Abstract
It is commonplace in rational decision theory to assume that an individual’s preferences are transitive. At the same time, behavioral decision theory informs us that people’s preferences are not always transitive and, in some situations, are likely to be intransitive. The viewpoint of the present paper, expressed previously in Cowan (1975) and Fishburn (1983), is that preference has very little to do with transitivity. Some preferences may be transitive, others intransitive, but in any event we have been unable to identify any logical, moral, or normative basis for transitivity apart from its obvious efficacy in practice.
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© 1988 D. Reidel Publishing Company
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Cowan, T.A., Fishburn, P.C. (1988). Foundations of Preference. In: Eberlein, G.L., Berghel, H. (eds) Theory and Decision. Theory and Decision Library, vol 50. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3895-3_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3895-3_13
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