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URN to cite this document: urn:nbn:de:bvb:703-epub-5829-4
Title data
Rich, Patricia:
The key to the knowledge norm of action is ambiguity.
In: Synthese.
(4 June 2021)
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- pp. 9669-9698.
ISSN 1573-0964
DOI der Verlagsversion: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-021-03221-5
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Project information
| Project title: |
Project's official title Project's id Emmy Noether Project "Knowledge and Decisions" 315078566 |
|---|---|
| Project financing: |
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft |
Abstract
Knowledge-first epistemology includes a knowledge norm of action: roughly, act only on what you know. This norm has been criticized, especially from the perspective of so-called standard decision theory. Mueller and Ross provide example decision problems which seem to show that acting properly cannot require knowledge. I argue that this conclusion depends on applying a particular decision theory (namely, Savage-style Expected Utility Theory) which is ill-motivated in this context. Agents’ knowledge is often most plausibly formalized as an ambiguous epistemic state, and the theory of decision under ambiguity is then the appropriate modeling tool. I show how to model agents as acting rationally on the basis of their knowledge according to such a theory. I conclude that the tension between the knowledge norm of action and formal decision theory is illusory; the knowledge-first paradigm should be used to actively select the decision-theoretical tools that can best capture the knowledge-based decisions in any given situation.
Further data
| Item Type: | Article in a journal |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | Knowledge; Decision-making; Ambiguity; Knowledge-first epistemology;
Imprecise probability; Expected utility; Uncertainty |
| DDC Subjects: | 100 Philosophy and psychology > 100 Philosophy |
| Institutions of the University: | Faculties > Faculty of Cultural Studies > Department of Philosophy > Junior Professor Philosophy of Economics > Junior Professor Philosophy of Economics - Juniorprof. Dr. Patricia Lynn Rich Faculties Faculties > Faculty of Cultural Studies Faculties > Faculty of Cultural Studies > Department of Philosophy Faculties > Faculty of Cultural Studies > Department of Philosophy > Junior Professor Philosophy of Economics |
| Language: | English |
| Originates at UBT: | Yes |
| URN: | urn:nbn:de:bvb:703-epub-5829-4 |
| Date Deposited: | 08 Oct 2021 08:59 |
| Last Modified: | 08 Mar 2022 06:42 |
| URI: | https://epub.uni-bayreuth.de/id/eprint/5829 |
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