Scholarly Behavior: Bounded Rational Production of Rational Scientific Knowledge

Abstract

People differ greatly in cognitive abilities, but all of them have limited abilities, ranging from the ability to perceive the surrounding reality and ending with the implementation of mathematical calculations and logical conclusions from the premises made. If a fully rational individual not only has complete information about the world, but also unlimited possibilities to make calculations and draw logical conclusions, then real people, including professional researchers, are only bounded rational. However, the scientific knowledge produced by scientists is close to completely rational. The article discusses the components of bounded rationality and those mechanisms within science that allow such a transition to be made. The leading role among these mechanisms belongs to scholarly communication, one of the functions of which is the correction of involuntary and unconscious errors made by bounded rational researchers. It is shown that the execution of this function faces certain difficulties, which are important to investigate in order to improve the error correction process.