Optimality: BBS Call for Commentators

[Stevan Harnad]

Below is the abstract of a forthcoming target article to appear in
Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS), an international,
interdisciplinary journal providing Open Peer Commentary on important
and controversial current research in the biobehavioral and cognitive
sciences. To be considered as a commentator or to suggest other appropriate
commentators, please send email to:
	 harnad at clarity.princeton.edu              or write to:
BBS, 20 Nassau Street, #240, Princeton NJ 08542  [tel: 609-921-7771]

Please specify the aspect of the article that you are qualified and
interested to comment upon. If you are not a current BBS Associate,
please send your CV and/or the name of a current Associate who would be
prepared to nominate you.
____________________________________________________________________
The Quest for Optimality: A Positive Heuristic of Science?

Paul J. H. Schoemaker
Center for Decision Research
Graduate School of Business
University of Chicago
Chicago, IL 6063

Abstract

This paper examines the strengths and weaknesses of one of science's
most pervasive and flexible metaprinciples: Optimality
is used to explain utility maximization in economics, least effort
principles in physics, entropy in chemistry, and survival of the
fittest in biology. Fermat's principle of least time involves both
teleological and causal considerations, two distinct modes of
explanation resting on poorly understood psychological primitives.
The rationality heuristic in economics provides an example from social
science of the potential biases arising from the extreme flexibility of
optimality considerations, including selective search for confirming
evidence, ex post rationalization, and the confusion of prediction with
explanation. Commentators are asked to reflect on the extent to which
optimality is (1) an organizing priniciple of nature, (2) a set of
relatively unconnected techniques of science, (3) a normative principle
for rational choice and social organization, (4) a metaphysical way of
looking at the world, or (5) something else still.

Key Words:
Optimization, Variational Principles, Rationality,
Explanation, Evolution, Economics, Adaptation, Causality, Heuristics,
Biases, Sociobiology, Control Theory, Homeostasis, Entropy, Regulation.