Foundations of Rational Agency

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Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 9401592047
Total Pages : 303 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (15 download)

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Book Synopsis Foundations of Rational Agency by : Michael Wooldridge

Download or read book Foundations of Rational Agency written by Michael Wooldridge and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-09 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume represents an advanced, comprehensive state-of-the-art survey of the field of rational agency as it stands today. It covers the philosophical foundations of rational agency, logical and decision-theoretic approaches to rational agency, multi-agent aspects of rational agency and a number of approaches to programming rational agents. It will be of interest to researchers in logic, mainstream computer science, the philosophy of rational action and agency, and economics.

Foundations of Rational Choice Under Risk

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Publisher : Oxford University Press on Demand
ISBN 13 : 9780198774426
Total Pages : 161 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (744 download)

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Book Synopsis Foundations of Rational Choice Under Risk by : Paul Anand

Download or read book Foundations of Rational Choice Under Risk written by Paul Anand and published by Oxford University Press on Demand. This book was released on 1995 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, Paul Anand examines the normative interpretation of Subjective Expected Utility (SEU). He tests the philosophical and logical basis for associating SEU with rational choice. Decision theorists have increasingly come to accept the experimental evidence that subjects systematicallyviolate the axiomatic assumptions of SEU, and as a result the past decade has witnessed an explosion of mathematical models that seek to capture this behaviour. A current issue is whether axioms of SEU really are canons of rationality. Anand discusses whether the new decision-theoretic models aremore than just accounts of irrational behaviour. The main themes of the book are that, empirically, SEU is false, and that normatively it imposes unnecessary constraints on rational agency. Problems with Bayesianism are introduced and it is shown that useful distinctions between risk and uncertainty (in a Keynesian sense) can be made. Some of theradical methodological changes in economics that underpin theoretical developments in decision theory and economics are also discussed.

Thinking about Acting

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0195304810
Total Pages : 280 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (953 download)

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Book Synopsis Thinking about Acting by : John L. Pollock

Download or read book Thinking about Acting written by John L. Pollock and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2006-07-27 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work aims to construct a theory of rational decision making for real, resource-bounded, agents. Such decision making must be based on objective probabilities rather than subjective probabilities, and can't be done by choosing single action with maxmimal expected values.

Reasoning about Rational Agents

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Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 9780262265027
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (65 download)

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Book Synopsis Reasoning about Rational Agents by : Michael Wooldridge

Download or read book Reasoning about Rational Agents written by Michael Wooldridge and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2003-01-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on the belief-desire-intention (BDI) model of rational agents, which recognizes the primacy of beliefs, desires, and intentions in rational action. One goal of modern computer science is to engineer computer programs that can act as autonomous, rational agents; software that can independently make good decisions about what actions to perform on our behalf and execute those actions. Applications range from small programs that intelligently search the Web buying and selling goods via electronic commerce, to autonomous space probes. This book focuses on the belief-desire-intention (BDI) model of rational agents, which recognizes the primacy of beliefs, desires, and intentions in rational action. The BDI model has three distinct strengths: an underlying philosophy based on practical reasoning in humans, a software architecture that is implementable in real systems, and a family of logics that support a formal theory of rational agency.The book introduces a BDI logic called LORA (Logic of Rational Agents). In addition to the BDI component, LORA contains a temporal component, which allows one to represent the dynamics of how agents and their environments change over time, and an action component, which allows one to represent the actions that agents perform and the effects of the actions. The book shows how LORA can be used to capture many components of a theory of rational agency, including such notions as communication and cooperation.

Agency in Action

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Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 9401124221
Total Pages : 207 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (11 download)

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Book Synopsis Agency in Action by : S. Coval

Download or read book Agency in Action written by S. Coval and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This series will include monographs and collections of studies devoted to the investigation and exploration of knowledge, information, and data-processing systems of all kinds, no matter whether human, (other) animal, or machine. Its scope is intended to span the full range of interests from classical problems in the philosophy of mind and philosophical psychology through issues in cognitive psychology and sociobiology (concerning the mental capabilities of other species) to ideas related to artificial intelligence and to computer science. While primary emphasis will be placed upon theoretical, conceptual, and epistemological aspects of these problems and domains, empirical, experimental, and methodological studies will also appear from time to time. Sam Coval and Peter Campbell provide a painstaking and distinctive analysis of the nature of action and agency. They introduce a conception of acts which encompasses the purposes that motivate them, the beliefs on the basis of which they are undertaken, and the effects that they bring about. They compare and contrast their account with ones advanced by Davidson, Brand, Searle, Danto, and other, while elaborating its consequences for understanding the nature of alibis, mistakes, accidents, inadvertence, and the like. The valuable diagrams and the discussion of the software program they have developed, which implements their theory, amply displays the potential of combining philosophy and AI with law and other disciplines focused upon agency. J.H.F.

