Abstract
Imagine that you are faced with the following predicament. Before you are two boxes, B 1 and B 2. B 1 definitely contains $1,000, while B2 contains either $1,000,000 or nothing. There are just two options open to you. You may either take what is in both boxes or you may take just what is in B 2. Before you act, a Being who has extraordinary predictive powers examines you and, on the basis of his findings, makes a prediction as to which choice you will make. If he predicts that you will pick both boxes, he leaves B 2 empty; whereas, if he predicts that you will take just B2, he places $1,000,000 in B 2. Since you know that the Being has correctly predicted the choices of all previous players, you believe it almost certain that he has correctly predicted your choice. What should you do?
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Bibliography
Robert Nozick, ‘Newcomb’s Problem and Two Principles of Choice’, in Nicholas Rescher (ed.), Essays in Honor of Carl G. Hempel, pp. 114–146, New York, 1970.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1978 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Olin, D. (1978). Newcomb’s Problem, Dominance and Expected Utility. In: Hooker, C.A., Leach, J.J., >McClennen, E.F. (eds) Foundations and Applications of Decision Theory. The University of Western Ontario Series in Philosophy of Science, vol 13a. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-9789-9_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-9789-9_16
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-009-9791-2
Online ISBN: 978-94-009-9789-9
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive