Cheng Li - The rationality principle as a universal grammar of economic explanations

jpe:10735 - Journal of Philosophical Economics, November 20, 2020, Volume XIII Issue 2 - https://doi.org/10.46298/jpe.10735
The rationality principle as a universal grammar of economic explanations

Authors: Cheng Li

    A universal grammar of economic explanations is characterized by the meansend rationality principle, which can be understood by drawing a conceptual distinction between its two facets: theoretical abstraction and empirical content. The former serves as a pure form of economic way of thinking and thus delimits the capacities of economists to perceive and understand the manifold human behaviour. The latter provides economists with objects of thought and renders the discipline empirically relevant. Given the implications of the two facets of rationality, the main task of economics as a descriptive science is to incorporate appropriate empirical content into the pure rational framework with the aim of better explaining and predicting human behaviour. As a prescriptive science, economic inquiry should draw on the persuasion and communication skills of its practitioners, thereby influencing the state of the economy through changing the means and ends of the decision makers in question.


    Volume: Volume XIII Issue 2
    Section: Articles
    Published on: November 20, 2020
    Imported on: December 28, 2022
    Keywords: rationality,constrained maximization framework,epistemology,[SHS]Humanities and Social Sciences

    Share

    Consultation statistics

    This page has been seen 138 times.
    This article's PDF has been downloaded 121 times.