Beyond Optimizing:A Study of Rational Choice
by: Slote, Michael

Hardcover. Cambridge MA, Harvard University Press, 1st, 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 192 pages. Light sun-fade to dust jacket spine, else a clean, tight copy. Michael Slote challenges the long-dominant conception of individual rationality, which has to a large extent shaped the very way we think about the essential problems and nature of rationality, morality, and the relations between them. He contests the accepted view by appealing to a set of real-life examples, claiming that our intuitive reaction to these examples illustrates a significant and prevalent, if not always dominant, way of thinking. Slote argues that common sense recognizes that one can reach a point where "enough is enough," be satisfied with what one has, and, hence, rationally decline an optimizing alternative. He suggests that, in the light of common sense, optimizing behavior is often irrational.