Jon Elster
Biographic Data
| ID | 249865 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jon Elster |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jon |
| FAMILY NAME | Elster |
| SIGNATURE | ELSTER J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Columbia University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9543-1780 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 170 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1580 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 167 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 9 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1974 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 17 |
La psychologie de Montaigne
Rejoinder to Ainslie, Bourke, Gjelsvik, and Moene
This Rejoinder to the comments in the Symposium on my Article focuses on the nature of emotion in general; on specific emotions, notably anger, enthusiasm, and love; and on the relation between emotions and rationality. It also expands on some themes from the Article, notably by providing historical evidence for the claim that enthusiasm can generate inaction-aversion
Enthusiasm and anger in history
The article aims at contributing to the unification of history and psychology by studying the expressions of anger and enthusiasm in several historical contexts. These mainly include France and America in the eighteenth century, but also more recent episodes of transitional justice. In addition it aims at drawing the attention of psychologist to the understudied (by their discipline) emotion of enthusiasm. To this end, it also considers how Hume …
Economics and Sociology
France before 1789
This book traces the historical origins of France's National Constituent Assembly of 1789, providing a vivid portrait of the ancien régime and its complex social system in the decades before the French Revolution. The book's author writes in the spirit of Alexis de Tocqueville, who described this tumultuous era with an eye toward individual and group psychology and the functioning of institutions. Whereas Tocqueville saw the old regime as a breed…
France Before 1789
The Psychology of the Main Social Groups
This chapter refers to the beliefs of individuals that occupied various positions in the structures of the old regime. For histoire des mentalités, the chapter tries to determine popular beliefs, elite beliefs, and beliefs about beliefs in accordance with reasons given in the Madisonian caveats. It also analyzes the behavior of the main agents in the economic and political system, which includes the peasantry, local authorities, several urban gro…
Er samfunnsvitenskap mulig
A Note on Overapologizing
The article argues that many apologies or demands for apologies of harms in the distant past are both metaphysically absurd and pernicious in their consequences. Such cases of overapologizing are contrasted with the more familiar cases of underapologizing
Some notes on ‘Populism’
The article criticizes the idea that we can find the ‘real meaning’ of populism and focuses instead on six psychological attitudes and political programmes that the term ‘populism’ can invoke: Lake Wobegon populism, short-termism, Trumpism, the attraction of simple solutions, responses to inequality, and direct democracy. While conceptually distinct, these are often found together and can reinforce each other
From Marx to emotions
Constitutionalism and Democracy
Emotions in Constitution‐making
Sour Grapes
Drawing on philosophy, political and social theory, decision-theory, economics, psychology, history and literature, Jon Elster's classic book Sour Grapes continues and complements the arguments of his acclaimed earlier book, Ulysses and the Sirens. Elster begins with an analysis of the notation of rationality, before tackling the notions of irrational behavior, desires and belief with highly sophisticated arguments that subvert the orthodox theor…
Tool-box or toy-box? Hard obscurantism in economic modeling
Obscurantisme et liberté de l'enseignement et de la recherche
Explaining Social Behavior
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 precurs…
Explaining Social Behavior
Secrecy and Publicity in Votes and Debates
In the spirit of Jeremy Bentham's Political Tactics, this volume offers the first comprehensive discussion of the effects of secrecy and publicity on debates and votes in committees and assemblies. The contributors - sociologists, political scientists, historians, legal scholars - consider the micro-technology of voting (the devil is in the detail), the historical relations between the secret ballot and universal suffrage, the use and abolition o…
Logik und Gesellschaft
Leibniz et la formation de l'esprit capitaliste
El cemento de la sociedad
Uvas amargas
Logic and society
Tuercas y tornillos
The Cement of Society
The question Jon Elster addresses in this challenging book is what binds societies together and prevents them from disintegrating into chaos and war. He analyses two concepts of social order: stable, predictable patterns of behaviour, and co-operative behaviour. The book examines various aspects of collective action and bargaining from the perspective of rational-choice theory and the theory of social norms. It is a fundamental assumption of the …
Social Norms and Economic Theory
One of the most persistent cleavages in the social sciences is the opposition between two lines of thought conveniently associated with Adam Smith and Emile Durkheim, between homo economicus and homo sociologicus. Of these, the former is supposed to be guided by instrumental rationality, while the behavior of the latter is dictated by social norms. In this paper I characterize this contrast more fully, and discuss attempts by economists to reduce…
Sour Grapes
Drawing on philosophy, political and social theory, decision-theory, economics, psychology, history and literature, Jon Elster's classic book Sour Grapes continues and complements the arguments of his acclaimed earlier book, Ulysses and the Sirens. Elster begins with an analysis of the notation of rationality, before tackling the notions of irrational behavior, desires and belief with highly sophisticated arguments that subvert the orthodox theor…
