文档介绍：Rational Fools: A Critique of the Behavioral Foundations of Economic
Theory
Amartya K. Sen
Philosophy and Public Aflairs, Vol. 6, No. 4 (Summer, 1977), 317-344.
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Tue May 10 08:55:33 2005
AMARTYA K. SEN Rational Fools: A Critique of
the Behavioral Foundations
of Economic Theory
In his Mathematical Psychics, published in 1881,Edgeworth asserted
that "the first principle of Economics is that every agent is actuated
only by self-interest."' This view of man has been a persistent one in
economic models, and the nature of economic theory seems to have
been much influenced by this basic premise. In this essay I would like
to examine some of the problems that have arisen from this concep-
tion of human beings.
I should mention-that Edgeworth himself was quite aware that this
so-called first principle of Economics was not a particularly realistic
one. In