IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jeborg/v143y2017icp223-240.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Socialized view of man vs. rational choice theory: What does smith’s sympathy have to say?

Author

Listed:
  • Khalil, Elias L.

Abstract

To explain the anomaly of cooperation in finitely repeated games, some economists advance a socialized view of man as an antidote to rational choice theory. This paper confronts these economists insofar as they trace the socialized view to Smith’s theory of sympathy in The Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS). TMS rather advances a view that anticipates rational choice theory. These economists misinterpret TMS because they fail to realize that Smith’s sympathy actually involves two functions of sympathy: one that determines the optimal decision and another that determines the command of that decision. The dual function of sympathy parallels the two senses of rational choice: rationality as making the optimal decision and rationality as commanding that decision. Thus Smith’s sympathy does not support the socialized view of man.

Suggested Citation

  • Khalil, Elias L., 2017. "Socialized view of man vs. rational choice theory: What does smith’s sympathy have to say?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 223-240.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:143:y:2017:i:c:p:223-240
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2017.09.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268117302445
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jebo.2017.09.003?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.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paganelli, Maria Pia, 2011. "The same face of the two Smiths: Adam Smith and Vernon Smith," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 78(3), pages 246-255, May.
    2. Sally, David, 2001. "On sympathy and games," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 1-30, January.
    3. Elias L. Khalil, 2005. "An anatomy of authority: Adam Smith as political theorist," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 29(1), pages 57-71, January.
    4. Elias L. Khalil, 2017. "Weakness of will and stiffness of will: how far are shirking, slackening, favoritism, spoiling of children, and pornography from obsessivecompulsive behavior?," Chapters, in: Morris Altman (ed.), Handbook of Behavioural Economics and Smart Decision-Making, chapter 28, pages 492-514, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Elias L. Khalil, 2002. "Is Adam Smith Liberal?," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 158(4), pages 664-664, December.
    6. Khalil, Elias L., 2013. "Lock-in institutions and efficiency," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 27-36.
    7. Mas-Colell, Andreu & Whinston, Michael D. & Green, Jerry R., 1995. "Microeconomic Theory," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195102680.
    8. Elias L. Khalil, 2001. "Adam Smith and Three Theories of Altruism," Recherches économiques de Louvain, De Boeck Université, vol. 67(4), pages 421-435.
    9. Khalil, Elias L., 2009. "Self-deceit and self-serving bias: Adam Smith on ‘General Rules’," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 5(2), pages 251-258, August.
    10. Levy, David M. & Peart, Sandra J., 2004. "Sympathy And Approbation In Hume And Smith: A Solution To The Other Rational Species Problem," Economics and Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(2), pages 331-349, October.
    11. Khalil, Elias L., 2011. "The mirror neuron paradox: How far is understanding from mimicking?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 86-96, January.
    12. Khalil, Elias L., 2015. "Temptations as Impulsivity: How far are Regret and the Allais Paradox from Shoplifting?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 551-559.
    13. Marciano, Alain & Khalil, Elias L., 2012. "Optimization, path dependence and the law: Can judges promote efficiency?," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 72-82.
    14. Etzioni, Amitai, 1986. "The Case for a Multiple-Utility Conception," Economics and Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(2), pages 159-184, October.
    15. L. Kiesling, 2012. "Mirror neuron research and Adam Smith’s concept of sympathy: Three points of correspondence," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 25(4), pages 299-313, December.
    16. Vernon L. Smith, 1998. "The Two Faces of Adam Smith," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 65(1), pages 2-19, July.
    17. Elias L. Khalil, 2000. "orignal paper: Beyond natural selection and divine intervention: The Lamarckian implication of Adam Smith's invisible hand," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 10(4), pages 373-393.
    18. George A. Akerlof & Robert J. Shiller, 2015. "Phishing for Phools: The Economics of Manipulation and Deception," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10534.
    19. Elias L. Khalil, 2010. "Adam Smith’S Concept Of Self‐Command As A Solution To Dynamic Inconsistency And The Commitment Problem," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 48(1), pages 177-191, January.
    20. Robert L. Heilbroner, 1982. "The Socialization of the Individual in Adam Smith," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 14(3), pages 427-439, Fall.
    21. Nava Ashraf & Colin F. Camerer & George Loewenstein, 2005. "Adam Smith, Behavioral Economist," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 19(3), pages 131-145, Summer.
    22. Sugden, Robert, 2002. "Beyond sympathy and empathy: Adam Smith's concept of fellow-feeling," Economics and Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(1), pages 63-87, April.
    23. Jean-Pierre Dupuy, 2004. "Intersubjectivity and Embodiment," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 6(3), pages 275-294, September.
    24. Khalil, Elias L, 1996. "Friedrich Hayek's Darwinian Theory of Evolution of Institutions: Two Problems," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(66), pages 183-201, June.
    25. Smith, Vernon L. & Wilson, Bart J., 2014. "Fair and Impartial Spectators in Experimental Economic Behavior," Review of Behavioral Economics, now publishers, vol. 1(1-2), pages 1-26, January.