Foundations of social choice theory
Forces and Mechanisms in the Constitution-Making Process
authoritarianism to democracy, it does not, for instance, cover such constitution-making episodes as the Federal Convention in Philadelphia
Ulysses Unbound
Common sense suggests that it is always preferable to have more options than fewer, and better to have more knowledge than less. This provocative book argues that, very often, common sense fails. Sometimes it is simply the case that less is more; people may benefit from being constrained in their options or from being ignorant. The three long essays that constitute this book revise and expand the ideas developed in Jon Elster's classic study Ulys…
Rationality and the Emotions
Journal Article Rationality and the Emotions Get access Jon Elster Jon Elster Columbia University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Economic Journal, Volume 106, Issue 438, 1 September 1996, Pages 1386–1397, https://doi.org/10.2307/2235530 Published: 01 September 1996
Norms of Revenge
Constitution‐making in Eastern Europe
Democracy and the Welfare State
The essays in this volume explore the moral foundations and the political prospects of the welfare state in the United States. Among the questions addressed are the following: Has public support for the welfare state faded? Can a democratic state provide welfare without producing dependency on welfare? Is a capitalist (or socialist) economy consistent with the preservation of equal liberty and equal opportunity for all citizens? Why and in what w…
Armed conflict and post-conflict justice, 1946-2006
This article introduces a new dataset on post-conflict justice (PCJ) that provides an overview of if, where, and how post-conflict countries address the wrongdoings committed in association with previous armed conflict. Motivated by the literature on post-conflict peacebuilding, we study justice processes during post-conflict transitions. We examine: which countries choose to implement PCJ; where PCJ is implemented; and which measures are taken i…
Postcommunist Democracy
Coming to terms with the past. A framework for the study of justice in the transition to democracy
After the transition from an authoritarian to a democratic regime, one commonly observes trials of the agents of the former regime and efforts to compensate its victims. In our century, waves of transitional justice have occured in German-occupied countries after 1941, in South- Eastern Europe in the 1970s, in Latin-American countries in the 1980s, and in post-Communist countries after 1989. The article proposes a framework for the behavioral stu…
Cohen on Marx's Theory of History
Nuts and Bolts
Journal Article Nuts and Bolts: For the Social Sciences Get access Nuts and Bolts: For the Social Sciences. By JON ELSTER. (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Pp. viii-f 184. £22.50 hardback, £6.95 paperback, US $34.50 hardback. ISBN 0 521 37455 3, 0 521 37606 8).Solomonic Judgements: Studies in the Limitations of Rationality. By JON ELSTER. (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Pp. ix + 232. £25.00 har…
Some Unresolved Problems in the Theory of Rational Behavior
In an article written in 1977 the author offered a survey of unresolved problems in rational choice theory. The present paper is an attempt to rethink this issue. On the one hand, it emphasizes the question of indeterminacy, i.e situations in which the rational choice is not well defined The paradoxes of backward induction find their place here, as do the existence and importance of genuine uncertainty (as distinct from risk) On the other hand, t…
The possibility of rational politics
We know, more or less, what rationality means when applied to individual choices and decisions. It is less clear what it could mean when applied to policy choices. In this article I discuss three questions. First, can one assign a meaning to the idea of rational political choice? Secondly, assuming that this assignment is feasible, what is the scope for rational political decisions? Thirdly, if this scope turns out to be limited (as it will), cou…
Rationality and social norms
One of the most persisting cleavages in the social sciences is the opposition between two lines of thought conveniently associated with Adam Smith and Émile Durkheim, betweenhomo economicusandhomo sociologicus. Of these, the former is supposed to be guided by instrumental rationality, while the behavior of the latter is dictated by social norms. The former is 'pulled' by the prospect of future rewards, whereas the latter is 'pushed' from behind b…
Argumenter et négocier dans deux Assemblées constituantes
Une analyse de deux Assemblées constituantes, la Convention Fédérale de Philadelphie (1787) et l'Assemblée Constituante française (de 1789 à 1791), permet de dégager quelques principes fondamentaux des débats politiques. S'appuyant à la fois sur Thomas Schelling et Jiirgen Habermas, elle propose une distinction entre l'argumentation et la négociation comme modes de résolution des conflits politiques. Elle suggère aussi que des raisonnements strat…
Roemer versus Roemer
Wage Bargaining and Social Norms
Standard economic theories of wage bargaining emphasize self-interest and bargaining power as the determinants of the wage agreement. The author argues that social norms also shape wage negotiations in a number of ways. After a description of the Swedish system of collective wage bargaining, he discusses the role of social norms in bargaining between unions and employers and in the negotiations that take place among unions when they try to coordi…
Ulysses and the Sirens
Excessive Ambitions
The current financial crisis has brought out a fatal flaw in the foundations of the economic theories that guided economic agents and regulators: the unwarranted claim to precision and robustness. In this article I try to diagnose this flaw and discuss possible remedies. I argue that actual agents are intrinsically less sophisticated than the models assume they are, and that the various proposals to sustain the models by appealing to "as-if ratio…
