Stout Cultivating Conscience

How Good Laws Make Good People
Course Book
ISBN: 978-1-4008-3600-0
Verlag: De Gruyter
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 320 Seiten

How the science of unselfish behavior can promote law, order, and prosperity

Contemporary law and public policy often treat human beings as selfish creatures who respond only to punishments and rewards. Yet every day we behave unselfishly—few of us mug the elderly or steal the paper from our neighbor's yard, and many of us go out of our way to help strangers. We nevertheless overlook our own good behavior and fixate on the bad things people do and how we can stop them. In this pathbreaking book, acclaimed law and economics scholar Lynn Stout argues that this focus neglects the crucial role our better impulses could play in society. Rather than lean on the power of greed to shape laws and human behavior, Stout contends that we should rely on the force of conscience.

Stout makes the compelling case that conscience is neither a rare nor quirky phenomenon, but a vital force woven into our daily lives. Drawing from social psychology, behavioral economics, and evolutionary biology, Stout demonstrates how social cues—instructions from authorities, ideas about others' selfishness and unselfishness, and beliefs about benefits to others—have a powerful role in triggering unselfish behavior. Stout illustrates how our legal system can use these social cues to craft better laws that encourage more unselfish, ethical behavior in many realms, including politics and business. Stout also shows how our current emphasis on self-interest and incentives may have contributed to the catastrophic political missteps and financial scandals of recent memory by encouraging corrupt and selfish actions, and undermining society's collective moral compass.

This book proves that if we care about effective laws and civilized society, the powers of conscience are simply too important for us to ignore.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Stout, Lynn

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Regierungspolitik
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Volkswirtschaftslehre Allgemein Wirtschaftstheorie, Wirtschaftsphilosophie
• Rechtswissenschaften Recht, Rechtswissenschaft Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements vii

PART ONE

Chapter 1: Franco's Choice 3

Chapter 2: Holmes' Folly 23

Chapter 3: Blind to Goodness: Why We Don't See

Conscience 45

PART TWO

Chapter 4: Games People Play: Unselfish Prosocial

Behavior in Experimental Gaming 75

Chapter 5: The Jekyll/Hyde Syndrome: A Three-Factor

Social Model of Unselfish Prosocial Behavior 94

Chapter 6: Origins 122

PART THREE

Chapter 7: My Brother's Keeper: The Role of

Unselfishness in Tort Law 151

Chapter 8: Picking Prosocial Partners: The Story of

Relational Contract 175

Chapter 9: Crime, Punishment, and Community 200

PART FOUR

Conclusion Chariots of the Sun 233

Notes 255

Works Cited 281

Index 299

Über Autor(innen)

Lynn Stout is the Paul Hastings Professor of Corporate and Securities Law at the UCLA School of Law. She is the coauthor of several books and a frequent commentator for NPR, PBS, and the Wall Street Journal.