Wolfgang Spohn (Konstanz/Tübingen): 'Reflexive Rationality. Rethinking Decision and Game Theory'
Chair: Kabir Bakshi (Merton)
In my talk I want to present the core ideas and the program of my current research project. The project is about the foundations of decision and game theory and thus of practical rationality. It is not about the format of our mental states; there I just stick to orthodox probabilities and utilities. It is, first, about explicitly representing causality; for this purpose I extend causal Bayes nets to causal decision models by adding action nodes, a fairly familiar move. And then, mainly, it is about what I call reflexive ascent, which extends causal to reflexive decision models by adding what I fall decision nodes causing the action nodes. They explicitly represent reflecting upon the present and future decision situation the agent is and may be in or get into. This opens partially novel research areas, which I call anticipatory, sensitive, and commissive rationality. Reflexive ascent has also consequences for game theory, leading to a novel equilibrium concept called dependency equilibria, which may have the potential of unifying noncooperative and cooperative game theory. I hope at least to indicate all these points. In any case, the talk will be programmatic, and there will be a lot to discuss.
There is post-talk drinks (1745-1845) and dinner (1900 onwards) with the speaker to which all Faculty members (students, staff, and post-holders) are warmly invited. If you'd like to come to dinner, please contact the chair.
