Towards an Externalist Neuroeconomics: Dual Selves, Signs, and Choice

Recently, reductionist models of choice have been proposed which directly reduce a modified version of economic utility theory to neuroscience. I propose an alternative conceptual framework that adopts the position of externalism, which I further narrow down to a distributed cognition framework, and eventually to a biosemiotic model of human choice. I relate this to existing modular theories on the brain, which I generalize into a dual selves model. In this model, the internal information asymmetries and deficiencies of the brain/body system drive the reliance of choices on external cognitive mechanisms as manifested in sign systems. I analyze this interaction and apply the combined biosemiotics/dual selves model to an important set of falsifiers of an integrated reductionist model of neuroeconomics, that is, addiction and other consumption disorders.