IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/intere/v51y2016i5d10.1007_s10272-016-0619-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Irresistible Fetish of Utility Theory: From “Pleasure and Pain” to Rationalising Torture

Author

Listed:
  • Giovanni Dosi

    (Institute of Economics)

  • Andrea Roventini

    (Institute of Economics)

Abstract

This note briefly examines the path that the economics discipline has taken since adopting the assumption that human behaviour is exclusively driven by utility maximisation. This view has prevented the full comprehension of most economic phenomena and has spread to other social disciplines, occasionally leading to results either ridiculous or tragic, such as using utility theory to rationalise torture. Such academic absurdity must be ended.

Suggested Citation

  • Giovanni Dosi & Andrea Roventini, 2016. "The Irresistible Fetish of Utility Theory: From “Pleasure and Pain” to Rationalising Torture," Intereconomics: Review of European Economic Policy, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics;Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), vol. 51(5), pages 286-287, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:intere:v:51:y:2016:i:5:d:10.1007_s10272-016-0619-6
    DOI: 10.1007/s10272-016-0619-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10272-016-0619-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10272-016-0619-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Giovanni Dosi & Luigi Marengo & Alessandro Nuvolari, 2020. "Institutions and economic change: some notes on self-organization, power and learning in human organizations," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 10(1), pages 1-22, March.
    2. Giovanni Dosi & Andrea Roventini, 2019. "More is different ... and complex! the case for agent-based macroeconomics," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 1-37, March.
    3. Giovanni Dosi & Marco Faillo & Luigi Marengo, 2018. "Beyond "Bounded Rationality": Behaviours and Learning in Complex Evolving Worlds," LEM Papers Series 2018/26, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    4. Giovanni Dosi & Andrea Roventini, 2017. "Agent-Based Macroeconomics and Classical Political Economy: Some Italian Roots," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 3(3), pages 261-283, November.
    5. Giovanni Dosi & Luigi Marengo & Alessandro Nuvolari, 2019. "Institutions are neither autistic maximizers nor flocks of birds: self-organization, power and learning in human organizations," Chapters, in: Francesca Gagliardi & David Gindis (ed.), Institutions and Evolution of Capitalism, chapter 13, pages 194-213, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:intere:v:51:y:2016:i:5:d:10.1007_s10272-016-0619-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.