Rational Powers in Action

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0192592262
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (925 download)

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Book Synopsis Rational Powers in Action by : Sergio Tenenbaum

Download or read book Rational Powers in Action written by Sergio Tenenbaum and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-11-05 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Human actions unfold over time, in pursuit of ends that are not fully specified in advance. Rational Powers in Action locates these features of the human condition at the heart of a new theory of instrumental rationality. Where many theories of rational agency focus on instantaneous choices between sharply defined outcomes, treating the temporally extended and partially open-ended character of action as an afterthought, this book argues that the deep structure of instrumental rationality can only be understood if we see how it governs the pursuit of long-term, indeterminate ends. These are ends that cannot be realized through a single momentary action, and whose content leaves partly open what counts as realizing the end. Sergio Tenenbaum argues that we need to focus on temporal duration and the indeterminacy of ends in intentional action, even to explain the rational governance of relatively simple actions. Theories of moment-by-moment preference maximization, or indeed any understanding of instrumental rationality on the basis of momentary mental items, cannot capture the fundamental structure of our instrumentally rational capacities. Tenenbaum provides a new theory of instrumental rationality as rationality in action.

The Works of Agency

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Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780801485831
Total Pages : 264 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (858 download)

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Book Synopsis The Works of Agency by : Hugh McCann

Download or read book The Works of Agency written by Hugh McCann and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In these essays, McCann develops a unified perspective on human action. Written over a period of 25 years, the essays provide a comprehensive survey of the major topics in contemporary action theory. In four sections, the book addresses the ontology of action; the foundations of action; intention, will and freedom; and practical rationality. McCann works out a compromise between competing perspectives on the individuation of action; explores the foundations of action and defends a volitional theory; argues for a libertarian view of both the formation and the execution of intention; and considers the question of consistency in rational intentions, as well as the relationship between practical and theoretical reasoning.

Rationality and Dynamic Choice

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521360470
Total Pages : 42 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (64 download)

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Book Synopsis Rationality and Dynamic Choice by : Edward F. McClennen

Download or read book Rationality and Dynamic Choice written by Edward F. McClennen and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1990-05-25 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this major contribution to the theory of rational choice the author sets out the foundations of rational choice, and then sketches a dynamic choice framework in which principles of ordering and independence follow from a number of apparently plausible conditions. However there is potential conflict among these conditions, and when they are weakened to avoid it, the usual foundations of rational choice no longer prevail. The thrust of the argument is to suggest that the theory of rational choice is less determinate than many suppose.

Agency and the Foundations of Ethics

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199645078
Total Pages : 280 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (996 download)

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Book Synopsis Agency and the Foundations of Ethics by : Paul Katsafanas

Download or read book Agency and the Foundations of Ethics written by Paul Katsafanas and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-02-28 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paul Katsafanas explores how we can justify normative claims such as 'murder is wrong'. He defends an original account of constitutivism—the view that we do so by showing that agents become committed to them in virtue of acting—and resolves philosophical puzzles about the metaphysics, epistemology, and practical grip of normative claims.

Foundations for Moral Relativism

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Publisher : Open Book Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1783740329
Total Pages : 156 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (837 download)

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Book Synopsis Foundations for Moral Relativism by : J. David Velleman

Download or read book Foundations for Moral Relativism written by J. David Velleman and published by Open Book Publishers. This book was released on 2015-11-23 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this new edition of Foundations for Moral Relativism a distinguished moral philosopher tames a bugbear of current debate about cultural difference. J. David Velleman shows that different communities can indeed be subject to incompatible moralities, because their local mores are rationally binding. At the same time, he explains why the mores of different communities, even when incompatible, are still variations on the same moral themes. The book thus maps out a universe of many moral worlds without, as Velleman puts it, "moral black holes”. The six self-standing chapters discuss such diverse topics as online avatars and virtual worlds, lying in Russian and truth-telling in Quechua, the pleasure of solitude and the fear of absurdity. Accessibly written, this book presupposes no prior training in philosophy.

At the Foundations of Bioethics and Biopolitics: Critical Essays on the Thought of H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr.

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Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319189654
Total Pages : 284 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (191 download)

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Book Synopsis At the Foundations of Bioethics and Biopolitics: Critical Essays on the Thought of H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr. by : Lisa M. Rasmussen

Download or read book At the Foundations of Bioethics and Biopolitics: Critical Essays on the Thought of H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr. written by Lisa M. Rasmussen and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-10-20 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together a set of critical essays on the thought of Professor Doctor H. Tristram Engelhardt Junior, Co-Founding Editor of the Philosophy and Medicine book series. Amongst the founders of bioethics, Professor Engelhardt, Jr. looms large. Many of his books and articles have appeared in multiple languages, including Italian, Romanian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Chinese. The essays in this book focus critically on a wide swath of his work, in the process elucidating, critiquing, and/or commending the rigor and reach of his thought. This volume compasses analyses of many different aspects of Engelhardt's work, including social and political philosophy, biopolitics, the philosophy of medicine, and bioethics. It brings together internationally known scholars to assess key elements of Engelhardt's work.

