The Theory of the Individual in Economics: Identity and Value

by Davis; John B.

• ISBN13: 9780415202206
• ISBN10: 0415202205
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2003-05-30
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The concept of the individual and his/her motivations is a bedrock of philosophy. All strands of thought at heart contain to a particular theory of the individual. Economics, though, is guilty of taking this hugely important concept without questioning how we theorize it. This superb book remedies this oversight. The new approach put forward by Davies is to pay more attention to what moral philosophy may offer us in the study of personal identity, self consciousness and will. This crosses the traditional boundaries of economics and will shed new light on the distinction between positive and normative analysis in economics. With both heterodox and orthodox economics receiving a thorough analysis from Davies, this book is at once inclusive and revealing.

Author Biography

John B. Davis is Professor of History and Philosophy of Economics at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and Professor of Economics at Marquette University, Milwaukee, USA.

Table of Contents

Preface and acknowledgments	vii
Framing the issues	1	(20)
Modernism as dualism: origins of the modernist concept of the individual	2	(4)
Contemporary critiques of the modernist conception of the individual	6	(5)
Individuals in economics	11	(5)
Orthodox economics and heterodox economics	16	(2)
Plan of this work	18	(3)
PART I Orthodox economics	21	(84)
The atomistic individual	23	(22)
Locke's legacy	24	(3)
The evolution of the atomistic individual conception	27	(5)
The requirements of atomism	32	(3)
Methodological individualism and reductionism: a last-ditch defense?	35	(3)
Game theory to the rescue?	38	(4)
What kind of individual?	42	(3)
Reidentification: preferences and human capital	45	(18)
The standard pure preferences view of the individual	47	(2)
Reidentification a la Locke and in the pure preferences account	49	(1)
Locke's critics	50	(3)
The Butler--Hume critique applied to the neoclassical view	53	(2)
The time allocation conception of the individual	55	(3)
New problems	58	(3)
Individuation reconsidered	61	(2)
Individuation: multiple selves	63	(18)
Single versus multiple utility functions	65	(4)
Internal preference structures	69	(8)
Endogenously changing preferences	77	(2)
A unity of selves or a plurality of selves?	79	(2)
After the fall: the machinery of choice	81	(24)
Mind as a computer	84	(4)
Economics as cognitive science	88	(12)
After the fall	100	(5)
PART II Heterodox economics	105	(90)
The embedded individual	107	(23)
The legacy of Marx and Durkheim	109	(2)
Social theory's structure--agency models of the individual and society	111	(3)
Social psychology's self-referent behavior and individual self-concept	114	(3)
The socially embedded individual conception in economics	117	(10)
The socially embedded individual conception	127	(3)
Individuation: collective intentionality	130	(20)
Collective intentionality analysis	132	(4)
Collective intentionality and the structure--agent framework	136	(3)
A revised view of individual economic behavior	139	(4)
The individuation of embedded individuals	143	(4)
Individuation in the atomistic and socially embedded individual conceptions	147	(3)
Reidentification: capabilities	150	(17)
Sen's capability framework	152	(3)
The capability framework applied to the reidentification of embedded individuals	155	(5)
The embedded individual conception as an ideal conception	160	(3)
Sen's thinking about the individual versus the embedded individual conception	163	(1)
Concluding remarks on the atomistic and embedded individual conceptions	164	(3)
Before the fall: value in economics	167	(17)
Facts and values	168	(3)
Welfarism, utilitarianism, and the atomistic individual conception	171	(3)
Normative reasoning and the socially embedded individual conception	174	(6)
Individual identity as a normative concern	180	(2)
A classical world	182	(2)
Revisiting the issues	184	(11)
Ontology in economics	185	(2)
Individual identity in economics and personal identity	187	(1)
Two historical traditions	188	(2)
Significance	190	(5)
Notes	195	(4)
References	199	(12)
Index	211