Evidence and rationalization

Author(s)
Wells, Ian
Thumbnail
Download11098_2018_1209_ReferencePDF.pdf (311.2Kb)
Publisher Policy
Terms of use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Metadata
Show full item record
Abstract
Abstract Suppose that you have to take a test tomorrow but you do not want to study. Unfortunately you should study, since you care about passing and you expect to pass only if you study. Is there anything you can do to make it the case that you should not study? Is there any way for you to ‘rationalize’ slacking off? I suggest that such rationalization is impossible. Then I show that if evidential decision theory is true, rationalization is not only possible but sometimes advisable.
Date issued
2018-12-11
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/131780
Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy
Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Collections