The Philosophical Relevance of Decision Theory

Abstract

There is, I am sure, a sense in which any developed scientific theory has philosophical significance. It is equally clear that some scientific theories are of considerably more philosophical importance than others. For philosophy, quantum mechanics is more important than hydrodynamics, learning theory than social psychology, the theory of sets than topology, and so on. It is the primary point of the present paper to discuss the philosophical relevance or importance of decision theory, a theory I classify as a new branch of mathematical statistics and economics, with certain ramifications in psychology. I hope to be able to show that in its own way decision theory has the kind of primary relevance for philosophy that we associate with quantum mechanics or the theory of sets.

Reprinted from The Journal of Philosophy 58 (1961) 605–614.