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Product Description
We make choices all the time - about trivial matters, about how to spend our money, about how to spend our time, about what to do with our lives. And we are also constantly judging the decisions other people make as rational or irrational. But what kind of criteria are we applying when we say that a choice is rational? What guides our own choices, especially in cases where we don't have complete information about the outcomes? What strategies should be applied in making decisions which affect a lot of people, as in the case of government policy? This book explores what it means to be rational in all these contexts. It introduces ideas from economics, philosophy, and other areas, showing how the theory applies to decisions in everyday life, and to particular situations such as gambling and the allocation of resources.
About the Author
Michael Allingham is a Fellow and the Senior Tutor at Magdalen College, Oxford. He read natural philosophy and then political economy at the University of Edinburgh and subsequently taught at a number of universities in the United Kingdom and the United States; he has also held visiting positions at universities in Italy, France and Austria. His previous books include Equilibrium and Disequilibrium, General Equilibrium, Value, Unconscious
Contracts, Theory of Markets, and Rational Choice.
Contracts, Theory of Markets, and Rational Choice.
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First Sentence
Thus the opening voice-over of the film Trainspotting. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I am in no way an expert about this subject and I thought that this book did an okay job as an introduction. I did find it tricky but a lot of that is the nature of the subject and my own lack of prior knowledge.
It was quite well judged in the way it built on concepts that were introduced at the start and for most of the book I did feel that I understood the subject. However once the basics were dealt with it did seem a bit rushed. It was just too short. I think that it is a subject that is just not suited that well to this format.
There were some illustrations but they were completely pointless. The author would sometimes give his own political opinions and I found this increasingly irritating. Maybe in a lecture I would have found it witty but I felt that it just got in the way.
The writing and layout was lucid and well thought out. Maybe it's just me but I thought that I still did not fully understand the subject after I had finished reading the book.
It was quite well judged in the way it built on concepts that were introduced at the start and for most of the book I did feel that I understood the subject. However once the basics were dealt with it did seem a bit rushed. It was just too short. I think that it is a subject that is just not suited that well to this format.
There were some illustrations but they were completely pointless. The author would sometimes give his own political opinions and I found this increasingly irritating. Maybe in a lecture I would have found it witty but I felt that it just got in the way.
The writing and layout was lucid and well thought out. Maybe it's just me but I thought that I still did not fully understand the subject after I had finished reading the book.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
very much as described a good short introduction well set out and clear in its explanations.The diagrams were clear also.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
6 reviews
26 of 26 people found the following review helpful
An introduction, but not for the real novice
7 July 2005
Format:Paperback
"Short and to the point" describes the book perfectly, but what is the point? More specifically, to whom is it introducing the subject.
I found the book a good description of the logic behind choice theory; on what are the numerous different bases on which we can build a "theory" of choice; and where this can lead. From the simplest ideas of choice we are led to Arrow's Impossibility Theorem and so can see that "rational" choices may not satisfy everyone in a democracy - a result that needs to be known at all levels of a polity.
However it's supposed to be an introduction. If you're someone not used to using logic there are too many slippery areas where you'll get lost, even though the author tries to ground the work in reality - sometimes successfully, sometimes not. And for someone who wants to see more of the practical implications it is a pity that these are not explicated more.
This book will suit some as an introduction, but not all.
I found the book a good description of the logic behind choice theory; on what are the numerous different bases on which we can build a "theory" of choice; and where this can lead. From the simplest ideas of choice we are led to Arrow's Impossibility Theorem and so can see that "rational" choices may not satisfy everyone in a democracy - a result that needs to be known at all levels of a polity.
However it's supposed to be an introduction. If you're someone not used to using logic there are too many slippery areas where you'll get lost, even though the author tries to ground the work in reality - sometimes successfully, sometimes not. And for someone who wants to see more of the practical implications it is a pity that these are not explicated more.
This book will suit some as an introduction, but not all.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Perplexed
16 Aug 2009
Format:Paperback
I went to this book hoping to find a good overview of the current state of choice theory. And it may be in there somewhere. But having read every word I feel none the wiser. Analyze particular sentences and paragraphs, even pages and they seem quite clear. But I kept feeling: so what? I read the section on the Prisoner's Dilemma (something central to my field of conflict) and it left me with only a vague sense of what was going on.
