Logic and Society
Contradictions and Possible Worlds

Jon Elster

University of Oslo

JOHN WILEY & SONS

Chichester • New York • Brisbane • Toronto

1978

Introduction: Logic and Society [excerpt]	1
Notes	9

1. Formal Logic—An Informal Exposition	10
Appendix: Relational logic and social relations	20
Notes	25

2. Possibilistic Reasoning in the Social Sciences	28
Social mobility	28
Finite-state grammars	30
Kinship systems and structuralist thought	33
The evaluation of real national income	35
Endogenous change of tastes	39
Appendix: An impossibility result for context-free grammars	42
Notes	44

3. Political Possibility	48
Notes	63

4. Contradictions of the Mind	65
Hegel’s theory of contradictions	67
Contradictory desires: master and slave	70
Contradictory desires: the economics of irrationality	77
Contradictory beliefs: Hintikka	81
Contradictory beliefs: Festinger	86
Notes	90

5. Contradictions of Society	96
The fallacy of composition	97
Counterfinality	106
Suboptimality	122
A dual theory of social change	134
Appendix 1: Sorne notions and problems in game theory	150
Appendix 2: Causality and intentionality: three models of man	157
Notes	163

6. Counterfactuals and the New Economic History	175
Three chapters from the history of the notion	176
The problem of historical counterfactuals	181
Imperialism and colonialism	192
Optimism and pessimism	196
The Navigation Acts	201
Railroads and American economic growth	204
American slaves and their history	208
Notes	218

References	221

Index	233

SOURCE: Elster, Jon. Logic and Society: Contradictions and Possible Worlds. Chichester; New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1978. viii, 235 pp.

Note: Elster deploys quantified modal logic to model contradictions formalizing what is allegedly useful in dialectics and engages counterfactuals in historical analysis, an unusual and noteworthy approach to contradiction, from the standpoint of analytical Marxism. — RD

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Note & links added 21 Dec 2025