Explaining Social Behavior

Jon Elster

ISBN 10: 1107416418 / ISBN 13: 9781107416413

Published by Cambridge University Press, GB, 2015

About this Item

In this new edition of his critically acclaimed book, Jon Elster examines the nature of social behavior, proposing choice as the central concept of the social sciences. Extensively revised throughout, the book offers an overview of key explanatory mechanisms, drawing on many case studies and experiments to explore the nature of explanation in the social sciences; an analysis of the mental states - beliefs, desires, and emotions - that are precursors to action; a systematic comparison of rational-choice models of behavior with alternative accounts, and a review of mechanisms of social interaction ranging from strategic behavior to collective decision making. A wholly new chapter includes an exploration of classical moralists and Proust in charting mental mechanisms operating 'behind the back' of the agent, and a new conclusion points to the pitfalls and fallacies in current ways of doing social science, proposing guidelines for more modest and more robust procedures.

Seller Inventory # LU-9781107416413

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Explaining Social Behavior
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, GB
• Publication Date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1107416418
• ISBN 13: 9781107416413
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition: 2nd.
• Condition: New
• Dimensions: 15.24W x 2.97H x 22.86D centimeters 15.24 centimeters width by 2.97 centimeters height by 22.86 centimeters depth
• Weight: 750 grams

About this title

Synopsis

In this new edition of his critically acclaimed book, Jon Elster examines the nature of social behavior, proposing choice as the central concept of the social sciences. Extensively revised throughout, the book offers an overview of key explanatory mechanisms, drawing on many case studies and experiments to explore the nature of explanation in the social sciences; an analysis of the mental states - beliefs, desires, and emotions - that are precursors to action; a systematic comparison of rational-choice models of behavior with alternative accounts, and a review of mechanisms of social interaction ranging from strategic behavior to collective decision making. A wholly new chapter includes an exploration of classical moralists and Proust in charting mental mechanisms operating 'behind the back' of the agent, and a new conclusion points to the pitfalls and fallacies in current ways of doing social science, proposing guidelines for more modest and more robust procedures.

About the Author

Jon Elster is Robert K. Merton Professor of Social Science at Columbia University, New York and Professeur Honoraire at the Collège de France. He is the author or editor of thirty-four books, most recently Agir contre soi: la faiblesse de volonté (2007), Le désintéressement: traité critique de l'homme économique (2009), Alexis de Tocqueville: The First Social Scientist (Cambridge, 2009), L'irrationalité (2010) and Securities against Misrule: Juries, Assemblies, Elections (Cambridge, 2013).