The Foundations of Causal Decision Theory
Douban
Joyce, James M.
overview
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.
contents
Introduction
1. Instrumental rationality as expected utility maximization
2. Decision problems
3. Savage theory
4. Evidential decision theory
5. Causal decision theory
6. A General theory of conditional believes
7. Representation theorem for causal decision theory
8. Where things stand