In Defence of Revealed Preference Theory

Economics and Philosophy 37 (2):163-187 (2021)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This paper defends revealed preference theory against a pervasive line of criticism, according to which revealed preference methodology relies on appealing to some mental states, in particular an agent’s beliefs, rendering the project incoherent or unmotivated. I argue that all that is established by these arguments is that revealed preference theorists must accept a limited mentalism in their account of the options an agent should be modelled as choosing between. This is consistent both with an essentially behavioural interpretation of preference and with standard revealed preference methodology. And it does not undermine the core motivations of revealed preference theory.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 86,377

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Revealed preference, belief, and game theory.Daniel M. Hausman - 2000 - Economics and Philosophy 16 (1):99-115.
Sympathy, commitment, and preference.Daniel M. Hausman - 2005 - Economics and Philosophy 21 (1):33-50.
Revealed preference and linear utility.Stephen A. Clark - 1993 - Theory and Decision 34 (1):21-45.
Revealed Preference and Expected Utility.Stephen A. Clark - 2000 - Theory and Decision 49 (2):159-174.
The Problem of State-Dependent Utility: A Reappraisal.Jean Baccelli - 2021 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 72 (2):617-634.

Analytics

Added to PP
2021-03-29

Downloads
92 (#159,475)

6 months
11 (#107,642)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Johanna Thoma
Universität Bayreuth

Citations of this work

Functionalism and the role of psychology in economics.Christopher Clarke - 2020 - Journal of Economic Methodology 27 (4):292-310.
Folk Psychology and the Interpretation of Decision Theory.Johanna Thoma - 2020 - Ergo: An Open Access Journal of Philosophy 7.
Preferences.Sven Ove Hansson & Till Grüne-Yanoff - 2008 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
New functionalism and the social and behavioral sciences.Lukas Beck & James D. Grayot - 2021 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 11 (4):1-28.

View all 12 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

The Foundations of Statistics.Leonard J. Savage - 1954 - Wiley Publications in Statistics.
Theory of Games and Economic Behavior.John Von Neumann & Oskar Morgenstern - 1944 - Princeton, NJ, USA: Princeton University Press.
Decision Theory with a Human Face.Richard Bradley - 2017 - Cambridge University Press.
The Foundations of Statistics.Leonard J. Savage - 1956 - Philosophy of Science 23 (2):166-166.

View all 28 references / Add more references