Rationality, Markets and Morals

Studies at the Intersection of Philosophy and Economics

 

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Rationality, Markets, and Morals: RMM Band 0 (2009)

Why Bayesian Rationality Is Empty, Perfect Rationality Doesn’t Exist, Ecological Rationality Is Too Simple, and Critical Rationality Does the Job

  • Max Albert
Eco­no­mists cla­im that prin­ci­ples of ratio­na­li­ty are nor­ma­ti­ve prin­ci­ples. Nevert­hel­ess, they go on to explain why it is in a person’s own inte­rest to be ratio­nal. If this were true, being ratio­nal its­elf would be a means to an end, and ratio­na­li­ty could be inter­pre­ted in a non-nor­ma­ti­ve or natu­ra­li­stic way. The alter­na­ti­ve is not attrac­ti­ve: if the only argu­ment in favor of prin­ci­ples of ratio­na­li­ty were their intrin­sic appeal, a com­mit­ment to ratio­na­li­ty would be irra­tio­nal, making the noti­on of ratio­na­li­ty self-defea­ting. A com­pre­hen­si­ve con­cep­ti­on of ratio­na­li­ty should recom­mend its­elf: it should be ratio­nal to be ratio­nal. Moreo­ver, sin­ce ratio­nal action requi­res ratio­nal beliefs con­cer­ning means-ends rela­ti­ons, a natu­ra­li­stic con­cep­ti­on of ratio­na­li­ty has to cover ratio­nal belief for­ma­ti­on inclu­ding the belief that it is ratio­nal to be ratio­nal. The paper con­siders four con­cep­ti­ons of ratio­na­li­ty and asks whe­ther they can deli­ver the goods: Baye­sia­nism, per­fect ratio­na­li­ty (just in case that it dif­fers from Baye­sia­nism), eco­lo­gi­cal ratio­na­li­ty (as a ver­si­on of boun­ded ratio­na­li­ty), and cri­ti­cal ratio­na­li­ty, the con­cep­ti­on of ratio­na­li­ty cha­rac­te­ri­zing cri­ti­cal ratio­na­lism. The ans­wer is sum­ma­ri­zed in the paper’s title.
  • Rationality, Markets, and Morals: RMM Band 0 (2009)

The Internal Point of View as a Rational Choice?

  • Michael Baurmann
H.L.A.Hart’s semi­nal book The Con­cept of Law ent­ails argu­ments which are also of sub­stan­ti­al importance for social theo­ry: his cla­im that the exis­tence of social and legal norms pre­sup­po­ses the dis­se­mi­na­ti­on of an inter­nal point of view among the mem­bers of a social and legal com­mu­ni­ty pres­ents a serious chall­enge for any expl­ana­ti­on of social order. Hart­mut Kli­emt empha­si­zes this aspect of Hart’s work time and again in his own wri­tin­gs and sure­ly with very good reasons. In my paper I will try to recon­s­truct Hart’s theo­ry in detail. I will argue that we have to cla­ri­fy the dif­fe­rent dimen­si­ons of the con­cept of an inter­nal point of view to be able to assess its con­se­quen­ces for a theo­ry of social and legal order espe­ci­al­ly for a ratio­nal choice approach which at first sight seems to be incom­pa­ti­ble with the con­cept of an inter­nal point of view.
  • Rationality, Markets, and Morals: RMM Band 0 (2009)

Can a Humean Be a Contractarian?

  • Robert Sugden
In this paper I argue, con­tra­ry to Hart­mut Kli­emt, that it is pos­si­ble to be both a Hume­an and, in James Buchanan’s sen­se, a con­trac­ta­ri­an. Hume sees prin­ci­ples of jus­ti­ce and poli­ti­cal alle­gi­ance not as actu­al or hypo­the­ti­cal pro­ducts of expli­cit agree­ment, but as con­ven­ti­ons that have emer­ged spon­ta­neous­ly. Howe­ver, it is fun­da­men­tal to Hume’s ana­ly­sis that con­ven­ti­ons are mutual­ly advan­ta­ge­ous, and hence cogna­te with agree­ments. The core idea in Buchanan’s con­trac­ta­ria­nism is that the pro­per role of govern­ment is to imple­ment vol­un­t­a­ry exch­an­ges bet­ween indi­vi­du­als, not to defi­ne and maxi­mi­se a uni­fied con­cep­ti­on of social wel­fa­re. Alt­hough real poli­tics can­not be based enti­re­ly on unani­mous agree­ment, the vol­un­t­a­ry exch­an­ge approach pro­vi­des a valuable struc­tu­re for nor­ma­ti­ve economics.
  • Rationality, Markets, and Morals: RMM Band 0 (2009)

Introduction: The Moral Science Project

  • Bernd Lahno, Michael Baurmann
This Fest­schrift hono­urs Hart­mut Kli­emt on the occa­si­on of his six­tieth bir­th­day. Hart­mut Kliemt’s work covers a huge num­ber of topics, inclu­ding publi­ca­ti­ons on John Rawls’ theo­ry of jus­ti­ce, Robert Nozick’s liber­ta­ria­nism or James Buchanan’s con­sti­tu­tio­na­lism, the pro­blems of clo­ning, legal punish­ment, sta­te power, anar­chism, the model of homo oeco­no­mic­us, game theo­ry, the phi­lo­so­phy of sci­ence, ethics, the wel­fa­re sta­te, the theo­ry of law, ratio­ning in health care, organ trans­plan­ta­ti­on and homeopathy …
  • Rationality, Markets, and Morals: RMM Band 0 (2009)
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RMM is an interdisciplinary publication focusing on issues of rationality, market mechanisms, and the experimental method of reasoning into moral subjects. It provides a forum for dialogue between philosophy, economics, and related disciplines, encouraging critical reflection on the foundations and implications of economic processes.

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Rationality, Markets, and Morals: RMM Band 0 (2009)

Rationality, Markets, and Morals: RMM Band 1 (2010)

Rationality, Markets, and Morals: RMM Band 2 (2011)

Rationality, Markets, and Morals: RMM Band 3 (2012)

Rationality, Markets, and Morals: RMM Band 4 (2013)

Rationality, Markets, and Morals: RMM Band 5 (2014)

Rationality, Markets, and Morals: RMM Band 6 (2015)

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