Realistic Decision Theory: Foundations of the Behavioral and Social Sciences

这个项目是一个关于现实决策理论的研讨会，现实决策理论是哲学决策理论的一个分支。首席研究员和其他五位演讲者将发表原创论文，为认知能力有限的代理人制定规范性决策原则。该研讨会将于2008年春季在密苏里-哥伦比亚大学举行，为期两天。举办研讨会满足了对一个论坛的日益增长的需求，在这个论坛上，从事决策理论工作的哲学家可以交换意见，从而进一步发展和改进他们各自的研究项目；因此，研讨会的主要目标是以研究为导向。决策理论的哲学研究对于组织这门跨学科学科和加强其基础至关重要。例如，哲学家在引导决策理论远离狭隘的行为主义，并引起人们对反事实条件在游戏策略推理中所起作用的关注方面发挥了重要作用。哲学家们现在正在利用决策的实证研究结果来消除人们熟悉的理性原则（如效用最大化原则）背后的理想化。他们制定的新原则可以处理判决本身提供了其后果证据的情况。他们的新原则也适用于做决策的群体。研讨会将促进哲学决策理论的研究。提交的论文将发表在《合成》杂志的一期特刊上。研讨会将鼓励其他参与者在学术期刊上发表他们的工作。此外，所有参与者将收集材料，以丰富他们所教授的哲学课程。决策理论的思想除了适合于逻辑和推理的课程外，还为科学哲学和认识论中的确认理论增添了内容。它们充实了关于正义和道德的契约主义理论。该研讨会处理了一个智力上重要的领域，将对参与者的研究和教学活动产生非常积极的影响。有限理性的研究正在迅速扩大，哲学家们正在贡献创新的决策规范原则。研讨会将汇集该领域的主要贡献者，以便他们共同实现下一代的突破性发现。

The project is a workshop on realistic decision theory, a branch of philosophical decision theory. The principal investigator and five other speakers will present original papers formulating normative decision principles for agents with limited cognitive abilities. The workshop will run for two days at the University of Missouri-Columbia during spring 2008. Holding the workshop meets a growing need for a forum at which philosophers working in decision theory may exchange ideas and thereby further develop and improve their respective research projects; thus, the primary goal of the workshop is research oriented.A philosophical study of decision theory is crucial for organizing this interdisciplinary subject and strengthening its foundations. For example, philosophers have been instrumental in steering decision theory away from narrow behaviorism and in drawing attention to the role that counterfactual conditionals play in strategic reasoning in games. Philosophers are now using the results of empirical studies of decision-making to remove idealizations behind familiar principles of rationality such as the principle to maximize utility. The new principles they formulate can handle cases in which a decision itself furnishes evidence about its consequences. Their new principles also extend to groups that make decisions.The workshop will stimulate research in philosophical decision theory. The papers presented will be published in a special issue of the journal Synthese. The workshop will stimulate other participants to publish their work in academic journals. In addition, all participants will gather material to enrich philosophy courses that they teach. Besides fitting into courses on logic and reasoning, ideas from decision theory add substance to theories of confirmation in philosophy of science and epistemology. They flesh out contractarian theories of justice and morality.The workshop treats an intellectually significant field and will have very positive consequences for the research and teaching activities of participants. Research on bounded rationality is expanding rapidly, and philosophers are contributing innovative normative principles of decision-making. The workshop will bring together leading contributors to this field so that together they achieve the next generation of break-through discoveries.