Problems of Philosophy: Decision Theory

Standard idealizations in formal epistemology and decision theory don't leave room for uncertainty, incoherence, or lack of precision about (1) how one should or will respond to one's evidence; (2) what new hypotheses one might form; (3) the impact of one's decisions on future values or distant future states of affairs; (4) what states of affairs are valuable; (5) which normative theory is correct. This seminar explores responses to these phenomena, with emphasis on performance-based evaluations of these responses, such as money pump arguments, diachronic exploitation arguments, and value of information arguments.