Since I missed marking the birth of Simon on the 15th, here’s a belated posting of an obituary by his student Edward A. Feigenbaum. (I’m pleased to report that my co-edited project with Roger Frantz commemorating the centenary of HS’s birth is coming together very nicely. HS’s daughter has been incredibly responsive towards the project). Herbert…
The Italian Cultural Institute of New York The International Herbert A. Simon Society The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America cordially invite you to the 1st Conference Herbert Simon Society BOUNDED RATIONALITY UPDATED New York (USA), April 8th-10th 2013 8th-9th April Italian Cultural Institute 686 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10065 10th April The…
Minds, Models and Milieux: Commemorating the Centenary of Herbert Simon’s Birth Edited by Roger Frantz (San Diego State University) and Leslie Marsh (University of British Columbia) Call for Papers Herbert Simon (June 15, 1916 – February 9, 2001) was a polymath of the highest order, making significant contributions to sociology, political science, behavioral economics, epistemology, cognitive…
Here is a draft of a co-authored entry for Real World Decision Making: An Encyclopedia of Behavioral Economics. Morris Altman, editor. Santa Barbara: Praeger. Behavioral economicsBounded Rationalitycognitive closuredistributed cognitiondistributed knowledgeExternalismFrederick Winslow TaylorHerbert SimonLuther GulickLyndall Urwickrationalismrationalitysatisficingsituated cognitionStigmergyTuring
Many of you who follow this website will know of my enthusiasm for Herbert Simon. Here is an unusual portrait of Simon painted by the very distinguished Richard Rappaport (wikipedia entry) that I chanced upon and for good measure, I include a link to Simon’s last interview. Artificial intelligenceBehavioral economicsBounded RationalityHerbert SimonRichard Rappaportsocial epistemologySocial SciencesSociology
Marge and my intro now available as an uncorrected proof. Stay tuned for the rest of the papers comprising this special issue. According to Andy Clark “[M]uch of what goes on in the complex world of humans, may thus, somewhat surprisingly, be understood in terms of so-called stigmergic algorithms” (Clark, 1996, p. 279; 1997, p. 186).…
Simon died this day in 2001. Check out these two books – Models of a Man (as with most edited books this is uneven, but there is still much to recommend it) and Herbert A. Simon: The Bounds of Reason in Modern America, an excellent intellectual biography. Speaking of Simon, I have a paper coming out entitled…
Daniel Kahneman’s recently released book Thinking, Fast and Slow aimed at a popular audience is certainly generating a great deal of press, so far as I can tell, most of it very positive. Here he is outlining his experimental work in a Ted Talk. As a behavioral economist much of what he says about rationality will have…
Check out this recent paper by Herb Gintis entitled Hayek’s “Contribution to a Reconstruction of Economic Theory.” Herb’s paper is, I think, going to be part of an edited collection that I’m also contributing to and am still polishing up. I had the pleasure of meeting Herb just over a year ago at the Society for…
On hearing that Simon’s “thinking machine” computer program Logic Theorist not only validated Russell and Whitehead’s axioms and theorems (but even proved one more elegantly), Russell replied: “I am delighted to know that Principia Mathematica can now be done by machinery. I [only] wish Whitehead and I had known of this possibility before we both…
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