Are there any problems with the idea that human beings are fundamentally rational creatures?

The notion that human beings are fundamentally rational creatures is an enduring idea in the social sciences, and it has been used to explain a wide range of behavior. However, there are some problems with this view. To begin with, it assumes that all humans act rationally at all times, when in reality people can make irrational decisions or behave impulsively for various reasons. Additionally, the idea of fundamental rationality ignores human emotion and fails to account for how our emotions can influence behavior and decision-making (Baumeister & Vohs 2004). Finally, accepting this notion also implicitly suggests that everyone has equal access to information and resources necessary for making rational choices—which simply isn’t true in today’s world.

One way to look at individual decision-making is through the lens of bounded rationality (Simon 1955). This concept states that people cannot always make perfectly rational decisions due to limitations on their cognitive processing capabilities as well as external factors such as time constraints or a lack of complete information about a problem. According to Gorman (2009), bounded rationality “acknowledges that individuals do not have perfect knowledge about the situations they confront nor do they necessarily possess unlimited capacity for examining them; instead, their attention is limited by what is available from their environment and what is held within their own memories.” This means that even though we may strive towards making rational decisions, our actual choice may be influenced by other factors such as fatigue or stress levels which restrict our ability to process new information accurately.