Rational choice theory

Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics, 2013

The purpose of this methodological note is to illustrate how Rational Choice Theory (RCT) is a powerful tool for understanding many social scientific problems. I begin by outlining what I perceive to be the best and most basic understanding of RCT, while also attempting to clarify several erroneous interpretations of what the approach entails. In the second section, I take a closer look at the explanatory logic that RCT engages in and provide a number of brief examples to demonstrate its analytic power. In the third section, I advocate the value of combining RCT forms of ‘micro-explanations’ with alternative explanations premised upon what might be called ‘holistic’ or ‘structuralist’ forms of reasoning. To illustrate, I identify several Marxist and ‘functionally-orientated’ explanations that are, taken in isolation, unsatisfactory.

Analyse & Kritik

The increasingly wide spread use of RCM, rational choice modeling, and RCT, rational choice theory, in disciplines like economics, law, ethics, psychology, sociology, political science, management facilitates interdisciplinary exchange. This is a great achievement. Yet it nurtures the hope that a unified account of rational (inter-)active choice making might arise from ‘reason’ in (a priori) terms of intuitively appealing axioms. Such ‘rationalist’ characterizations of rational choice neglect real human practices and empirical accounts of those practices. This is theoretically misleading and practically dangerous. Searching for a wide reflective equilibrium, WRE, on RCT in evidence-oriented ways can explicate ‘rational’ without rationalism.

Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics, 2013

The rational choice approach, despite widespread criticism, has reached a point of unrivaled prominence among general theoretical approaches for explaining human action. This prominence extends across the entire range of social sciences. In economics, rational choice remains unchallenged as the dominant, if not defining, theoretical paradigm, and is sometimes referred to simply as the "economic approach ." 1 In political science, largely under auspices of the public choice school, the rational choice approach has grown to the point where it has more adherents than any other, and its threatened dominance has set off an intense debate that has polarized the discipline. 2 In psychology, rational choice can claim close ties to a wide variety of theories located under the broad rubric of expectancy-value analysis. 3 Furthermore, the rapidly-growing subfield of decision theory, while often rejecting the economist's optimizing version of rational choice, uses it as the standard against which to compare its own bounded rational choice models. 4 In sociology, rational choice has risen from obscurity to become a major theoretical approach in both Europe and the United States, benefiting from the strong support of some the most prominent names in the discipline. 5 While anthropology is less interested than other social science disciplines in grand theories, rational choice has nonetheless been at the center of perhaps the main ongoing theoretical debate in cultural and social anthropology, that over whether interpretation of unfamiliar cultural practices should always proceed on the assumption that participants in such practices are rational. 6 Furthermore, it could

Authoritative rational choice theorists continue to argue that wide variants of rational choice theory should be regarded as the best starting-point to formulate theoretical hypotheses on the micro foundations of complex macro-level social dynamics. Building on recent writings on neo-classical rational choice theory, on behavioral economics and on cognitive psychology, the present article challenges this view and argues that: (1) neo-classical rational choice theory is an astonishingly malleable and powerful analytical device whose descriptive accuracy is nevertheless limited to a very specific class of choice settings; (2) the 'wide' sociological rational choice theory does not add anything original to the neo-classical framework on a conceptual level and it is also methodologically weaker; (3) at least four alternative action-oriented approaches that reject portrayal of actors as computational devices operating over probability distributions can be used to design sociological explanations that are descriptively accurate at the micro level. Résumé Des théoriciens éminents du choix rationnel continuent de considérer la théorie de la rationalité élargie comme le meilleur point de départ pour la formulation d'hypothèses théoriques sur les fondements microscopiques de dynamiques macroscopiques complexes. Sur la base d'écrits récents sur la théorie néo-classique du choix rationnel ainsi que de travaux en économie comportementale et en psychologie cognitive, cet article conteste le bien-fondé de ce point de vue et tâche de défendre les trois arguments suivants: (1) la théorie néo-classique du

This study reviewed the origin of the rational choice theory and how it came to be adopted as one of the major approaches or paradigms of analysis in the political science sub-field of contemporary political analysis, its basic hypothesis, underlying assumptions, and criticisms of the theory as well as application areas outside the western milieu context. The study adopted the qualitative approach to research, and referenced scholarly text books, articles, journals and monographs in the areas under investigation. The theory arguably, begins, from the viewpoint of the individual, as against viewing various individuals interacting and relating together, social situations, or groups. The emphasis on the individual interest has always been the starting point of the theory, even though some scholars have argued to the contrary. Despite the steps involved in reaching rational decisions, choices and decisions are made simply by 'muddling through', as long as the decision made would likely lead to the perceived best possible outcome. Individuals hardly follow the steps provided in the rational model to reach decisions that they regard as rational. Rationality hence is a subjective phenomenon, since an individual from time to time can be both rational and irrational in reaching decisions.

Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics, 2012

(Witten), and a fellow at the Max-Planck-Institute for the History of Science (Berlin). Her thesis is on the history and philosophical foundations of rational choice theory. At the time of this interview, she was a visiting scholar at the

2003

The value of rational choice theory for the social sciences has been long debated. Such rational choice theory involves a theory of behaviour based on the assumption that individuals are acting, or acting as if, to maximise their utility. The critique developed here focuses on the universality and unfalsifiability of the rational choice approach. In principle it can be adapted to fit any form of behaviour, including the behaviour of non-human organisms. Rational choice theory has the character of a universal 'explanation' that can be made to 'fit' any set of events. This is a sign of weakness rather than strength. Powerful explanations in the social sciences must focus on the particularities of the human and modern condition. A theory that brings in those particularities as an afterthought will fail to capture their importance. It is shown that key concepts such as culture and learning fall into this category. The problem with rational choice theory is that, in its excessive quest for generality, it fails to focus on the historically and geographically specific features of the socioeconomic systems. As long as social theory is confined to generalities, then it will remain highly limited in dealing with any specific world, including the one in which we live.

Political Studies Review, 2018

Rationality is an enduring topic of interest across the disciplines and has become even more so, given the current crises that are unfolding in our society. The four books reviewed here, which are written by academics working in economics, political science, political theory and philosophy, provide an interdisciplinary engagement with the idea of rationality and the way it has shaped the institutional frameworks and global political economy of our time. Rational choice theory has certainly proved to be a useful analytic tool in certain contexts, and instrumental reason has been a key tenet of human progress in several periods of history, including the industrial revolution and the modernity that emerged in the nineteenth century. Given the complexity of our current challenges, however, is it time to ask whether this paradigm might be better complemented by more holistic and heterodox approaches? Hindmoor A and Taylor TY (2015) Rational Choice (Political Analysis), 2nd edn. London; N...