An Analysis Of The Cognitive Approach To The Study Of Political Decision-making

The methodology of political decision-making is an important topic in the philosophy of political science.The theory of rational choice in the study of political decision-making is in trouble,and the complete rational model,as its background presupposition,is questioned.The following self restriction from the inside of rationalism and the external restriction from irrationalism make rationalism more vulnerable.Irrationalism,following its theoretical logic,will eventually lead to negativity and nothingness,so it can not be used as a substitute for rationalism and become the mainstream of political decision-making research.Therefore,the complete rationality model and irrationalism,which emphasize the absolute strength of rationality,are subject to censure,and the study of political decision-making is in trouble.Since the 1980 s,with the rapid development of artificial intelligence,psychology,neuroscience and linguistics,the second generation of cognitive science,which is based on embodiment,situational,cognitive development and dynamic system,has provided a new research paradigm for political decision-making.It is on the basis of critically inheriting complete rationality and irrationalism,and under the inspiration and guidance of cognitive science that Simon leads to the third way between complete rationality and Irrationality: limited rationality.In Simon’s view,human is not a "rational man" who is "omnipotent" and "rational man" who pursues the maximum benefit as the only meaning under the presupposition of complete rationality.Simon admits that human’s rationality is limited,which includes not only the limited and incomplete information that people can obtain,but also the limited computational ability.Under the limited rationality,people follow the "satisfaction principle" and "adaptation principle" It is necessary to make a decision according to the principle of flexibility.This paper first analyzes the dilemma of rational choice theory based on complete rationality in the study of political decision-making,reviews the criticism and reflection of political scientists and philosophers on complete rationality itself,and then explains the process and theory of Simon’s limited rationality thought on the basis of critically inheriting complete rationality and irrationalism and under the Enlightenment of cognitive science Then it introduces and analyzes two decision-making models under Simon’s bounded rationality and the main cognitive psychological factors: the influence of individual emotion and cognitive dissonance on political decision-making.Finally,this paper promotes the theoretical characteristics of political decision-making research under Simon’s bounded rationality to the level of methodology,and expounds the practical and theoretical problems of political decision-making research under Simon’s bounded rationality Significance: it introduces a cognitive approach to the study of political decision-making,which is different from the traditional methodology.