The pauper’s problem: chance, foreknowledge and causal decision theory

Philosophical Studies 173 (6):1497-1516 (2016)
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Abstract

In a letter to Wlodek Rabinowicz, David Lewis introduced a decision scenario that he described as “much more problematic for decision theory than the Newcomb Problems”. This scenario, which involves an agent with foreknowledge of the outcome of some chance process, has received little subsequent attention. However, in one of the small number of discussions of such cases, Huw Price's Causation, Chance and the Rational Significance of Supernatural Evidence it has been argued that cases of this sort pose serious problems for causal decision theory. In this paper, I will argue that these problems can be overcome: scenarios of this sort do not pose fatal problems for this theory as there are versions of CDT that reason appropriately in these cases. However, I will also argue that such cases push us toward a particular version of CDT developed by Wlodek Rabinowicz.

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Adam Bales
University of Oxford

Citations of this work

Determinism, Counterfactuals, and Decision.Alexander Sandgren & Timothy Luke Williamson - 2021 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 99 (2):286-302.
Decision and foreknowledge.J. Dmitri Gallow - 2024 - Noûs 58 (1):77-105.
Causal decision theory.Paul Weirich - 2009 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
No Crystal Balls.Jack Spencer - 2018 - Noûs 54 (1):105-125.

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References found in this work

The Dynamics of Rational Deliberation.Brian Skyrms - 1990 - Harvard University Press.
Causal decision theory.David Lewis - 1981 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 59 (1):5 – 30.
Some counterexamples to causal decision theory.Andy Egan - 2007 - Philosophical Review 116 (1):93-114.

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