Vittoriano
CYCLE: Reasons and Passions. From Classical Greece to Neuroscience
SPEAKER: Giacomo Sillari
DATE: Thursday 1 December, 6 pm
The traditional view of the homo oeconomicus dominated classical economics, portraying humans as perfectly rational agents capable of making optimal decisions based on a rigorous analysis of alternatives. However, this conception ignores the passions, cognitive limits, and contextual influences that characterize human behavior. Through the lens of bounded rationality, introduced by Herbert Simon, and the discoveries of neuroscience, a more complex and realistic picture emerges: decisions are often the result of heuristics, emotions, and cognitive biases.
The tension between reason and passion, between rationality and its limits, opens up scenarios rich in both opportunities and risks. On one hand, tools like nudging offer the possibility of improving individual and collective decisions in crucial areas such as health, savings, and sustainability. On the other hand, threats emerge, such as digital manipulations fueled by big data, capable of exploiting individuals' cognitive vulnerabilities, often at the expense of their well-being or even their health. At the same time, new, unexplored territories are emerging, where nudging, bounded rationality, and artificial intelligence intertwine in ways that are both promising and threatening. Recent studies, for example, highlight how AI systems can be more persuasive than humans.
This dialogue between reason and passion not only enriches our understanding of the human being but also poses new ethical challenges in designing policies and interventions for a more just and aware society.
