SOSC 2330 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Homo Economicus, Methodological Individualism, For Marx
22 Oct 2018
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Sosc 2330 lect 4: heterodox approaches to economics and law. Methodological concerns (is it realistic/ does it help explain reality?) Political concerns (does mainstream serve an ideological purpose and/or entrench existing power relations?) The orthodox/mainstream approach doesn"t explain much about the world/ isn"t useful. Predictive science, but the predictions are wrong. That insists on the importance of individuals and their purposeful behaviour. You want to be rational and creative a predictive instead of a normative claim. Seeking to figure out why people act economically. Its not important what people desire or why they desire it. Should it be explained in terms of individuals alone or individuals plus relations between individuals. The latter definition implies that desires, knowledge, language and understanding are all social, developed within a specific context. No individual exists alone, but always already within a specific society. Defined by social context you live in. Thinks that the claim that an individual is a free economic agent is bullshit.
