Decision Theory

Decision Theory is the study of what makes a choice rational or justified. It often focuses on the role of knowledge in justifying action, and thus connects epistemology and ethics. Decision Theory has also been used to understand how people in fact make decisions, even when they fall short of full rationality, and thus it has important applications in economics, political theory, and psychology. It has also been important in the field of statistics in explaining the relevance of probability to both theory and application.

FACULTY DOING RESEARCH IN DECISION THEORY INCLUDE:

• José Luis Bermúdez has worked extensively at the interface between decision theory, the psychology of reasoning, and the theory of rationality. His books include Decision Theory and Rationality (Oxford University Press, 2009) and Frame It Again: New Tools for Rational Thought (Cambridge University Press, 2020), as well as the edited volume Self-Control, Decision Theory, and Rationality (Cambridge University Press, 2019).
• Martin Peterson is interested in the paradoxes of decision theory (St Petersburg, Allais, Pasadena, etc) and pragmatic justifications (money-pump arguments) for the axioms of expected utility theory. His publications include An Introduction to Decision Theory (Cambridge University Press, 2009, 2017), A New Twist to the St. Petersburg Paradox (Journal of Philosophy, 2011), and Non-Bayesian Decision Theory (Springer, 2008).