Market Hegemony and Economic Theory

In: Philosophy of the social sciences: an international journal = Philosophie des sciences sociales, Volume 38, Issue 4, p. 513-532

Abstract

It is central to standard economic theory that people act on their interests. People are interested in a variety of things, so a range of values should influence market behavior. When engaged in commerce, however, people generally act for personal gain; the influence of other values usually just disappears in the marketplace. What is missing from the standard account is that people often act on proper subsets of their interests. Economics can, however, be extended to capture this insight.