Moreover, each time some of the theory mapped down into the real world of actually choosing, actually making a decision, or in building a political perspective about democracy or income distribution, it didn't seem to compute. Sample: 'Under democracy it will always be in the interests of the majority to oppress the minority. An example here is to be found in bans on country sports.' Apart from the fact that his example will be meaningless outside the UK, there is nothing in the previous paragraphs to justify this blunt assertion, that seems empirically extremely doubtful. I am a minority in reading lots of books, or in kayaking, or liking the novels of Anthony Powell and I feel no oppression from any majority. All of us are minorities in some perhaps the majority of respects, and I doubt that most of us in most situations feel oppressed.
I suspect that Michael Allingham (like most of us) has a definite set of political views: probably strong free market, authoritarian/libertarian (i.e. not without contradictions), and very comfortable with extreme income inequality. But I found that the step from Choice Theory to the implications he draws was just too large a leap of logic. He has simply projected his own belief systems into his real world conclusions and left me behind in the chain of logic stakes.
I am left profoundly disappointed that Choice Theory, that sounds like it might be helpful to the tough choices we are faced as a society, either does not have anything interesting to contribute or Michael Allingham's spin on it is profoundly unhelpful. I will now start the search to see if there is a better short introduction to this field that maps more usefully to choices in the real world. And that speaks to the audience in a more empathetic way. There is never any sense that this book has been subject to any push back from people who might not share his views, either on Choice Theory or the implications he has drawn. Surely his students at Oxford should have torn some of his logic and implications to pieces and lead to some re-writing? Created some cognizance of alternative perspectives? Of has the 'short' format made him delete the alternative arguments?
This is the most disappointing of the 20+ Very Short Introductions that I have read so far, the vast majority of which I would rate as 4 or 5 star.
I would welcome some comment or alternative perspective on this book in case I am missing something useful and I am open to being mistaken.
Moreover, each time some of the theory mapped down into the real world of actually choosing, actually making a decision, or in building a political perspective about democracy or income distribution, it didn't seem to compute. Sample: 'Under democracy it will always be in the interests of the majority to oppress the minority. An example here is to be found in bans on country sports.' Apart from the fact that his example will be meaningless outside the UK, there is nothing in the previous paragraphs to justify this blunt assertion, that seems empirically extremely doubtful. I am a minority in reading lots of books, or in kayaking, or liking the novels of Anthony Powell and I feel no oppression from any majority. All of us are minorities in some perhaps the majority of respects, and I doubt that most of us in most situations feel oppressed.
I suspect that Michael Allingham (like most of us) has a definite set of political views: probably strong free market, authoritarian/libertarian (i.e. not without contradictions), and very comfortable with extreme income inequality. But I found that the step from Choice Theory to the implications he draws was just too large a leap of logic. He has simply projected his own belief systems into his real world conclusions and left me behind in the chain of logic stakes.
I am left profoundly disappointed that Choice Theory, that sounds like it might be helpful to the tough choices we are faced as a society, either does not have anything interesting to contribute or Michael Allingham's spin on it is profoundly unhelpful. I will now start the search to see if there is a better short introduction to this field that maps more usefully to choices in the real world. And that speaks to the audience in a more empathetic way. There is never any sense that this book has been subject to any push back from people who might not share his views, either on Choice Theory or the implications he has drawn. Surely his students at Oxford should have torn some of his logic and implications to pieces and lead to some re-writing? Created some cognizance of alternative perspectives? Of has the 'short' format made him delete the alternative arguments?
This is the most disappointing of the 20+ Very Short Introductions that I have read so far, the vast majority of which I would rate as 4 or 5 star.
I would welcome some comment or alternative perspective on this book in case I am missing something useful and I am open to being mistaken.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Poor synopsis
6 May 2011
Format:Kindle Edition
If this book is supposed to give us a view of what is current and important in choice theory, it fails completely. It is hard to understand why it was included in Oxford's Very Short Introduction series, which is generally very good and sometimes remarkable. Just read Tim Gowers' book on Mathematics - enthralling!
First, its tone is inappropriate, in the sense that it states controversial things (remember, this is an introductory book) in a authoritarian manner. This style may go well with undergraduates, with whom unbalanced rants backed by very flimsy evidence will go unchallenged for fear of bad grades. For the rest of the world that does not depend on Mr. Allingham's goodwill and hopefully sunny disposition, it is singularly unpersuasive. It reads like robber-baron, Wall-Street/City of London capitalist propaganda, which is neither better nor more truthful than peasants-with-pitchforks Communist propaganda.
