The Foundations of Causal Decision Theory

ISBN-13: 9780521641647 / Angielski / Twarda / 1999 / 284 str.

James M. Joyce

Opis

This book defends the view that any adequate account of rational decision making must take a decision maker's beliefs about causal relations into account. The early chapters of the book introduce the nonspecialist to the rudiments of expected utility theory. The major technical advance offered by the book is a "representation theorem" that shows that both causal decision theory and its main rival, Richard Jeffrey's logic of decision, are both instances of a more general conditional decision theory. In providing the most complete and robust defense of causal decision theory the book will be of interest to a broad range of readers in philosophy, economics, psychology, mathematics, and artificial intelligence.

Recenzje

"This book makes a significant contribution to the standard decision theory." Chrisw Swoyer Univ. of Oklahoma

Spis treści

Preface; Introduction: a chance to reconsider; 1. Prudential rationality as expected utility maximization; 2. Decision problems; 3. Savage's theory; 4. Evidential decision theory; 5. Causal decision theory; 6. A general theory of conditional beliefs; 7. A representation theorem for causal decision theory; 8. Where things stand; Notes; References.