Rational Choice Theory, by Phin Upham
an essay by Phin Upham An economic treatment of human behavior generally rests on a structured account of rational choice theory (RCT). Such models often posit utility maximization behavior by all individual agents. In many cases it assumes that all resources can be allocated and evaluated in an orderly way for each individual and that ...
Virtue, the Constitution, and the Common Good, by Phin Upham
Hamilton and Madison believed that wisely crafted institutions can supply what virtue cannot. by Phin Upham James Madison and Alexander Hamilton – founding fathers and the primary authors of the Federalist Papers – shared some basic assumptions about human nature, about the human condition, and about virtue and its unreliability, and these assumptions informed their ...
Laughter and Forgetting, by Phin Upham
Milan Kundera’s The Book of Laughter and Forgetting is told through a series for strange, often surreal, vignette. An exile from Poland, a satellite of the Soviet Union, Kundera hardly ever directly attacks Communism. Instead he subtly shows how human nature is opposed to it, a more powerful condemnation of it than any diatribe would ...
Featured Author of the Month: Phin Upham
Here at The Academic Ledger we like to shine the spotlight on some of the authors we regularly post from to talk about their work in addition to posting their essays. This month’s featured author is Phin Upham. You may have seen some of his articles showcased in the Economics and Philosophy sections of the site ...
Organizational Competence, by Phin Upham
Understanding business is crucial to improving it. How do we study organizations? Phin Upham discusses a seminal work in the field of Strategy Defining and Developing Competence: A Strategic Process Paradigm by McGrath, MacMillan, and Venkataraman attempts to provide a more rigorous level of methodological testability and explication to the antecedents and nature of competence. ...
Leadership Theories of Henry Mintzberg by Phin Upham
Leadership theories in the press often focus on ad hoc discussion such as the charisma or intelligence of the CEO. Phin Upham takes a more rigorous approach and discusses an influential theory by Henry Mintzberg. Henry Mintzberg, in his article Patterns in Strategy Formation, develops a way of looking at strategy that takes serious consideration ...
Is Economics Scientific? Is Science Scientific?, By Phin Upham
written byPhin Upham Abstract: The usefulness of models that describe the world lies in their simplicity relative to what they model. But simplification entails inaccuracy, so models should be treated as provisional. Nancy Cartwright’s account of science as a modeling exercise, in which fundamental laws hold true only in theory—not in reality, given the complexities ...