Second, it fails to take into consideration recent and not-so-recent advances in decision theory. Humans and animals are often irrational and have a very limited computational power. Thus models which assume rationality, perfect information and unlimited computational capacity are of little or no use. While perhaps interesting as intellectual exercises, they are useless in describing the real world. If you want to smell a rat, look in the pages of books like this - if it mainly deals with a "rational agent", any such book may be safely disregarded. The "rational agent" assumption, together with the assumption of gaussian probability distributions, have given the world a large number of horrible planning failures, from world wars to, most recently, the crippling of world economy by "talented" bankers, Mobutu-style kleptocrats who rake state-backed millions in bonuses after bankrupting everybody.
Third, something positive. While some of the author's assertions are wrong, they also are hilarious and thus provide good (if perhaps unintended) entertainment value. For example, the author states something to the effect that a certain amount of money means the same thing to someone who has a lot of money and to someone who does not. This assertion is so that it highlights his distaste for progressive taxation. So if you lose 10 dollars and you have 1,000,000, the loss causes the same pain as it would to a pauper who only has 100. Very convincing, isn't it? In reality, the perception of sensory stimuli and numerical quantities is ruled by the Weber-Fechner law, which states that quantities are perceived relative to the baseline and for which overwhelming experimental and observational evidence exists. In other words, a loss of 10 dollars for the 100 dollars pauper is approximated by a loss of 100,000 for the millionaire. Yet you wouldn't learn it from this book. The Weber-Fechner law has been formulated in the 19th century - who knows, news may travel slowly from Germany to England.
For decision theory books that actually do apply to real decision-making, it is much better to read Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky, Howard Raiffa & John Pratt & Robert Schlaifer, Paul Glimcher, Sheena Iyengar, Dan Ariely, Barry Schawartz, Jonah Lehrer. These books have various lengths, areas of emphasis and levels of mathematical treatment, yet none falls into the category of this introduction. Hopefully they will satisfy your needs and intellectual curiosity. This book has no place alongside them.
First, its tone is inappropriate, in the sense that it states controversial things (remember, this is an introductory book) in a authoritarian manner. This style may go well with undergraduates, with whom unbalanced rants backed by very flimsy evidence will go unchallenged for fear of bad grades. For the rest of the world that does not depend on Mr. Allingham's goodwill and hopefully sunny disposition, it is singularly unpersuasive. It reads like robber-baron, Wall-Street/City of London capitalist propaganda, which is neither better nor more truthful than peasants-with-pitchforks Communist propaganda.
Second, it fails to take into consideration recent and not-so-recent advances in decision theory. Humans and animals are often irrational and have a very limited computational power. Thus models which assume rationality, perfect information and unlimited computational capacity are of little or no use. While perhaps interesting as intellectual exercises, they are useless in describing the real world. If you want to smell a rat, look in the pages of books like this - if it mainly deals with a "rational agent", any such book may be safely disregarded. The "rational agent" assumption, together with the assumption of gaussian probability distributions, have given the world a large number of horrible planning failures, from world wars to, most recently, the crippling of world economy by "talented" bankers, Mobutu-style kleptocrats who rake state-backed millions in bonuses after bankrupting everybody.
Third, something positive. While some of the author's assertions are wrong, they also are hilarious and thus provide good (if perhaps unintended) entertainment value. For example, the author states something to the effect that a certain amount of money means the same thing to someone who has a lot of money and to someone who does not. This assertion is so that it highlights his distaste for progressive taxation. So if you lose 10 dollars and you have 1,000,000, the loss causes the same pain as it would to a pauper who only has 100. Very convincing, isn't it? In reality, the perception of sensory stimuli and numerical quantities is ruled by the Weber-Fechner law, which states that quantities are perceived relative to the baseline and for which overwhelming experimental and observational evidence exists. In other words, a loss of 10 dollars for the 100 dollars pauper is approximated by a loss of 100,000 for the millionaire. Yet you wouldn't learn it from this book. The Weber-Fechner law has been formulated in the 19th century - who knows, news may travel slowly from Germany to England.
For decision theory books that actually do apply to real decision-making, it is much better to read Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky, Howard Raiffa & John Pratt & Robert Schlaifer, Paul Glimcher, Sheena Iyengar, Dan Ariely, Barry Schawartz, Jonah Lehrer. These books have various lengths, areas of emphasis and levels of mathematical treatment, yet none falls into the category of this introduction. Hopefully they will satisfy your needs and intellectual curiosity. This book has no place alongside them.
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