satisfice to choose or do the good enough rather than the most or the best. ‘Satisfice’, an obsolete variant of ‘satisfy’, has been adopted by economist Herbert Simon and others to designate nonoptimizing choice or action. According to some economists, limitations of time or information may make it impossible or inadvisable for an individual, firm, or state body to attempt to maximize pleasure, profits, market share, revenues, or some other desired result, and satisficing with respect to such results is then said to be rational, albeit less than ideally rational. Although many orthodox economists think that choice can and always should be conceived in maximizing or optimizing terms, satisficing models have been proposed in economics, evolutionary biology, and philosophy. Biologists have sometimes conceived evolutionary change as largely consisting of ‘good enough’ or satisficing adaptations to environmental pressures rather than as proceeding through optimal adjustments to such pressures, but in philosophy, the most frequent recent use of the idea of satisficing has been in ethics and rational choice theory. Economists typically regard satisficing as acceptable only where there are unwanted constraints on decision making; but it is also possible to see satisficing as entirely acceptable in itself, and in the field of ethics, it has recently been argued that there may be nothing remiss about moral satisficing, e.g., giving a good amount to charity, but less than one could give. It is possible to formulate satisficing forms of utilitarianism on which actions are morally right (even) if they contribute merely positively and/or in some large way, rather than maximally, to overall net human happiness. Bentham’s original formulation of the principle of utility and Popper’s negative utilitarianism are both examples of satisficing utilitarianism in this sense – and it should be noted that satisficing utilitarianism has the putative advantage over optimizing forms of allowing for supererogatory degrees of moral excellence. Moreover, any moral view that treats moral satisficing as permissible makes room for moral supererogation in cases where one optimally goes beyond the merely acceptable. But since moral satisficing is less than optimal moral behavior, but may be more meritorious than certain behavior that (in the same circumstances) would be merely permissible, some moral satisficing may actually count as supererogatory.
In recent work on rational individual choice, some philosophers have argued that satisficing may often be acceptable in itself, rather than merely second-best. Even Simon allows that an entrepreneur may simply seek a satisfactory return on investment or share of the market, rather than a maximum under one of these headings. But a number of philosophers have made the further claim that we may sometimes, without irrationality, turn down the readily available better in the light of the goodness and sufficiency of what we already have or are enjoying. Independently of the costs of taking a second dessert, a person may be entirely satisfied with what she has eaten and, though willing to admit she would enjoy that extra dessert, turn it down, saying ‘I’m just fine as I am.’ Whether such examples really involve an acceptable rejection of the (momentarily) better for the good enough has been disputed. However, some philosophers have gone on to say, even more strongly, that satisficing can sometimes be rationally required and optimizing rationally unacceptable. To keep on seeking pleasure from food or sex without ever being thoroughly satisfied with what one has enjoyed can seem compulsive and as such less than rational. If one is truly rational about such goods, one isn’t insatiable: at some point one has had enough and doesn’t want more, even though one could obtain further pleasure.
The idea that satisficing is sometimes a requirement of practical reason is reminiscent of Aristotle’s view that moderation is inherently reasonable – rather than just a necessary means to later enjoyments and the avoidance of later pain or illness, which is the way the Epicureans conceived moderation. But perhaps the greatest advocate of satisficing is Plato, who argues in the Philebus that there must be measure or limit to our (desire for) pleasure in order for pleasure to count as a good thing for us. Insatiably to seek and obtain pleasure from a given source is to gain nothing good from it. And according to such a view, satisficing moderation is a necessary precondition of human good and flourishing, rather than merely being a rational restraint on the accumulation of independently conceived personal good or well-being. See also DECISION THEORY, HEDONISM , RATIONALITY , UTILITARIANIS. M.A.Sl.