Paradigms and Conventions

Paradigms and Conventions presents a viable alternative to the standard neoclassical economic approach of a rational maximizing model. Young Back Choi develops the concept of convention and uses it to build our understanding of the working of the market as a social learning process. This approach offers a unique perspective on entrepreneurs and innovators by carefully analyzing the nature of decision making under uncertainty and the problem of modeling it, and then systematically exploring its behavioral implications. Paradigms and Conventions presents propositions and their corollaries logically derived from the principles that human beings must judge situations before they can act; and that when faced with an unfamiliar situation, human beings will endeavor to form a judgment of it. By putting the human mind at the center of the analysis, Professor Choi creates a surprisingly fruitful way of thinking about these issues that promises a new view of decision making. This book offers the stimulus of new ideas and the insights of a new approach that will be attractive to students and faculty in psychology, sociology, anthropology, political science, and philosophy, as well as economics.