Causation In Decision Belief Change And Statistics

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The papers collected here are, with three exceptions, those presented at a conference on probability and causation held at the University of California at Irvine on July 15-19, 1985. The exceptions are that David Freedman and Abner Shimony were not able to contribute the papers that they presented to this volume, and that Clark Glymour who was not able to attend the conference did contribute a paper. We would like to thank the National Science Foundation and the School of Humanities of the University of California at Irvine for generous support. WILLIAM HARPER University of Western Ontario BRIAN SKYRMS University of California at Irvine Vll INTRODUCTION PART I: DECISIONS AND GAMES Causal notions have recently corne to figure prominently in discussions about rational decision making. Indeed, a relatively influential new approach to theorizing about rational choice has come to be called "causal decision theory". 1 Decision problems such as Newcombe's Problem and some versions of the Prisoner's Dilemma where an act counts as evidence for a desired state even though the agent knows his choice of that act cannot causally influence whether or not the state obtains have motivated causal decision theorists.

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Genre : Science
Author : W.L. Harper
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Release : 2012-12-06
File : 267 Pages
ISBN-13 : 9789400928657


Realistic Decision Theory

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Within traditional decision theory, common decision principles -- e.g. the principle to maximize utility -- generally invoke idealization; they govern ideal agents in ideal circumstances. In Realistic Decision Theory, Paul Weirch adds practicality to decision theory by formulating principles applying to nonideal agents in nonideal circumstances, such as real people coping with complex decisions. Bridging the gap between normative demands and psychological resources, Realistic Decision Theory is essential reading for theorists seeking precise normative decision principles that acknowledge the limits and difficulties of human decision-making.

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Genre : Philosophy
Author : Paul Weirich
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Release : 2004-09-16
File : 278 Pages
ISBN-13 : 9780190291112


Degrees Of Belief

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This anthology is the first book to give a balanced overview of the competing theories of degrees of belief. It also explicitly relates these debates to more traditional concerns of the philosophy of language and mind and epistemic logic.

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Genre : Philosophy
Author : Franz Huber
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Release : 2008-12-21
File : 352 Pages
ISBN-13 : 9781402091988


Logic Programming And Nonmonotonic Reasoning

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This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Logic Programming and Nonmonotonic Reasoning, LPNMR 2004, held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA in January 2004. The 24 revised full papers presented together with 8 system descriptions were carefully reviewed and selected for presentation. Among the topics addressed are declarative logic programming, nonmonotonic reasoning, knowledge representation, combinatorial search, answer set programming, constraint programming, deduction in ontologies, and planning.

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Genre : Computers
Author : Vladimir Lifschitz
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Release : 2004-02-12
File : 375 Pages
ISBN-13 : 9783540207214


Patrick Suppes Scientific Philosopher

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Patrick Suppes is a philosopher and scientist whose contributions range over probability and statistics, mathematical and experimental psychology, the foundations of physics, education theory, the philosophy of language, measurement theory, and the philosophy of science. He has also been a pioneer in the area of computer assisted instruction. In each of these areas, Suppes has provided seminal ideas that in some cases led to shaping the direction of research in the field. The papers contained in this collection were commissioned with the mandate of advancing research in their respective fields rather than retrospectively surveying the contributions that Suppes himself has made. The authors form an interesting mixture of researchers in both formal philosophy of science and science itself all of whom have been inspired by his ideas. To maintain the spirit of constructive dialogue that characterizes Suppes's intellectual style, he has written individual responses to each article. In Volume 1: Probability and Probabilistic Causality, nineteen distinguished philosophers and scientists focus their attention on probabilistic issues. In Part I the contributors explore axiomatic representations of probability theory including qualitative and interval valued probabilities as well as traditional point valued probabilities. Belief structures and the dynamics of belief are also treated in detail. In Part II the rapidly growing field of probabilistic causation is assessed from both formal and empirical viewpoints. For probability theorists, statisticians, economists, philosophers of science, psychologists and those interested in the foundations of mathematical social science. In Volume 2: Philosophy of Physics, Theory Structure, and Measurement Theory, fifteen distinguished philosophers and scientists cover a wide variety of topics. Part III covers issues in quantum theory, geometry, classical mechanics, and computational physics. Part IV explores Suppes's well known set-theoretic account of scientific theories which has served him well throughout his career. Suppes's contributions to measurement theory have been widely used in mathematical psychology and elsewhere, and this material is the subject of Part V. For physicists, logicians, workers in mathematical social sicence, and philosophers of science. In Volume 3: Philosophy of Language and Logic, Learning and Action Theory, fourteen distinguished philosophers and scientists explore issues in the philosophy of language, logic, and philosophical psychology. Suppes's suggestions that quantum theory requires a rethinking of classical logic form a particularly sharp account of that controversial thesis, and Part VI deals with this issue together with topics in the philosophy of language and logic, including relational grammars and anaphora. Part VII deals with issues in psychology, action theory, and robotics, while Part VIII concludes with a general survey of Suppes's views in the philosophy of science. A comprehensive chronological and topical bibliography of Suppes's writings is included in this volume. For philosophers of language, theoretical linguists, logicians, workers in mathematical social sciences, and philosophers of science.

