The argument of this paper is that much modern economics is drastically undersocialised because it lacks an understanding of the distinctive characteristics of the evolved human mind, despite the significant insights provided by three of our most famous economists, Adam Smith, Alfred Marshall and Friedrich Hayek. This deficiency results from a failure to apply what may be considered the defining principle of economics, that of analysing the implications of scarcity. These implications challenge the adequacy of a theoretical structure based on the confrontation of preference functions and opportunity sets, even when extended to include formal interdependence, as in game theory; they require both a more modest view of human cognitive abilities and a more extensive view of human motivation and potential.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Find related papers by JEL classification: B41 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - Economic Methodology Z1 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
Did you know? All full texts are decentralized with the publishers, none reside on this server, thus making it possible to offer this service for free to all parties.