Jon Elster
Disinterest. A critical treatise on economic man I
Economic science is constantly trying to show us man as an agent whose choices reflect the rational pursuit of self-interest. The present treatise, of which Disinterest is the first volume, tackles this fundamental postulate. The ambition of this book is to demonstrate that disinterested motivations are more important in social life than today's dominant economic models would have us believe. Theoretically appealing, these models are empirically weak when it comes to explaining actual behavior. But Jon Elster is not content to simply underline the distance between theory and observed experience. Dispelling the suspicions that often weigh on them, he also positively distinguishes the different forms of selflessness that shape our choices, whether in everyday life or at the ballot box, or in extreme situations. In so doing, he borrows as much from17th-century French moralists and 18th-century political philosophy as from literature, experimental psychology and game theory.
Elster J., Le Désintéressement. Traité critique de l'homme économique I, Paris, Éditions du Seuil, coll. "Les livres du nouveau monde", 2009.
