Economics, Behaviorism, and Utilitarianism

Stephen DeCanio ()

Chapter 5 in Limits of Economic and Social Knowledge, 2014, pp 122-151 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Behaviorism and utilitarianism lie at the heart of economic theory and welfare economics as they are practiced today. The reasons for this are both historical and methodological. To be described mathematically, individual behavior has to be expressed through a functional form that converts the consumption or uses of ‘goods’ to a numerical measure of satisfaction — well-being or ‘utility.’ Cognitive processes are reduced to calculations of how to maximize the utility function given the constraints of an individual’s wealth, income, and endowments of goods, talents, and capital. This is behaviorism on steroids; the ‘stimuli’ provided by prices are transformed into the ‘responses’ of the individual in choosing the bundle of goods that maximize utility.

Keywords: Utility Function; Social Knowledge; Marginal Utility; Market Equilibrium; Social Welfare Function (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-137-37193-5_5

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DOI: 10.1057/9781137371935_5

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