Complexity, Value, and the Psychological Postulates of Economics

In: Critical review: an interdisciplinary journal of politics and society, Band 10, Heft 4, S. 551-594

Abstract

Considers whether the contemporary built environment -- the ensemble of our humanly created surroundings -- makes us happy. This question prompts a consideration of the psychological dimensions of economic value, & of Tibor Scitovsky's revisions of standard economic theory in his The Joyless Economy: An Inquiry into Human Satisfaction and Consumer Dissatisfaction (1976). With Scitovsky as a starting point, a model of value based on modern complexity theory & a Maslow-like rendition of human needs can account for some of the more important exceptions to the law of diminished marginal utility, including those that may undermine the built environment in a market economy. 11 Figures, 26 References. Adapted from the source document.