Language, Epistemology, Metaphysics and Mind Research Interest Group Talk (Brian Weatherson, Michigan)

The Language, Epistemology, Metaphysics and Mind Research Group welcomes Brian Weatherson, Professor and Graduate Studies Chair in the Department of Philosophy at University of Michigan. Prof. Weatherson specializes in epistemology and philosophy of language.

Talk Title

Deliberation Costs

Abstract

Humans are informationally and computationally limited. The standard theory of decision in philosophy and economics respects the first of these limitations but not the second. It is often thought that any theory that did respect computational limitations would face a certain kind of regress. (Though it is often mysterious exactly what regress different authors are worried about.) I aim to provide a new motivation for taking deliberation costs seriously, and use this motivation to support a skills-based resolution of the alleged regress. That is, I’ll argue that the best decision is one a skilled decider would make, and a skilled decider will employ an idealised model of the decision situation, and maximise expected utility relative to that model, and what makes an idealisation appropriate for a skilled decider is that using it does, on average, at least as well as any other model across the range of choices the agent typically faces.

About the Language, Epistemology, Metaphysics and Mind Research Group

One of five departmental research interest groups, the Language, Epistemology, Metaphysics and Mind Group undertakes research in philosophy of mind, philosophy of cognitive science, traditional and formal epistemology, metaphysics, and philosophy of language.