The Rationality of a Social Animal
The Rationality of a Social Animal

Summary/Abstract: Different social sciences study human beings. Economics is one of them andit is focused on a specific field of human action and social cooperation. The entirehuman collaboration is based on significant moral and ethical standards. If we want tounderstand how people are involved in economic (and other social) relationships, weneed to understand the human nature. There are many scientists that consider humanbeings to be closed to animals, often being dominated by impulses and feelings difficultto be controlled. An inter-disciplinary science has been developed – behavioraleconomics that provide an interpretation to human action from this perspective. Theidea to consider human beings closer to animals (social or not) is an argument tointroduce a third party (the state) that should regulate and control the human actionsdo not become aggressive or disruptive. The state is viewed as panacea to theseimperfections associated to the human way of acting and cooperating. Crisis isconsidered to be determined or enforced by such imperfections. This paper discussesthe idea of rationality in human action and argues against this common approachabout its nature.

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