On the regress problem of deciding how to decide

Hanti Lin

pp. 661-670

in: Jeanne Peijnenburg, Sylvia Wenmackers (eds), Infinite regress in decision theory, philosophy of science, and formal epistemology, Synthese 191 (4), 2014.

Abstract

Any decision is made in some way or another. Which way? (Have I worked out enough alternatives to choose from? Which decision rule to apply?) That is a higher-order decision problem, to be dealt with in some way or other. Which way? That is an even higher-order decision problem. There seems to be a regress of decision problems toward higher and higher orders. But in daily life we stop moving to higher-order decision problems—stop the regress—at some finite point. The regress problem of deciding how to decide is the problem of explaining what would make it rational to stop the regress. I will give a new solution in the present paper. The result suggests a new way of looking at standard Bayesian theory and the more recent theory of adaptive rationality.