“Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Curtain”: A Critique of the Rational Choice Approach to Religion
The rational choice approach to religion (RCAR) applies neoclassical economic principles to religion to create models of religious behavior. It presents both those principles and the resulting models as universal. Most critics of that approach have challenged those models’ empirical predictions. In...
| Главные авторы: | ; |
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| Формат: | Электронный ресурс Статья |
| Язык: | Английский |
| Проверить наличие: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Опубликовано: |
2023
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| В: |
Method & theory in the study of religion
Год: 2023, Том: 35, Выпуск: 2/3, Страницы: 140-173 |
| Нормированные ключевые слова (последовательности): | B
Теория рационального выбора
/ Социология религии
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| Индексация IxTheo: | AD Социология религии NCE Экономическая этика |
| Другие ключевые слова: | B
Theory
B Теория рационального выбора B Economic Theory B sociology of religion |
| Online-ссылка: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Итог: | The rational choice approach to religion (RCAR) applies neoclassical economic principles to religion to create models of religious behavior. It presents both those principles and the resulting models as universal. Most critics of that approach have challenged those models’ empirical predictions. In contrast, this article develops an ‘upstream’ critique of the theory by examining the problems with its chosen approach in economics itself. The history of that discipline shows that the utility-maximizing figure of Homo economicus is a modern construct, as is the notion of a self-correcting free market. Both are contextual and ideological, not universal. Early 20th-century sociologists already provided a comprehensive and radical rebuttal of these ideas – a critique that was a major source of the early sociology of religion. Recent alternative approaches by economists show that neoclassical formalism even fails to account for basic economic phenomena. Models built on this formalism – such as RCAR – thus cannot be naively imported to explain religious action. This does not mean that the sociology of religion should avoid economics tout court. Some non-formalist economic approaches show much more promise. |
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| ISSN: | 1570-0682 |
| Второстепенные работы: | Enthalten in: Method & theory in the study of religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15700682-bja10087 |
