The Human Condition

"Be a philosopher; but, amidst all your philosophy, be still a man" -David Hume

I read this quote today and it really set itself apart against the verbose rhetoric normally employed by Hume, and not just because it was one of the few sentences where I knew what every word meant without having to consult a dictionary. It is plain, simple, and overwhelmingly obvious. He goes on to say, "Indulge your passion for science...but let your science be human, and such as may have a direct reference to action and society". We too often rely on abstract models and charts and numbers and historical references; We forget the humanity. As an aspiring economist, this quote strikes very close to home. We often learn to use models to study humans. But humans are more than just supply and demand. We have become so detached from this idea that we have diminished men to mere mathematical points on a plane. We have alienated ourselves from our own actuality. You are no longer another person. You are a number, a statistic, a consumer, a produce, a means or an end, maybe both, a visitor to my web-blog (who am I kidding, these people don't exist). We have formed these identities, or perhaps we just formed into these identities, and have forgotten what it is that science or economics or philosophy is really trying to explain - the human condition: the how, why, and where the hell did we come from and what are we supposed to be doing. When we being to stray from the idea that the only real worthwhile field of study is the human existence, and that all else is really secondary, we lose the only real motivation for undertaking any sort of study.

This is perhaps why I am fascinated by the field of behavioral economics. I struggled with many of the basic assumptions of neo-classical economics - i.e. the unbounded rationality of humans, the insatiable self-interest (I'm clinging to the hope that not all behavior is motivated by pure greed. You can call me a dreamer...). I felt that they didn't factor in limitations that do affect real choices and outcomes - framing, bounded rationality (this one should have been pretty obvious. What rational person could think that unbounded rationality exists?), biases, and certain anchoring and depreciating affects. For me, these seemed so obvious. I don't think about marginal benefits or marginal costs when making my decisions. I wouldn't consider myself irrational (I got into college!). Shoot, if I see a commercial for a good looking ice cream cone, that might convince me to go buy it. Who cares if I even wanted an ice cream cone before hand. Who cares if I even like ice cream? Marketing can work wonders, and it surely has on me - although directly in violation of what neo-classical theory says should happen. Alright, I think I've ranted enough for one night.