Knowledge and Decisions, Thomas Sowell
Knowledge and Decisions, Thomas Sowell
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Knowledge and Decisions

Author: Thomas Sowell

Narrator: Robertson Dean

Unabridged: 16 hr 38 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/20/2012


Synopsis

This reissue of Thomas Sowells classic study of decision making, which includes a preface by the author, updates his seminal work in the context ofThe Vision of the Anointed. Sowell, one of Americas most celebrated public intellectuals, describes in concrete detail how knowledge is shared and disseminated throughout modern society. He warns that society suffers from an ever-widening gap between firsthand knowledge and decision makinga gap that threatens not only our economic and political efficiency but our very freedom. This is because actual knowledge is being replaced by assumptions based on an abstract and elitist social vision of what ought to be. Knowledge and Decisions, a winner of the 1980 Law and Economics Center Prize, was heralded as a landmark work and selected for this prize because of its cogent contribution to our understanding of the differences between the market process and the process of government. In announcing the award, the center acclaimed that the contribution to our understanding of the process of regulation alone would make the book important, but in reemphasizing the diversity and efficiency that the market makes possible, [this] work goes deeper and becomes even more significant.

About Thomas Sowell

Thomas Sowell has taught economics at Cornell, UCLA, Amherst, and other academic institutions, and his Basic Economics has been translated into six languages. He is currently a scholar in residence at the Hoover Institution, at Stanford University. He has been published in both academic journals and such popular media as the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Fortune and writes a syndicated column that appears in newspapers across the country.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Otto on November 04, 2021

Out of all of Sowell's books, this might be his masterpiece. It provides one of the clearest articulations of the epistemic dimension of economic and political decision-making according to the best available neoclassical economic analysis. It is written in some of the best prose ever presented in th......more

Goodreads review by Ari on February 01, 2021

Knowledge and Decision is a bit hard to categorize. It's about decision making, asymmetric information, incentives, and public policy. It's also, sneakily, an introduction to economics and economic thinking. It's the sort of book that makes economics look like a fun and interesting topic, as well as......more

Goodreads review by Josiah on March 14, 2022

A great followup to Basic Economics, Knowledge and Decisions is a beautiful blend of straight data and research, and Sowell's insightful social and political philosophy. It was one of the more intellectually challenging of Sowell's books, but I was in no way short of passages to underline. Brilliant......more

Goodreads review by Matt on January 05, 2022

A remarkable book about the ways in which various economic, social, and political institutions facilitate or hinder the transmission and use of knowledge in society. I approached this book thinking it would simply be an elaboration on Friedrich Hayek's famous essay, "The Use of Knowledge in Society.......more

Goodreads review by Sean Rosenthal on December 13, 2015

Interesting Quotes: "What then is the intellectual advantage of civilization over primitive savagery? It is not necessarily that each civilized man has more knowledge but that he *requires* far *less.* A primitive savage must be able to produce a wide variety of goods and services for himself, and a......more