Title

Rationality

Document Type

Working Paper

Publication Date

8-14-2012

SSRN Discipline

PSN Subject Matter eJournals; LSN Subject Matter eJournals; Constitutional Law, Jurisprudence & Legal Philosophy eJournals; Political Behavior eJournals; Economics Research Network; Legal Scholarship Network; Corporate, Securities & Finance Law eJournals; Criminal Law & Procedure eJournals; Social Insurance Research Network; Law School Research Papers - Legal Studies; Law School Research Papers - Public Law & Legal Theory; Cognitive Science Network; Law, Brain & Behavior eJournals; Political Science Network

Abstract

Rationality involves the power to reason appropriately although exactly what this requires is a matter of profound disagreement The concept of rationality features prominently in a number of academic disciplines including philosophy economics and psychology as well as in law But it does so in a variety of distinct ways and through different conceptions In this essay I outline three general methodological projects that rely on different conceptions of rationality "narrow" normative "broad" normative and explanatory The narrow normative project invokes the instrumental meansends conception of rationality familiar to economic theory The broad normative project conceives of rationality more expansively by invoking more robust notions of the means and ends of decisionmaking The explanatory project carried out in different ways in philosophy and psychology relies on aspects of rationality to explain or interpret human behavior In discussing these three conceptions I also reflect on their relationships to legal theory and to legal doctrine This essay serves as an introduction to the Meador Lectures on Rationality held at the University of Alabama School of Law The lectures were delivered by Rosabeth Kanter Harvard Business School Dean Hanoch Dagan Tel Aviv University Buchmann Faculty of Law Phoebe Ellsworth University of Michigan Law School and Ronald J Allen Northwestern University School of Law

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