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40Decision When Desires Are UncertainBowling Green Studies in Applied Philosophy 3 69-75. 1981.An agent in a decision problem may not know the goals that should guide selection of an option. Accommodating this ignorance require methods that supplement expected utility theory.
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15Review of Erik J. Olsson (ed.), Knowledge and Inquiry: Essays on the Pragmatism of Isaac Levi (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2007 (8). 2007.
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34Auguste Comte, John Stuart Mill, et l'economie politiqueJournal of French and Francophone Philosophy 8 (1): 40-53. 1996.none.
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8PreferenceIn Hugh LaFollette (ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Ethics, Blackwell. 2013.Decision theory relies on an account of preference. Some accounts are behaviorist and others are mentalistic. The account used affects the explanatory power of decision theory.
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75A computer simulation runs a model generating a phenomenon under investigation. For the simulation to be explanatory, the model has to be explanatory. The model must be isomorphic to the natural system that realizes the phenomenon. This paper elaborates the method of assessing a simulation's explanatory power. Then it illustrates the method by applying it to two simulations in game theory. The first is Brian Skyrms's (1990) simulation of interactive deliberations. It is intended to explain the e…Read more
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Joseph Y. Halpern, Reasoning about Uncertainty (review)Philosophy in Review 24 333-336. 2004.Reviews Joseph Halpern's book with special attention to his points about conditionals.
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82Utility and framingSynthese 176 (1). 2010.Standard principles of rational decision assume that an option's utility is both comprehensive and accessible. These features constrain interpretations of an option's utility. This essay presents a way of understanding utility and laws of utility. It explains the relation between an option's utility and its outcome's utility and argues that an option's utility is relative to a specification of the option. Utility's relativity explains how a decision problem's framing affects an option's utility …Read more
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32IntroductionSynthese 176 (1): 1-3. 2010.This introduction is to a special journal issue on realistic standards for decisions. A realistic standard takes account of human cognitive limits, the circumstances for making a decision, and the features of a decision problem.
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14The General Welfare As A Constitutional GoalSocial Philosophy Today 5 411-432. 1991.This essay examines how attention to the general welfare should influence the formulation of a constitution.
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82Collective actsSynthese 187 (1): 223-241. 2012.Groups of people perform acts. For example, a committee passes a resolution, a team wins a game, and an orchestra performs a symphony. These collective acts may be evaluated for rationality. Take a committee’s passing a resolution. This act may be evaluated not only for fairness but also for rationality. Did it take account of all available information? Is the resolution consistent with the committee’s past resolutions? Standards of collective rationality apply to collective acts, that is, acts …Read more
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Ellery Eells and Tomasz Maruszewski, eds., Probability and Rationality: Studies on L. Jonathan Cohen's Philosophy of Science Reviewed by (review)Philosophy in Review 12 (3): 189-191. 1992.This book review describes and evaluates the essays collected by the editors.
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30Risk's Place in Decision RulesSynthese 126 (3): 427-441. 2001.To handle epistemic and pragmatic risks, Gärdenfors and Sahlin (1982, 1988) design a decision procedure for cases in which probabilities are indeterminate. Their procedure steps outside the traditional expected utility framework. Must it do this? Can the traditional framework handle risk? This paper argues that it can. The key is a comprehensive interpretation of an option's possible outcomes. Taking possible outcomes more broadly than Gärdenfors and Sahlin do, expected utility can give risk its…Read more
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27Adam Morton on DilemmasDialogue 33 (1): 95. 1994.Adam Morton offers a novel approach to making decisions. This review describes and evaluates his innovations
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24Decisions in Dynamic SettingsPSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1986. 1986.In a decision problem with a dynamic setting there is at least one option whose realization would change the expected utilities of options by changing the probability or utility function with respect to which the expected utilities of options are computed. A familiar example is Newcomb's problem. William Harper proposes a generalization of causal decision theory intended to cover all decision problems with dynamic settings, not just Newcomb's problem. His generalization uses Richard Jeffrey's id…Read more
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90Decision theory aims at a general account of rationality covering humans but to begin makes idealizations about decision problems and agents' resources and circumstances. It treats inerrant agents with unlimited cognitive power facing tractable decision problems. This book systematically rolls back idealizations and without loss of precision treats errant agents with limited cognitive abilities facing decision problems without a stable top option. It recommends choices that maximize utility usin…Read more
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20Thinking about Acting: Logical Foundations for Rational Decision Making - by John L. PollockPhilosophical Books 48 (3): 283-285. 2007.This book review describes and evaluates John Pollock's view about rational decision-making.
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1Mark Kaplan, Decision Theory as Philosophy (review)Philosophy in Review 16 (3): 179-180. 1996.Mark Kaplan proposes amending decision theory to accommodate better cases in which an agent's probability assignment is imprecise. The review describes and evaluates his proposals.
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20Value in Ethics and Economics (review)Philosophical Books 36 (2): 139-141. 1995.This review describes and evaluates a book by Elizabeth Anderson.
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11Comments on Ellis’ “What Economists (and Everyone Else) Should Think About Utility Theory”Southwest Philosophy Review 18 (2): 117-120. 2002.
Areas of Specialization
Logic and Philosophy of Logic |
Philosophy of Probability |
Areas of Interest
Social and Political Philosophy |
General Philosophy of Science |