What is Really Rational Choice? Beyond the Utilitarian Concept of Rationality

Abstract

Hailed by its exponents as a unifying paradigm for social theory and dismissed by its critiques as an imperialistic intrusion into sociology coming from neoclassical economics, rational choice theory is one of the most significant and controversial developments in contemporary sociological theory. This report reconsiders the degree of adequacy of rational choice theory for modern sociology. The report focuses its attention on the concept of rationality in rational choice theory. The major assumption or implication of modern rational choice theory, just as the old utilitarianism and neoclassical economics, is the status of human rationality as ipso facto utilitarian-economic rationality, namely the maximization of utility, profit or wealth, and alternatively the minimization of costs and other `disutilities'. This assumption is re-examined in this report. The point of departure of this examination is the argument that rational choice broadly understood is not necessarily utilitarian-economic rationality, namely utility- or profit-optimizing behavior.