Les voies de la rationalite procedurale

The ways of procedural rationality

• Auteur / Autrice : Fréféric Laville
• Direction : Laurent Thévenot
• Type : Thèse de doctorat
• Discipline(s) : Sciences économiques
• Date : Soutenance en 1999
• Etablissement(s) : Paris, EHESS

Mots clés

Mots clés contrôlés

Argumentation

Cognition

Rationalité économique

Mots clés libres

Rationalite economique

Cognition

Argumentation (logique)

Résumé

Ce travail examine la theorie de la rationalite dans une perspective analytique. Apres avoir examine les critiques adressees a la theorie de la rationalite optimisatrice, il adopte une hypothese de rationalite limitee, puis montre la necessite d'elaborer des theories de la rationalite procedurale. Plusieurs voies de recherche sont alors explorees. D'une part, la voie de la cognition, qui amene a s'interroger sur le concept de rationalite calculatrice. D'autre part, la voie de l'argumentation, qui conduit au concept de rationalite argumentative.

Many criticisms have been made of rational choice theory. It is shown that all these criticisms ask for an assumption of bounded rationality. And it is argued that if one assumes that cognitive abilities are bounded, one has to study the processes of decision. Procedural rationality may be studied from two different perspectives. One can study procedural rationality from a cognitive perspective, which leads to a concept of computational rationality. But one can also study procedural rationality from a discursive perspective, which leads to a concept of argumentative rationality. Both directions are investigated. The conclusion is that argumentative rationality is more comprehensive than optimization theory and computational rationality.