Innovation, Human Action and Intentionality: Notes for a Comprehensive Economic Theory

Economic dynamics understood as a process of production of instants of reality allows integrating within the same analytical framework the intentional dimension of action and the evolving nature of the economy. Any consideration of a non-dynamic conceptual framework (in a substantive sense) ends with agents' economic rationality just becoming a mere logical calculation among given alternatives; that is, a conception of economics understood as a technology- of-choice. In this article we integrate intentionality and innovation in an analytical framework that is more comprehensive than the more conventional economic theory. For this purpose we outline a dynamic analytical framework based on a theory of the production- of-action that emphasizes the unique nature of the "choosable". As a result, economic dynamics is the process of generation, selection and interactive deployment of agents' action plans and products (consequences) that result from this social interaction. These products include the novelties or innovations that transform both qualitatively and quantitatively the economic system.