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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
(Wp 2021-04) John Tomer's Reconceptualization Of The Concept Of Human Capital, John B. Davis
(Wp 2021-04) John Tomer's Reconceptualization Of The Concept Of Human Capital, John B. Davis
Economics Working Papers
This chapter examines John Tomer’s contributions to our understanding of the concept of human capital. Tomer criticized the standard mainstream view of the concept as narrowly focused on education and training and as seeing investments in human capital as having “an individual, cognitive, and machine-like nature.” A broader concept included attention to the people’s noncognitive development, and employed both social capital and personal capital concepts. This produces a more expansive view of human development, allows for a humanistic psychological perspective, and supports a multi-dimensional, Maslovian understanding of the hierarchy of human needs. Tomer framed his policy thinking regarding investments in …
(Wp 2018-01) Ethics And Economics: A Complex Systems Approach, John B. Davis
(Wp 2018-01) Ethics And Economics: A Complex Systems Approach, John B. Davis
Economics Working Papers
This chapter examines the nature of ethics and economics as a single subject of investigation, and uses a complex systems approach to characterize the nature of that subject. It then distinguishes mainstream economic and social economic visions of it, where the former assumes that market processes encompass social processes, and the latter assumes that market processes are embedded in social processes. For each vision, strong and weak theses are compared. Both visions are first explained in terms of their respective views of the positive-normative distinction, then in terms of a central normative principle, and then in terms of their policy …
The Capabilities Conception Of The Individual, John B. Davis
The Capabilities Conception Of The Individual, John B. Davis
Economics Faculty Research and Publications
This paper advances a capabilities conception of the individual, and considers some of the problems involved in developing such a conception. It also makes claims about the nature of the capability space as a whole, frames personal development in terms of the idea of moving though the capability space, and argues that people are alike in being increasingly heterogeneous. A key problem for a capabilities conception of the individual is that some capabilities, such as belonging to social groups and having social identities, can undermine individuality. The paper discusses an example in which people can have social identities but can …
Identity And Democracy: Linking Individual And Social Reasoning, John B. Davis, Solange Regina Marin
Identity And Democracy: Linking Individual And Social Reasoning, John B. Davis, Solange Regina Marin
Economics Faculty Research and Publications
Following Amartya Sen's approach, John Davis and Solange Regina Marin look at individual and social reasoning when examining the complex relationship between identity and democracy. They characterize democracy as a process of social or public reasoning that combines the individual reasoning of all citizens. Identity is explained in terms of personal identity, social identity, and individual identity. They argue that democracy in combining the individual reasoning of all citizens responds to individuals’ different personal identity concerns and needs, reflects their shared social identity interests and goals, and accords them rights and responsibilities associated with their many different individual identities.
Identity And Commitment: Sen's Conception Of The Individual, John B. Davis
Identity And Commitment: Sen's Conception Of The Individual, John B. Davis
Economics Faculty Research and Publications
This paper develops a conception of personal identity for Amartya Sen’s capability framework that emphasizes his self-scrutinizing aspect of the self and related concept of commitment, and compares this conception to the collective intentionality-based one advanced in Davis (2003c). The paper also distinguishes personal identity and social identity, and contrasts Sen’s framework with recent standard economics’ explanation of social identity in terms of conformity. Sen’s concept of commitment is examined in two formulations, and the later version is related to Bernard Williams’ thinking about identity-conferring commitments. The paper’s concludes by arguing that explaining personal identity as a special capability and …