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Date: | Fri Mar 31 17:18:53 2006 |
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Pat Gunning wrote:
> Why are economists individualists?
There is an antecedent question:
*are* economists individualists?
I will not worry for now about the fact
that the term "individualism" has gone
undefined in this discussion. For on
any definition I can imagine being offered,
the neoclassical theory of the firm
presents itself immediately as strong
evidence that some economists are surely
not individualists.
Of course, Pat rejects the neoclassical theory
of the firm, based apparently on his individualism.
In addition, Pat might point to more modern
theories of the firm as evidence that economists
have slowly responded to Blaug's critique of
the neoclassical profit maximizing firm---becoming,
shall we say, more individualist.
But then there is the literature on how the structure
of institutions is more important to outcomes
than the characteristics of persons participating
in those institutions. Perhaps economists are
becoming more individualist and less individualist
simultaneously. I assume Pat's individualism, whatever
else it implies for economic reasoning, must imply
he will have no trouble with the idea that the aggregate
denoted by 'economists' might encompass such contrary
developments.
Cheers,
Alan Isaac
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