Homo Sociologicus
As the social sciences deal with macrophenomena which are caused by individual human actions, they have to use a theory of human behaviour. They use basically three types of theory: the rational-utilitarian theory, the causalist theory which sees behaviour as caused by social, cultural or biological...
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2006 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona |
| Repositorio: | Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ddd.uab.cat:13864 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://ddd.uab.cat/record/13864 https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.5565/rev/papers/v80n0.1773 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Elecció racional Racionalitat cognitiva Racionalitat axiològica Teories del comportament Rational choice Cognitive rationality Axiological rationality Theories of behaviour Elección racional Racionalidad cognitiva Racionalidad axiológica Teorías del comportamiento |
| Sumario: | As the social sciences deal with macrophenomena which are caused by individual human actions, they have to use a theory of human behaviour. They use basically three types of theory: the rational-utilitarian theory, the causalist theory which sees behaviour as caused by social, cultural or biological forces, and the «rational psychology» in Nisbet's sense. The three theories are important in the sense that they have shown their capacity to explain convincingly puzzling phenomena. Type I and II theories have been claimed to be potentially general. They are not since there are familiar phenomena they are unable to explain. Type III can by contrast be claimed to be general. Amartya Sen has made the point that the rational-utilitarian theory treats human beings as rational idiots. Type II treats them as irrational idiots. These aggressive metaphors draw the attention on the fact that human beings answer the situations they are confronted to by devising systems of arguments which they perceive as strong: by being cognitively rational. |
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