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PREFERENCES VS. DESIRES: DEBATING THE FUNDAMENTAL STRUCTURE OF CONATIVE STATES

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2015

Armin W. Schulz
Armin W. Schulz*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Kansas 3083 Wescoe Hall, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA. Email: awschulz@ku.edu; URL: http://people.ku.edu/~a382s825/
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Abstract:

I address an overlooked question about the structure of the cognitive/conative model of the mind that underlies much of the work in economics, psychology and philosophy: namely, whether conative states are fundamentally monistic (desire-like) or comparative (preference-like). I argue that two seemingly promising sets of theoretical considerations – namely, the structure of Rational Choice Theory, and considerations of computational efficiency – are unable to resolve this debate. Given this, I suggest that a consideration that speaks in favour of the preference-based view is the fact that it makes it easier to explain certain empirically observed patterns in decision making.

Keywords

decision theorypreferencesdesirestransitivityutility

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Articles
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Economics & Philosophy , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , July 2015 , pp. 239 - 257
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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