The Self-Referential Paradox : Transcending the Assumption of Rational Economic Man

As the core paradigm of modern economics, the rational economic man hypothesis has constructed a behavior model oriented towards utility maximization by pushing instrumental rationality to the extreme. However, this hypothesis has triggered a profound self-referential paradox at the philosophical level: when most economists include themselves in the subject category of theoretical presuppositions, their theoretical construction behavior itself becomes an object of utility calculation, which shakes the legitimacy of economics as a "discipline in pursuit of truth". Starting from the split between instrumental rationality and value rationality, this paper reveals the deep mechanism of this paradox by analyzing the logical isomorphism between theoretical subjects and research objects, and explores possible ways to resolve the paradox in the perspectives of phenomenology, hermeneutics and critical theory. The study shows that the essence of the self-referential paradox is the one-dimensional colonization of the human spiritual world by modern instrumental rationality. Only by reconstructing the relationship between theoretical rationality and practical rationality can a more inclusive philosophical foundation be laid for economics.