Homo Sociologicus: Neither a Rational nor an Irrational Idiot

As the social sciences deal with macrophenomena which are caused by individual human actions, they have to use a theory of human behaviour. They use basically three types of theory: the rational-utilitarian theory, the causalist theory which sees behaviour as caused by social, cultural or biological forces, and the «rational psychology» in Nisbet’s sense. The three theories are important in the sense that they have shown their capacity to explain convincingly puzzling phenomena. Type I and II theories have been claimed to be potentially general. They are not since there are familiar phenomena they are unable to explain. Type III can by contrast be claimed to be general. Amartya Sen has made the point that the rational-utilitarian theory treats human beings as rational idiots. Type II treats them as irrational idiots. These aggressive metaphors draw the attention on the fact that human beings answer the situations they are confronted to by devising systems of arguments which they perceive as strong: by being cognitively rational.