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Abstract(s)
Gary S. Becker (1930-2014) dedicou toda a sua carreira científica ao aperfeiçoamento de uma teoria da maximização da utilidade que pudesse contemplar mais facetas humanas do que apenas meras manifestações de preferências pontuais, em contextos particulares. A inovação de Becker é a inclusão do factor do tempo no processo de formação de preferências, e é a partir daí que reinterpreta a mesma teoria. Desta forma, o seu entendimento de racionalidade passa pela pertinência da acção como resultado de um acumular de experiências. De acordo com esta ideia de somatório, é possível a predição daquilo que serão as (próximas) futuras escolhas tal como é possível compreender as presentes. O modelo que Becker propõe é bastante certeiro tendo em vista os seus resultados e é fundamentalmente útil para a economia familiar e pública.
As preocupações que Becker levanta e que alicerçam esta dissertação prendem-se 1) com a ambiguidade com que usa a noção de racionalidade, 2) com a aleatoriedade moral e ética que decorre dessa ideia e, finalmente, 3) com a submissão da política a uma lógica económica complexa, autónoma e maior, abrindo um vazio naquilo que se pode pensar do Homem e das suas sociedades.
A partir da obra Accounting for Tastes, abriremos a discussão destes pontos e faremos um caminho que começará na apresentação dos conceitos basilares da obra e que terminará nas conclusões políticas de base moral e ética que retiramos da sua leitura. O nosso objectivo será, assim, explorar a raiz de preocupações filosóficas e políticas maiores, como a Globalização e o homem da era tecnológica ou a falta de uma linguagem política autónoma e emancipada da economia. Pretendemos, então, que se leia Becker com um olhar filosófico e politicamente informado e não com um pendor técnico ou economicista.
Gary S. Becker (1930-2014) devoted his entire scientific career to perfecting a theory of maximizing utility that could contemplate more human facets than just mere manifestations of specific preferences, the result of particular contexts. Becker's innovation is the inclusion of the “time” factor in the process of preference formation, and this is the way how the same theory is reinterpreted. Likewise, his understanding of rationality depends on the relevance of the action as a result of an accumulation of experiences. According to this summation idea, it is possible to predict what the (next) future choices will be, like it is possible to understand the present ones. The model that Becker proposes is quite accurate in view of its results and is fundamentally useful for family and public economics. The worries that Becker raises and which underpin this dissertation are related to 1) the ambiguity with which he uses the notion of rationality, 2) with the moral and ethical randomness that arises from this idea and, finally, 3) with the submission of politics to a complex, autonomous and larger economic logic, opening a void in what can be thought of Man and his societies. Following the book Accounting for Tastes, we open the discussion of these points and make a path that begins in the presentation of the basic concepts of the work and that ends in the political conclusions, morally and ethically based, that we draw from the reading. Our aim will thus be to explore the root of greater philosophical and political concerns, such as Globalization and the Man of the technological era, or the lack of an autonomous and emancipated political language from economics. We intend, then, that Becker is read with a philosophical and politically informed eye and not with a technical or economist bias.
Gary S. Becker (1930-2014) devoted his entire scientific career to perfecting a theory of maximizing utility that could contemplate more human facets than just mere manifestations of specific preferences, the result of particular contexts. Becker's innovation is the inclusion of the “time” factor in the process of preference formation, and this is the way how the same theory is reinterpreted. Likewise, his understanding of rationality depends on the relevance of the action as a result of an accumulation of experiences. According to this summation idea, it is possible to predict what the (next) future choices will be, like it is possible to understand the present ones. The model that Becker proposes is quite accurate in view of its results and is fundamentally useful for family and public economics. The worries that Becker raises and which underpin this dissertation are related to 1) the ambiguity with which he uses the notion of rationality, 2) with the moral and ethical randomness that arises from this idea and, finally, 3) with the submission of politics to a complex, autonomous and larger economic logic, opening a void in what can be thought of Man and his societies. Following the book Accounting for Tastes, we open the discussion of these points and make a path that begins in the presentation of the basic concepts of the work and that ends in the political conclusions, morally and ethically based, that we draw from the reading. Our aim will thus be to explore the root of greater philosophical and political concerns, such as Globalization and the Man of the technological era, or the lack of an autonomous and emancipated political language from economics. We intend, then, that Becker is read with a philosophical and politically informed eye and not with a technical or economist bias.
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Keywords
Gary Becker Racionalidade Moral Política Rationality Morality Politics