Economía

This volume of essays is very much a sequel to the earlier collections by John Elster, Ulysses and the Sirens and Sour Grapes. Hit topic is rationality its scope, its limitations, and its failures. Elster considers rational responses to the insufficiency of reason itself, and to the indeterminacies in deploying rational-choice theory, and discusses the irrationality of not seeing when, where, and what these are. A key essay that gives the collection its title examines child custody disputes that are paradigmatically indeterminate. Leaving aside cases in which one parent is patently unfit and assuming that protracted dispute is against the immediate interests of the child, Elster argues that three options present themselves: a strong presumption in favor of the mother, a strong presumption in favor of the primary caretaker (also likely to be the mother), and tossing a coin. Though the first two options may be preferable in the short or medium term, Elster argues that there is a case for randomization in the long term. The book will be read with intest by anyone concerned with the political and social sciences.