Some thoughts on the principle of revealed preferences

Economic theorists characterize an individual decision maker using three basic con-cepts: (1) A collection of objects: The manner in which a decision maker perceives an object does not have to be objective. For example, one decision maker might think about a red triangle as a triangle while another might think about it as a red object. (2) Mental preferences: These describe the mental attitude of an individual toward the objects. They can be defined in contexts which do not involve actual choice. In particular, preferences can describe tastes (such as a preference for one season over another) or can refer to situations which are only hypothetical (such as the possible courses of action available to an individual were he to become Emperor of Rome) or which the individual does not fully control (such as a game situation in which a player has preferences over the entire set of outcomes). (3) Choice: It is customary to describe a choice situation using a set of objects the individual can choose from. A choice function spells out how the individual will respond to any choice situation he might face