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Decision Theory and the Irrelevance of Impossible Outcomes – The Universe from an Intentional Stance

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One problem in the decision theory of Newcomb-like scenarios (i.e. the study of whether causal, evidential or some other decision theory is true) is that even the seemingly obvious basics are fiercely debated. Newcomb’s problem seems to be fundamental and the solution obvious (to both sides), and yet scholars disagree about its resolution. If we already fail at the basics, how can we ever settle this debate? In this post, I propose a solution. Specifically, I will introduce a very plausible general principle that decision rules should abide by. One may argue that settling on powerful general rules (like the one I will propose) must be harder than settling single examples (like Newcomb’s problem). However, this is not universally the case. Especially in decision theory, we should expect general principles to be especially convincing because a common defense of two-boxing in Newcomb’s scenario is that Newcomb’s problem is just a weird edge case in which rationality is punished. By introd

(This post assumes some knowledge of the decision theory of Newcomb-like scenarios.) One problem in the decision theory of Newcomb-like scenarios (i.e. the study of whether causal, evidential or some other decision theory is true) is that even the seemingly obvious basics are fiercely debated. Newcomb’s problem seems to be fundamental and the solution obvious (to both sides), and yet scholars disagree about its resolution. If we already fail at the basics, how can we ever settle this debate? In this post, I propose a solution. Specifically, I will introduce a very plausible general princ

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