Ulisses liberto ou Prometeu acorrentado? Virtudes e limites da explicaÃÃo da aÃÃo na obra de Jon Elster

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2003

RESUMO

This study aims to investigate the extent to which the explanation of social action proposed by Jon Elster may be considered useful for the social sciences. In the first part of the thesis an attempt is made to show how Elsterâs theory of action, originally bound up with the idea that rationality is the principal motor of action, gradually comes to incorporate social norms and emotions as relevant motivational factors. Subsequently the thesis explores how the Norwegian sociologistâs theory of action dovetails with the methodological underpinnings of the kind of social explanation he defends. The following elements are identified: a) a form of methodological individualism linked to an attempt to reduce the sum of social phenomena to the individual level; b) the intentional-causal mode of explanation, by way of which Elster seeks to make the intentional dimension of action compatible with its causal elements, while, at the same time, rejecting the validity of functional explanation in the social sciences; and c) the focus on mechanisms, by way of which, it is argued, social explanation should not be conceived in terms of general laws or regularities understood as laws, but as mechanisms that avoid âblack boxâ type explanations, and, thereby, reveal the âinternal logicâ of action. In the second part of the thesis, this mode of explanation proposed by Elster is questioned, on account of the true extent of its reductive capacity â coming up, as it does, against ontological and semantic obstacles â and of its elimination of explanations that are not susceptible to reduction. The intentional-causal dimension of explanation is also subjected to criticism, in so far as this sets up an excessively rigid distinction between intentional and causal processes, thereby compromising the very autonomous nature of human action that Elster claims to espouse. Finally the focus on mechanisms is also called into question. It is concluded that, in spite of the originality and rigour of this explanation of action compared with others in the various fields of the contemporary human sciences, the way Elsterâs project articulates normative with explicatory elements can be shown to be flawed

ASSUNTO(S)

aÃÃo na obra prometeu sociologia jon elster ulisses

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