book marks an original contribution to the literature on retooling economic discipline and presents useful food for thought for scholarly readers while remaining accessible to graduates who are studying mainstream economics.

The Battle for Human Nature: Science, Morality and Modern Life

The Battle for Human Nature: Science, Morality and Modern Life PDF Author: Barry Schwartz
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393609286
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 326

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Book Description
“Provocative and richly textured. . . .Schwartz’s analyses of the inadequacies of contemporary scientific views of human nature are compelling, but the consequences are even more worthy of note.” —Los Angeles Times Out of the investigations and speculations of contemporary science, a challenging view of human behavior and society has emerged and gained strength. It is a view that equates “human nature” utterly and unalterably with the pursuit of self-interest. Influenced by this view, people increasingly appeal to natural imperatives, instead of moral ones, to explain and justify their actions and those of others.

The Wealth of Nature

The Wealth of Nature PDF Author: John Michael Greer
Publisher: New Society Publisher
ISBN: 1550924788
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
The Wealth of Nature proposes a new model of economics based on the integral value of ecology. Building on the foundations of E.F. Schumacher's revolutionary "economics as if people mattered", this book examines the true cost of confusing money with wealth. By analyzing the mistakes of contemporary economics, it shows how an economy centered on natural capital-the raw materials that support human life-can move our society toward a more productive relationship with the planet that sustains us all. The Wealth of Nature suggests public policy initiatives and personal choices that can help alleviate the economic impact of peak oil. These strategies must address not only financial concerns, but the issues of resource depletion and pollution as well. Examples include: Adjusting tax policy to penalize the use of natural nonrenewable resources over recycled materials Placing public welfare above corporate interests Empowering individuals, families, and communities by prioritizing local, sustainable solutions Building economies at an appropriate scale. Profoundly insightful and impeccably argued, this book is required reading for anyone interested in the intersection of the environment and the economy as we enter the twilight of the Age of Abundance .

The Natural Origins of Economics

The Natural Origins of Economics PDF Author: Margaret Schabas
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226735710
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
References to the economy are ubiquitous in modern life, and virtually every facet of human activity has capitulated to market mechanisms. In the early modern period, however, there was no common perception of the economy, and discourses on money, trade, and commerce treated economic phenomena as properties of physical nature. Only in the early nineteenth century did economists begin to posit and identify the economy as a distinct object, divorcing it from natural processes and attaching it exclusively to human laws and agency. In The Natural Origins of Economics, Margaret Schabas traces the emergence and transformation of economics in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries from a natural to a social science. Focusing on the works of several prominent economists—David Hume, Adam Smith, Thomas Malthus, David Ricardo, and John Stuart Mill—Schabas examines their conceptual debt to natural science and thus locates the evolution of economic ideas within the history of science. An ambitious study, The Natural Origins of Economics will be of interest to economists, historians, and philosophers alike.

Basic Instincts

Basic Instincts PDF Author: Pete Lunn
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish Books Limited
ISBN: 9780462099637
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
Human instincts are surprisingly sophisticated and subtle, having adapted over generations of trading with each other. Understanding how these instincts work can not only change the way you think about your own affairs, it can alter how you think about a whole range of economic and business issues (from what constitutes a fair salary to the impact of globalisation).A new breed of economists - known as behavioural economists - has started to observe economic life more closely. This book reveals the fascinating results of their studies . Human instincts have long been ignored by traditional economics, but they are crucial factors in major economic decisions, and hence important for our futures. This engaging book is about those human instincts and how the study of them has begun to change fundamentally the science of economics and our own behaviour in today's world

Masters of Nothing

Masters of Nothing PDF Author: Matthew Hancock
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781849544566
Category : Business cycles
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This is a book about how we behave. Not how we think we behave, or how wed like to behave, but how we really do. Its a story of how a collective failure of perception helped cause one of the biggest crises in the history of capitalism; of the extraordinary extremes we witnessed from the so-called Masters of the Universe - their greed, recklessness, and irrationality; and of how the crisis will happen again unless we understand that economic conditions may change but human nature does not. Released to widespread acclaim in the UK in 2011 and now updated for the USA, Masters of Nothing is an important contribution to the ongoing debate about how we fix the relationship between big finance and the real economy.

Nature, Human Nature, and Human Difference

Nature, Human Nature, and Human Difference PDF Author: Justin E. H. Smith
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691176345
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 309

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Book Description
People have always been xenophobic, but an explicit philosophical and scientific view of human racial difference only began to emerge during the modern period. Why and how did this happen? Surveying a range of philosophical and natural-scientific texts, dating from the Spanish Renaissance to the German Enlightenment, Nature, Human Nature, and Human Difference charts the evolution of the modern concept of race and shows that natural philosophy, particularly efforts to taxonomize and to order nature, played a crucial role. Smith demonstrates how the denial of moral equality between Europeans and non-Europeans resulted from converging philosophical and scientific developments, including a declining belief in human nature's universality and the rise of biological classification. The racial typing of human beings grew from the need to understand humanity within an all-encompassing system of nature, alongside plants, minerals, primates, and other animals. While racial difference as seen through science did not arise in order to justify the enslavement of people, it became a rationalization and buttress for the practices of trans-Atlantic slavery. From the work of François Bernier to G. W. Leibniz, Immanuel Kant, and others, Smith delves into philosophy's part in the legacy and damages of modern racism. With a broad narrative stretching over two centuries, Nature, Human Nature, and Human Difference takes a critical historical look at how the racial categories that we divide ourselves into came into being.

Human Nature and the Discipline of Economics

Human Nature and the Discipline of Economics PDF Author: Patricia Donohue-White
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 9780739101858
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 136

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Book Description
Foundations of Economic Personalism is a series of three book-length monographs, each closely examining a significant dimension of the Center for Economic Personalism's unique synthesis of Christian personalism and free-economic market theory. In the aftermath of the momentous geo-political and economic changes of the late 1980s, a small group of Christian social ethicists began to converse with free-market economists over the morality of market activity. This interdisciplinary exchange eventually led to the founding of a new academic subdiscipline under the rubric of economic personalism. These scholars attempt to integrate economic theory, history, and methodology with Christian personalism's stress upon human dignity, humane social structures, and social justice. This second volume in the series surveys the anthropological foundations to the disciplines of economics and moral theology. The first part of the book presents an overview of the German, French, and Polish branches of personalist thought. Particular attention is given to theological anthropology, especially as it is developed by such thinkers as Emmanuel Mounier, Max Scheler, Gabriel Marcel, Karol Wojtyla, and Emil Brunner. Part two surveys models of human nature that have been espoused by various schools of free-market thought-including mainstream neoclassical economics. In conclusion, the authors demonstrate how an expanded understanding of human nature can augment the ability of economic science to model and predict human behavior.