Theoretical contributions of cognitive psychology to build a new scientific economy

Abstract

This theoretical essay aims to review the conceptions of the subject of one of the theoretical political economy systems that have had the greatest influence up to the present. The father of liberalism (Adam Smith) sustained a theory of Cartesian subject (modern), i.e., a true rational and self-conscious sapiens sapiens. Through cognitive psychology, the Nobel Prize in economics Kahneman and Tversky have a new variant of homoeconomicus, enriched with contributions of experimental science, substantially changing that old conception of man as a rational being that marked almost all thought modern. Given these “recent reviews” theoretical-methodological, engendered in the light of the so-called science of the mind, is that it is essential to rethink old notions of subject that it served as the foundation to the economic and political system, mentioned before. To this end, it is proposed to carry out a theoretical-methodological synergy between two scientific disciplines: economics and psychology. This syncretism could provide the basis for a new integrative scientific discipline, which many theorists have called neuro-economics. That is why, in the present work intends to make an informed a criticism based of a current economic theories, with main emphasis on the psychological and anthropological assumptions. Finally, it try to re-think a new model of homo economicus, articulating the main assumptions of the current economy with some of the contributions of cognitive psychology, biology and cognitive neuroscience, which results in a new paradigm called integrative psycho-neuro-economics.

Keywords

• racionalidad
• psicología cognitiva
• adam smith
• daniel kanheman
• amos tversky
• teoría prospectiva.