Tekijä: | Viskovatoff, A. |
Otsikko: | Rationality as optimal choice versus rationality as valid inference |
Lehti: | Journal of Economic Methodology
2001 : JUN, VOL. 8:2, p. 313-338 |
Asiasana: | RATIONALITY CHOICE THEORY ECONOMICS |
Kieli: | eng |
Tiivistelmä: | Hume's belief that people cannot determine their preferences by reasoning led to the notion of rationality based on representation: people are rational when they are able to represent their preferences vividly, accurately gauging their intensity. Starting with Kant, philosophy moved to an understanding of rationality as valid inference; cognitive psychologists similarly speak of the superiority of the 'reason-based' model of choice over the economic 'value-based' one. Economics stayed with Hume's conception because the latter enabled the mathematical expression of a relation between scarcities. If it is to produce empirically adequate theories however, economics must follow the examples of philosophy and psychology. |
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