the definition of “utility” is pretty simple. It is simply “that thing that gets maximized in any particular person’s decision making”.
This definition sounds dangerously vacuous to me.
Of course, you can always give some consistent parametrization of (agent,choice,situation) triplets so that choice C made by agent A in situation S is always maximal among all available choices. If you call this function “utility”, then it is mathematically trivial that “Agents always maximize utility.” However, the usefulness of this approach is very low without additional constraints on the utility function.
I’d be really curious to see some pointers to the “maximizing theory” you think survived a 50 years of “strong scrutiny”.
This definition sounds dangerously vacuous to me.
Of course, you can always give some consistent parametrization of (agent,choice,situation) triplets so that choice C made by agent A in situation S is always maximal among all available choices. If you call this function “utility”, then it is mathematically trivial that “Agents always maximize utility.” However, the usefulness of this approach is very low without additional constraints on the utility function.
I’d be really curious to see some pointers to the “maximizing theory” you think survived a 50 years of “strong scrutiny”.