Chapter 1.
Pro-social behaviour under the neoclassical research program and the process of social change
Although it is hard to doubt the existence and the role of social norms in social reality, their nature is hardly compatible with the underlying principles of the orthodox economic framework. The present essay highlights incompatibility between the endogenous nature of social norms and the reductionist approach featured by the neoclassical economic framework. The chapter begins with identifying the prominent features of the neoclassical research program, which serves as a standard set of principles adopted in orthodox economic analysis. The second section presents the overview of the most famous and influential works analysing pro-social behaviour under the orthodox framework. The third section discusses the principles of ecological rationality and social heuristics as the alternative to the model of pro-social behaviour based on the social preferences construct. The fourth section discusses the notion of endogenous preferences together with the process of their development and calibration. The fifth section examines the compatibility of the reductionist analysis and endogenous social norms. Finally, the last section concludes and explores the implications of methodological individualism in assessing social dynamics.
1.1. What is the neoclassical research program? As Hayek (1945) emphasizes, the modern mainstream economic approach is the direct descendant of the French Enlightenment philosophical ideas. The superiority of Reason is one of the critical features of Cartesian philosophy. The fundamental belief in the supremacy of conscious analysis accompanied by the assumption about the possibility of such analysis has, to a great extent, shaped the modern orthodox (or the neoclassical) school of economic thought. It should be admitted that nowadays, both the terms mentioned above are used in a schizophrenic and inconsistent way, as Colander (2000, p. 132) mentions. Therefore, discussing the characteristics of the neoclassical (or orthodox) framework is believed to serve as a crucial part of the present discussion. Colander (2000) names six critical features of neoclassical economics, namely, focusing on the efficient allocation of resources in a given moment; putting utilitarian and consequential approach in the central place; focusing on the marginal trade-offs; farsighted rationality
