ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the concept of a preference in economics. It focuses on two historically rooted views: mentalism, which takes preferences to be evaluative mental states, and behaviorism, which takes preferences to be mere summaries of patterns in behavior. The chapter adjudicates between these two views on the basis of two descriptive desiderata on the concept of a preference, namely, that it be able to play a role in scientific theories and in models that predict and explain choice. Neither view turns out to be obviously superior on either desideratum.
