ABSTRACT

This chapter suggests that rational choice analysis takes up a more general model of the rationality of intentional behaviour and modifies it in two important respects: it treats the preferences and desires of the actor as exhibiting a utilitarian structure; and it assigns a distinctive kind of paradigmatic status to the assumption of rationality. It argues serious problems with that more general model of intentional action and suggests that it obscures important questions of the techniques, procedures and forms of thought employed by actors in the course of their behaviour. The chapter disputes the assumption of a holistic rationality even in the case of human actors. It explains that consideration of social actors and non-human animals undermines the apparent obviousness of the portfolio model of the actor. The chapter considers the actions of capitalist enterprises. It is argued by Marxist that competition results in a process of natural selection operating amongst firms so that the survivors are profit maximizers.