Carl Christian von Weizsäcker, 2011, Homo Oeconomicus Adaptivus

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Carl Christian von Weizsäcker, 2011, Homo Oeconomicus Adaptivus

Journal Title: Journal of Comparative Research in Anthropology and Sociology - Year 2011, Vol 2, Issue 2

Abstract

“Homo Oeconomicus Adaptivus” is the title under which between 17th and 20th October 2011 the prestigious professor Carl Christian von Weizsäcker2 held a series of four lectures in the Graz Schumpeter Lectures3. Since 1995, every year the Graz Schumpeter Society organize a prestigious conference and the written version of the lectures is published by Routledge (London). The Graz Schumpeter Lectures aim to bring in front of the public a series of leading representatives of Economic and Social sciences to debate their own research papers. In the past years the lectures have covered a wide variety of topics including Evolutionary Economics and Creative Destruction (Metcalfe Stanley, 1995), Consumption takes time: implications for economic theory (Steedman Ian, 1999), Democracy, Education and Equality (Roemer John, 2003), Culture and Economic History (Mokyr Joel, 2010) etc. Without getting into the deep economic and mathematical demonstrations that came along with Professor von Weizsäcker’s presentation, I consider useful a short sociological insight into some of the theoretical guidelines. The transferring of the concept of “adaptive preferences” in different fields of analysis has proved to be a useful digression for a better understanding of the contemporary democratic societies and of the processes in which the government decisions are taken, but also the typical mechanisms of free markets of products and services4. Taking into consideration the extent of the theoretical framework and the diversity of the concepts which have been used in the analysis of “preferences”, the approach of Professor von Weizsäcker can be easily placed on the list of those which show the need of an interdisciplinary approach into the economic behavior analysis. In the context in which the contemporary society was labeled as a “consumer society” (Baudrillard, 1970) and the “new means of consumption – cathedrals of consumption” (Ritzer, 1999) have changed the features of this process, it is important to analyze the nature of preferences and the way in which these are formed and change themselves. Carl Christian von Weizsäcker aims from the beginning to bring into discussion a different perspective on consumer behavior than that of fully rational individual. Thus, the “homo oeconomicus myth” is analyzed and brought to a closer form to the daily realities of the contemporary societies. The conceptual approach of alternative and complementary angles was developed on four main themes: (I) “Freedom, Rationality, Welfare and Adaptive Preferences” (II) “The Hypothesis of Adaptive Preferences: Foundation in Psychology and Human Evolution” (III) “Schumpeterian Innovation: Justification of Decentralized Decision Making under Adaptive Preferences” and (IV) “The State, the Market, Social Philosophy, and Adaptive Preferences”.

Authors and Affiliations

Alin Croitoru

Keywords

Carl Christian von Weizsäcker 2011 Homo Oeconomicus Adaptivus

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