Book Cover; Title; Copyright; Contents; Preface and acknowledgements; Introduction; Part I: Rationality in the history of economic thought; 1 Rationality in economics before the Second World War; 2 The hardly consistent story of rationality-consistency; Part II: Objections to the notion of minimal rationality; 3 Can methodological individualism survive?; 4 Is still some room left for irrationality?; 5 Minimal and maximal rationality: Loosely defined concepts?; Part III: But is rationality really necessary in economics?; 6 Why unrealism of assumptions remains a predicament
7 Explaining in the absence of rationalityPart IV: Regarding economic explanations; 8 Rationality and natural selection in economics; 9 Theories of explanation applied to economics; Epilogue; Notes; References; Index
Summary
Analyses the role of rationality in economics focusing on which conditions the rationality assumption makes valuable explanations possible and what kinds of explanation are then involved
