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Issues and dilemmas in cognitive economics

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Connectionist Approaches in Economics and Management Sciences

Part of the book series: Advances in Computational Management Science ((AICM,volume 6))

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Abstract

The cognitive economics, which first made its appearance in the 1960s, now focuses a great deal of economic research resources. It is legitimate to raise questions about the contents and/or timing of the proposal of a cognitive economics research program. In this article, we underline some of the issues at stake in this sort of clarification, focusing specifically on problems pertaining to the speeds at which knowledge or real interactions actually adjust, and to the relevancy of the axioms of the epistemic logic. The dilemmas that we have emphasized here all provide us with an opportunity to highlight a certain number of significant alternatives. Specifically: (i) issues relating to the respective roles of the knowledge economy and of cognitive economics stricto sensu; (ii) the difference between the computable orientation that is involved in standard approaches to economic behaviours, and the connectionist orientation that we illustrate, for example, by the evolutionary conception of the firm; (iii) the problem of the relationship between a cognitive economics research program and one that relates to cognitive sciences. We present an outline of the potential foundations for a cognitive economics research program. This kind of program would manifest itself through potentially divergent schools of thought whose disparities should all be seen as factors of dynamism that could be used to drive research in this area.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MATISSE UMR Paris 1 — C.N.R.S, University Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne I.S.Y.S., 8595, France

    Bernard Paulre

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  1. CREREG CNRS, University of Rennes, France

    Cédric Lesage

  2. SAMOS MATISSE CNRS, University of Paris 1, France

    Marie Cottrell

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Paulre, B. (2003). Issues and dilemmas in cognitive economics. In: Lesage, C., Cottrell, M. (eds) Connectionist Approaches in Economics and Management Sciences. Advances in Computational Management Science, vol 6. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-3722-6_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-3722-6_4

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