| Economists "Irrational Passion for Dispassionate Rationality" | p. 1 |
| The Axioms of Rationality | p. 5 |
| The Rationale for Given Wants | p. 8 |
| The Equally of Rational and Maximizing Behavior | p. 12 |
| Rational Deductions and Predictions | p. 15 |
| Perfections in the Analysis of Scarcity | p. 16 |
| Concluding Comments | p. 19 |
| The Methodological Constraints on the Rationality Premise | p. 21 |
| The Constraints of Model Building and Hypothesis Testing on the Conception of Rationality | p. 21 |
| Theory of Knowledge and Rationality | p. 24 |
| Rationality as a Foundation for Process and Institution Analysis | p. 29 |
| Concluding Comments | p. 31 |
| Human Motivation and Adam Smith's "Invisible Hands" | p. 35 |
| Smith's Invisible Hand of Markets | p. 36 |
| Smith's Invisible Hand of Morality | p. 37 |
| Laudable Principles of Action | p. 38 |
| The Economic Role of the "Impartial Spectator" | p. 42 |
| Smith's "Logic of Collective Action" | p. 42 |
| Smith's Sense of Balance in Behavioral Motivations | p. 45 |
| Smith's Modern Market Deductions | p. 46 |
| Smith's Political Economy | p. 48 |
| Smith's Expansive Political Economy | p. 50 |
| Smith's Supply-Side Economics | p. 50 |
| Smith's Fiscal Federalism | p. 53 |
| Smith's Organizational Economics | p. 54 |
| Smith on Education | p. 56 |
| Concluding Comments | p. 59 |
| Rationality in Economic Thought: From Thomas Robert Malthus to Alfred Marshall and Philip Wicksteed | p. 63 |
| Malthusian Constraints on "Rational Beings" | p. 64 |
| Ricardo's Methodological Shift Toward Formalized Political Economy | p. 69 |
| Twixt Adam Smith and Alfred Marshall and the Marginal Revolution | p. 74 |
| Alfred Marshall and the Return of Varied Motivations | p. 76 |
| Philip Wicksteed's Unification of Personal and Business Decision Making | p. 82 |
| Concluding Commenls | p. 89 |
| Rationality in Economic Thought: Frank Knight, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, and James Buchanan | p. 93 |
| Frank Knight and the Limits of Economic Science | p. 94 |
| Ludwig von Mises' Hostility Toward Positivism | p. 100 |
| Friedrich Hayek's Concern Over the Nature of The Economic Problem | p. 106 |
| James Buchanan, Rational Behavior, and Constitutional Economics | p. 110 |
| Concluding Comments | p. 111 |
| Behavioral Economists, and Psychologists' Challenges to Rational Behavior | p. 113 |
| The Overall Dimensions of the Behavioral Challenge | p. 113 |
| Prospect Theory | p. 118 |
| Dominance and Invariance | p. 122 |
| Mental Accounting | p. 124 |
| Endowment Effect | p. 126 |
| Acquisition and Transaction Utility | p. 128 |
| The Matter of Sunk Costs | p. 129 |
| Behavioral Finance | p. 131 |
| Concluding Comments | p. 139 |
| The Evolutionary Biology of Rational Behavior | p. 141 |
| Fitness, Variation, and Evolution | p. 144 |
| Natural and Sexual Selection | p. 147 |
| Growth Spurt in the Human Brain Size | p. 148 |
| The Pleistocene-Conditioned Human Brain | p. 149 |
| Pleistocene-Conditioned Preferences for Sugar | p. 150 |
| Hard-Wired Mating Choices and Labor-Market Realities | p. 151 |
| De Gustibus Non Est Disputandum, Perhaps at Some Level | p. 154 |
| Evolution as the "Great Economizer" | p. 155 |
| The Unnatural Economic Way of Thinking | p. 160 |
| Evolutionary Conditioning and the Findings of Behavioral Economists | p. 160 |
| Rationality and Economic Education | p. 163 |
| Concluding Comments | p. 170 |
| The Neuroeconomics of Rational Decision Making | p. 175 |
| Rationality and the Construction of the Human Brain | p. 179 |
| The Human Brain's Economic Problem | p. 184 |
| Economically Rational Rationality | p. 190 |
| Market Prices and Rationality | p. 192 |
| The Chemistry of Neural Gains and Pains | p. 194 |
| Rationality and Research Findings | p. 196 |
| Concluding Comments | p. 200 |
| Economic Defenses for Rational Behavior in Economics | p. 203 |
| Economics as a Partial View of Life | p. 204 |
| Buchanan and Brennan's Defense of the Perfect Rationality Premise | p. 205 |
| Friedman's Defense of the Perfect Rationality Premise | p. 208 |
| Tools of Analysis | p. 209 |
| Economics in Economic Theory | p. 210 |
| The Importance of Predictions | p. 211 |
| Theoretical Premises vs. Predictions | p. 216 |
| The Importance of Market Pressures | p. 218 |
| Potential Concessions to Behavioralisis | p. 219 |
| Behavioralists' Caricatures of Friedman's Position | p. 220 |
| The Economics of Empirical Tests | p. 222 |
| Concluding Comments | p. 223 |
| Problems with Behavioral Economics | p. 227 |
| The Perfect Rationality Caricature | p. 227 |
| Reliance on Constrained Laboratory Studies | p. 232 |
| The Human Brain's Internal Inclination to Correct Errant Decisions | p. 234 |
| Ecologically Adaptive Environments | p. 236 |
| Subjects' Overall Rationality | p. 237 |
| Experiment I | p. 240 |
| Experiment II | p. 240 |
| Errant Decisions, Entrepreneurs, and Market Pressures | p. 241 |
| The Rational Emergence of Choice Option | p. 245 |
| The Irony of Nudges | p. 246 |
| From Nudges to Mandates: The Slippery Slope | p. 255 |
| The Bailout Bubble | p. 257 |
| Concluding Comments | p. 259 |
| Rationality and Economic Education | p. 265 |
| The Economic Rationality of General Education | p. 268 |
| Rationality and Economic Education | p. 270 |
| Competitive Market Pressures and the Perfect Rationality Premise | p. 273 |
| Variable Rationality and Efficiency | p. 275 |
| Concluding Comment | p. 279 |
| Bibliography | p. 283 |
| Index | p. 299 |
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