Sen’s critique of the homo economicus conception of choice asserts that agents who ‘displace’ their goals, and instead choose on the basis of others’, are not therefore irrational. I first defend Sen against the objection that violations of “self-goal choice” undermine coherent deliberation. My critique of Sen then introduces the notion of ‘negative goals’ and shows that the process of adopting...

In addition to his role as a consumer pursuing his own interests, an individual may also regard himself as an ethical observer or citizen, judging matters from society’s point of view. However, an individual’s personal preferences do not necessarily coincide with his social preferences. This paper presents a formal model in which individuals are assumed to have two distinct preference orderings...

Modern development economics emerged with the realization that poverty changes the set of options available to individuals. Poverty thus affects behavior, even if the decision maker is “neo-classical”: unboundedly rational, forward-looking, and internally consistent. The “homo economicus” at the core of neo-classical economics (“calculating, unemotional maximizer”, (Mullainathan and Thaler, 200...

Bayesian rationality is the paradigm of rational behavior in neoclassical economics. An economic agent is deemed rational when she maximizes her subjective expected utility and consistently revises her beliefs according to Bayes's rule. The paper raises the question of how, when and why this characterization of rationality came to be endorsed by mainstream economists. Though no definitive answe...

Ekonomi bilimi değerlerden bağımsız değildir. Antik Yunan felsefesinde ahlâk ilminin üç temel alt başlığı etik, ekonomi ve politikadır. İslâm iktisadını da din eksenli düşünmek gereklidir belirli normatif felsefi değerler üzerine inşa edilmiştir. Bu değerler, ekonomik bilginin kurgusuna dahil edilen bir dünya görüşünden veya ontolojik perspektiften gelir. Ayrıca farklı görüşleri sadece farklılı...

Why so many people pay their taxes, although fines and audit probability are low, has become a central question in the tax compliance literature. A homo economicus, with a more refined motivation structure, helps us to shed light on this puzzle. This paper provides empirical evidence for the relevance of conditional cooperation, using survey data from 30 West and East European countries. We fin...