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How Reason Almost Lost Its Mind

Author

Listed:
  • Erickson, Paul
  • Klein, Judy L.
  • Daston, Lorraine
  • Lemov, Rebecca
  • Sturm, Thomas
  • Gordin, Michael D.

Abstract

In the United States at the height of the Cold War, roughly between the end of World War II and the early 1980s, a new project of redefining rationality commanded the attention of sharp minds, powerful politicians, wealthy foundations, and top military brass. Its home was the human sciences—psychology, sociology, political science, and economics, among others—and its participants enlisted in an intellectual campaign to figure out what rationality should mean and how it could be deployed. How Reason Almost Lost Its Mind brings to life the people—Herbert Simon, Oskar Morgenstern, Herman Kahn, Anatol Rapoport, Thomas Schelling, and many others—and places, including the RAND Corporation, the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, the Cowles Commission for Research and Economics, and the Council on Foreign Relations, that played a key role in putting forth a “Cold War rationality.” Decision makers harnessed this picture of rationality—optimizing, formal, algorithmic, and mechanical—in their quest to understand phenomena as diverse as economic transactions, biological evolution, political elections, international relations, and military strategy. The authors chronicle and illuminate what it meant to be rational in the age of nuclear brinkmanship.

Suggested Citation

  • Erickson, Paul & Klein, Judy L. & Daston, Lorraine & Lemov, Rebecca & Sturm, Thomas & Gordin, Michael D., 2013. "How Reason Almost Lost Its Mind," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226046631, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:bkecon:9780226046631
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    Cited by:

    1. Fèvre, Raphaël, 2021. "The Madman and the Economist(s): Georges Bataille and François Perroux as French Critiques of the Marshall Plan," OSF Preprints 6hnvk, Center for Open Science.
    2. Kirtchik, Olessia & Boldyrev, Ivan, 2024. "“Rise And Fall” Of The Walrasian Program In Economics: A Social And Intellectual Dynamics Of The General Equilibrium Theory," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(1), pages 1-26, March.
    3. Malte Doehne & Catherine Herfeld, 2023. "How academic opinion leaders shape scientific ideas: an acknowledgment analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(4), pages 2507-2533, April.
    4. Cherrier, Beatrice & Saïdi, Aurélien, 2019. "A century of economics and engineering at Stanford," SocArXiv adtbj, Center for Open Science.
    5. Michael Ben‐Gad, 2022. "Russia versus the West: Facing the long‐term challenge," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(2), pages 385-394, June.
    6. Pascal Le Masson & Armand Hatchuel & Mario Le Glatin & Benoit Weil, 2018. "Designing Decisions In The Unknown: Towards A Generative Decision Model For Management Science," Post-Print hal-01937103, HAL.
    7. Sylvain Lenfle & Pascal Le Masson & Benoit Weil, 2014. "Using design theory to characterize various forms of breakthrough R&D projects and their management: revisiting Manhattan & Polaris," Post-Print hal-01002713, HAL.
    8. Pascal Le Masson & Armand Hatchuel & Benoit Weil, 2016. "Innovation theory and the logic of generativity: from optimization to design, a new post-decisional paradigm in management science," Post-Print hal-01481881, HAL.
    9. Düppe, Till, 2020. "War after War: Wilhem Krelle,1916-2004," OSF Preprints a8rq3, Center for Open Science.
    10. Rouhani, Omid, 2023. "Public Policy: A science and/or a Field?," MPRA Paper 118121, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Veale, Michael & Brass, Irina, 2019. "Administration by Algorithm? Public Management meets Public Sector Machine Learning," SocArXiv mwhnb, Center for Open Science.
    12. Veale, Michael & Brown, Ian, 2020. "Cybersecurity," LawArXiv c8p36, Center for Open Science.
    13. Sylvain Lenfle & Christoph Loch, 2017. "Has Megaproject management lost its way ? Lessons from History," Post-Print hal-03640779, HAL.
    14. Fèvre, Raphaël, 2019. "Georges Bataille, François Perroux and French Critiques of the Marshall Plan," OSF Preprints acb6z, Center for Open Science.
    15. Nelson, Nicole C. & Keating, Peter & Cambrosio, Alberto & Aguilar-Mahecha, Adriana & Basik, Mark, 2014. "Testing devices or experimental systems? Cancer clinical trials take the genomic turn," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 74-83.
    16. Paskins, Matthew, 2020. "History of science and its utopian reconstructions," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 109300, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    17. Veale, Michael & Brown, Ian, 2020. "Cybersecurity," Internet Policy Review: Journal on Internet Regulation, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG), Berlin, vol. 9(4), pages 1-22.
    18. Martin Obschonka & David B. Audretsch, 2020. "Artificial intelligence and big data in entrepreneurship: a new era has begun," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 55(3), pages 529-539, October.

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