Book Details

Nonbayesian Decision Theory : Beliefs and Desires as Reasons for Action

Publication year: 2008

ISBN: 978-1-4020-8699-1

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This book aims to present an account of rational choice from a non-Bayesian point of view. Rational agents maximize subjective expected utility, but contrary to what is claimed by Bayesians, the author argues that utility and subjective probability should not be defined in terms of preferences over uncertain prospects. To some extent, the author’s non-Bayesian view gives a modern account of what decision theory could have been like, had decision theorists not entered the Bayesian path discovered by Ramsey, Savage, and Jeffrey. The author argues that traditional Bayesian decision theory is unavailing from an action-guiding perspective. For the deliberating Bayesian agent, the output of decision theory is not a set of preferences over alternative acts - these preferences are on the contrary used as input to the theory.


Subject: Humanities, Social Science and Law, Bayesian, Independence axiom, Non-Bayesian Decision Theory, Utility Theory, decision theory, probability