Formal Rationality and Limited Agents

2019 ◽  
pp. 854-857
Author(s):  
Jonathan King Tash
Keyword(s):  
Formal Rationality

Is There a Future for Bourgeois Liberalism?

2019 ◽  
pp. 109-129
Author(s):  
Robert J. Antonio
Keyword(s):  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Corporate Scandals ◽  
Global Environmental Problems ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Free Market Capitalism ◽  
Formal Rationality ◽  
Bourgeois Culture ◽  
Neoliberal Restructuring

Distinguished by extreme, systematized rationalism, Weber argued, bourgeois culture makes the social world in some ways more predictable and more comfortable but precludes a widely shared good life and social justice. He stressed emphatically that free-market capitalism, by maximizing formal rationality oriented to capital accounting and profitability, produces substantively “irrational” consequences that undermine the sociocultural and material fabric needed to sustain it. More than forty years of neoliberal restructuring, designed to accelerate capital accumulation at almost any cost, has generated massive corporate scandals, extreme economic inequalities, and global environmental problems that threaten its political legitimacy and social and ecological foundations. This chapter explores how Weber anticipated the types of substantive irrationalities suffered by today’s neoliberal regimes.

An Interpretation of Max Weber's Theory of Law: Metaphysics, Economics, and the Iron Cage of Constitutional Law

1991 ◽  
Vol 16 (02) ◽  
pp. 205-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen M. Feldman
Keyword(s):  
Racial Discrimination ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Western Society ◽  
Economic Action ◽  
Iron Cage ◽  
Weberian Theory ◽  
Substantive Rationality ◽  
Formal Rationality ◽  
Theory Of Law ◽  
Constitutional Jurisprudence

Among legal scholars, Anthony T. Kronman and David M. Trubek have provided the leading interpretations of Weber's theory of law. Kronman and Trubek agree on two important points: Weber's theory is fundamentally contradictory, and Weber's theory relates primarily to private law subjects such as contracts. This article contests both of these points. Building on a foundation of Weber's neo-Kantian metaphysics and his sociological categories of economic action, this article shows that Weber's theory of law is not fundamentally inconsistent; rather it explores the inconsistencies that are inherent within Western society itself, including its legal systems. Furthermore, Weber's insights can be applied to modern constitutional jurisprudence. Weberian theory reveals that modern constitutional law is riddled with irreconcilable tensions between process and substance—between formal and substantive rationality. In the context of racial discrimination cases involving equal protection and the Fifteenth Amendment, the Supreme Court's acceptance of John Hart Ely's theory of representation-reinforcement demonstrates the Court's resolute pursuit of formal rationality, which insures that the substantive values and needs of minorities will remain unsatisfied.

The Problems Resolved in a New Account of Reason

2018 ◽  
pp. 75-104
Author(s):  
Barry Hoffmaster ◽  
Cliff Hooker
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Scientific Method ◽  
Critical Appraisal ◽  
Formal Reasoning ◽  
Research Teams ◽  
Human Skill ◽  
Formal Rationality ◽  
Deliberative Processes ◽  
Resolution Processes ◽  
Creative Construction

Deliberative judgment formation is a core human skill largely irreplaceable by rational formalisms. Judgment is rationally learnable and improvable like other skills, and well-designed deliberation is the foundation of non-formal rationality. It includes self-improvement by learning about our own norms and deliberative processes, exemplified in increasingly powerful scientific method, in the spread of institutional ethical resolution processes, and so on. There are four principal resources or means for the improvement of skilled judgment: observation, the use of both formal and non-formal reasoning procedures, constrained but creative construction, and systematic critical appraisal. These four bundles of processes are utilized by both individuals and, typically more powerfully, by communal groupings such as research teams. The bulk of the chapter is devoted to expositions of the four resources of non-formal reason and their strategic deployment in problem solving.

Psychological research on heuristics meets the law

2000 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 747-747 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Engel
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Liability Law ◽  
Full Rationality ◽  
Widespread Belief ◽  
The Law ◽  
Formal Rationality

Heuristics make decisions not only fast and frugally, but often nearly as well as “full” rationality or even better. Using such heuristics should therefore meet health care standards under liability law. But an independent court often has little chance to verify the necessary information. And judgments based on heuristics might appear to have little legitimacy, given the widespread belief in formal rationality.

scholarly journals Anger, Irony, and the Formal Rationality of Professionalism

2010 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 241-248
Author(s):  
Ajay K. Mehrotra
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
World War ◽  
The Past ◽  
Historical Figures ◽  
American Law ◽  
History Of ◽  
Formal Rationality

