Mild contraction : evaluating loss of information due to loss of belief / Isaac Levi.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Levi, Isaac, 1930- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Belief and doubt.

Knowledge, Theory of.

Decision making.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 245 pages) : illustrations

Other Title:

Evaluating loss of information due to loss of belief

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Clarendon ; Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Isaac Levi's new book develops further his pioneering work in formal epistemology, focusing on the problem of belief contraction, or how rationally to relinquish old beliefs. Levi offers the most penetrating analysis to date of this key question in epistemology, offering a completely new solution and explaining its relation to his earlier proposals. He mounts an argument in favour of the thesis that contracting a state of belief by giving up specific beliefs is to be evaluated interms of the value of the information lost by doing so. The rationale aims to be thoroughly decision theoretic.

Contents:

Contents; 1. Supposition and Belief Change; 2. Cognitive Decisions; 3. Deliberate Expansion; 4. Informational Value in Contraction; 5. Contraction, Rational Choice and Economy; 6. Some Problems with Infinity; 7. Base Contraction and the Filtering Condition; References; Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [237]-239) and index.

Description based on print version record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-281-92517-9

9786611925178

0-19-153372-6

OCLC:

63294772