The “Economic Man” Premiss

Abstract
The lecture will cite some representative brief formulations of the “Economic Man” premiss in neoclassical economic theory, show that scientific psychologists publishing in the USA have now convinced some eminent mainstream economists that it is invalid, and argue that (a) to teach it has become, in recent decades, conducive to environmental and social trouble, and (b) Adam Smith did not subscribe to it. I will offer some thoughts as to how it might be improved upon, and describe some likely implications of such a change.

About the speaker
Dr. Mark Lindley was born in Washington DC in 1937 and studied at Harvard University (A.B.) and Columbia University (M.Phil, D.Phil.). He is a renowned ecological economist and served, last year, as the University Chair Professor in the School of Economics at the Central University of Hyderabad and as a Visiting Professor at the Gokhale Institute for Politics and Economics. He has taught also at the City University of New York, Washington University, Columbia University, Oxford University, the University of London, the University of Regensburg, the University of Zaragoza, Istanbul Technical University, Bogaziçi University (likewise in Istanbul), the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the University of Kerala. He is the author or co-author of more than 15 books (including “J.C. Kumarappa: Mahatma Gandhi’s Economist”, Popular Prakashan, 2007) and more than 100 scholarly articles. One of his academic websites is https://independent.academia.edu/MarkLindley.