Journal article
Rational transformative decision-making
- Abstract:
- According to L. A. Paul (2014), transformative experiences pose a challenge for decision theory, as their subjective value is not epistemically accessible. However, several authors propose that the subjective values of options are often irrelevant to their ranking; in many cases, all we need for rational transformative decision-making are the known non-subjective values. This stance is in conflict with Paul’s argument that the subjective value can always swamp the non-subjective value. The approach presented in this paper takes Paul’s argument into account and shows how potential swamping can be controlled given that one desires the transformative outcome: If one knows from previous decisions that desired transformative outcomes are associated with positive subjective value and if, in addition, testimony confirms this association for the current decision situation, one can infer that a desired outcome’s expected subjective value has a positive valence. Accordingly, one can rationally choose the desired transformative option if its non-subjective value is no lower than the overall value of any other option.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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- Files:
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 940.1KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1007/s11229-023-04075-9
Authors
- Publisher:
- Springer Nature
- Journal:
- Synthese More from this journal
- Volume:
- 201
- Issue:
- 3
- Article number:
- 87
- Publication date:
- 2023-02-24
- Acceptance date:
- 2023-02-03
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1573-0964
- ISSN:
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0039-7857
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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1992896
- Local pid:
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pubs:1992896
- Deposit date:
-
2024-04-28
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Daniel Villiger
- Copyright date:
- 2023
- Rights statement:
- © The Author(s) 2023. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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