Should Values Be Written out of the Social Scientist's Lexicon?

Abstract

Rational choice theory' is often faulted for treating values, preferences, and other internal states as exogenous to its explanations. Calls for an endogenous theory of values have been gaining momentum among critics of rational choice for the last decade.2 They make it seem as if including values in social theories is merely a matter of will. Yet these critics seldom have even defined values, let alone showed how they can be incorporated fruitfully into behavioral explanations. Nor have they proposed any endogenous theories of values;3 indeed, there is a striking absence of discussion about what such a theory might consist of. In general, there has been too little appreciation of the difficulty of incorporating values in theoretical models.4

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