Ulysses Unbound: Studies in Rationality, Precommitment, and Constraints

by Jon Elster

• ISBN13: 9780521665612
• ISBN10: 0521665612
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-03-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This provocative book argues that, very often, people may benefit from being constrained in their options or from being ignorant. The three long essays that constitute this book revise and expand the ideas developed in Jon Elster's classic study Ulysses and the Sirens. It is not simply a new edition of the earlier book though; many of the issues merely touched on before are explored here in much more detail. Elster shows how seemingly disparate examples that limit freedom of action reveal similar patterns, so much so that he proposes a new field of study: constraint theory. The book is written in Elster's characteristically vivid style and will interest professionals and students in philosophy, political science, psychology, and economics.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments	ix
Ulysses Revisited: How and Why People Bind Themselves	1	(87)
Introduction: Constraint Theory	1	(6)
Passion as a Reason for Self-Binding	7	(17)
Time-Inconsistency and Discounting	24	(10)
Time-Inconsistency and Strategic Behavior	34	(11)
Passion as a Device for Self-Binding	45	(12)
Variations on a Russian Nobleman	57	(6)
Addiction and Precommitment	63	(14)
Obstacles, Objections, and Alternatives	77	(11)
Ulysses Unbound: Constitutions as Constraints	88	(87)
Introduction	88	(4)
Disanalogies with Individual Precommitment	92	(4)
The Nature and Structure of Constitutions	96	(9)
Constraints on Constitution-Making	105	(10)
Two Levels of Constitutional Precommitment	115	(3)
Self-Binding in Athenian Politics	118	(11)
Interest and Passion in Philadelphia and Paris	129	(12)
Time-Inconsistency, Discounting, and Delays	141	(5)
Omnipotence, Strategic Behavior, and Separation of Powers	146	(8)
Efficiency	154	(2)
Obstacles and Objections	156	(11)
Ulysses Unbound	167	(8)
Less Is More: Creativity and Constraints in the Arts	175	(95)
Introduction	175	(6)
Daydreaming: Creativity Without Constraints	181	(9)
Constraints and Conventions in the Arts	190	(10)
Constraints, Value, and Creativity	200	(21)
Originality, Authenticity, and Creativity	221	(6)
The Hays Code	227	(7)
Lucien Leuwen as an Empty Set	234	(6)
Randomization in the Arts	240	(6)
Creativity and Constraints in Jazz	246	(17)
Obstacles and Objections	263	(7)
Coda	270	(13)
References	283	(18)
Index	301