April 26, 2022 2:00 PM (CDT) → 3:00 PM

‘Rational choice is the sociological theory with the greatest explanatory power.’ Discuss.

“Rational-choice theorists want to explain behavior on the bare assumption that agents are rational. This assumption includes the hypothesis that agents form rational beliefs, including beliefs about the options available to them. There is no need, therefore, to classify the determinants of behavior as either subjective (desires) or objective (opportunities). Rational-choice theory is subjective through and through.” (Elster, 2015)

"An action is rational, in this scheme, if it meets three optimality requirements: the action must be

  1. optimal, given the beliefs;
  2. the beliefs must be as well supported as possible, given the evidence;
  3. and the evidence must result from an optimal investment in information gathering." (Elster, 2015)

“The action, for instance, should be caused by the desires and beliefs that make it a rational one; it is not enough to do the right thing by fluke. Similarly, a belief is not rational if it is the outcome of two oppositely biased processes that exactly cancel each other.”(Elster, 2015)

Desires + Beliefs = Action (affected by Information)

RCT.png

Transitivity

Moreover, preferences have to be transitive. Suppose there are three options A, B, and C. If a person thinks A is at least as good as B and B at least as good as C, she/he should also think A at least as good as C.

Note, preferences do NOT have to be selfish or stable.

Definitions of Rationality

Instrumental Rationality = Means to an end ?!

Max Weber (1978) defines rationality as follows:

"Social action, like all action, may be...: (1) instrumentally rational (zweckrational), that is, determined by expectations as to the behavior of objects in the environment and of other human beings; these expectations are used as "conditions" or "means" for the attainment of the actor's own rationally pursued and calculated ends; ...

(2) value-rational (wertrational), that is, determined by a conscious belief in the value for its own sake of some ethical, aesthetic, religious, or other form of behavior, independently of its prospects of success; ..." [^1]