title: Focus: Bounded Rationality and the History of Science. Introduction.
abstract: Historians of science see knowledge and its claimants as constrained by myriad factors. These limitations range from the assumptions and commitments of scientific practitioners to the material and ideational contexts of their practice. The precise nature of such limits and the relations among them remains an open question in the history of science. The essays in this Focus section address this question by examining one influential portrayal of constraints--Herbert Simon's theory of "bounded rationality"--as well as the responses to which it has given rise over the last half century.
authors.forename: Henry M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Cowles
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Deringer
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dick
authors.forename: Colin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Webster
mesh_terms: D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D019359:Knowledge; D012586:Science / Q000266:history*