>>>Does anyone study how "his preference" is created? c b: >>Cultural anthropology does some.
Jay: > Why no economics? Economists are so imbued with the individualistic ethos (and a feeling of superiority over the other social sciences) that even the most sophisticated economists (outside of the left, I presume) don't look into the origins of tastes at all. This is part of the long (broadly-defined) liberal political tradition starting with Thomas Hobbes. Herb Gintis, I've been told, wrote a dissertation arguing that if tastes are endogenous (determined within the system) then all of welfare economics (the closest that economists get to ethics) falls apart. George Akerlof crossed the line a little: he has a paper in which cognitive dissonance plays a role. -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
