Veranstaltungsinformation

Dozierender: Prof. Dr. Martin Kolmar
Sprache: Englisch
Stufe: Master
Umfang: 2 SWS
Credits: 4 ECTS

Inhalt

The purpose of this course is to better understand how humans make decisions. Decision theory is at the heart of modern economics, political science, and business administration, and it is therefore of uttermost importance to understand how human beings make decisions and how these decisions are related to their wellbeing.

Traditionally, Economics has a very pragmatic approach to explaining individual decisions: the homo‑oeconomicus model of preference maximization and instrumental rationality. We will therefore discuss the model in the first part of the course and relate it to “Behavioral Economics”, a subfield of economics that challenges some of the assumptions of the homo‑oeconomicus model. We will take the history‑of‑science perspective to better understand how economics evolved and how the mainstream view relates to the social sciences and epistemic and ontological positions on scientific research.

In the second part of the course we take a different perspective. From an evolutionary perspective, decisions are an organisms’ way to guarantee its survival and procreation, and the basic challenge is to adapt into an environment in a functional way. Humans have different adaption mechanisms, and it the purpose of this part of the course to understand their functioning the implications of this complex mechanism for decision‑making and subjective wellbeing. In order to do so we discuss material from evolutionary biology, affective and cognitive neuroscience, affective psychology, narrative psychology, and artificial intelligence.

In the third part of the course we try to reconcile the picture that we have developed in the second part with standard economics and behavioral economics views on decisions.

Having identified the similarities and differences between the two different views we discuss implications for promoting wellbeing, the view on the state and economic policy.

Aufbau/Struktur

I. Homo Oeconomicus

   I.1. Anybody home? Revealed preferences and mindless economics

   I.2. Rational‑choice theories of decision‑making

   I.3. Behavioral Economics

   I.4. From the bird’s‑eye view: Skinner’s doves, subjectivism, and positivism in the social sciences of the 20. century

II. Humans as multi‑layered adaption mechanisms

   II.1. Ultimate and proximate causes and the homunculus fallacy

   II.2. Genetic and epigenetic adaption

   II.3. Affective calibration

   II.4. Consciousness, learning, and the narrative self

   II.5. The predictive‑brain hypothesis

III. Towards a unified theory of decision making and wellbeing?

IV. Implications for economics

  IV.1. Some remarks on normative criteria

  IV.2. Mismatch Theories of environment and adaption

  IV.3. Hooked? Persuasive technologies

  IV.4. Machiavelli versus Aristotle: competing visions of the good state

The course will take place on a weekly basis. During the first half of the semester we will discuss key concepts and theories, whereas the second half of the semester is devoted to the discussion of more specific topics in the form of term papers and presentations. The idea is to have a relatively open format that allows for open discussions and creativity.

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