The utility of goods or actions? A neurophilosophical assessment of a recent neuroeconomic controversy

Enrico Petracca

Economics and Philosophy, 2023, vol. 39, issue 3, 351-372

Abstract: The paper provides a neurophilosophical assessment of a controversy between two neuroeconomic models that compete to identify the putative object of neural utility: goods or actions. We raise two objections to the common view that sees the ‘good-based’ model prevailing over the ‘action-based’ model. First, we suggest extending neuroeconomic model discrimination to all of the models’ neurophilosophical assumptions, showing that action-based assumptions are necessary to explain real-world value-based decisions. Second, we show that the good-based model’s presumption of introducing a normative neural definition of economic choice would arbitrarily restrict the domain of economic choice and consequently of economics.

Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cup:ecnphi:v:39:y:2023:i:3:p:351-372_1

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