Thomas Schelling's collection argues that individuals' behavior is often driven by the strategic consideration of influencing others' expectations. This perspective views the mind as divisible into distinct parts, such as rational versus irrational or present-minded versus future-minded, and is informed by policy concerns like addiction, global warming, segregation, and nuclear war. While accepting core economic assumptions like forward-looking rationality and scarce resources, Schelling is open to modifying these principles and integrating insights from other social sciences.
This collection showcases Schelling's unique viewpoint on human interaction and societal dynamics, revealing his significant contributions as a social scientist. Readers gain insight into how strategic thinking, the internal segmentation of the mind, and policy-oriented analysis shape individual actions and societal patterns.
Key concepts
- Strategic behavior — Behavior motivated by the thought of influencing other people's expectations.
- Separable parts of the mind — The mind viewed as divisible into distinct components, such as rational/irrational or present-minded/future-minded.
- Policy concerns — Behavior and analysis motivated by real-world issues like smoking, addictions, global warming, segregation, and nuclear war.
- Forward-looking rational decision makers — An economic assumption that individuals make choices based on future outcomes and logical evaluation.
- Scarce resources — An economic assumption that the availability of resources is limited, influencing decision-making.
- Incentives — Factors that motivate individuals to act in specific ways, central to economic analysis.
From the book
Description: Schelling--a 2005 Nobel Prize winner-- has been one of the four or five most important social scientists of the past fifty years, and this collection shows why. These essays convey his unique perspective on individuals and society. This perspective has several characteristics: it is strategic in that it assumes that an important part of people's behavior is motivated by the thought of influencing other people's expectations; it views the mind as being separable into two or more parts (rational/irrational; present-minded/future-minded); it is motivated by policy concerns--smoking and other addictions, global warming, segregation, nuclear war; and while it accepts many of the basic assumptions of economics--that people are forward-looking, rational decision makers, that…
Description: All of the essays in this new collection by Thomas Schelling convey his unique perspective on individuals and society. Schelling, a 2005 Nobel Prize winner, has been one of the four or five most important social scientists of the past fifty years, and this collection shows why.
Snippet: All of the essays in this new collection by Thomas Schelling convey his unique perspective on individuals and society.