Human behavior

J. Viner:

The economist is concerned with human behavior, and with human psychology only in so far as it is necessary for an explanation of human behavior in its economic aspects. In order to learn how men will act in a given situation, or how a change in the situation will modify their behavior, it is surely more practical to observe their behavior than to attempt to discover by introspection or otherwise what they might be supposed to do if actuated by a certain motive operating alone. Both methods are inductive, but the former seems to meet the canons of induction much more satisfactorily than the latter. Even the psychologist as such is beginning to rely less and less upon abstract, speculative propositions, and to explain human psychology by the acts of men under given circumstances rather than by the mental processes behind these acts, which are not subject to inductive examination. The modern trend in psychology is decidedly away from introspection and the attempt to explain behavior by rational motives revealed by introspection. The psychologist looks rather to the systematic observation of behavior as the source of psychological generalizations, and uses the inductive method—experimental only in part—as a means of obtaining his general principles. The part which consciousness plays cannot be so revealed, of course, and here the method of inference from specific observation fails, but the economist as such is concerned only with the external aspects of human psychology, and can well afford to leave the analysis of motives to the speculative psychologist. The bonds which tie political economy to an out-of-date rational hedonistic psychology and its appropriate logical method of investigation are not indissoluble.

A paragraph from "Some Problems of Logical Method in Political Economy", JPE, Vol. 25, No.3, 1917.

Yesterday after the meeting (for discussing Coase's "Nature of Firm"), on the way home, Question ask me why I choose to study economics but not psychology, as I am interested in human behaviour. The answer provided is not satisfactory, and I believe the quotation above is much more better.

p.s. The first half of the article talks extensively about the logical method --- Induction and Deduction, which is one of the many interested topics of my friend, I sent him a copy long ago, don't know whether he has read it, I guess no. If you want a copy in doc form, leave a word.