ABSTRACT
One of the key aspects of an economics of science has been a conception of economic rationality. Chapters 2 through 4 were concerned with different aspects of the rational choices typically made by individual scientists. In those chapters, a mechanical optimizing conception of rationality was applied to the choices available to the scientist. However, in Chapters 6 through 9, the complexities of science as an evolutionary social process and the pervasiveness of market failure in the marketplace of ideas essentially suggested a more complicated view of rationality. Rational choice in science is much richer than the traditional optimizing approach to rationality in conventional neoclassical economic analysis. The broader, more complex activities of science require an evofutionary perspective that could imply the need for a processive, evolutionary conception of economic rationality. An evolutionary conception of rationality, whether in science or in economics, could show that logical, mechanical notions of rationality are special cases of something more general.’