One of the challenges in writing about the history of American law and political economy is determining the proper amount of historical context necessary to make sense of past institutional and organizational change. Where to begin and end a historical narrative and how much to include about the broader social, cultural, political, and economic conditions of a particular place and time are, of course, questions that accompany any attempt to reconstruct the past. How one addresses these issues invariably shapes the motives and intentions that can be ascribed to historical figures. In their eloquent and thoughtful comments, Christopher Capozzola and Michael Bernstein have urged me to think more carefully about these issues, about where my story begins and ends, about the broader social, political, and material circumstances that animated World War I state-building, and about the seemingly apolitical ideas and actions of the Treasury lawyers who are the center of “Lawyers, Guns, and Public Moneys.”

scholarly journals RESIDENTS’ PERCEPTION TOWARDS GEOHERITAGE CONSERVATION AND TOURISM DEVELOPMENT: EVIDENCE FROM JODHPUR, INDIA

2021 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 1057-1068
Author(s):  
Sandeep Kumar DEY ◽  
◽  
Reshma Sandeep Kumar DEY ◽  
Zuzana TUCKOVA ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Exchange ◽  
Social Exchange Theory ◽  
Tourism Development ◽  
Heritage Conservation ◽  
Malani Igneous Suite ◽  
Old City ◽  
Formal Rationality ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Moderating Role

The Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur, India, located at the height of 150 meters above the surrounding sandy plains, is one of the city's most prominent monuments built over the Jodhpur group-Malani-Igneous Suite. The old city, which boasts numerous blue-painted houses, lies adjacent to the Mehrangarh Fort. The residents of the old city play a significant role in keeping the geoheritage and cultural heritage intact. The study investigates the moderating role of residents’ Perception towards support for Geoheritage Tourism and Conservation in and around Mehrangarh Fort. A combination of Weber’s theory of substantive and formal rationality (WTSFR) and Social Exchange Theory (SET) is used to investigate and infer the interposing and moderating role of residents’ perception on the relationship between influencing factors and support for geo-heritage conservation. A PLS evaluation of the SEM reveals a substantial capacity of the residents’ perception to predict support for conservation and tourism development.

The Relevance of Weber’s Conception and Typology of Herrschaft

2019 ◽  
pp. 236-257
Author(s):  
Stefan Breuer
Keyword(s):  
Max Weber ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
Instrumental Rationality ◽  
Administrative Staff ◽  
Research Fields ◽  
Cultural Research ◽  
Legal Formalism ◽  
Formal Rationality ◽  
The Relationship

Max Weber developed his sociology of domination between 1909 and 1920. This chapter addresses the relationship between domination and power, distinguishing between legitimate and illegitimate domination or authority. Legitimate domination is based upon the three pure types of legal, traditional, and charismatic domination, which appear in combination with different organizational structures. Charismatic domination can assume different forms, from authentic charisma to hereditary and office charisma to an antiauthoritarian variant. Traditional domination encompasses a variety of types, from gerontocracy to diverse forms of patrimonialism and feudalism. The belief in legality, expressed for instance in a bureaucratic administrative staff, is characterized primarily through formal rationality, not purposive or instrumental rationality. Thus, today this last type is affected by tendencies that promote the weakening or even the dissolution of legal formalism. This chapter combines a systematic presentation with the application of the “domination” topic in the different scientific and cultural research fields during the last decades.

The relationship between contract law and property law

2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-55
Author(s):  
Lutz-Christian Wolff
Keyword(s):  
General Property ◽  
Contract Law ◽  
Property Law ◽  
Formal Rationality ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Practical Implications

It is commonly understood that contract law and property law are different areas of law which address different issues. This article departs from this conventional position in a rather radical way by arguing that the conclusion, amendment, and termination of contracts are in fact property law transactions and that the strict divide between contract law and property law is therefore not justifiable. It demonstrates theoretical and practical implications as contract law must be redefined and aligned with the general property law framework to avoid inconsistencies and thus the violation of the notion of formal rationality.

Budgets and Biopolitics

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen J. Collier
Keyword(s):  
Social Welfare ◽  
Capital Markets ◽  
Structural Adjustment ◽  
International Capital ◽  
Government Budget ◽  
International Capital Markets ◽  
Neoliberal Reform ◽  
The Government ◽  
Formal Rationality ◽  
A Site

This chapter focuses on budgetary reform. In debates about neoliberalism and neoliberal reform, the government budget is often viewed as a key locus in which it is possible to observe the absolute antinomy between substantive provisioning and formal rationalization. “Budgetary austerity”—understood as a key component of structural adjustment and, thus, of neoliberal reform—presents an image of social welfare goals sacrificed to demands of scarcity (or the demands of international capital markets). However, seen in a somewhat broader view, it becomes apparent that the government budget—far from being a site in which these two forms of rationalization are opposed—is among the most critical sites in which the tricky relationship between formal rationality and substantive provisioning is constituted as an explicit target of technocratic reflection and management in modern states.

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