The Situational Character: A Critical Realist Perspective on the Human Animal
HEADNOTE
the "situational character. " This is a key installment of a larger project recently introduced in an article titled The Situation: An Introduction to the Situational Character, Critical Realism, Power Economics, and Deep Capture.1 That introductory article adumbrated, often in broad stroke, the central premises and some basic conclusions of a new approach to legal theory and policy analysis. This Article provides a more complete version of one of those central premises by elucidating a more realistic conception of the human animal than is currently embraced in legal theory. The Article begins with a short introduction to the larger project, and describes the central place that a realist conception of the human actor plays in that project. It then explores several bodies of literature within the fields of social, cognitive, behavioral, and neural psychology in pursuit of a vision of the human actor that is grounded in social science. Having explicated that conception, the Article then outlines some of the basic implications of it for law, legal theory, and social policy. It then analyzes conventional legal scholars', particularly legal economists ', arguments for ignoring the lessons of social science in their treatment of human agency. As part of that analysis, this Article describes why recent efforts to incorporate some psychological findings-the sort of work that is often labeled "behavioralist"-have been inadequate. Finally, the authors briefly look beyond the human actor itself to consider some of the fairly obvious-but generally ignored-realities of our present social situation, and some of their implications for common policy presumptions.
This Article is dedicated to retiring the now-dominant "rational actor" model of human agency, together with its numerous "dispositionist" cohorts, and replacing them with a new conception of human agency that the authors call
In addition, make sure to read these articles:
- Piling on problems: how federal policies affect state fiscal conditions.
- Fiscal Requirements for Price Stability.
- Support for rapid-growth firms: a comparison of the views of founders, government...
- Seafood goes home
- Toward a model for relating executive career experiences and firm performance.
- Building Knowledge Structures in Teaching Cross-cultural Sales Genres.
- Field of schemes.
- GOES HOME
- Nepotism, discrimination, and the persistence of utility-maximizing, owner-operated firms:...
- PricewaterhouseCoopers: Balancing Act (No. 2 in the Training Top 125)
- The Social Cost of Labor
- The power of empowered teams.
- Over the line?
- Part 6: Things That Go Bump in the Night
- Transition on the Spot: Historicity, Social Structure, and Institutional Change.
INTRODUCTION Most states and many local governments are struggling through a deep and prolonged fiscal crisis, during which revenues are declining or growing only slowly....
Maintaining price stability requires not only commitment to an appropriate monetary policy rule, but an appropriate fiscal policy rule as well. Ricardian equivalence does not ......
The paper contrasts the perspectives of firm owners, government policy advisers, and external resource providers on how rapid-growth firms should be supported. Qualitative data were ......
HEADNOTE SEAFOOD HEADNOTE In a slowing economy and uncertain times, retail frozen seafood sales are picking up. The notion that bad, even terrible things can ......
Within certain constraints, it is widely accepted that decision makers have significant influence on a firm's performance (Astley and Van de Ven, 1983). According to ......
Approaching genres as knowledge structures provides a useful theoretical basis for teaching students to communicate across cultures. The approach is based on the concept of ......
Inspired by the movie, "Field of Dreams," my friend set out building his organizational game plan, but as time went on it all came apart....
The notion that bad, even terrible things can lead to business upswings for some industries is far from new. And recent events—and more importantly, their ......
1. Introduction and Conclusions In a recent thoughtful paper in this Journal, Singell and Thornton (1997) (hereafter ST) deviate from the traditional literature on discrimination ......
Hard work and opportunities for growth are givens at New York-based accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), but so is help maintaining balance. The company's learning team ......
Social Costs and the Economics of Cost Shifting For a profit-maximizing firm pursuing a reduction in its costs, it is equally "efficient" to (1) develop ......
The secret of registering major new gains in servicing productivity may lie in moving to an empowered team approach. One thrift that tried the approach ......
The negative impact of customer lines at teller windows is obvious. But obvious things can be deceptive. Unless you know the ways in which lines ......
HEADNOTE A seven-part series to improve your organization's problem-solving efforts As the first five articles in this series have pointed out, it is possible for ......
SILKE R. STAHL-ROLF [*] Why do some countries in transition perform quite well while others still struggle with institutional reform, experiencing economic hardship and political ......
Email
Digg It
del.icio.us
Related Resources
Press Releases
- Carmencita Whonder Joins Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck's Government Relations Team.
- New Hoover Essay in Public Policy: War and Lack of Governance in Colombia: Narcos, Guerrillas, and U.S. Policy By Edgardo Buscaglia and William Ratliff.
- Breakthrough MOD Platform Ignites Interest in Home Entertainment Industry; China Government Policy Organizations, China Technology, Broadband Companies Support Revolutionary 2nd Generation PC, Global Media-On-Demand...
Business Resources
Sponsored Links
Site Map | Contact Us | FAQs | About Us | Media Kit | Reprints | RSS Directory | Sign Up for Free Newsletters | Disclosure Policy
Copyright © 1999 - 2008 AllBusiness.com, Inc. All rights reserved.
No part of this content or the data or information included therein may be reproduced,
republished or redistributed without the prior written consent of AllBusiness.com.
Use of this site is governed by our Copyright and Intellectual Property Policy, Terms of Use Agreement and Privacy Policy.
© Copyright Georgetown University Law Center Nov 2004
Provided by ProQuest, LLC. All rights Reserved.
You may not repost, republish, reproduce, package and/or redistribute the content of this page,
in whole or in part, without the written permission of the copyright holder.
Provided by ProQuest, LLC. All rights Reserved.
You may not repost, republish, reproduce, package and/or redistribute the content of this page,
in whole or in part, without the written permission of the copyright holder.
Get In-Depth Company Information from Hoover's | Buy a D&B Credit Report | What is in Your Company's D&B Credit Report? | Article Archives
Online Business Database | Online Business Information | Email Marketing Lists | Sales and Marketing Solutions | Business Mailing Lists
Online Business Database | Online Business Information | Email Marketing Lists | Sales and Marketing Solutions | Business Mailing Lists
Information and opinions on AllBusiness.com solely represent the thoughts and opinions of the authors and are not endorsed by, or reflect the beliefs of,
AllBusiness.com, its parent company D&B, and its affiliates.
AllBusiness.com, its parent company D&B, and its affiliates.
