Ideas for 5 August 2012

The concept of "economic man" - a hypothetical rational person with complete knowledge who acts entirely out of self-interest - is one of the foundations of conventional economic thinking. Ideas talks to two thinkers, from two very different disciplines, who take issue with not only the notion of economic man but many of the assumptions of conventional economics: William Cavanaugh, a professor of theology at DePaul University in Chicago and the author of 'Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire'; and Morris Altman, a professor of economics at Victoria University and the author of 'Behavioral Economics for Dummies'.