Utopia or Bust

Posts Tagged ‘Utilitarianism

Paralogisms of Cognitive Microeconomics

Posted by: lettrist on: March 27, 2008

I’ve been having a lot of fun recently with Kant’s Critique. It was meant to apply to every aspect of human reason. In this strategy below, I’m arguing that microeconomics is no exception.
Cognitive biases and limitations are a function of individual consumer demand. In order for microeconomic models to play an adequate role in consumer [...]

Tyrannical Hedonism

Posted by: lettrist on: December 9, 2007

The argument that one is obliged to obey the law because it is backed by the threat of force does not allow for civil disobedience even in the most egregious cases where civil unrest brews. That view is legal positivism. Contemporary writers have attacked that view considerably. Not too many legal scholars would consider themselves [...]

Adam Smith’s Moral Sentiments and Neuro-Welfare Economics

Posted by: lettrist on: December 14, 2006

During the past decade neuroeconomists have confirmed the insights of Adam Smith. People who trade money with strangers in a laboratory setting have an instinctive sense of fair play and reciprocity. Chimps and capuchin monkeys also possess this instinct. These non-human primates display, just as we do, a sense of trust in response to generosity, [...]

The Stasis of Utilitarianism in Kantian Ethics

Posted by: lettrist on: May 5, 2006

Kant and Mill represent to us two opposites of ethical thought. The discovery of any common ground between them which might form the basis of a relationship may appear a hopeless task. Kant says that a good will is not good because of what it performs or effects, but simply by virtue of the volition, [...]