Skip to main content
Log in

Does Practical Deliberation Crowd Out Self-Prediction?

  • Published:
Erkenntnis Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

It is a popular view thatpractical deliberation excludes foreknowledge of one's choice. Wolfgang Spohn and Isaac Levi have argued that not even a purely probabilistic self-predictionis available to thedeliberator, if one takes subjective probabilities to be conceptually linked to betting rates. It makes no sense to have a betting rate for an option, for one's willingness to bet on the option depends on the net gain from the bet, in combination with the option's antecedent utility, rather than on the offered odds. And even apart from this consideration, assigning probabilities to the options among which one is choosing is futile since such probabilities could be of no possible use in choice. The paper subjects these arguments to critical examination and suggests that, appearances notwithstanding, practical deliberation need not crowd outself-prediction.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  • Aumann, R. J., S. Hart, and M. Perry: 1997, 'The Absent-Minded Driver', Games and Economic Behavior 20, 102-120.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aumann, R. J.: 1987, 'Correlated Equilibrium as an Expression of Bayesian Rationality', Econometrica 55, 67-96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carlson, E.: 2000, 'Deliberation, Foreknowledge, and Morality as a Guide to Action', draft.

  • Eells, E.: 1984, 'Newcomb's Many Solutions', Theory and Decision 16, 59-105.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gärdenfors, P. and N.-E. Sahlin: 1982, 'Unreliable Probabilities, Risk-Taking and Decision-Making', Synthese 53, 36-86; re-printed in Gärdenfors and Sahlin (eds.), Decision, Probability and Utility - Selected Readings, University Press, Cambridge 1988, pp. 313-334.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibbard, A. and W. Harper: 1978, 'Counterfactuals and Two Kinds of Expected Utility', in C. A. Hooker, J. J. Leach and E. F. McClennen (eds.), Foundations and Applications of Decision Theory, Vol. 1: Theoretical Foundations, University of Western Ontario Series in Philosophy of Science, 13, Reidel, Dordrecht and Boston, pp. 125-162.

  • Ginet, C.: 1962, 'Can the Will Be Caused?', Philosophical Review 71, 49-55.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldman, A.: 1970, A Theory of Human Action, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jeffrey, R.: 1977, 'A Note on Probability Kinematics', Erkenntnis 11, 135-141.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jeffrey, R.: 1983, Logic of Decision, 2nd ed., Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago and London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jeffrey, R.: 1996, 'Decision Kinematics', in K. Arrow, E. Colombatto, M. Perlman and C. Schmidt (eds.), The Rational Foundations of Economic Behaviour, IEA conference vol. No.114, Macmillan Press and St. Martin's Press, London and New York, pp. 3-19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kant, I.: 1956 (1788), Critique of Practical Reason, transl. by Lewis White Beck, The Bobbs-Merrill Comp., Indianapolis - New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Korsgaard, C. M.: 1996, 'Morality as Freedom', in Korsgaard (ed.), Creating the Kingdom of Ends, Cambridge University Press, pp. 159-87. Reprinted from Y. Yovel (ed.), Kant's Practical Philosophy Reconsidered, Kluwer, Dordrecht 1989, pp. 23-48.

  • Levi, I.: 1980, The Enterprise of Knowledge, The MIT Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levi, I.: 1986, Hard Choices, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levi, I.: 1989, 'Rationality, Prediction, and Autonomous Choice', Canadian Journal of Philosophy 19(suppl.), 339-363, re-printed in Levi (1997), pp. 19-39.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levi, I.: 1991, 'Consequentialism and Sequential Choice', in M. Bacharach and S. Hurley (eds.), Foundations of Decision Theory, Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 92-122; re-published in a slightly different form in Levi (1997), pp. 70-101.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levi, I.: 1997, The Covenant of Reason, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pears, D.: 1968, 'Predicting and Deciding', in P. F. Strawson (ed.), Studies in the Philosophy of Thought and Action, Oxford, London.

  • Piccione, M. and A. Rubinstein: 1997, 'On the Interpretation of Decision Problems with Imperfect Recall', Games and Economic Behavior 20, 3-24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rabinowicz, W.: 2001, 'Remarks on the Absentminded Driver', in W. Rabinowicz (ed.), Value and Choice Vol. 2, Lund Philosophy Reports, pp. 194-207; a revised version forthcoming in Studia Logica 2002.

  • Shackle, G. L. S.: 1958, Time in Economics, North Holland, Amsterdam.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schick, F.: 1979. 'Self-Knowledge, Uncertainty and Choice', British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 30, 232-252; re-printed in P. Gärdenfors and N.-E. Sahlin (eds.), Decision, Probability and Utility, Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge 1988, pp. 270-286.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schick, F.: 2000. 'Surprise, Self-Knowledge and Commonality', Journal of Philosophy 97, 440-453; originally published in B. Hansson, S. Halldén, W. Rabinowicz and N.-E. Sahlin (eds.), Spinning Ideas - An Electronic Festschrift for Peter Gärdenfors, 1999, http://www.lucs.lu.se/spinning/

  • Sobel, J. H.: 1994, Taking Chances, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spohn, W.: 1977, 'Where Luce and Krantz Do Really Generalize Savage's Decision Model', Erkenntnis 11, 113-134.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spohn, W.: 1978, Grundlagen der Entscheidungstheorie, Scriptor, Kronberg/Ts.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spohn, W.: 1999, Strategic Rationality, Forschungsbericht der DFG-Forschergruppe 'Logik in der Philosophie', University of Konstanz.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Rabinowicz, W. Does Practical Deliberation Crowd Out Self-Prediction?. Erkenntnis 57, 91–122 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020106622032

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020106622032

Keywords

Navigation