Agents In Mainstream Economic Theory: An Analytical Inquiry

Various paradigms in mainstream economic theory (MET) appear to have conceptualized an internalist, individualist and abstract notion of the agency/subjectivity/individuality. If MET makes the individual central to its analysis, criterion of identity and individuation must be applied to examine whether MET constructs an adequate and a substantive notion of the individual. Following Cartesian-Newtonian dualism of subjective inwardness-objective world and Smithian notion of a self-interested individual, cardinal utility approach of neo-classical economics constructs the individual as a utility maximizer involving means-ends rationality. Ordinal utility approach constructs a preference-based idea of the individual. Later developments in MET construct various notions of the individual such as an expected utility maximizer with mathematical and formal specification, an individual with bounded rationality and an individual as a bearer of strategies. MET also gives analytical primacy to the individual and uses ontological and methodological individualism (MI) as the explanatory strategies implying unidirectional causality, determinism and reductionism. The abstract notion of the individual that evolved in MET cannot differentiate between a single individual agent and a multi-individual agent. MET, which makes the individual central to its analysis and uses MI as an explanatory strategy, lacks any adequate conception of the individual and fails to adopt any substantive notion of the individual.