Jon Elster
Norwegian philosopher and social theorist known for contributions to rational choice theory, the methodology of the social sciences, and theories of action; author of works such as Ulysses and the Sirens, Sour Grapes, Explaining Social Behavior, and Making Sense of Marx.
Books
This list of books are ONLY the books that have been ranked on the lists that are aggregated on this site. This is not a comprehensive list of all books by this author.
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1. Ulysses And The Sirens
Studies in Rationality and Irrationality
A provocative collection of analytic essays that uses tools from economics, philosophy, and game theory to explain behaviors often labeled irrational—weakness of will, addiction, emotion-driven choices, self-deception—showing how they can arise from strategic considerations, preference formation, and constraints on choice. Centering on the motif of binding oneself to avoid temptation, it explores precommitment devices, mechanisms of self-control, and the interface between internal psychological forces and external incentives, arguing that many apparent failures of reason are systematic and intelligible within a refined rational-choice framework.
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2. Sour Grapes
Studies in the Subversion of Rationality
An analytic exploration of how human reasoning and choice are systematically distorted by emotions, self-deception, and strategic behavior, examining mechanisms such as akrasia, rationalization, wishful thinking, and adaptive preference formation that lead people to reshape their desires to fit outcomes; drawing on psychology, economics, and philosophy, it challenges the orthodox model of stable, coherent preferences and considers how both individual strategies and institutional designs can mitigate or exploit these subversions of rationality.
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