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Review
For those with some grounding in the study of human behaviour, Elster does a remarkable job of bringing together seemingly disparate concerns. . . . [T]his essay (as it effectively is) provides a concise overview of his dominant concerns and a useful introduction to his thought. (Ben Saunders Political Studies Review )
I highly recommend the book, which explains in clear and simple terms the complexity of human behavior and the logic that underlies it. (Aaron Ben-Ze'ev European Legacy )
I highly recommend the book, which explains in clear and simple terms the complexity of human behavior and the logic that underlies it. (Aaron Ben-Ze'ev European Legacy )
Product Description
One of the world's most important political philosophers, Jon Elster is a leading thinker on reason and rationality and their roles in politics and public life. In this short book, he crystallizes and advances his work, bridging the gap between philosophers who use the idea of reason to assess human behavior from a normative point of view and social scientists who use the idea of rationality to explain behavior. In place of these approaches, Elster proposes a unified conceptual framework for the study of behavior.
Drawing on classical moralists as well as modern scholarship, and using a wealth of historical and contemporary illustrations, Reason and Rationality marks a new development in Elster's thinking while at the same time providing a brief, elegant, and accessible introduction to his work.
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10 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Excellent book if you understand its opposition
30 Mar 2009
Format:Hardcover
I read this book as an important contribution to the call for a reappropriation of reason and rationality (and philosophy in general) by progressives and communitarians.
The book can get a bit technical, but an important pointer that helped me gain footing is to read it as a critique of the model of rational agency employed by right-wing economists. The right-wing economist begins from the assumption that rationality consists only in the strategies an agent employs to satisfy his subjective preferences, without recognizing her own normative role in applying such a model and in refusing to engage the question of (the objective) reason in the formation of preferences.
The author briefly and gracefully explains the work of Sartre (and by implication most of postmodernist existentialism, poststructuralism, etc) as a self-understood irrational dead-end, an impasse, for progressives and communitarians which can bring no help or critique in addressing the right-wing appropriation of rationality.
The book can get a bit technical, but an important pointer that helped me gain footing is to read it as a critique of the model of rational agency employed by right-wing economists. The right-wing economist begins from the assumption that rationality consists only in the strategies an agent employs to satisfy his subjective preferences, without recognizing her own normative role in applying such a model and in refusing to engage the question of (the objective) reason in the formation of preferences.
The author briefly and gracefully explains the work of Sartre (and by implication most of postmodernist existentialism, poststructuralism, etc) as a self-understood irrational dead-end, an impasse, for progressives and communitarians which can bring no help or critique in addressing the right-wing appropriation of rationality.
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