Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Part I Introduction
- Part II Cognition and emotion
- 3 The costs of rationality
- 4 Affect, cognition, and well-being in a market economy
- 5 Money and cognitive complexity
- 6 Money symbolism and economic rationality
- 7 Economic and cognitive development in a market society
- 8 Environmental complexity and cognitive complexity
- Part III Self-attribution and self-esteem
- Part IV Human relations
- Part V Work
- Part VI Rewards
- Part VII Utility and happiness
- Part VIII Conclusion
- Author index
- Subject index
5 - Money and cognitive complexity
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Part I Introduction
- Part II Cognition and emotion
- 3 The costs of rationality
- 4 Affect, cognition, and well-being in a market economy
- 5 Money and cognitive complexity
- 6 Money symbolism and economic rationality
- 7 Economic and cognitive development in a market society
- 8 Environmental complexity and cognitive complexity
- Part III Self-attribution and self-esteem
- Part IV Human relations
- Part V Work
- Part VI Rewards
- Part VII Utility and happiness
- Part VIII Conclusion
- Author index
- Subject index
Summary
And Mony (of what manner soever syned by the Sovereign of a Common-wealth) is a sufficient measure of the valuye of all things else [beyond gold and silver], between the Subjects of that Common-wealth. … In so far as this Concoction is, as it were, the Sanguinifcation of the Common-wealth; for naturall Bloud is in like manner made of the fruits of the earth; and circulating, nourisheth, by the way, every Member of the Bod of Man.
Thomas Hobbes, LeviathanIn this chapter and the next I will focus on money. There are sound economic and psychological reasons for this focus. The economic reason for this attention to money, which Schumpeter said was “exalted” by the capitalist system, is that money is the medium for executing the market's central function: coordinating economic activity. The very concept of a self-regulating market requires monetary feedback, and the market's network of transactions depends upon the information that money prices provide. The coordinating function of the market would not work without it. But it is the cognitive function that is of concern here.
Whereas the concept of cognitive development employed in the previous chapters means the growing capacities of the mind to cope with increasingly complex events, cognitive facilitation means the removal of concepts or circumstances that inhibit such development and the use of conceptual technology that permits people to think more clearly about their problems. Money may contribute to cognitive development; I think it does, but it is primarily an instrument of cognitive facilitation, a tool for thinking, and, as we shall see, money may also be a fetter that constrains clear thinking.
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- Information
- The Market Experience , pp. 79 - 95Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991