Rational choice theory survives only through ad-hoc epicycles that outweigh its rules
Evidence
These theorists have added on so many extra loops to their ideas, they can describe almost anything as a rational, self-interested choice. Medieval scholars tried to preserve the Ptolemaic image of the earth as the center of the universe by adding backwards cycles and loops onto planets’ paths, to ”explain” their anomalous astronomical observations in Ptolemy’s earth-centered terms. Similarly, these scholars can preserve the central conceptual nugget of the self-interested actor only by adding extra cycles and rings onto their theory until the ”exceptions” outweigh the ”rule.” Then, the only problem is that they have a non-social theory of the construction of the individual and of society, surrounded by a sea of exceptions and anomalies. — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 1959
Categorization
- BMF: No direct resonance with the listed library, though it may relate tangentially to the rational-actor critiques threaded through the Midwife’s-Tale-era material in the reader’s notes.
- corroborated: 4 independent passages support this claim — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 1959
- XREF: connects to: Human rationality is bounded by memory and computational limits and often violates rational maxims — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2408
Broader Connections
- Human rationality is bounded by memory and computational limits and often violates rational maxims
#corroborates(0.85) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2408