Revolutionary Changes in Understanding Man and Society

JOHANN GOTSCHL Over the last decades, social philosophers, economists. sociologists, utility and game theorists, biologists, mathematicians, moral philosophers and philosophers have created totally new concepts and methods of understanding the function and role of humans in their modern societies. The years between 1953 and 1990 brought drastic changes in the scientific foundations and dynamic of today's society. A burst of entirely new, revolutionary ideas, similar to those which heralded the beginning of the twentieth century in physics, dominates the picture. This book also discusses the ongoing refutation of old concepts in the social sciences. Some of them are: the traditional concepts ofrationality, for example, based on maximization of interests, the linearity of axiomatic methods, methodological individualism, and the concept of a static society. Today the revolutionary change from a static view of our society to an evolutionary one reverberates through all social sciences and will dominate the twenty-first century. In an uncertain and risky world where cooperation and teamwork is getting more and more important, one cannot any longer call the maximization of one's own expectations of utility or interests "rational" .

Contenu

Introduction; J. Götschl. Part I: Characteristic Features in Economic Science. The Economic Science of Today and Facts: A Critical Analysis of Some Characteristic Features; M. Allais. Technical Change Without Humans: Innovation in the Neoclassical Economic Theory; G. Rosegger. Part II: Discovery, Creativity, Cognition and Computation: Basic Structures. The Theory of Scientific Discovery; H.A. Simon. Understanding Creativity; M.A. Boden. The Role of Simulation Models in the Cognitive Sciences; A. Carsetti. The Mind and Computation; J.R. Searle. Part III: Towards a Science of Man and Society: Philosophical and Methodological Foundations. Self-Organization: New Foundations Towards a `General Theory of Reality'; J. Götschl. Towards a Science of Man; O. Schwemmer. Part IV: Rationality, Complexity and Uncertainty: New Interrelations. The New Theory of Evolution - A Theory of Democratic Societies; W. Leinfellner. Risk in Utility Theory, in Business and in the World of Fear and Hope; O. Hagen. Rational Choice Theory: A Critical Look at Its Foundations; M. Bunge. Complexity, the Concept of Uncertainty and Bounded Rationality of Man; B. Munier. Security. On the Reasons for the Sinking Acceptance of Risk; H. Lübbe. Part V: Aesthetical and Ethical Patterns. Nature as a Work of Art; P. Feyerabend. Ethics in Science - Substance or Rhetoric? J. Mittelstrass. Name Index. Subject Index.