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Summary Elster - The Nature and Scope of Rational Choice Explanation
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- Oxford University (OX)
Notes on Elster's 'The Nature and Scope of Rational Choice Explanation'
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Jon Elster - The Nature and Scope of Rational-Choice Explanation● What is intentionality?
○ establishes behaviour as action and the performer as an agent
○ relation between behaviour (B), a set of cognitions (C), and a set of
desires (D)
○ the desires and beliefs must be reasons for the behaviour, so
■ Given C, B is the best means to realize D
● insufficient for ‘the occurrence of the
behaviour for which they are reasons’ because B could be recognized as
the best means yet be very difficult/impossible in the particular
circumstances. Also the same behaviour - B - may occur for reasons
other than C and D
■ C and D caused B
● this is also insufficient because the same
causes C and D could produce quite different behaviour. In other words,
C and D could act as a cause, but not qua reason
■ C and D caused B qua reasons - sufficient
● ‘When the desire of the rifleman causes
him to miss the target, we point to something like psychological
turbulence or emotional excitement, not the strength of the desire’
○ the emotional halo that
surrounds the reason (strength of desire) is irrelevant for its
efficacy qua reason, but may affect its efficacy qua nonrational
cause
○ in other words,
emotions such as the one above can form causes in intentional
explanations, but they will be nonrational causes
● Rational-choice explanation goes beyond intentionality
○ to be rational, behaviour must stem from desires and beliefs (C and D)
that are in some sense rational
○ we need a stronger relation between the beliefs and desires and the action
○ minimally, we require that
■ The set of beliefs C is internally consistent
■ The set of desires D is internally consistent
● for a belief in an outcome to be
consistent, there must be a possible world in which it is feasible (i.e. it is
a logical possibility)
● actions may be guided by inconsistent
desires or beliefs
○ we may of course demand more from rationality than consistency - we
may want the belief (C) to be well grounded. So, three conditions are to be satisfied
■ The belief - C - must be the best belief, given the
available evidence
● presupposes strong rule of inductive
inference
■ The belief must be caused by the available evidence
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