This is a reminder for:
Title: Nick Smith
Is Evaluative Compositionality a Requirement of Rationality?
Orthodox decision theory advises an agent to choose the action with the
greatest expected utility. Nover and Hájek [2004] presented a new type of
gamble -- the Pasadena game -- which has no expected utility and so, they
claim, presents a "headache", a "serious problem", a "paradox" for orthodox
decision theory. In response, some authors have proposed specific
additions or modifications to orthodox decision theory to accommodate the
Pasadena game and its ilk [Colyvan 2006, 2008; Easwaran 2007, 2008;
Sprenger and Heesen 2009], while others have argued that really there is no
problem and that orthodox decision theory is fine as is [Fine 2008; Baker
2007]. The importance of a puzzle is measured not by the quantity of
responses it sparks, but by the depth of the issues that discussion of the
puzzle brings to light. I shall argue that consideration of the Pasadena
game does indeed lead to a very deep issue: the issue of evaluative
compositionality. The issue is whether the value which an ideally rational
agent places on a gamble is determined by the values which she places on
the possible outcomes of the gamble, together with their 'mode of
composition' -- the way they are combined into the gamble: that is, the
probabilities assigned to the outcomes by the gamble. I shall argue that
evaluative compositionality is not a requirement of rationality -- although
this is not to say that 'anything goes' when it comes to valuing a gamble:
rather, compositionality fails in a specific, constrained way -- and that
this provides the key to seeing why the Pasadena game and its relatives do
not ultimately threaten orthodox decision theory.
When: Mon Apr 12 1pm – 2:30pm Eastern Time - Melbourne, Sydney
Where: University of Sydney philosophy common room
Calendar: Current Projects
Who:
* [email protected] - creator
Event details:
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