Wisdom And Philosophy

Popper, Rationality, and the Economical Theories

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Ali Maleki

PhD Student in Science and Technology Studies, School of Political and Social Sciences, University of Edinburgh, UK; Researcher, Research Institute for Science, Technology and Industry Policy Making, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran.

https://doi.org/10.22054/wph.2008.5756
Abstract
The concept of “rationality” is a key and highly cited concept in many theories of social sciences in general, and in economics in particular. Because of its logical and methodological importance in one side, and many controversial discussions over its definition, content and status in the methodology of the Social Sciences in the other side, there are a number of recent scholars who has spent considerable efforts to deal with these issues. The scope of the methodological analysis of this article about the concept of the “rationality” is limited to address the content and the status of this concept in the framework of the methodology of “situational logic”, which has been largely discussed and explained by Karl Popper under the phrase of “rationality principle”. The main aim of this article is to analyse the relationship between Popper’s interpretation of the concept of the rationality and two other versions of this concept used by two main economics research programs, i.e. neoclassical and evolutionary economics. Given some assumptions, this article shows that the version of rationality concept drawn by evolutionary economists is more compatible with Popperian principle of rationality, though the primary idea of the rationality concept itself was drawn from neoclassical economics by Popper.

Keywords

Rationality
Popper
Methodology of Social Sciences
Mainstream Economics (Neoclassical)
Evolutionary Economics
Wisdom And Philosophy
Volume 4, Issue 15
Autumn 2008
Pages 103-136

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