Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T07:04:05.319Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Discussion: Levi's Decision Theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Stephen Leeds*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy University of Colorado at Boulder

Abstract

Suppose my utilities are representable by a set of utility assignments, each defined for atomic sentences; suppose my beliefs are representable by a set of probability assignments. Then each of my utility assignments together with each of my probability assignments will determine a utility assignment to non-atomic sentences, in a familiar way. This paper is concerned with the question, whether I am committed to all the utility assignments so constructible. Richard Jeffrey (1984) says (in effect) “no”, Isaac Levi (1974) says “yes”. I argue for “no”, and raise in passing a problem for Levi.

Type
Discussion
Copyright
Copyright © 1990 by the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Jeffrey, R. C. (1983), The Logic of Decision, 2nd rev. ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Jeffrey, R. C. (1984), “Bayesianism with a Human Face”, in J. Earman (ed.), Testing Scientific Theories. Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol. 10. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 133156.10.5749/j.cttts94f.9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levi, I. (1974), “On Indeterminate Probabilities”, Journal of Philosophy 71: 391418.10.2307/2025161CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levi, I. (1980), The Enterprise of Knowledge. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Levi, I. (1985), “Imprecision and Indeterminacy in Probability Judgment”, Philosophy of Science 52: 390409.10.1086/289257CrossRefGoogle Scholar