Understanding Institutions: The Science and Philosophy of Living Together

Amazon.com Price: $34.98 (as of 11/10/2019 07:09 PST- Details)

Description

Understanding Institutions proposes a new unified theory of social institutions that combines the most efficient insights of philosophers and social scientists who have written on this topic. Francesco Guala presents a theory that combines the features of three influential views of institutions: as equilibria of strategic games, as regulative rules, and as constitutive rules.

Guala explains key institutions like money, private property, and marriage, and develops a much-needed unification of equilibrium- and rules-based approaches. Even though he uses game theory concepts, the theory is presented in a simple, clear style that may be accessible to a wide audience of scholars working in different fields. Outlining and discussing quite a lot of implications of the unified theory, Guala addresses venerable issues such as reflexivity, realism, Verstehen, and fallibilism in the social sciences. He also critically analyses the theory of “looping effects” and “interactive kinds” defended by Ian Hacking, and asks if it is imaginable to attract a demarcation between social and natural science the usage of the criteria of causal and ontological dependence. Specializing in current debates about the definition of marriage, Guala shows how these abstract philosophical issues have important practical and political consequences.

Moving beyond specific cases to general models and principles, Understanding Institutions offers new perspectives on what institutions are, how they work, and what they are able to do for us.

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