Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T08:18:45.020Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A unificationist defence of revealed preferences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2019

Kate Vredenburgh
Kate Vredenburgh*
Affiliation:
Emerson Hall, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
*
Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Revealed preference approaches to modelling agents’ choices face two seemingly devastating explanatory objections. The no self-explanation objection imputes a problematic explanatory circularity to revealed preference approaches, while the causal explanation objection argues that, all things equal, a scientific theory should provide causal explanations, but revealed preference approaches decidedly do not. Both objections assume a view of explanation, the constraint-based view, that the revealed preference theorist ought to reject. Instead, the revealed preference theorist should adopt a unificationist account of explanation, allowing her to escape the two explanatory problems discussed in this paper.

Keywords

rational choice theoryrevealed preferencescausal explanationunificationism
Type
Article
Information
Economics & Philosophy , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , March 2020 , pp. 149 - 169
Check for updates
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Afriat, S. 1967. The construction of utility functions from expenditure data. International Economic Review 8, 67–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Agner, E. 2018. What preferences really are. Philosophy of Science 85, 660–681.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Armstrong, D. 1983. What is a Law of Nature? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Barnes, E. 1992. Explanatory unification and the problem of asymmetry. Philosophy of Science 59, 558–571.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, G. 1962. Irrational behavior and economic theory. Journal of Political Economy 70, 1–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beebee, H. 2000. The non-governing conception of the laws of nature. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 61, 571–594.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernheim, B. and Rangel, A. 2009. Beyond revealed preference: choice-theoretic foundations for behavioral welfare economics. Quarterly Journal of Economics 124, 51–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Binmore, K. 2009. Rational Decisions. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Blundell, R. 2005. How revealing is revealed preference? Journal of the European Economic Association 3, 211–235.Google Scholar
Cairnes, J. E. 1872. New theories in political economy. Fortnightly Review 17, 71–76. Reprinted in W. S. Jevons: Critical Responses, Vol. 3. 2003, ed. S. Peart Abingdon: Taylor and Francis.Google Scholar
Callender, C. and Cohen, J. 2009. A better best system account of lawhood. Philosophical Studies 145, 1–34.Google Scholar
Callender, C. and Cohen, J. 2010. Special science, conspiracy, and the better best system account of lawhood. Erkenntnis 73, 427–447.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, C. 2016. Preferences and the positivist methodology in economics. Philosophy of Science 83, 192–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Colombo, M. and Hartmann, S. 2017. Bayesian cognitive science, unification, and explanation. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 68, 451–484.Google Scholar
Demarest, H. 2017. Powerful properties, powerless laws. In Jacobs, J. (ed.), Putting Powers to Work: Causal Powers in Contemporary Metaphysics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dietrich, F. and List, C. 2016a. Mentalism vs. behaviorism in economics: a philosophy of science perspective. Economics and Philosophy 32, 249–281.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dietrich, F. and List, C. 2016b. Reason-based choice and context-dependence: an explanatory framework. Economics and Philosophy 32, 175–229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dretske, F. 1977. What is a law of nature? Philosophy of Science 44, 248–268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, M. 1974. Explanation and scientific understanding. Journal of Philosophy 71, 5–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gode, D. and Sunder, S. 1993. Allocative efficiency of markets with zero-intelligence traders: market as a partial substitute for individual rationality. Journal of Political Economy 101, 119–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guala, F. 2012. Are preferences for real? Choice theory, folk psychology, and the hard case for commonsense realism. In Lehtinen, A., Kuorikoski, J. and Ylikoski, P. (eds), Economics for Real: Uskali Mäki and the Place of Truth in Economics. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 137–155.Google Scholar
Gul, F. and Pesendorfer, W. 2008. The case for mindless economics. In Caplin, A. and Shotter, A. (eds), The Foundations of Positive and Normative Economics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 3–39.Google Scholar
Hands, D. W. 2012. Realism, commonsensibles, and economics: the case of contemporary revealed preference theory. In Lehtinen, A., Kuorikoski, J. and Ylikoski, P. (eds), Economics for Real: Uskali Mäki and the Place of Truth in Economics. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 156–178.Google Scholar
Hands, D. W. 2013. Foundations of contemporary revealed preference theory. Erkenntnis 78, 1081–1108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hausman, D. 2012. Preference, Value, Choice, and Welfare. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hempel, C. and Oppenheim, P. 1948. Studies in the logic of explanation. Philosophy of Science 15, 135–175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hicks, M. 2018. Dynamic Humeanism. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 69, 983–1007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hildenbrand, W. 1994. Market Demand. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kellert, S., Longino, H. and Waters, C. K. (eds). 2006. Introduction. In Scientific Pluralism, vii–xxix. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Kitcher, P. 1989. Explanatory unification and the causal structure of the world. In Kitcher, P. and Salmon, W. (eds), Scientific Explanation. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 410–505.Google Scholar
Kreps, D. 2013. Microeconomic Foundations I. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Kuhn, T. 1977. The Essential Tension. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lange, M. 2009. Laws and Lawmakers: Science, Metaphysics, and the Laws of Nature. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lehtinen, A. 2012. Introduction. In Lehtinen, A., Kuorikoski, J. and Ylikoski, P. (eds), Economics for Real: Uskali Mäki and the Place of Truth in Economics, Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Lewis, D. 1999a. New work for a theory of universals. In Papers in Metaphysics and Epistemology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 8–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, D. 1999b. Humean supervenience debugged. In Papers in Metaphysics and Epistemology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 224–247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loewer, B. 2007. Laws and natural properties. Philosophical Topics 35, 313–328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mäki, U. 1990. Scientific realism and Austrian explanation. Review of Political Economy 2, 310–344.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mäki, U. 2001. Explanatory unification: double and doubtful. Philosophy of the Social Sciences 31(4), 488–506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mäki, U. 2002. Explanatory ecumenism and economic imperialism. Economics and Philosophy 18, 237–259.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mas-Collel, A., Whinston, M. and Green, J. 1995. Microeconomic Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Maudlin, T. 2007. The Metaphysics within Physics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mill, J. S. 2009 [1843]. A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive. Reprint. New York, NY: Echo Library.Google Scholar
Miller, E. 2015. Humean scientific understanding. Philosophical Studies 172, 1311–1332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morrison, M. 2000. Unifying Scientific Theories: Physical Concepts and Mathematical Structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearl, J. 2000. Causality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ramsey, F. W. 1990 [1927]. Laws and causality. In Mellor, D. H. (ed.), Reprinted in F. P. Ramsey: Philosophical Papers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 140–164.Google Scholar
Ross, D. 2005. Economic Theory and Cognitive Science: Microexplanation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Ross, D. 2014. Philosophy of Economics. London: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Samuelson, P. 1938. A note on the pure theory of consumer’s behaviour. Economica 5, 61–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scriven, M. 1962. Explanations, predictions and laws. Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science 2, 170–230.Google Scholar
Sen, A. 1977. Rational fools: a critique of the behavioral foundations of economic theory. Philosophy and Public Affairs 6, 317–344.Google Scholar
Strevens, M. 2008. Depth. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
van Fraassen, B. 1989. Laws and Symmetry. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Varian, H. 1982. Nonparametric test of models of consumer behavior. Review of Economic Studies 50, 99–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodward, J. 2003. Making Things Happen: A Theory of Causal Explanation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar