Gigerenzer,G.

(From the chapter) The fossil record suggests that Homo sapiens is perhaps 400,000 years old, and is currently the only existing species of the genus Homo. Unlike our ancestor, Homo erectus, we are not named after our bipedal stance, nor are we named after our abilities to laugh, weep, and joke. Our family name refers to our wisdom and rationality. Disputes about the nature of human rationality are as old as the concept of rationality itself, which emerged during the Enlightenment (Daston, 1988). These controversies are about norms, that is, the evaluation of moral, social, and intellectual judgment (e.g., Cohen, 1981; Lopes, 1991). The most recent debate involves four sets of scholars, who think that one can understand the nature of sapiens by (i) constructing as-if theories of unbounded rationality, (ii) constructing as-if theories of optimization under constraints, (iii) demonstrating irrational cognitive illusions, or (iv) studying ecological rationality. Being engaged in this controversy, I am far from dispassionate, and have placed my bets on ecological rationality. Yet I promise that I will try to be as impartial as I can. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved)

Gigerenzer, G. (2006). Bounded and rational. In R. J. Stainton (Ed.), Contemporary debates in cognitive science (Contemporary Debates in Philosophy No. 7) (pp. 115-133). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.(Reprinted in Philosophy: Foundations and applications, pp. 233-258, by A. Beckermann, H. Tetens, & S. Walter, Eds., 2008, Paderborn: Mentis) (Full text)

Publication year	2006
Document type:	In book
Publication status:	Published
External URL:	http://library.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/ft/gg/GG_Bounded_2006.pdf View
Categories:
Keywords: