[From Bruce Nevin (2001.08.27 22:46 EDT)]
Bill Powers (2001.08.27.1307 MDT)--
>I would suggest that if heterodox economists wish to institute significant
>reforms in their discipline, one of the most fruitful places to begin would
>be in revising the theory of human behavior that has underlain not only
>economics but all the social sciences since their beginnings. I would
>suggest that the reforms not be limited to the question of _which_ social
>or other influences cause human beings to behave as they do, but _whether_
>such factors bear any causal relationship to human behavior at all. The
>question of "whether" clearly takes precedence, because if the relationship
>of any external factors to behavior is not one of causation, there is no
>point in asking which factors cause behavior.
The illusion of causation may be in the apparent fact that people living in social relationship "normally" control variables that matter to their fellows according to reference values that are expected by their fellows, and if they do not various resistances to disturbances have the appearances of causing or attempting to cause changes in their behavior, and are typically verbalized as such.
Bruce Nevin
···
At 15:21 08/27/2001 -0600, Bill Powers wrote: