TITLE:
Rationality and Institutions
AUTHORS:
Jan-Erik Lane
KEYWORDS:
Intentionality, Causality, Bounded Rationality, Collective Rationality, Institutions
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Philosophy,
Vol.11 No.4,
November
22,
2021
ABSTRACT: It is now commonplace
to renounce rational action in the social sciences. It is claimed that
rationality as the maximization of self-interest is impossible as well as that
it is unethical. Yet rational choice remains a most important paradigm for
understanding human behaviour. D. Kahneman has contributed to the analysis of
human action criticizing the
two endpoints, namely perfect individual rationality on the one hand and group
or collective decision making on the other hand. The first suffers from bias and the second from noise. Thus, there is somewhat of a contradiction
here somewhere, as group rationality could not cancel out individual
deficiencies.