Extracting money from causal decision theorists
Newcomb’s problem has spawned a debate about which variant of expected utility maximisation (if any) should guide rational choice. In this paper, we provide a new argument against what is probably the most popular variant: causal decision theory (CDT). In particular, we provide two scenarios in whic...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
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Oxford University Press
2021
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| Subjects: |
| _version_ | 1797110968857133056 |
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| author | Oesterheld, C Conitzer, V |
| author_facet | Oesterheld, C Conitzer, V |
| author_sort | Oesterheld, C |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Newcomb’s problem has spawned a debate about which variant of expected utility maximisation (if any) should guide rational choice. In this paper, we provide a new argument against what is probably the most popular variant: causal decision theory (CDT). In particular, we provide two scenarios in which CDT voluntarily loses money. In the first, an agent faces a single choice and following CDT’s recommendation yields a loss of money in expectation. The second scenario extends the first to a diachronic Dutch book against CDT. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T08:02:06Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:6e12f6fe-c116-4c4a-8995-541f5e485986 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T08:02:06Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | Oxford University Press |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:6e12f6fe-c116-4c4a-8995-541f5e4859862023-10-09T10:11:05ZExtracting money from causal decision theoristsJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:6e12f6fe-c116-4c4a-8995-541f5e485986Philosophy and religious studiesPhilosophyEnglishSymplectic ElementsOxford University Press2021Oesterheld, CConitzer, VNewcomb’s problem has spawned a debate about which variant of expected utility maximisation (if any) should guide rational choice. In this paper, we provide a new argument against what is probably the most popular variant: causal decision theory (CDT). In particular, we provide two scenarios in which CDT voluntarily loses money. In the first, an agent faces a single choice and following CDT’s recommendation yields a loss of money in expectation. The second scenario extends the first to a diachronic Dutch book against CDT. |
| spellingShingle | Philosophy and religious studies Philosophy Oesterheld, C Conitzer, V Extracting money from causal decision theorists |
| title | Extracting money from causal decision theorists |
| title_full | Extracting money from causal decision theorists |
| title_fullStr | Extracting money from causal decision theorists |
| title_full_unstemmed | Extracting money from causal decision theorists |
| title_short | Extracting money from causal decision theorists |
| title_sort | extracting money from causal decision theorists |
| topic | Philosophy and religious studies Philosophy |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT oesterheldc extractingmoneyfromcausaldecisiontheorists AT conitzerv extractingmoneyfromcausaldecisiontheorists |