Product Details
Knowledge And Decisions

Knowledge And Decisions
By Thomas Sowell

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Product Description

With a new preface by the author, this reissue of Thomas Sowell’s classic study of decision making updates his seminal work in the context of The Vision of the Annointed, Sowell, one of America’s 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 making—a gap that threatens not only our economic and political efficiency, but our very freedom because actual knowledge gets replaced by assumptions based on an abstract and elitist social vision f 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 Sowell, whose ”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, [his] work goes deeper and becomes even more significant.”

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #180567 in Books
  • Published on: 1996-10-03
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 448 pages

Editorial Reviews

About the Author
Thomas Sowell has taught economics at a number of colleges and universities, including Cornell, University of California Los Angeles, and Amherst. He has published both scholarly and popular articles and books on economics, and is currently a scholar in residence at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.

Customer Reviews

one of my top 10 all-time books5
this book was well written and clearly thought out. A wonderful explanation of economic priciples in an interesting format

Thought provoking5
I ordered this along with several other books, and was pleased to find it both well written, and offering some thought provoking insights into its subject matter. Well worth the read.

Pseudo-academic polemics1
I can't fault a book for having an opinion. I can fault it for disguising a dogmatic political agenda as serious intellectual analysis. Some people may be deceived because the tone is so boring, they may think the discussion is dry, dispassionate and sincere. The major premise of the book, that knowledge has a cost, is uncontroversial. Sowell then elaborates his opinions, but the connection to the theme is frequently tenuous and seldom considers counterarguments (unless Sowell has a counter-counterargument neatly prepared.)

He does have a justification for every viewpoint, but many arguments are weak. On the whole, it reads as a compilation of his opinions, supporting the Republicans at every turn, without regard to his supposed premises.

If you're interested in an 800 page debate handbook rambling over every subject, (say you're Rush Limbaugh or are running for Congress), this book provides intelligent-sounding arguments. To anybody else, it shows the value of paid ideologues to trick the masses into thinking that the elite know something. They don't want you to slog through this intimidatingly tedious book, just to believe in it. There's no need.