Interpretation and Rational Choice
Rational choice explanation plays a critical role in the interpretation of both texts and social behavior. The interpretation of fiction benefits from the use of this type of explanation. It can inform understanding of both the author's choice and the behavior of the fictional characters the author creates. Examples of this are offered from a number of pre-modern novels and plays. The situation is somewhat more complicated when rational choice ex…
States that are essentially by-products
Introduction Some mental and social states appear to have the property that they can only come about as the by-product of actions undertaken for other ends. They can never, that is, be brought about intelligently or intentionally, because the very attempt to do so precludes the state one is trying to bring about. In I.2 above I cited spontaneity as an example of such ‘inaccessible’ states. I shall refer to them as ‘states that are essentially by-…
Nytt perspektiv pa okonomisk historie
Ideal, teori og virkelighet. Nicolai Rygg og pengepolitikken i 1920-arene
Leibniz et la formation de l'esprit capitaliste
Boudon, education and the theory of games
A note on hysteresis in the social sciences
Rasjonalitet og rasjonalisme
Ulysses and the Sirens
Critique des analogies socio-biologiques Plaidoyer pour l'autonomie des sciences
Elster Jon. Critique des analogies socio-biologiques. Plaidoyer pour l'autonomie des sciences. In: Revue française de sociologie, 1977, 18-3. pp. 369-395
Logic and society
Exploring Exploitation
Both Marxist and neo-classical theories of income distribution agree that the worker is exploited if he gets less than he produces. They differ over the imputation to the worker of 'his' product, Marxists using the average and neoclassical theorists the marginal product. In order to bring out the deeper reasons behind this difference, the following notions and theories are invoked: the fallacy of composition, permitting the capitalist to treat ea…
Risk, uncertainty and nuclear power
This chapter argues that there is at least one issue in the energy choice — the proliferation of nuclear weapons – that constrains the question into one of decision under uncertainty, with the implied imperative to act as if the worst that can happen, will happen. It examines the discussion on the realistic assumption that there will be a substantial increase in the need for energy. The chapter aims to distinguish between objective, theoretical a…
Logic and Society
The Treatment of Counterfactuals
Cohen on Marx's Theory of History
Négation active et négation passive Essai de sociologie ivanienne
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Un historien devant l'irrationnel. Lecture de Paul Veyne
Democracy and Social Planning
The Norwegian Research Council for Science and the Humanities has sponsored a research project entitled 'Democracy and Social Planning'. It is basically a study of political history and political philosophy and was motivated by the belief that any viable democracy must continually question its own foundations. Politicians implement democracy and planning and social scientists study how they work in practice, but prior to both is the conceptual an…
Ulysses and the Sirens
States that are essentially by-products
Introduction Some mental and social states appear to have the property that they can only come about as the by-product of actions undertaken for other ends. They can never, that is, be brought about intelligently or intentionally, because the very attempt to do so precludes the state one is trying to bring about. In I.2 above I cited spontaneity as an example of such ‘inaccessible’ states. I shall refer to them as ‘states that are essentially by-…
Un marxisme anglais. A propos d'une nouvelle interprétation du matérialisme historique
Le marxisme connaît deux ' questions nationales ', correspondant à la nation comme objet et comme cause des théories marxistes. D'une part il y a la question théorique et stratégique : quelle est l'importance du caractère national pour le développement d'un peuple, et quel rôle faut-il attribuer à la lutte des peuples pour l'auto-détermination comparée à la lutte des classes proprement dite ? D'autre part il y a un problème qui relève de la socio…
Sour grapes – utilitarianism and the genesis of wants
I want to discuss a problem that is thrown up by all varieties of utilitarianism: act and rule utilitarianism, average and aggregate, cardinal and ordinal. It is this: why should individual want satisfaction be the criterion of justice and social choice when individual wants themselves may be shaped by a process that preempts the choice? And, in particular, why should the choice between feasible options only take account of individual preferences…
II. A paradigm for the social sciences
Perverse Effects and Social Contradictions
Raymond Boudon's recent textbook La Logique du Social, constitutes a systematic attempt to provide sociology with solid foundations, by putting at its core the assumption that man acts rationally, or at least intentionally. Interactionist models, which rest on this assumption, Boudon argues, should replace determinist models, which assume that man is passively determined by social structures, roles or norms.l In particular, he argues that the not…
Roemer versus Roemer
Sour Grapes
Sour Grapes aims to subvert orthodox theories of rational choice through the study of forms of irrationality. Dr Elster begins with an analysis of the notation of rationality, to provide the background and terms for the subsequent discussions, which cover irrational behaviour, irrational desires and irrational belief. These essays continue and complement the arguments of Jon Elster's earlier book, Ulysses and the Sirens. That was published to wid…
Sociology (96 works) · Philosophy (90 works) · Political science (87 works) · Law (66 works) · Epistemology (65 works) · Politics (49 works) · Economics (45 works) · Psychology (37 works) · Positive economics (31 works) · Computer Science (28 works)