CHAPTER SEVENThe economic agent
1. Introduction
In this chapter, we develop the theory of the economic agent. We distinguish between individuals as organisms and agents having agential power in economic and social contexts. This further develops the co-evolutionary approach that we defined in Chapter 4: Biological evolution determines organismic properties of individuals; cultural evolution determines their acquired characteristics. Individual behaviour and choice are the outcome of a complex interaction between those two forces. Our theory aims at overcoming the current conundrum in economics where behavioural economics has definitively challenged the standard view of rational choice, while at the same time, ...
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