Why Maximize Expected Choice‐Worthiness?1

Noûs 54 (2):327-353 (2018)
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Abstract

This paper argues in favor of a particular account of decision‐making under normative uncertainty: that, when it is possible to do so, one should maximize expected choice‐worthiness. Though this position has been often suggested in the literature and is often taken to be the ‘default’ view, it has so far received little in the way of positive argument in its favor. After dealing with some preliminaries and giving the basic motivation for taking normative uncertainty into account in our decision‐making, we consider and provide new arguments against two rival accounts that have been offered—the accounts that we call ‘My Favorite Theory’ and ‘My Favorite Option’. We then give a novel argument for comparativism—the view that, under normative uncertainty, one should take into account both probabilities of different theories and magnitudes of choice‐worthiness. Finally, we further argue in favor of maximizing expected choice‐worthiness and consider and respond to five objections.

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Author Profiles

Toby Ord
University of Oxford
William MacAskill
Oxford University

References found in this work

Famine, affluence, and morality.Peter Singer - 1972 - Philosophy and Public Affairs 1 (3):229-243.
What conditional probability could not be.Alan Hájek - 2003 - Synthese 137 (3):273--323.
Running risks morally.Brian Weatherson - 2014 - Philosophical Studies 167 (1):141-163.
Moral uncertainty and its consequences.Ted Lockhart - 2000 - New York: Oxford University Press.

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