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For a long time, economists have assumed that we were cold, self-centred, rational decision makers – so-called Homo economicus; the last few decades have shattered this view. The world we live in and the situations we face are of course rich and complex, revealing puzzling aspects of our behaviour. Optimally Irrational argues that our improved understanding of human behaviour shows that apparent 'biases' are good solutions to practical problems – that many of the 'flaws' identified by behavioural economics are actually adaptive solutions. Page delivers an ambitious overview of the literature in behavioural economics and, through the exposition of these flaws and their meaning, presents a sort of unified theory of behaviouralism, cognitive psychology and evolutionary biology. He gathers theoretical and empirical evidence about the causes of behavioural 'biases' and proposes a big picture of what the discipline means for economics.
Among the many practical failures that threaten us, weakness of will or akrasia is often considered to be a paradigm of irrationality. The eleven new essays in this collection, written by an excellent international team of philosophers, some well-established, some younger scholars, give a rich overview of the current debate over weakness of will and practical irrationality more generally.Issues covered include classical questions such as the distinction between weakness and compulsion, the connection between evaluative judgement and motivation, the role of emotions in akrasia, rational agency, and the existence of the will. The also include new topics, such as group akrasia, strength of will, the nature of correct choice, the structure of decision theory, the temporality of prudential reasons, and emotional rationality. Because these questions cut across philosophy of mind andethics, the collection will be essential reading for scholars, postgraduates, and upper-level undergraduates in both these fields.
Hatred is often considered the opposite of love, but in many ways is much more complicated. It also may be considered one of the dominant emotions of our time, as individuals, groups, and even nations express or enact hatred to varying degrees. What is hatred? Where does it come from and what does it reveal about the hater? And is hatred always a bad thing? Brogaard makes a deep dive into the moral psychology of one of our most complex, and vivid emotions. She explores how hatred arises between people and among groups. She also shows how hate, like anger, can sometimes be appropriate and fitting. Other other questions she addresses are, how does hate differ from anger, disgust, fear, and other related emotions? Is fear an essential part of hatred? How does hatred affect what happens inside the brain? How did hate evolve in human history? Is hatred ever morally justified? Can you hate and love at the same time? Can one hate oneself? How do implicit biases trigger hatred of groups? This accessible, timely, and novel look at an underexplored emotion will employ examples from current events as well as art and literature and popular culture.
Economics requires understanding and analyzing forces that bring buyers and sellers to a market place who then negotiate exchanges of goods and services based on a mutually agreeable price. Economists have their own method of modeling whereby models are first conceived of some notion of economic and financial thinking, before being empirically tested, and anomalies are then recognized if the observed data is inconsistent with the hypothetical underpinning. This is in inherent contradiction with the modeling approaches of physicists who develop their theories, principle and laws after observing empirical data. The awareness that physics can enlighten the understanding of human behavior (and thus economics), and the interest of physicists in applying their training and models to understanding the complexities of finance and economics, led to the creation of a new field of study appropriately termed as Econophysics. Selected Topics on Econophysics is a collection of essays on topics that enhance and enrich our understanding of economic modeling when the same rigor of modelling used by physicists is brought to developing financial and economic theories. These articles include discussions on modeling bitcoins, stock index modeling using geometric Brownian motion, agent-based modeling, wealth distribution modeling, as well as modeling related to fractal regression, and chaotic processes. This interdisciplinary book will interest researchers, graduate students and professionals in the fields of economics, finance as well as physics.
The world we live in presents plenty of tricky, impactful, and hard-tomake decisions to be taken. Sometimes the available options are ample, at other times they are apparently binary, either way, they often confront us with dilemmas, paradoxes, and even denial of values.In the dawn of the age of intelligence, when robots are gradually taking over most decision-making from humans, this book sheds a bit of light on decision rationale. It delves into the limits of these decision processes (for both humans and machines), and it does so by providing a new perspective that is somehow opposed to orthodox economics. All Economics reflections in this book are underlined and linked to Artificial Intelligence.The authors hope that this comprehensive and modern analysis, firmly grounded in the opinions of various groundbreaking Nobel laureate economists, may be helpful to a broad audience interested in how decisions may lead us all to flourishing societies. That is, societies in which economic blunders (caused by over simplification of problems and super estimation of tools) are reduced substantially.
The seemingly irrational, puzzling aspects of human behaviour are not bugs, but features. Improving our navigation of the real world.
Philosophy involves a criticism of scientific knowledge, not from a point of view ultimately different from that of science, but from a point of view less concerned with details and more concerned with the h- mony of the body of special sciences. Here as elsewhere, while the older logic shut out possibilities and imprisoned imagination within the walls of the familiar, the newer logic shows rather what may happen, and refuses to decide as to what must happen. Bertrand Russell At any particular stage in the development of humanity knowledge comes up against limits set by the necessarily limited character of the experience available and the existing means of obtaining knowledge. But humanity advances by overcoming such limits. New experience throws down the limits of old experience; new techniques, new means of obtaining knowledge throw down the limits of old techniques and old means of obtaining knowledge. New limits then once again appear. But there is no more reason to suppose these new limits absolute and final than there was to suppose the old ones absolute and final.
The Chairman of the State Planning Commission of the PRC, in 1955, attributed the economic problems countering the development of the socialist economy to "the anarchy of capitalist economy. " However, after three decades of central planning, the President of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences exclaimed, "Today we are all recognizing the irrationality of an economic structure that has built up over the years." The author of this book examines the economic policies and performances that brought such a radical transformation to the world outlook of China's leaders. The book contains three parts. The first part traces the historical roots of China's chaotic economic condition and hyperinflation in the 1940s and the early 1950s. The second part deals with how the “irrational” economic system was formed. The third part deals with the reasons for the emergence of economic “irrationality”, resource misallocation, the necessity of economic reforms, and industrial restructuring.
This radical new approach to ADD and ADHD reframes the diagnosis and offers a way to transform so-called symptoms into gifts. Despite the millions of people taking medication for attention deficit disorders, there remains no objective method of diagnosis for ADHD. Now author and ADHD coach Martha Burge proposes a different understanding and solution for those diagnosed. In The ADD Myth, Burge argues that what is commonly understood as ADHD is actually five intense personality traits: sensual, psychomotor, intellectual, creative, and emotional. Once the supposed ADD symptoms are properly understood, people with these intense personality traits can develop them into gifts. After having two sons diagnosed with ADHD, and witnessing their serious reaction to drug treatments, Martha began a search for a new approach and a more natural treatment. In The ADD Myth, she shares personal stories, practical steps, and daily practices for developing one's intense nature with the least amount of suffering.