CUESTIONES ÉTICAS Y EMOCIONALES ALREDEDOR DEL EGOÍSMO ECONÓMICO

Abstract

RESUMEN El autointeres constituye el principal postulado de la teoria economica ortodoxa. Se trata de una perspectiva que ancla sus raices en el egoismo psicologico del siglo XVII, que se abre paso en el pensamiento economico a traves de los trabajos de autores como Bernard Mandeville y Joseph Butler durante el siglo XVIII, y que encuentra su lugar en la ciencia economica con la revolucion marginalista y la posterior emergencia de la escuela neoclasica a lo largo de la segunda mitad del siglo XIX. Sin embargo, la teoria de juegos, en su version tradicional, evolutiva y neuronal, lleva decadas mostrando una realidad comportamental del agente economico motivacionalmente heterogenea y moralmente comprometida. Por ello, el objetivo del presente estudio sera doble. Por un lado, mostrar como nace, concreta y desarrolla la perspectiva egoista para la economia, y, por otro, dilucidar cual es la perspectiva comportamental que subyace de los ultimos estudios neuroeconomicos. ETHICAL AND EMOTIONAL QUESTIONS ON ECONOMIC EGOISM ABSTRACT Self-interest is the main postulate of the orthodox economic theory. It is a perspective that takes root in the psychological egoism of the 17th century, which opens out to economic thought through the works of authors like Bernard Mandeville and Joseph Butler in the 18th century, and which has found its place in economic science with the marginalist revolution and the subsequent appearance of the Neoclassic School in the second half of the 19th century. Nonetheless, in its traditional evolutionary and neuronal version, the Game Theory has spent decades showing a completely different behavioural reality of the economic agent: One that is motivationally heterogeneous and morally compromised. Therefore, the objective of the present study is twofold: on the one hand, to show how the egoistic perspective for economy comes about, is specified and develops; on the other hand, elucidate the behavioural perspective that underlies the latest neuroeconomic studies.