Utilitarianism and Economic Behavior. Looking for Benthamite Traces

In spite of the use of a utilitarian language in Rational Choice Theory, economists do not acknowledge any link to this current of moral philosophy, and have made great efforts to rid economics from its legacy. In this document we aim at assessing these efforts retracing their history from Pareto to Samuelson in order to determine how close they came to their ideal of formulating a positive science rid of what they called any metaphysical traces.

Keywords: Axiom of Revealed Preferences, Rational Choice Theory, Utilitarianism

JEL Classification: B12, B21, B31

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Hurtado, Jimena and Mick, Johanna, Utilitarianism and Economic Behavior. Looking for Benthamite Traces (October 30, 2011). Documento CEDE No. 2011-44, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2908546 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2908546