Abstract
Evidence Theory is a branch of mathematics that concerns combination of empirical evidence in an individualâs mind in order to construct a coherent picture of reality. Designed to deal with unexpected empirical evidence suggesting new possibilities, evidence theory is compatible with Shackleâs idea of decision-making as a creative act. This essay investigates this connection in detail, pointing to the usefulness of evidence theory to formalise and extend Shackleâs decision theory. In order to ease a proper framing of the issues involved, evidence theory is compared with sub-additive probability theory and Ewensâs infinite alleles model. Furthermore, the original version of evidence theory is presented along with its most recent developments