Rationality and the Ideology of Disconnection

Michael Taylor is a professor of political science at the University of Washington in Seattle. He has previously taught at the University of Essex in England and at Yale University. He was for many years a leading practitioner of Rational Choice theory and published two influential books on cooperation in the absence of centralized coercion: Anarchy and Cooperation (later re-titled as The Possibility of Cooperation, 1987) and Community, Anarchy, and Liberty (1982). He has also published articles in the Journal of Theoretical Politics, Politics and Society, and the Journal of Political Philosophy, among others.

• Part I. Attachments, Reasons, and Desires: 1. Attachments: five stories; 2. Narratives, identities, rationality; Part II. Strokes of Havoc: The Market Ideal and the Disintegration of Lives, Places, and Ecosystems: 3. The market Utopia; 4. Dis-integration; Part III. Living in Unity, Doing your Part: Rationality, Recognition, and Reciprocity: 5. Introduction: doing your part; 6. The rationality of reciprocity; 7. Normativity, recognition, and moral motivation; 8. Citizens and workers: the argument illustrated.

"This passionate book is a powerful conceptual, empirical, and normative critique of Rational Choice theory by a former practitioner." -David A. Welch, University of Toronto, Ethics and International Affairs