Rationality in Action: Contemporary Approaches

This anthology is intended for advanced undergraduates and graduate students in such disciplines as philosophy, psychology, economics, and political science. It includes twenty-one selections falling under three main categories: individual decision theory; game theory and group decision-making; reasons, desires and intentionality. All the pieces have been published before in journals and have proven long term importance to theoretical work in rational action. The volume includes a general introduction on decision theory and a topical bibliography.

Introduction; Part I. Individual Decision Theory: Concepts and Foundations: 1. Decisions under certainty, risk and uncertainty; 2. Problems and revisions; 3. Newcomb’s problem and causal decision theory; Part II. Game Theory and Group Decision-Making: 1. Games, cooperation and the prisoner’s dilemma; 2. Impossibility theorems for social choice; Part III. Reasons, Desires, and Irrationality: 1. Reasons, desires and values; 2. Irrationality; Part IV. Bibliography on Rational Decision-Making.