Indeterminacy and Society The Problematic Problematization of Choice and ActionHardin's

Abstract

It would be difficult to deny the claim that contemporary economics is one of very few disciplines to be defined less by its subject matter (the “economy”) than by its method—the maximization of some objective function by rational agents choosing among limitless means while being subject to particular constraints. In this formulation of our discipline, the autonomous maximizing agent is seen as the fundamental unit of analysis. In essence, contemporary economics reifies in its approach and its methods the modernist triumph of the sanctity of the individual over any other plausible social entity. Methodological individualism is more than a short-hand term for our methods. It is a term for our view of the world as it is and as it ought to be if aggregate well being (welfare) is to be maximized.

Citation

Bromley, D.W. (2007), " Indeterminacy and Society The Problematic Problematization of Choice and ActionHardin's", Samuels, W.J., Biddle, J.E. and Emmett, R.B. (Ed.) A Research Annual (Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology, Vol. 25 Part 1), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 39-48. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0743-4154(06)25005-3