REASON, BOUNDED RATIONALITY, AND THE LEBENSWELT - SOCIALLY SENSITIVE DECISION-MAKING

Herbert Simon introduced the concept of bounded rationality to provide a socially sensitive perspective on decision making. But he was not entirely successful in this endeavor. Specifically, he has not abandoned the assumption of perfect rationality. All he has done is to recognize that persons have limited cognitive abilities, and thus are incapable of acting in a perfectly rational manner. In this paper, the attempt is made to illustrate how Simon's position can be deepened, due to the work of a host of modern writers. Decision making, in other words, can be made socially sensitive by understanding facts and reason to originate from the Lebeswelt.