Shackle's potential surprise function and the formation of expectations in a monetary economy

摘要

G.L.S. Shackle's potential surprise function attacks the determinism that is central to neoclassical economics. He builds a model of creative individual choice that is nondeterministic and fits well with Keynes 's macroanalysis of monetary economies. Shackle provides a language and a method that allows a translation of originative thoughts into observable actions that can be represented and measured in scalar monetary terms. This provides a bridge between the subjective individual and a nondeterministic macroeconomic outcome. Shackle's method dovetails with a conventional-evolutionistic approach that is able to explain social context and history under conditions of fundamental uncertainty.