Against Parsimony: Three Easy Ways of Complicating Some Categories of Economic Discourse
Author(s)
Hirschman, Albert
Abstract
The “economic” or “rational-actor” approach to the study of human behavior draws on the traditional economic view of the individual as self-interested and isolated, freely and rationally choosing among alternatives based on cost-benefit computations. While this application has yielded useful insights, it is ultimately too simplistic. In the interest of greater realism, it is time to abandon excessive parsimony and to reincorporate into the economic discourse some of the factors that account for the complexity of human nature. Specifically, two fundamental human tensions should be revisited, and two basic human endowments should be reincorporated. This article addresses the importance of the other three factors.
