Identity theories in economics: A Husserlian phenomenological approach

RICARDO F. CRESPO; IVANA ANTON MLINAR

San Sebastián

Congreso; 13th conference of the International Network for Economic Methodology; 2017

International Network for Economic Methodology

The aim ofthis presentation is, first, to review someliterature on identity and economicstrying to ascertain what philosophical conception of identity underlies theseeconomists and philosophers ofeconomics. In the first section, it will analyzethe positions of G.Akerlof and E. Kranton, of A. Sen, of A. Kirman &M.Teschl and of J. Davis. Then, in the second section, we will question whatconditions for a concept of identity economics requires. In the thirdsection,we will present a position that we believe that fulfills theserequirements: a Husserlian phenomenological perspective on identity. In fact,we will argue that economic reality does not call for a specific notion ofhuman agency andidentity, but that it needs a notion of them considering its completenessand unity. The economic agent is not an economic agent but simply a human agentwith its whole identity; an agent that performs, among other humanactions,economic actions, understood in the way that we will explain in section2. We will argue that Edmund Husserl´s conception of identity fits with thiskind of agent. A short conclusion will follow.