Preferences: neither behavioural nor mental

Francesco Guala

Economics and Philosophy, 2019, vol. 35, issue 3, 383-401

Abstract: Recent debates on the nature of preferences in economics have typically assumed that they are to be interpreted either as behavioural regularities or as mental states. In this paper I challenge this dichotomy and argue that neither interpretation is consistent with scientific practice in choice theory and behavioural economics. Preferences are belief-dependent dispositions with a multiply realizable causal basis, which explains why economists are reluctant to make a commitment about their interpretation.

Date: 2019
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