Volume 38, Number 16 · October 10, 1991
When It's Rational to be Irrational
By Alan Ryan
The Cement of Society: A Study of Social Order
by Jon Elster
Cambridge University Press, 311 pp., $16.95 (paper)
Nuts and Bolts for the Social Sciences
by Jon Elster
Cambridge University Press, 184 pp., $10.95 (paper)
Solomonic Judgments: Studies in the Limitations of Rationality
by Jon Elster
Cambridge University Press, 232 pp., $13.95 (paper)
We know, according to Pascal, that the heart has its reasons that reason knows nothing about. Poets have sided with the theologians, agreeing that God speaks to the humble heart, and not to the arrogant intellect. Lately, the intellectuals have been stealing their critics' clothing. Economists, philosophers, logicians, and theorists of 'rational choice'—of whom Jon Elster is one of the most prominent—have begun to tell us that it is more rational to be irrational than rational. Their grounds are hardly traditional ones. It is not the voice of God but the calculations of reason that tell us not to listen to reason. It is not a high-minded alternative to economic reasoning but economic reasoning itself that tells persons who want to 'maximize their utilities' that they will succeed only if they do not try.[1]
Review, 4947 words
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