On the Rationality of Observed Saving
Author: Betsy Buttrill White
Publisher:
Published: 1976
Total Pages: 312
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKPosts
Time Biases
Author: Meghan Sullivan
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2018
Total Pages: 208
ISBN-13: 0198812841
DOWNLOAD EBOOKShould you care less about your distant future? What about events in your life that have already happened? How should the passage of time affect your planning and assessment of your life? Most of us think it is irrational to ignore the future but completely harmless to dismiss the past. But this book argues that rationality requires temporal neutrality: if you are rational you don't engage in any kind of temporal discounting. The book draws on puzzles about real-life planning to build the case for temporal neutrality. How much should you save for retirement? Does it make sense to cryogenically freeze your brain after death? How much should you ask to be compensated for a past injury? Will climate change make your life meaningless? Meghan Sullivan considers what it is for you to be a person extended over time, how time affects our ability to care about ourselves, and all of the ways that our emotions might bias our rational planning. Drawing substantially from work in social psychology, economics and the history of philosophy, the book offers a systematic new theory of rational planning.
Rationality and Freedom
Author: Amartya Sen
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 2004-03-30
Total Pages: 756
ISBN-13: 9780674013513
DOWNLOAD EBOOKRationality and freedom are among the most profound and contentious concepts in philosophy and the social sciences. In this, the first of two volumes, Amartya Sen brings clarity and insight to these difficult issues.
Debating Rationality
Author: Jennifer J. Halpern
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Published: 2018-10-18
Total Pages: 296
ISBN-13: 1501725475
DOWNLOAD EBOOKDecision makers strive to be rational. Traditionally, rational decisions maximize an appropriate return. The contributors to this book challenge the common assumption that good decisions must be rational in this economic sense. They emphasize that the decision-making process is influenced by social, organizational, and psychological considerations as well as by economic concerns. Relationships, time pressure, external demands for specific types of performance, contractual expectations, human biases, and reactions to unfair treatment alter the decision-making context and the resulting decision outcomes.
Social Structures, Aging, and Self-Regulation in the Elderly
Author: K. Warner Schaie, PhD
Publisher: Springer Publishing Company
Published: 2006-07-06
Total Pages: 258
ISBN-13: 9780826124128
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis collection considers ways in which societal contexts influence aging by influencing self-regulatory processes. No one doubts that the social contexts in which individuals develop exert strong influence on life trajectories. Those born into environments that provide high quality education, supportive social relations, and economic assets do better in old age than those born into environments bereft of such resources. The extent of this influence, however, is only beginning to be revealed. Recent research shows that life experiences influence basic brain structures (e.g. the effect of musical training on neural organization) and functions (e.g. inflammatory processes), and that social embeddedness may even protect against Alzheimer's disease. Similarly, education increasingly appears to have a "real" effect on neural integrity. Thus, societal contexts may not simply open or close doors for individuals, but may influence self-regulatory processes at the most basic levels of functioning. Although social structures are generally seen as the independent variables that affect individual aging, it is also possible to think of a lifetime development of self-regulatory processes leading to behaviors in old age that can have impact on and modify societal structures. Two parts of this book consider self-regulation as the dependent variable, asking how social contexts influence cognitive, emotional, and self-regulatory processes. The third part reverses the question, treating self-regulation as the independent variable and retirement and physical health as dependent variables. In this part, consideration is given to how the effectiveness of self-regulation influences physical and economic outcomes in old age.
How Biology Shapes Philosophy
Author: David Livingstone Smith
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2017
Total Pages: 367
ISBN-13: 1107055830
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA collection of original essays by major thinkers, addressing how the biological sciences inform and inspire philosophical research.
