DownloadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2024

Decision Theory with a Human Face

Richard Bradley author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:2nd Apr '20

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Decision Theory with a Human Face cover

Explores how decision-makers can manage uncertainty that varies in both kind and severity by extending and supplementing Bayesian decision theory.

Decision makers must often choose actions in the face of great uncertainty about their consequences. This volume develops a new theory of rational decision making that evaluates the Bayesian approach and extends it to bounded agency. The book will appeal to readers in philosophy, economics, psychology, and the decision sciences.When making decisions, people naturally face uncertainty about the potential consequences of their actions due in part to limits in their capacity to represent, evaluate or deliberate. Nonetheless, they aim to make the best decisions possible. In Decision Theory with a Human Face, Richard Bradley develops new theories of agency and rational decision-making, offering guidance on how 'real' agents who are aware of their bounds should represent the uncertainty they face, how they should revise their opinions as a result of experience and how they should make decisions when lacking full awareness of, or precise opinions on relevant contingencies. He engages with the strengths and flaws of Bayesian reasoning, and presents clear and comprehensive explorations of key issues in decision theory, from belief and desire to semantics and learning. His book draws on philosophy, economics, decision science and psychology, and will appeal to readers in all of these disciplines.

'Decision Theory with a Human Face is a major work that unifies and expands on an already impressive body of work from Bradley. It is difficult to think of many major debates in philosophical decision theory to which it does not make significant contributions.' Timothy Luke Williamson, Metascience
'This book represents an important step forward in the literature, and Bradley does an impressive job in providing a rigorous treatment of decision theory that refuses to idealise away from key features of human rationality.' Timothy Luke Williamson, Metascience

ISBN: 9781108793612

Dimensions: 225mm x 155mm x 20mm

Weight: 520g

349 pages