Two Minds : Intuition and Analysis in the History of Economic Thought

Roger Frantz

ISBN 10: 0387232567 / ISBN 13: 9780387232560

Editore: Springer Us Jun 2005, 2005

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Neuware - As everyone knows, intuition is warm and fuzzy, qualitative, not measurable. Economics, on the other hand, is quantitative, and if it is not a hard science, at least it is the 'queen of the social sciences.' It is, therefore, intuitively obvious, that intuition and economics are as if oil and water. The problem is, what is intuitively obvious is not always correct. And, there are two major reasons why intuition and economics are not like oil and water. First, economics concerns itself with decision making, and decisions are made in the brain. The human brain is the size of a grapefruit, weighing three pounds with approximately 180 billion neurons, each physically independent but interacting with the other neurons. What we call intuition is, like decision making, a natural information processing function of the brain. Second, despite the current emphasis on quantitative analysis and deductive logic there is a rich history of economists speaking about intuition. First, the human brain, specifically the neocortex, has a left and right hemisphere. The specialized analytical style of the left hemisphere and the specialized intuitive style of the right hemispheres complement each other.

Codice articolo 9780387232560

Dati bibliografici

• Titolo: Two Minds : Intuition and Analysis in the History of Economic Thought
• Editore: Springer Us Jun 2005
• Data di pubblicazione: 2005
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0387232567
• ISBN 13: 9780387232560
• Rilegatura: Taschenbuch
• Condizione: Neu
• Dimensioni: 235 L x 159 A x 15 P (millimetri) 235 millimetri di larghezza per 159 millimetri di altezza per 15 millimetri di profondità
• Peso: 328 grammi

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Riassunto

As everyone knows, intuition is warm and fuzzy, qualitative, not measurable. Economics, on the other hand, is quantitative, and if it is not a hard science, at least it is the "queen of the social sciences." It is, therefore, intuitively obvious, that intuition and economics are as if oil and water. The problem is, what is intuitively obvious is not always correct. And, there are two major reasons why intuition and economics are not like oil and water. First, economics concerns itself with decision making, and decisions are made in the brain. The human brain is the size of a grapefruit, weighing three pounds with approximately 180 billion neurons, each physically independent but interacting with the other neurons. What we call intuition is, like decision making, a natural information processing function of the brain. Second, despite the current emphasis on quantitative analysis and deductive logic there is a rich history of economists speaking about intuition. First, the human brain, specifically the neocortex, has a left and right hemisphere. The specialized analytical style of the left hemisphere and the specialized intuitive style of the right hemispheres complement each other.

Contenuti

Part I: Intuition and the Brain.- Intuition’s Role in Scientific Discovery.- Intuition vs. Intuitionism.- Intuition and Errors in Judgment. Part II: Introduction.- Adam Smith.- John Stuart Mill.- Dugald Stewart, Thomas Malthus, and Henry Sedgwick.- John Meynard Keynes.- Joseph Shumpeter, Frank Knight, and Harvey Leibenstein.- Herbert Simon –"It’s Intuitively Obvious to the Casual Observer".