Decisions and the Culture of Deciding: An Externalist Critique of Decision-Theory and Economic Rationality

Jonathan Michael Kaplan
University of Tennessee

In this paper, I argue that the model of decision-making implied by formal decision-theoretic techniques is inapplicable to large areas in our lives, and that the descriptions of human behavior that emerge from the techniques and ontologies demanded by such models are misleading in the extreme. I argue that the vision of 'decisions' given us by such techniques, that of individuals considering real alternatives before acting, is not the best way to view most of what we do in the world, and that giving up that interpretation of the 'choices' that we make would have significant consequences for how we view certain kinds of social issues.