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Economic Psychology and the Value Problem

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  • Frank H. Knight

Abstract

The basic difficulty in economic theory is the philosophical problem of the meaning of explanation in connection with human behavior. I. Motive or desire in human conduct is the analogue of force in mechanics, 375. II. Is force real or merely symbolic, leaving movement (behavior in the case of human beings) the only fact open to description or study? 379. — This question is merely formal in physics, for we know forces by their effects alone, and hence unambiguously if at all; but in the realm of conduct, we know motives in ourselves directly and in others by communication, in addition to inferring them from observed behavior, and the two sources of information disagree considerably. III–IV. The intellectually embarrassing but unescapable fact of purposiveness, in thought as well as conduct, 386. — V. The place of motives and their treatment in economics, which has to be critical as well as descriptive and logical, — a branch of esthetics and ethics as well as of science, 400. — VI. The objective of economic activity and the point of view of social criticism of the economic order, 406.

Suggested Citation

  • Frank H. Knight, 1925. "Economic Psychology and the Value Problem," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 39(3), pages 372-409.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:qjecon:v:39:y:1925:i:3:p:372-409.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.2307/1882434
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    Cited by:

    1. Roger Frantz, 2021. "Driven by the Invisible: The economics of the unseen," Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy, Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics (SABE), vol. 5(S3), pages 7-17, October.
    2. Henrik Egbert & Teodor Sedlarski & Aleksandar B. Todorov, 2021. "Foundations of contemporary economics: Frank H. Knight on uncertainty, capital theory, and the beginnings of the Chicago school," Economic Thought journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 6, pages 74-90.
    3. Per L. Bylund & Mark D. Packard, 2022. "Subjective value in entrepreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(3), pages 1243-1260, March.
    4. Peter Galbács, 2021. "How the attitude of Chicago economics towards philosophy changed over time: an essay on what role some historical methods should play in practicing the philosophy of economics," Post-Print hal-03414823, HAL.
    5. Marina Bianchi & Sergio Nisticò, 2018. "Shackle: an enquirer into choice," Working Papers 2018-03, Universita' di Cassino, Dipartimento di Economia e Giurisprudenza.
    6. Kosta Josifidis & Alpar Lošonc, 2012. "Value and Power in Economics," Panoeconomicus, Savez ekonomista Vojvodine, Novi Sad, Serbia, vol. 59(4), pages 501-519, September.
    7. Galbács, Péter, 2019. "A chicagonomics és a közgazdaságtan imperializmusa ["Chicagonomics" and the imperialism of economics]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(3), pages 229-255.
    8. Luca Fiorito, 2015. "A Certain Amount of ‘Recantation'. On the Origins of Frank H. Knight’s Antipositivism," Department of Economics University of Siena 705, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    9. Poitras, Geoffrey, 2021. "Rhetoric, epistemology and climate change economics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).

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