Philosophy of decision making

doi:10.1016/0001-6918(80)90041-4

Acta Psychologica

Volume 45, Issues 1–3, August 1980, Pages 327-341

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Abstract

This essay has two parts. The first part examines decision making from a philosophical point of view. A decision is seen as the resolution to behave in a certain way and as such it involves both a choice and a commitment to that choice. While decision theory focuses on how one makes choices among alternatives, it pays little or no attention to how one identifies the available alternatives or to the fact that one's goal often influences what those available alternatives will be.

The second part of the essay examines how the analysis of decision making has brought about changes in the way major philosophical issues are discussed in three philosophical disciplines: ethics (including general axiology), epistemology, and praxiology.

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Cited by (2)

Speculations about decision-theoretic aids for personal decision making
1980, Acta Psychologica
The paper is concerned with techniques for helping people to make personal decisions, i.e., decisions where the individual decision makers have to bear the consequences of their actions themselves. First, a conceptual framework is suggested for characterizing personal decision situations by specifying salient characteristics of the decision problem (possibility of continuity, reversibility, range of effects, and time pressure) and of the decision maker (cognitive, motivational and coping features). Then, some aspects of existing or potential decision aids are outlined in terms of the elements of the decision making process upon which they focus, their technical attributes, the modes of application, and the approaches to evaluation.
Levels and types of action selection: The action selection soup
2009, Adaptive Behavior

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Philosophy of decision making

Abstract

Social choice and individual values

Don't shoot the trumpeter. He's doing his best! Reflections on the problem of fair division

Theory and Decision

The content and status of rationality assumptions in social science

Danish Yearbook of Philosophy

Theory of games as a tool for the moral philosopher

Axiomatization of Jeffrey utilities

Synthèse

Decision-theoretic analysis of Rawls' original position

Praxiology and decision theory

The logic of decision

Critique of the Popper program

Synthèse

Axiomatizing the logic of decision

Traktat o dobrej robocie

Praxiology: an introduction to the science of efficient action