IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ratsoc/v14y2002i3p259-284.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Revealed Preference and External Reference

Author

Listed:
  • Keith Dowding

    (Department of Government, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE, UK k.m.dowding@lse.ac.uk)

Abstract

Amartya Sen claims that the standard axioms of rational choice theory are not subject to `internal consistency'. That is, in order to discover whether someone behaves inconsistently or irrationally one must look beyond the choice function to the actors' motivations. This is true. Intentional explanations require reference to the environment or context in which choice takes place. However, rather than being inconsistent with standard von Neumann-Morgernstern accounts of utility and with revealed preference analysis, as Sen maintains, such externalist arguments show the standard accounts are necessary for intentional explanation.

Suggested Citation

  • Keith Dowding, 2002. "Revealed Preference and External Reference," Rationality and Society, , vol. 14(3), pages 259-284, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ratsoc:v:14:y:2002:i:3:p:259-284
    DOI: 10.1177/1043463102014003001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1043463102014003001
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1043463102014003001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Amartya Sen, 1997. "Maximization and the Act of Choice," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(4), pages 745-780, July.
    2. repec:bla:econom:v:59:y:1992:i:234:p:161-77 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Sen, Amartya, 1993. "Internal Consistency of Choice," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 61(3), pages 495-521, May.
    4. Amartya Sen, 1999. "The Possibility of Social Choice," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(3), pages 349-378, June.
    5. Wulf Gaertner & Yongsheng Xu, 1999. "Rationality And External Reference," Rationality and Society, , vol. 11(2), pages 169-185, May.
    6. Baigent, Nick & Gaertner, Wulf, 1996. "Never Choose the Uniquely Largest: A Characterization," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 8(2), pages 239-249, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Francesco GUALA, 2017. "Preferences: Neither Behavioural nor Mental," Departmental Working Papers 2017-05, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    2. Giovanni Razzu, 2021. "Economics and duty-motivated choices," Economics Discussion Papers em-dp2021-02, Department of Economics, University of Reading.
    3. Lina Eriksson, 2010. "Choice under description: The motivational nexus," Rationality and Society, , vol. 22(2), pages 159-187, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bossert, Walter & Suzumura, Kotaro, 2007. "Social Norms and Rationality of Choice," Cahiers de recherche 2007-07, Universite de Montreal, Departement de sciences economiques.
    2. Tyson, Christopher J., 2008. "Cognitive constraints, contraction consistency, and the satisficing criterion," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 138(1), pages 51-70, January.
    3. Yazdanabad, Hadi Pahlevan, 2024. "Justification within and between social contexts with the possibility of choice deferral," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    4. Antoinette Baujard, 2006. "Une critique opérationnelle du welfarisme dans la prise de décision publique," Post-Print halshs-00155130, HAL.
    5. Walter Bossert & Kotaro Suzumura, 2011. "Rationality, external norms, and the epistemic value of menus," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 37(4), pages 729-741, October.
    6. Lombardi, Michele, 2009. "Reason-based choice correspondences," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 57(1), pages 58-66, January.
    7. Sebastiano Bavetta & Marco Del Seta, 2001. "Constraints and the Measurement of Freedom of Choice," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 50(3), pages 213-238, May.
    8. Steven Pressman & Gale Summerfield, 2000. "The Economic Contributions of Amartya Sen," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1), pages 89-113.
    9. Gaertner, Wulf & Xu, Yongsheng, 1997. "Optimization and external reference; a comparison of three axiomatic systems," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 57(1), pages 57-62, November.
    10. Wulf Gaertner & Yongsheng Xu, 1999. "Rationality And External Reference," Rationality and Society, , vol. 11(2), pages 169-185, May.
    11. Lombardi, Michele, 2009. "Reason-based choice correspondences," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 57(1), pages 58-66, January.
    12. Taposik Banerjee, 2024. "Characterization of a k-th best element rationalizable choice function with full domain," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 96(4), pages 503-516, June.
    13. Brian Hill, 2012. "Confidence in preferences," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 39(2), pages 273-302, July.
    14. Pierre Livet, 2006. "Identities, capabilities and revisions," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(3), pages 327-348.
    15. Cyril Hédoin, 2017. "Normative economics and paternalism: the problem with the preference-satisfaction account of welfare," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 286-310, September.
    16. Susumu Cato, 2018. "Choice functions and weak Nash axioms," Review of Economic Design, Springer;Society for Economic Design, vol. 22(3), pages 159-176, December.
    17. Tyson, Christopher J., 2008. "Cognitive constraints, contraction consistency, and the satisficing criterion," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 138(1), pages 51-70, January.
    18. Jorge Iván González, 2016. "Sentimientos y racionalidad en economía," Books, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Facultad de Economía, edition 1, number 75, August.
    19. Paola Manzini & Marco Mariotti, 2006. "Two-stage Boundedly Rational Choice Procedures: Theory and Experimental Evidence," Working Papers 561, Queen Mary University of London, School of Economics and Finance.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ratsoc:v:14:y:2002:i:3:p:259-284. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.