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Risk aversion and the long runEthics 129 (2): 230-253. 2018.This article argues that Lara Buchak’s risk-weighted expected utility (REU) theory fails to offer a true alternative to expected utility theory. Under commonly held assumptions about dynamic choice and the framing of decision problems, rational agents are guided by their attitudes to temporally extended courses of action. If so, REU theory makes approximately the same recommendations as expected utility theory. Being more permissive about dynamic choice or framing, however, undermines the theory…Read more
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A St Petersburg Paradox for risky welfare aggregationAnalysis 81 (3): 420-426. 2021.
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Why You Should Vote to Change the OutcomePhilosophy and Public Affairs 48 (4): 422-446. 2020.Prevailing opinion—defended by Jason Brennan and others—is that voting to change the outcome is irrational, since although the payoffs of tipping an election can be quite large, the probability of doing so is extraordinarily small. This paper argues that prevailing opinion is incorrect. Voting is shown to be rational so long as two conditions are satisfied: First, the average social benefit of electing the better candidate must be at least twice as great as the individual cost of voting, and sec…Read more
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Reason Better: An Interdisciplinary Guide to Critical ThinkingTophat Monocle. 2019.This book is the result of rethinking the standard playbook for critical thinking courses, to include only the most useful skills from the toolkits of philosophy, cognitive psychology, and behavioral economics. The text focuses on: - a mindset that avoids systematic error, more than the ability to persuade others - the logic of probability and decisions, more than than the logic of deductive arguments - a unified treatment of evidence, covering statistical, causal, and best-explanation inferen…Read more
APA Western Division
Los Angeles, California, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
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Decision Theory |
Normative Ethics |
Epistemology |
Metaphysics |
Logic and Philosophy of Logic |
Philosophy of Religion |