Racionalidade, incomensurabilidade e história: um diálogo entre as obras de Herbert Simon e Thomas Kuhn

• Autores: João Luiz Pondé
• Localización: Nova Economia, ISSN 0103-6351, Año 27, Nº. 3, 2017, págs. 443-476
• Idioma: portugués
• DOI: 10.1590/0103-6351/2836
• Títulos paralelos:
  • Rationality, incommensurability and history: a dialogue between the works of Herbert Simon and Thomas Kuhn
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Resumen
  • English

    Abstract: The paper offers a comparative discussion of the rationality conceptions which are found in the works of Herbert Simon and Thomas Kuhn. Both authors oppose to formal concepts of rationality, that associate rational choice to some kind of abstract and universal algorithm and reduce the decision process to a set of logical operations. To build an alternative, Simon and Kuhn develop rationality notions that can be applied to ill structured decisions problems, in the sense that decision makers cannot deductively infer a unique action from the parameters of the decision problems. In this way, rational choices involve options that are incommensurable, but not incomparable. Although there are differences in their approaches, Simon and Kuhn take a similar stance and propose rationality concepts in which (i) the rationality of beliefs, choices and behavior are embedded in specific activities and social practices, and (ii) these activities and practices evolve in historical time.

  • português

    Resumo: O artigo oferece uma discussão comparativa das concepções de racionalidade encontradas nas obras de Herbert Simon e Thomas Kuhn. Ambos os autores se contrapõem a concepções formais da racionalidade, que associam a escolha racional a algum algoritmo abstrato e universal, reduzindo o processo de decisão a um conjunto de operações lógicas. Como alternativa, Simon e Kuhn desenvolvem noções de racionalidade aplicáveis a situações decisórias mal estruturadas, no sentido de que os tomadores de decisão não conseguem inferir dedutivamente uma única linha de ação a partir dos parâmetros dos problemas decisórios. Deste modo, as escolhas racionais envolvem opções que são incomensuráveis, mas não incomparáveis. Embora existam diferenças entre suas abordagens, Simon e Kuhn assumem uma postura similar ao proporem conceitos de racionalidades nos quais (i) a racionalidade das crenças, escolhas e comportamentos está assentada em atividades e práticas sociais específicas, e (ii) essas atividades e práticas evoluem no tempo histórico.

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