FA17 PHIL690

PHIL690: Seminar on Special Topic: Rationality & Decision-Making
Professor: Charles Wallis
Wed, 7:00–9:45pm, LA1–304

Seminar Topic: Contemporary Empirical Studies of Human Inference and Decision Making: Implications for Theories of Rationality

This course revolves around three questions. How ought humans reason and make decisions? How do humans reason and make decisions? What happens if human reasoning differs from normative prescriptions in a non-trivial and systematic manner? The course will review current research in cognitive science on native human inference and decision-making abilities. After reviewing the empirical literature on native human inference and decision- making abilities the course will consider various theories regarding the relationship between modal human reasoning and decision-making performance and normative theories of formal logic, probability theory, and decision theory.