The capacity to choose: reformulating the concept of choice in economic theory

Despite being conceived as a ‘theory of rational choice’, orthodox economics fails to ascribe to human beings the ability to choose in a meaningful sense, something philosophical approaches to economics have long noted and tried to remedy. Tony Lawson’s critical realism is one attempt at a remedy. I...

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Autor principal:	Mark S. Peacock
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	DE EN FR
Publicado:	Editura ASE Bucuresti 2011
Materias:	Critical realism Naturalism Analogy Exploitation Economics as a science HB71-74
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/03817b37b2494ff2a3ae8f805ba453a8
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:03817b37b2494ff2a3ae8f805ba453a82021-12-02T00:48:25ZThe capacity to choose: reformulating the concept of choice in economic theory1843-22981844-8208https://doaj.org/article/03817b37b2494ff2a3ae8f805ba453a82011-05-01T00:00:00Zhttp://www.jpe.ro/poze/articole/58.pdfhttps://doaj.org/toc/1843-2298https://doaj.org/toc/1844-8208Despite being conceived as a ‘theory of rational choice’, orthodox economics fails to ascribe to human beings the ability to choose in a meaningful sense, something philosophical approaches to economics have long noted and tried to remedy. Tony Lawson’s critical realism is one attempt at a remedy. If, following Lawson, one conceives of choice as a ‘capacity’ of human beings, critical realist analysis suggests a distinction between humans’ possession and their exercise of this capacity. If one can sustain this distinction, one should be able to distinguish cases in which agents actually exercise their capacity to choose from those in which they do not. Investigation of this distinction does not, however, lead to the desired distinction between such cases. Consequently, a reformulation of the notion of choice is required. An implication for economic theory – namely, the possibility of conceptualizing ‘exploitation’ – is discussed.Mark S. PeacockEditura ASE BucurestiarticleCritical realismNaturalismAnalogyExploitationEconomics as a scienceHB71-74DEENFRJournal of Philosophical Economics, Vol IV, Iss 2, Pp 15-36 (2011)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	DE EN FR
topic	Critical realism Naturalism Analogy Exploitation Economics as a science HB71-74
spellingShingle	Critical realism Naturalism Analogy Exploitation Economics as a science HB71-74 Mark S. Peacock The capacity to choose: reformulating the concept of choice in economic theory
description	Despite being conceived as a ‘theory of rational choice’, orthodox economics fails to ascribe to human beings the ability to choose in a meaningful sense, something philosophical approaches to economics have long noted and tried to remedy. Tony Lawson’s critical realism is one attempt at a remedy. If, following Lawson, one conceives of choice as a ‘capacity’ of human beings, critical realist analysis suggests a distinction between humans’ possession and their exercise of this capacity. If one can sustain this distinction, one should be able to distinguish cases in which agents actually exercise their capacity to choose from those in which they do not. Investigation of this distinction does not, however, lead to the desired distinction between such cases. Consequently, a reformulation of the notion of choice is required. An implication for economic theory – namely, the possibility of conceptualizing ‘exploitation’ – is discussed.
format	article
author	Mark S. Peacock
author_facet	Mark S. Peacock
author_sort	Mark S. Peacock
title	The capacity to choose: reformulating the concept of choice in economic theory
title_short	The capacity to choose: reformulating the concept of choice in economic theory
title_full	The capacity to choose: reformulating the concept of choice in economic theory
title_fullStr	The capacity to choose: reformulating the concept of choice in economic theory
title_full_unstemmed	The capacity to choose: reformulating the concept of choice in economic theory
title_sort	capacity to choose: reformulating the concept of choice in economic theory
publisher	Editura ASE Bucuresti
publishDate	2011
url	https://doaj.org/article/03817b37b2494ff2a3ae8f805ba453a8
work_keys_str_mv	AT markspeacock thecapacitytochoosereformulatingtheconceptofchoiceineconomictheory AT markspeacock capacitytochoosereformulatingtheconceptofchoiceineconomictheory
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The capacity to choose: reformulating the concept of choice in economic theory

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