University of Helsinki
At the Perspectives on Science seminar on Monday 4.5. Uskali Mäki (TINT & University of Helsinki) will present his paper “Homo economicus under multiple pressures”. The seminar will be organized as an online meeting in Zoom from 2-4 pm. Zoom is an online conference tool supported by University of Helsinki.
Perspectives on Science is a weekly research seminar which brings together experts from science studies and philosophy of science. It is organized by TINT, the Centre for Philosophy of Social Science at the University of Helsinki. More information about the seminar here.
To join the seminar please contact jannika.lalu(a)helsinki.fi or kaisla.kareoja(a)helsinki.fi. Information about using Zoom can be found here.
Author bio:
Uskali Mäki is professor emeritus at the University of Helsinki, directing TINT – Centre for Philosophy of Social Science; and a visiting professor at Nankai University, China. Between 2006-2017 he was an Academy professor. In 1995-2006 he was professor of theoretical philosophy at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, directing EIPE [Erasmus Institute for Philosophy and Economics]. He is a former editor of the Journal of Economic Methodology (1995-2005). His current research is mainly on the philosophy of economics and on models, scientific realism, interdisciplinarity, and social aspects of science.
Abstract:
Homo economicus lives its lives under multiple pressures that derive from economics (holding a very idealized image of human behaviour), the common sense (with a rich and nuanced image of ourselves), disciplines other than economics (partly joining forces with the common sense), and aspects of social reality (such as the norm of self-interest in some cultures, the exposure to money, and marketization of society). These pressures are examined for their detailed contents in terms of quantification, negligibility and applicability, as well as the tensions and partnerships between them that appear to be rather tangled.