Inductive Conservatism

David Reisman

Chapter 3 in Conservative Capitalism, 1999, pp 48-78 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Capitalism is a gain-seeking discovery process. Its enterprise is an ambitious one. Conservatives collect historical information about what once was. Deceived by cognitive bias, let down by gaps in the data, frustrated by the overload of interpretative schemata, at least they can centre their quest on a destination where the train is acknowledged to have stopped. Capitalists, on the other hand, are in the market for dependable guidance on what is to come. Their search is the greater challenge. Not sure if a disequilibrium is a trend or a fluctuation, in the dark about what the competition knows and plans, exposed at all times to surprises, windfalls and catastrophes, capitalists are confident of one thing alone — that they are advancing towards a station that does not yet exist, that no one has ever seen, that no one can accurately describe. The conservative economy yields a good indication of the routines and sequences that a past-driven future is more than likely to repeat. The capitalist economy does not. Some capitalists will make profits. Some will make losses. Some will go bankrupt. Capitalism may go hand in hand with the norm of instrumental rationality but conservatism is possibly more amenable to its real-world application.

Keywords: Rational Choice; Cognitive Bias; Neoclassical Economic; Instrumental Rationality; Perfect Competition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1999
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DOI: 10.1057/9780333982785_3

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