Complexity, Akrasia, Cognitive Dissonance, and Buridan's Ass

An important philosophical question relates to whether or not our decision-making practices are constrained or free (or, at least, mostly constrained or free). The notion of rationality (reason or logical thinking) is exemplary of the former, while a kind of radical voluntarism propounded by some post-structuralists is exemplary of the latter. The post-structuralist conception of decision-making as a free (and largely unbridled) enterprise predicts that we should witness people struggling to successfully and reliably make decisions. I intend to demonstrate that this is not the case. If so, then post-structuralists suffer a debilitating dilemma. They must either (a) retain their post-structuralist principles and accept that their view does not concord with how successful decision-making actually occurs or (b) accept that successful decision-making is constrained (by something like rationality) and thereby give up their view's post-structuralist foundation. I will suggest that Option b is more tenable.