Deductive Irrationality examines and critiques economic rationalism from the perspective of political philosophy. The essays in this collection analyze not only the work of founders of the discipline of economics, but also political philosophers influential in this founding and select contributors of seminal theories in modern economic thought_namely, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Adam Smith, Alfred Marshall, John Maynard Keynes, Friedrich Hayek, Gunnar Myrdal, Robert E. Lucas Jr., and John F. Muth. The main theme linking all of the essays together is that economics is a product of modern rationalism and shares with that rationalism the belief that the only real knowledge is scientific knowledge. Derived from a scientific method modeled on mathematics, this method gives both modern political science and modern economics their abstract character. Adam Smith's contribution to Western thought was more than mere economics; his innovations and his variance from previous thinkers follows Machiavelli in finding human nature in the realistic conception of examining men as how they are, rather than the classical view that we should look to the idea of man's formal excellence. To Smith, humanity emerges from a desire for self-preservation, where every worker competes to exchange the fruits of their labor with that of others. The result is a gap between the world of 'common sense' and the world of theory that practitioners in both fields no longer truly understand. By adopting the perspective of political philosophy, the contributors take an approach that is alien to most economists, and in doing so address many of the currents and tensions that underlie modern economic theory and, by implication, the rational choice theory in political science.

Diplomarbeit aus dem Jahr 2008 im Fachbereich BWL - Allgemeines, Note: Befriedigend, Leopold-Franzens-Universitat Innsbruck, 125 Quellen im Literaturverzeichnis, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: Zusammengefasst beinhaltet die Arbeit Antworten auf die folgenden Forschungsfragen: Welche Gemeinsamkeiten sind im Freizeitverhalten der Freeskier zu erkennen? Wodurch wird der Lifestyle Freeskier gepragt? Was sind ihre Eigenheiten," wodurch wird diese Community" angezogen bzw. was steht fur sie im Vordergrund? Gibt es Gemeinsamkeiten zwischen den gesellschaftlichen Veranderungen und dem Lifestyle Freeskier? Ist die Community Freeskier eine homogene Einheit? Das Ziel dieser Studie ist es, ein pragnantes Bild vom Menschen Freeskier zu erstellen. Die Person Freeskier wird auf soziokulturelle und gesellschaftliche Unterschiede bzw. Gemeinsamkeiten hin untersucht. Die Methode der Fokusgruppendiskussion wurde mit 3 Fokusgruppen bestehend aus 7-8 (einmal 7, zweimal 8, in Summe 23 Teilnehmer) Teilnehmern, die sich zum Freeskiing bekennen und dies auch mit mehr als 50 Freeski-Tagen pro Saison belegen, durchgefuhrt. Die Teilnahme an den Fokusgruppendiskussionen erfolgte freiwillig. Bei den Gesprachen handelte es sich um eine strukturierte (d.h. der Moderator hielt sich an einen von ihm ausgearbeiteten Interviewleitfaden) Fokusgruppendiskussion.

Deductive Irrationality examines and critiques economic rationalism from the perspective of political philosophy. The essays in this collection analyze not only the work of founders of the discipline of economics, but also political philosophers influential in this founding and select contributors of seminal theories in modern economic thought namely, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Adam Smith, Alfred Marshall, John Maynard Keynes, Friedrich Hayek, Gunnar Myrdal, Robert E. Lucas Jr., and John F. Muth. The main theme linking all of the essays together is that economics is a product of modern rationalism and shares with that rationalism the belief that the only real knowledge is scientific knowledge. Derived from a scientific method modeled on mathematics, this method gives both modern political science and modern economics their abstract character. Adam Smith's contribution to Western thought was more than mere economics; his innovations and his variance from previous thinkers follows Machiavelli in finding human nature in the realistic conception of examining men as how they are, rather than the classical view that we should look to the idea of man's formal excellence. To Smith, humanity emerges from a desire for self-preservation, where every worker competes to exchange the fruits of their labor with that of others. The result is a gap between the world of "common sense" and the world of theory that practitioners in both fields no longer truly understand. By adopting the perspective of political philosophy, the contributors take an approach that is alien to most economists, and in doing so address many of the currents and tensions that underlie modern economic theory and, by implication, the rational choice theory in political science."