Explaining Social Behavior

More Nuts and Bolts for the Social Sciences

Bibliographic Data

ID23253162
AuthorsJon Elster (0000-0002-9543-1780, Collège de France, corresponding author)
Year2015
Publication date2015-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueExplaining Social Behavior (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherCambridge University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1017/cbo9781107763111
OpenAlexW4241267247
ISBN9781107763111
Open LibraryOL34560129M
LanguageEN
Citations received80

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.

Action (physics) · belief and desire · Choice · Emotions · Epistemology · Group Decision Making · Marcel Proust · mental states · Moral psychology · Rational choice theory · Social behavior · Social interaction · Sociology · strategic behavior · Critical Realism in Sociology · Economic Theory and Institutions · Philosophy · Philosophy and History of Science · Psychology · Social Psychology