Freedom's Right

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Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 0745680062
Total Pages : 450 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (456 download)

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Book Synopsis Freedom's Right by : Axel Honneth

Download or read book Freedom's Right written by Axel Honneth and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2014-03-11 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The theory of justice is one of the most intensely debated areas of contemporary philosophy. Most theories of justice, however, have only attained their high level of justification at great cost. By focusing on purely normative, abstract principles, they become detached from the sphere that constitutes their “field of application” - namely, social reality. Axel Honneth proposes a different approach. He seeks to derive the currently definitive criteria of social justice directly from the normative claims that have developed within Western liberal democratic societies. These criteria and these claims together make up what he terms “democratic ethical life”: a system of morally legitimate norms that are not only legally anchored, but also institutionally established. Honneth justifies this far-reaching endeavour by demonstrating that all essential spheres of action in Western societies share a single feature, as they all claim to realize a specific aspect of individual freedom. In the spirit of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right and guided by the theory of recognition, Honneth shows how principles of individual freedom are generated which constitute the standard of justice in various concrete social spheres: personal relationships, economic activity in the market, and the political public sphere. Honneth seeks thereby to realize a very ambitious aim: to renew the theory of justice as an analysis of society.

Collective Rationality and Collective Reasoning

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521011785
Total Pages : 266 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (117 download)

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Book Synopsis Collective Rationality and Collective Reasoning by : Christopher McMahon

Download or read book Collective Rationality and Collective Reasoning written by Christopher McMahon and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2001-08-06 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book examines the issue of rational cooperation, especially cooperation between people with conflicting moral commitments. The first part considers how the two main aspects of cooperation - the choice by a group of a particular cooperative scheme and the decision by each member to contribute to that scheme - can be understood as guided by reason. The second part explores how the activity of reasoning itself can take a cooperative form. The book is distinctive in offering an account of what people can accomplish by reasoning together, of the role of deliberation in democratic decision making, and of the negotiation of the proper use of concepts. Presenting for the first time a detailed analysis of the general problem of cooperation and collective reasoning between people with different moral commitments, this book will be of particular interest to philosophers of the social sciences and to students in political science, sociology and economics." --Cambridge Press.

Foundations of Organizational Strategy

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Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674005643
Total Pages : 428 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (74 download)

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Book Synopsis Foundations of Organizational Strategy by : Michael C. Jensen

Download or read book Foundations of Organizational Strategy written by Michael C. Jensen and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presenting the foundations of an integrated theory of organizations, Jensen argues that the cost of transferring information necessitates decentralization of some decision rights in organizations and economies. This in turn requires organizations to solve the control problem that results when self-interested persons do not behave as perfect agents.

Agency Uncovered

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1315435209
Total Pages : 269 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (154 download)

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Book Synopsis Agency Uncovered by : Andrew Gardner

Download or read book Agency Uncovered written by Andrew Gardner and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-06-16 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book questions the value of the concept of 'agency', a term used in sociological and philosophical literature to refer to individual free will in archaeology. On the one hand it has been argued that previous generations of archaeologists, in explaining social change in terms of structural or environmental conditions, have lost sight of the 'real people' and reduced them to passive cultural pawns, on the other, introducing the concept of agency to counteract this can be said to perpetuate a modern, Western view of the autonomous individual who is free from social constraints. This book discusses the balance between these two opposites, using a range of archaeological and historical case studies, including European and Asian prehistory, classical Greece and Rome, the Inka and other Andean cultures. While focusing on the relevance of 'agency' theory to archaeological interpretation and using it to create more diverse and open-ended accounts of ancient cultures, the authors also address the contemporary political and ethical implications of what is essentially a debate about the definition of human nature.

Kant and the Foundations of Morality

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Publisher : Lexington Books
ISBN 13 : 0739179012
Total Pages : 296 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (391 download)

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Book Synopsis Kant and the Foundations of Morality by : Halla Kim

Download or read book Kant and the Foundations of Morality written by Halla Kim and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2015-02-26 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kim examines the fundamental tenets of Immanuel Kant’s theory of morality structural-methodological point of view to highlight the activities of reason vis-à-vis the blind forces of brute nature. The study provides new perspective on Kant's thought to benefit studies of epistemology, modern philosophy, moral theory and philosophy, and ethics.

The Conceptual Foundation of Morality

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Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3030805832
Total Pages : 162 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (38 download)

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Book Synopsis The Conceptual Foundation of Morality by : Gal Yehezkel

Download or read book The Conceptual Foundation of Morality written by Gal Yehezkel and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-11-08 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a solution to the ancient philosophical problem regarding the nature and the justification of morality. The importance of this subject matter is obvious, not merely as an abstract philosophical problem, but perhaps even more as a practical challenge, regarding the way we ought to live our lives: the values that ought to direct us, and the ends that we ought to pursue. In the course of this inquiry, a wide array of philosophical topics is explored: the nature of intentional action, and the role played by reason and desires in agency; the question of the final end of agency – better known in ancient terminology as the question of the purpose of life, and in modern terms as the question of the meaning of life; the nature of moral obligations and their rational justification; the challenge posed by determinism for the freedom of the will, with its implications on fatalism and moral responsibility; and normative questions regarding the value of life. This book is of interest not only to professional philosophers, but also to any intellectual who is concerned with questions about morality, our nature as agents, and the end that we ought to pursue.