Exploring the challenges of the "instrumental rationality" paradigm in conventional economics (by presenting the perspective of "bounded rationality with a new approach")

Author

faculty member

10.30471/iee.2023.9043.2288

Abstract

Among the important and effective factors in the conventional economy, "rationality" has a privileged position. Although the economists of the capitalist system usually refrain from presenting a discussion in this regard in a direct and responsible manner, they consider "instrumental rationality" which is responsible for providing utility, benefit and personal pleasure and maximizing it, as a fundamental premise and an irreplaceable parameter in the infrastructure..

Now the question is whether rationality, a common tool in neoclassical economics, as one of the aspects of rationality, can fulfill its expected mission? Herbert Simon's "bounded rationality" is a relatively new approach that answers this question in the negative and presents itself as a suitable alternative. Has this new approach forgotten the challenges of rationality in the capitalist system? Or is the foundation of rationality in secular thinking seriously damaged? The author's hypothesis is that both approaches (full rationality and limited rationality) face a crisis in their infrastructure. Accurate understanding of the nature of reason and rationality in humans can solve the deficiencies in the aforementioned paradigm. The central point of the hypothesis, in addition to the disastrousness of the one-dimensional view with a specific interpretation of the category of rationality, is that reason and, accordingly, rationality cannot be relied on more than its inherent potential and other limiting factors; In this regard, five types of limitations have been counted for the first time and as a new point of view ("limited rationality with a new approach") and relying on religious and rational foundations, in this article.

Keywords