Teacher: TBA

This course delves into Rational Choice Theory, exploring decision-making in conditions of risk, ignorance, and uncertainty. It begins by examining how decisions are made when outcomes are unknown, with particular focus on philosophical applications such as maximin in Rawls’s difference principle and the debate with Harsanyi. From this the course moves to different interpretations of probability, with particular attention devoted to subjective probability and to the Dutch book theorem. The course then covers Expected Utility Theory from a foundational point of view, reviewing the machinery related to the representation theorem and concludes with Strategic Rationality, focusing on how individuals make decisions in strategic environments where outcomes depend on actions of others, particularly dealing with coordination and cooperation.

Main Topics:

• Risk, Ignorance and Uncertainty; Decisions under ignorance
• Interpretations of probability
• Expected Utility and decisions under uncertainty
• Strategic Rationality