Rationality and Commitment
Author: Fabienne Peter
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 2007-12-13
Total Pages: 390
ISBN-13: 0199287260
DOWNLOAD EBOOKList of Figures, Schemata, and Tables p. vii List of Contributors p. ix Acknowledgments p. xii Introduction p. 1 Rational Fools, Rational Commitments Fabienne Peter and Hans Bernhard Schmid p. 3 Part I Committed Action p. 15 1 Why Exactly is Commitment Important for Rationality? Amartya Sen p. 17 2 Construing Sen on Commitment Philip Pettit p. 28 3 Sympathy, Commitment, and Preference Daniel M. Hausman p. 49 Part II Rethinking Rationality p. 71 4 Instrumental Rationality versus Practical Reason: Desires, Ends, and Commitment Herlinde Pauer-Studer p. 73 5 The Grammar of Rationality Geoffrey Brennan p. 105 6 The Rationality of Rational Fools: The Role of Commitments, Persons, and Agents in Rational Choice Modelling Werner Guth and Hartmut Kliemt p. 124 7 Rational Self-Commitment Bruno Verbeek p. 150 8 Rationality and Commitment in Voluntary Cooperation: Insights from Experimental Economics Simon Gachter and Christian Thoni p. 175 Part III Commitment, Intentions, and Identity p. 209 9 Beyond Self-Goal Choice: Amartya Sen's Analysis of the Structure of Commitment and the Role of Shared Desires Hans Bernhard Schmid p. 211 10 Cooperation and the We-Perspective Raimo Tuomela p. 227 11 Collective Intentions, Commitment, and Collective Action Problems Margaret Gilbert p. 258 12 Theories of Team Agency Natalie Gold and Robert Sugden p. 280 13 Identity and Commitment: Sen's Fourth Aspects of the Self John B. Davis p. 313 Comment p. 337 Rational Choice: Discipline, Brand Name, and Substance Amartya Sen p. 339 Index.
Autonomy, Rationality, and Contemporary Bioethics
Author: Jonathan Pugh
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2020
Total Pages: 298
ISBN-13: 0198858582
DOWNLOAD EBOOKPersonal autonomy is often lauded as a key value in contemporary Western bioethics, and the claim that there is an important relationship between autonomy and rationality is often treated as an uncontroversial claim in this sphere. Yet, there is also considerable disagreement about how we should cash out the relationship between rationality and autonomy. In particular, it is unclear whether a rationalist view of autonomy can be compatible with legal judgments that enshrine a patient's right to refuse medical treatment, regardless of whether ". . . the reasons for making the choice are rational, irrational, unknown or even non-existent". In this book, I bring recent philosophical work on the nature of rationality to bear on the question of how we should understand autonomy in contemporary bioethics. In doing so, I develop a new framework for thinking about the concept, one that is grounded in an understanding of the different roles that rational beliefs and rational desires have to play in personal autonomy. Furthermore, the account outlined here allows for a deeper understanding of different form of controlling influence, and the relationship between our freedom to act, and our capacity to decide autonomously. I contrast my rationalist with other prominent accounts of autonomy in bioethics, and outline the revisionary implications it has for various practical questions in bioethics in which autonomy is a salient concern, including questions about the nature of informed consent and decision-making capacity.
The Limits of Rationality
Author: Karen Schweers Cook
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2008-10-03
Total Pages: 436
ISBN-13: 0226742415
DOWNLOAD EBOOKPrevailing economic theory presumes that agents act rationally when they make decisions, striving to maximize the efficient use of their resources. Psychology has repeatedly challenged the rational choice paradigm with persuasive evidence that people do not always make the optimal choice. Yet the paradigm has proven so successful a predictor that its use continues to flourish, fueled by debate across the social sciences over why it works so well. Intended to introduce novices to rational choice theory, this accessible, interdisciplinary book collects writings by leading researchers. The Limits of Rationality illuminates the rational choice paradigm of social and political behavior itself, identifies its limitations, clarifies the nature of current controversies, and offers suggestions for improving current models. In the first section of the book, contributors consider the theoretical foundations of rational choice. Models of rational choice play an important role in providing a standard of human action and the bases for constitutional design, but do they also succeed as explanatory models of behavior? Do empirical failures of these explanatory models constitute a telling condemnation of rational choice theory or do they open new avenues of investigation and theorizing? Emphasizing analyses of norms and institutions, the second and third sections of the book investigate areas in which rational choice theory might be extended in order to provide better models. The contributors evaluate the adequacy of analyses based on neoclassical economics, the potential contributions of game theory and cognitive science, and the consequences for the basic framework when unequal bargaining power and hierarchy are introduced.
Economic Theory and the Roman Monetary Economy
Author: Colin P. Elliott
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2020-02-20
Total Pages: 225
ISBN-13: 1108418600
DOWNLOAD EBOOKReconceptualizes economic theory as a tool for understanding the Roman monetary system and its social and cultural contexts.
