Sunday, August 16, 2009

Confucius say

People don't maximize, they suffice.

It was actually Herbert Simon who said that. The consequences of accepting Bounded Rationality as a way of decision making in everyday life are interesting. It is easy to see such a person being the rich and enriching man seen in Russell's "Conquest of Happiness". It would entail seeing one's own actions as "rational" within one's sphere of knowledge, and extending the same courtesy to others. But then, does it force us to drag in things that affect people's knowledge into the realm of ethics?