Models and deductive rationality

Rationality means different things to different people. During its long history as a theoretical concept, it has referred to logical thought, to a prudent choice among alternative courses of action, to a wise allocation of resources, to a capacity to arrive at truth, and much else besides. We intend to address the question: are human beings rational? But, before we can do so, we need to choose a yardstick against which to measure performance. One strategy, which has been adopted by Anderson (1990), is to assume that rational behaviour is whatever is optimized to the structure of the environment. This strategy calls for the almost impossible task of characterizing the structure of the environment in a way that…