ABSTRACT OF PAPER
Title: Radical Subjectivism and the Theory of Action
Author: YILMAZ FERUDUN
Because rational action theory has placed a determinative and privileged position in economics, neoclassical economics does not concern fundamentally with action theories. By the self-confidence of having a privileged action theory, neoclassical economics has left debates on action theory to sociological theory. Austrian school of economics is arguably the one school of thought in the history of economics that gives a privileged position to debates on the theory of action. Emphasizing fundamentally on subjectivism let Austrian economists to the efforts of developing its own alternative action theory. Inspired by the works of Ludwig M. Lachmann, radical subjectivists aim to provide an alternative subjectivist analysis. Radical subjectivism, as an extension of both traditional Austrian understanding of subjectivism and the limited subjectivism of mainstream economics, is an attempt to present an alternative action model. Lachmann and radical subjectivists do dissent from the traditional Austrian school in that they do not merely intend to develop a narrow and technical definition of economic action, rather they try to put their action theory on dynamic ground that leads to a fundamental transformation of economic theory. When they have tried to develop an alternative action theory that constitutes a different discourse from the traditional debates in both mainstream and traditional Austrian economics, they have intended to cross the terminological boundaries between the social science disciplines in order to apply the various debates on action theory in the different disciplines. The purpose of this paper is to examine radical subjectivists’ action theory in details and explore the promise it holds for avoiding the charges of nihilism. Hans Joas’s concept of creativity of action is proposed as a path out of this charge. The addition of the concept of the creativity of action to radical subjectivists’ conceptual portfolio will enable their theory to overcome the nihilism problem.
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