This book examines the different conceptions of the individual that have
emerged in recent new approaches in economics, including behavioral economics,
experimental economics, social preferences approaches, game theory, neuroeconomics,
evolutionary and complexity economics, and the capability approach.
These conceptions are classified according to whether they seek to revise the
traditional atomist individual conception, put new emphasis on interaction and relations
between individuals, account for individuals as evolving and self-organizing, and explain
individuals in terms of capabilities. The method of analysis uses two identity criteria
for distinguishing and re-identifying individuals to determine whether these different
individual conceptions successfully identify individuals. Successful individual
conceptions account for sub-personal and supra-personal bounds on single individual
explanations. The former concerns the fragmentation of individuals into multiple selves;
the latter concerns the dissolution of individuals into the social. The book develops an
understanding of bounded individuality, seen as central to the defense of human rights.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction: the individual in economics
Part I. Atomism Revised:
2. Psychology's challenge to economics: rationality and the individual
3. Multiple selves and self-control: contextualizing individuality
4. Social identity and social preferences in the utility function
Part II. Interaction:
5. The individual in game theory: from fixed points to experiments
6. Multiple selves in interaction: teams and neuroscience
7. Evolutionary conceptions of the individual: identity through change
Part III. Socially Embedded Individuals:
8. Evolution and capabilities: human heterogeneity
9. The identity of individuals and the economics of identity
10. Economic policy, democracy, and justice.
270 pages, Paperback