George Eliot and Rational Economic Agents

Conventional economists analyze human behavior by assuming a “rational economic agent†who is motivated solely by material self interest. This assumption has come to permeate our analyses of economic situations and policies, yet it is clearly limited, simplifying, and not capable of explaining the full range of human behavior. In this essay the writings of George Eliot are discussed as commentaries on this assumption and the implicit deductive methodology underlying it, and as explorations toward the possibility of a broader conceptual framework for analyzing economic issues. The paper argues that Eliot was knowledgeable about economic discourse and was consciously wrestling with the rational agent assumption and possible alternatives in her fictional as well as nonfictional work. Her writings suggest ambivalence toward the deductive/maximizing framework and the search for broader conceptualizations of human behavior.