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Some Wittgensteinian Reservationas About Neuroeconomics, Greg Hill
Some Wittgensteinian Reservationas About Neuroeconomics, Greg Hill
Greg Hill
Abstract: In Economic Theory and Cognitive Science, Don Ross proposes a radical reconstruction of neoclassical economics, retaining its rational-choice framework while substituting neural networks and other “mechanisms” for people as the prototypical decision-making agents. This essay describes some of the difficulties that arise when concepts belonging to what Wittgenstein called the human “form of life” are invoked to explain the behavior of such sub-personal “agents” as parts of the brain. The result is a misbegotten conception of “agency” and a “cyborg economics” the subject matter of which bears little relation to what economists and ordinary people mean by “making a …