The Mind under the Axioms reviews two basic ingredients of our understanding of human decisions - conative aspects (preferences) and cognitive aspects (beliefs). These ingredients are axiomatized in modern decision theory in the view to obtain a formally and empirically tractable representation of the decision-maker. The main issue developed in this book is the connection between realistic and testable psychological features and the descriptive component of abstract axioms of rationality. It addresses three main topics for which the interaction between axiomatization and psychology leads to potential new developments in experimental decision-theory and puts strictures on the standard revealed preference methodology prevailing in that field. The possibility of a cardinal representation of preferences is discussed. Different ways of accounting for incomplete preferences, and in which sense, are analysed. Finally, the conditions of separability between preferences and beliefs, such as prescribed by axioms of state-independence, are submitted to actual and potential tests. The book offers a bridge between the disciplines of decision-theory, psychology, and neuroeconomics. It is thus relevant for those, in psychology and cognitive sciences, who are sometimes put off by the high degree of formalism and abstraction in decision-theory, that seems to lie beyond the reach of psychological realism. It also aims to convince those in decision-theory for whom psychological realism and empirical testability should not constrain the modelling enterprise that conceptual clarification can come from attempted experimentation.
Undurti N. Das is an M.D. in Internal Medicine from Osmania Medical College, Hyderabad, India; a Fellow of the National Academy of Medical Sciences, India, and Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar prize awardee. Apart from clinical work, he is researching the role of polyunsaturated fatty acids, cytokines, nitric oxide, free radicals, and anti-oxidants in cancer, inflammation, metabolic syndrome, schizophrenia, sepsis, rheumatological conditions and autisms. His current interests include the epidemiological and molecular aspects of autism, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases and metabolic syndrome. Dr. Das was formerly scientist at Efamol Research Institute, Kentville, Canada; Professor of Medicine at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad, India and Research Professor of Surgery and Nutrition at SUNY (State University of New York) Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, USA. At present, he is the Chairman and Research Director of UND Life Sciences LLC, USA, and serves as a consultant to both Indian and USA based biotech and pharmaceutical companies. Undurti Das is the Founding Editor of the international journal: Lipids in Health and Disease; and serves on the editorial board of another 10 international journals. Dr Das has more than 500 international publications and has been awarded 5 USA patents.
Dr. Neophytos (Neo) L. Papaneophytou earned a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and holds licenses to practice psychotherapy in various States in America. He has completed specialization training in the areas of sexual abuse and maltreatment, personality disorders and trauma. Dr. Papaneophytou has extensive experience working with both victims and abusers. Moreover, he as experience diagnosing and treating various psychiatric conditions and stressors related to anxiety, mood disorders, depression, schizophrenia, bereavement, divorce, adjustment issues, LGBTQU issues, ADHD, PTSD, school/behavioral issues, and parenting among others. When working with clients (children, adults, and couples) Dr. Papaneophytou utilizes a client-centered approach to facilitate optimal therapeutic results that allows clients to enjoy an improved quality of life. In his client-centered approach, Dr. Papaneophytou utilizes techniques from the following therapeutic orientations: cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, transference-focused psychotherapy, dynamic psychotherapy, and trauma-focused CBT. In addition to his clinical practice and research, Dr. Papaneophytou’s career has included over 20 years of the teaching of multiple graduate and undergraduate psychology courses at institutions such as the City University of New York, The State University of New York, and many other local and international universities. Dr. Papaneophytou is the founder and President of non-profit organizations, aiming at expanding awareness and offering actionable help to people on the Autism Spectrum and their families. He organized the Annual Cyprus International Conference on Autism Treatment and Research, and he is working toward the establishment of a model Center for Excellence: The Cyprus International Center for Autism Education Treatment and Research. This is the 3rd book Dr. Papaneophytou has co-authored pertinent to ASD. He welcomes scientific collaboration, particularly comparative international research.
Dr. Tatyana El-Kour is the proud daughter of Palestinian parent refugees, raised in a household where exile was not a chapter in a history book but a living inheritance. Her parents carried stories of uprooting, endurance, and rebuilding with dignity, and they passed on a simple truth: food is more than nutrition―it is memory, safety, and belonging. As a child, Tatyana grew up in communities shaped by poverty, migration, and crisis. She often joined her parents as they cared for neighbors, recent arrivals, and families with fewer resources. These early encounters with deprivation and resilience formed her earliest education. Supporting crisis-affected people was never a choice or a profession; it was life itself. As she often says, this work “grew in my blood.”
Her career extends that inheritance across continents. For more than two decades, Tatyana has worked throughout the Middle East, Central Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America, moving between refugee camps, fragile communities, policy spaces, and academic institutions. She is known for integrating nutrition, psychology, and narrative inquiry with emerging technologies. Her recent work explores how AI, augmented reality, and immersive media can preserve community stories, elevate the voices of marginalized populations, and create new ways of teaching and understanding human experience in crisis settings.
Tatyana holds a PhD in Psychology (Media Psychology) and advanced degrees in Medical Nutrition Therapy and Media Psychology. A Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and Fellow of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, she writes as both scholar and witness―someone shaped by the very histories she now works to illuminate.