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Genre : Science
Author : P. Humphreys
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Release : 2012-12-06
File : 426 Pages
ISBN-13 : 9789401107747


Principles Of Knowledge Representation And Reasoning

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Genre : Computers
Author : Luigia Carlucci Aiello
Publisher : Morgan Kaufmann
Release : 1996
File : 696 Pages
ISBN-13 : UOM:39015040704457


Philosophy Of Probability

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Philosophy of Probability provides a comprehensive introduction to theoretical issues that occupy a central position in disciplines ranging from philosophy of mind and epistemology to cognitive science, decision theory and artificial intelligence. Some contributions shed new light on the standard conceptions of probability (Bayesianism, logical and computational theories); others offer detailed analyses of two important topics in the field of cognitive science: the meaning and the representation of (partial) belief, and the management of uncertainty. The authors of this well-balanced account are philosophers as well as computer scientists (among them, L.J. Cohen, D. Miller, P. Gärdenfors, J. Vickers, D. Dubois and H. Prade). This multidisciplinary approach to probability is designed to illuminate the intricacies of the problems in the domain of cognitive inquiry. No one interested in epistemology or aritificial intelligence will want to miss it.

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Genre : Philosophy
Author : Jacques Dubucs
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Release : 1993-09-30
File : 316 Pages
ISBN-13 : 0792323858


Uncertainty In Knowledge Bases

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One out of every two men over eigthy suffers from carcinoma of the prostate.It is discovered incidentally in many patients with an alleged benign prostatic hyperplasia. In treating patients, the authors make clear that primary radical prostatectomy is preferred over transurethral resection due to the lower complication rate.

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Genre : Computers
Author : Bernadette Bouchon-Meunier
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Release : 1991-09-11
File : 630 Pages
ISBN-13 : 3540543465


Uncertainty Rationality And Agency

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This volume concerns Rational Agents - humans, players in a game, software or institutions - which must decide the proper next action in an atmosphere of partial information and uncertainty. The book collects formal accounts of Uncertainty, Rationality and Agency, and also of their interaction. It will benefit researchers in artificial systems which must gather information, reason about it and then make a rational decision on which action to take.

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Genre : Computers
Author : Wiebe van der Hoek
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Release : 2006-08-18
File : 350 Pages
ISBN-13 : 9781402046315


Towards Mathematical Philosophy

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area and in applications to linguistics, formal epistemology, and the study of norms. The second contains papers on non-classical and many-valued logics, with an eye on applications in computer science and through it to engineering. The third concerns the logic of belief management,whichis likewise closely connected with recent work in computer science but also links directly with epistemology, the philosophy of science, the study of legal and other normative systems, and cognitive science. The grouping is of course rough, for there are contributions to the volume that lie astride a boundary; at least one of them is relevant, from a very abstract perspective, to all three areas. We say a few words about each of the individual chapters, to relate them to each other and the general outlook of the volume. Modal Logics The ?rst bundle of papers in this volume contains contribution to modal logic. Three of them examine general problems that arise for all kinds of modal logics. The ?rst paper is essentially semantical in its approach, the second proof-theoretic, the third semantical again: • Commutativity of quanti?ers in varying-domain Kripke models,by R. Goldblatt and I. Hodkinson, investigates the possibility of com- tation (i.e. reversing the order) for quanti?ers in ?rst-order modal logics interpreted over relational models with varying domains. The authors study a possible-worlds style structural model theory that does not v- idate commutation, but satis?es all the axioms originally presented by Kripke for his familiar semantics for ?rst-order modal logic.

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Genre : Mathematics
Author : David Makinson
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Release : 2008-11-09
File : 344 Pages
ISBN-13 : 9781402090844