Preference
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"I would prefer not to." --"Bartleby, the Scrivener" by Herman Melville "When racial and sexual injustice have been reduced, we shall still be left with the great injustice of the smart and the dumb, who are so differently rewarded for comparable effort. […] Perhaps someone will discover a way to reduce the socially produced inequalities (especially the economic ones) between the intelligent and the unintelligent, the talented and the untalented, or even the beautiful and the ugly."--"The Policy of Preference" by Thomas Nagel in Mortal Questions (1979) by Thomas Nagel |
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Preference (or "taste") is a concept, used in the social sciences, particularly economics. It assumes a real or imagined choice between alternatives and the possibility of rank ordering of these alternatives, based on happiness, satisfaction, gratification, enjoyment, utility they provide. More generally, it can be seen as a source of motivation. In cognitive sciences, individual preferences enable choice of objectives/goals.
Also, more consumption of a normal good is generally (but not always) assumed to be preferred to less consumption.
Etymology
From Proto-Italic *praiferō. Equivalent to prae- (“before”, in front”) + ferō (“I carry”, “I bear”).
See also
- Orientation
- Motivation
- Preference-based planning (in artificial intelligence)
- Preference revelation
- Preferentialism, philosophical concept
- Color preferences
- Social preferences
- Mate preferences
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