Rethinking Economics as Social Theory by Wagner, Richard E.;

Hosszú leírás:

Taking an innovative look at the origins of economics, this forward-thinking book relocates economics from a materialistic general theory of rational action into an idealistic theory of social organization and individual action. Adding new insightful analytical methods such as complexity theory, graph theory and computational modelling to the original insights of the Scottish Enlightenment, Richard Wagner explores economics in an ever-changing society, looking at the key civilizing processes and the important social questions.

Rethinking Economics as Social Theory moves away from the traditional review of analytical exercises and associated data and illustrates an enlightening scheme of thought where human societies are heterogeneous and not homogeneous and where change is continually in motion. Furthermore, Wagner theorises that economizing is a universal form of human action that plays out in numerous substantive directions and shows cooperation and conflict to have a yin-and-yang relationship.

This illuminating book will prove an excellent resource for economists interested in working outside of comparative statics as well as social scientists looking for a broader vision of economics. Philosophers and those working in the field of biological sciences will also find this an informative read.

Taking an innovative look at the origins of economics, this forward-thinking book relocates economics from a materialistic general theory of rational action into an idealistic theory of social organization and individual action. Adding new insightful analytical methods such as complexity theory, graph theory and computational modelling to the original insights of the Scottish Enlightenment, Richard E. Wagner explores economics in an ever-changing society, looking at the key civilizing processes and the important social questions.

‘An impressive work that reflects a career spent in dedicated study of the most fundamental problems of the social sciences and will be of interest to scholars working in areas related to the philosophy of the social sciences or the history of liberal thought.’

Tartalomjegyzék:

Contents: Preface 1. Society as analytical object: some methodological challenges 2. Systems theory and parts-to-whole relationships 3. Cooperation, conflict, and the social organization of human activity 4. Rationality and the Janus-faced character of human reason 5. Markets, law, and moral imaginations: order theory redux 6. Main Street, Wall Street, and City Hall: exploring their entanglement 7. Civilizing processes and the social question reprised 8. Thymology, spiritedness, and the social organization of human activity 9. Rationality within systems: how time integrates subjective and objective probability 10. A portmanteau of themes in closing References Index