ABSTRACT
The theoretical commitments of microeconomists to a presumed rationality of individual economic agents were stimulated by the neoclassical or marginalist revolution that began in the 1870s. The identification by many observers of microeconomic theory with rationality alone, which weakens interest in the dynamic emergence of individual ends and means as connected with innovative activity and the social embedding of values. For some advocates of game theory, social situations always involve strategic interactions among participants so the usual domain of application for game-theoretical notions of rationality is wide. Initially, paradoxes arose from the observation that many individuals and group decisions often give little attention to events with small probabilities of occurrence and are influenced by the unavailability of reliable information. Most models of individual rationality give inadequate attention to duration, flexibility and spacing but these are important areas in which managerial and entrepreneurial skills may be crucial for economic prosperity.
