MODELS OF RATIONAL DECISION: FORMAL CRITERIA AND NORMS
MODELS OF RATIONAL DECISION: FORMAL CRITERIA AND NORMS

Summary/Abstract: The present paper discusses the relevance of decision models developed in rational choice theory and game theory for rational decision. We try to analyze the way they can be used for assessing the rationality of decision and point out some difficulties in applying them. These difficulties are linked with specifying certain formal criteria (like completeness, reflexivity,transitivity, continuity), but mostly with the structure of the decision model as such. We outline an approach which balances the role of the formal criteria for assessing the rationality of decision with the role of norms. Norms are understood as requirements of rational adequacy which are open to adjustments. The application of these requirements to specific decision cases is not formalized, and their specification (even if incomplete and subject to further adjustments) can only be made within a specific decision context.

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