Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Chris Dillow — On expressive rationality


What is "rationality"? Are there boundaries demarcating rationality and differentiating cognitive bias?

Problems arise owing to the entanglement of the existential and essential, structural and function, static and dynamic, as well as of the cognitive, volitional, and affective, as psychological aspects of being human. 

It's called "the human condition." Assuming that humans are perfectly "rational," or even that they can be perfectly rational, is contradicted by both experience and psychology.

Humans are not only bounded rationally but also cognitively, and humans are also differentiated by different types of thinking and feeling. 

The assumption of a homogenous "rational agent" is more restrictive than the reality. This doesn't mean that it is useless for modeling. Just that such models are limited and extending them beyond the scope of the assumptions leads to over-generalization.

Stumbling and Mumbling
On expressive rationality
Chris Dillow | Investors Chronicle

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

'Rationality' is the attempt to use intellect to discriminate between what is real and what is not:

1) - so all we have to do is figure out what is reality
2) - which is confrontational because 'thinking' about it doesn't get you anywhere

So, life remains a mystery and human behaviour has only the context we imagine; ergo 'Galaxy Song' at the end of Monty Python ...

I mean, an economic system based on a 'rational actor', money as merely a veil, the system tending always to some definition of equilibrium (that has more revisions than the King James version of the Bible) .... laughter rings amongst the stars!