Choice, Preference, Rationality

The paper sketches a theoretical framework that has the required expressive power to deal with the phenomenon of preference reversal. This phenomenon is studied in three different contexts: rational choice theory, epistemology, and ethics. A common underlying theme is identified: the so-called higher-order interactions stemming from the epistemic value of the available alternatives. In order to capture them I employ the concept of a relational system. It is shown that this mathematical structure, along with several crucial concepts (regularity, stratifiedness, coherence), is enough to capture the essential features of preference reversal. Building on this insight, the paper proposes several new lines of research, based on the common structure exemplified by these seemingly different domains.