ABSTRACT
Jim Roberts was a doctoral student of mine at American University when the author was working out and then assembling the diverse elements of the framework constituting World of Our Making. Jim’s review of the assumptions anchoring rational choice theory and of the issues they raise for social theory directs attention to the place of preferences in choice–as it should. Instead Jim backs away by saying that, “in a more complex understanding of decision processes, no, because preferences can be transient.” If preferences are stable enough to be stated publicly, then they otherwise meet the requirements of a private rule. After denying the possibility of following a rule “privately,” Wittgenstein said: “otherwise thinking one was obeying a rule would be the same thing as obeying it.” Making the rule public by telling others that one is going to follow it does not change its status as a rule but does increase the likelihood of its success and subsequent reaffirmation.
