Re: Gary Mongiovi on assuming rationality

[mongiovg <mongiovg@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Roger makes a good point.  Two responses: first, there's a difference between
"irrational" and "nonrational". The latter, I think, is what Roger has in mind
as regards animal behavior, and I have no problem with applying it to
categories of human behavior that are intuitive, reflexive, institutionally
shaped, etc. Second, in so far as human behavior is the result of conscious
choice, the attribution of IRrationality to agents strikes me as unhelpful:
it's just a value judgement. I clarify this in a post I just sent to the list
in response to Paul. Let me repeat it here:

I don't think the concept of rationality is very useful as an element of
scientific discourse, mainly because it doesn't advance our understanding of
actual behavior--it's just a normative label orthodox economists assign to
behavior that validates their propositions and withold from behavior that does
not. What matters in the end is whether a proposition holds up under empirical
scrutiny. The latest Nobelists tell us that at least some of the propositions
of orthodox theory do not. That is useful to know. What I don't think is
useful is the application of the label "irrational" to behavior that does not
conform to the predictions of orthodox theory; that's just name calling, and
it implies that it's not the theory that's defective but those doggone
irrational agents who won't get in line with it.

Regards,

Gary



  >===== Original Message From "Roger Koppl" <koppl@xxxxxxx> =====
>Gary said, "I don't see how general propositions about social behavior can
>be derived if human beings are presumed to be irrational."
>
>Gary, can we derive general propositions about how social animals behave
>without presuming them to be rational?  Don't we have general propositions
>about bees and baboons?  If biology can get order without assuming
>individual rationality, why can't economics?
>
>Roger
>
>-------------------------------------------
>Roger Koppl
>Professor of Economics and Finance
>Fairleigh Dickinson University
>Madison, NJ 07940
>USA
>
>World Wide Web: http://inside.fdu.edu/pt/koppl.html
>Internet: koppl@xxxxxxx
>Phone: (973) 443-8846
>Fax: (973) 443-8377
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