Some Counterexamples to Causal Decision Theory

2007/01/01 by Andy Egan · 162 citations
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paper · pdf · doi:10.1215/00318108-2006-023

published in The Philosophical Review 116(1), 93-114 (Duke University Press)

openalex publication_date 2007/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25

Abstract

Many philosophers (myself included) have been converted to causal decision theory by something like the following line of argument: Evidential decision theory endorses irrational courses of action in a range of examples, and endorses "an irrational policy of managing the news". 2 These are fatal problems for evidential decision theory.

Cited by

• Functional Decision Theory: A New Theory of Instrumental Rationality
• Sequential Extensions of Causal and Evidential Decision Theory
• Anthropic decision theory
• Cheating Death in Damascus
• Regret and instability in causal decision theory
• Newcomb’s Problem, Arif Ahmed (editor). Cambridge University Press, 2018, 233 pages.

Related

• Sequential Extensions of Causal and Evidential Decision Theory
• Causal decision theory
• Symptomatic Acts and the Value of Evidence in Causal Decision Theory
• Epistemic Decision Theory
• Cheating Death in Damascus