    26. Khalil, Elias L., 1996. "Respect, admiration, aggrandizement: Adam Smith as economic psychologist," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 555-577, November.
    27. Khalil, Elias L., 1990. "Beyond Self-Interest and Altruism: A Reconstruction of Adam Smith's Theory of Human Conduct," Economics and Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(2), pages 255-273, October.
    28. Haig, David, 2011. "Sympathy with Adam Smith and reflexions on self," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 4-13, January.
    29. Ralph Anspach, 1972. "The Implications of the Theory of Moral Sentiments for Adam Smith's Economic Thought," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 4(1), pages 176-206, Spring.
    30. Robert Sugden, 2005. "Why rationality is not a consequence of Hume's theory of choice," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1), pages 113-118.
    31. Sugden, Robert, 2006. "Hume'S Non-Instrumental And Non-Propositional Decision Theory," Economics and Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(3), pages 365-391, November.
    32. Matthew Rabin & Botond Kőszegi, 2007. "Mistakes in Choice-Based Welfare Analysis," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(2), pages 477-481, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Elias L. Khalil & Alain Marciano, 2021. "A theory of instrumental and existential rational decisions: Smith, Weber, Mauss, Tönnies after Martin Buber," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 90(1), pages 147-169, February.
    2. Khalil, Elias, 2022. "Does Friendship Stem from Altruism? Adam Smith and the Distinction between Love-based and Interest-based Preferences," OSF Preprints ygpmq, Center for Open Science.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Khalil, Elias, 2022. "Does Friendship Stem from Altruism? Adam Smith and the Distinction between Love-based and Interest-based Preferences," OSF Preprints ygpmq, Center for Open Science.
    2. Khalil, Elias L., 2011. "The mirror neuron paradox: How far is understanding from mimicking?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 86-96, January.
    3. Elias L. Khalil, 2010. "Adam Smith’S Concept Of Self‐Command As A Solution To Dynamic Inconsistency And The Commitment Problem," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 48(1), pages 177-191, January.
    4. Khalil, Elias L., 2010. "The Bayesian fallacy: Distinguishing internal motivations and religious beliefs from other beliefs," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 75(2), pages 268-280, August.
    5. Elias L. Khalil, 2001. "Adam Smith and Three Theories of Altruism," Recherches économiques de Louvain, De Boeck Université, vol. 67(4), pages 421-435.
    6. Elias L. Khalil, 2022. "Solving the income-happiness paradox," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 69(3), pages 433-463, September.
    7. Khalil, Elias L., 2004. "What is altruism?," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 97-123, February.
    8. Elias L. Khalil, 2013. "Egotism: making sense of social preferences," Chapters, in: Luigino Bruni & Stefano Zamagni (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Reciprocity and Social Enterprise, chapter 12, pages 121-133, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    9. Elias L. Khalil & Alain Marciano, 2021. "A theory of instrumental and existential rational decisions: Smith, Weber, Mauss, Tönnies after Martin Buber," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 90(1), pages 147-169, February.
    10. Khalil, Elias L., 2020. "The isomorphism hypothesis: The prisoner's dilemma as intertemporal allocation, and vice versa," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 735-746.
    11. Matson, Erik W., 2021. "Satisfaction in action: Hume's endogenous theory of preferences and the virtues of commerce," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 849-860.
    12. Sandra Peart & David Levy, 2005. "A discipline without sympathy: the happiness of the majority and its demise," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 38(3), pages 937-954, August.
    13. José Atilano Pena López & José Manuel Sánchez Santos, 2007. "Los fundamentos morales de la economía: una relectura del problema de Adam Smith," Revista de Economía Institucional, Universidad Externado de Colombia - Facultad de Economía, vol. 9(16), pages 63-87, January-J.
    14. Gary D Lynne & Natalia V Czap, 2024. "Towards Dual Interest Theory in Metaeconomics," Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics, , vol. 36(1), pages 7-25, January.
    15. Paganelli, Maria Pia, 2011. "The same face of the two Smiths: Adam Smith and Vernon Smith," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 78(3), pages 246-255, May.
    16. Khalil, Elias, 2007. "The Mirror-Neuron Paradox: How Far is Sympathy from Compassion, Indulgence, and Adulation?," MPRA Paper 3509, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Sylvie Thoron, 2016. "Morality Beyond Social Preferences: Smithian Sympathy, Social Neuroscience and the Nature of Social Consciousness [La moralité au delà des préférences sociales. La sympathie Smithienne, les neurosc," Post-Print hal-01645043, HAL.
    18. Schnellenbach, Jan & Schubert, Christian, 2015. "Behavioral political economy: A survey," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 40(PB), pages 395-417.
    19. Michel Zouboulakis, 2010. "Trustworthiness as a Moral Determinant of Economic Activity: Lessons from the Classics," Forum for Social Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(3), pages 209-221, January.
    20. Andreas Ortmann & Benoit Walraevens, 2014. "The Rhetorical Structure of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations (and the importance of acknowledging it)," Discussion Papers 2014-11, School of Economics, The University of New South Wales.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Emotions; Dynamic inconsistency; Decision axis of choice; Command axis of choice; Weak axiom of revealed preference;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles
    • B4 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology

    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:eee:jeborg:v:143:y:2017:i:c:p:223-240. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jebo .

    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.