Epistemically feasible choice: implications for sustainable risk management. The aim of this project is to examine procedural decision principles that will yield better choices in circumstances where, because of epistemic limitations, standard decision theory provides an inadequate guide. Individuals and policy-makers must make decisions even though they cannot be fully aware of all of the relevant possibilities or fully understand consequences they have not yet experienced. Examples include ind ....Epistemically feasible choice: implications for sustainable risk management. The aim of this project is to examine procedural decision principles that will yield better choices in circumstances where, because of epistemic limitations, standard decision theory provides an inadequate guide. Individuals and policy-makers must make decisions even though they cannot be fully aware of all of the relevant possibilities or fully understand consequences they have not yet experienced. Examples include individual decisions about marriage and childbearing, public policy decisions about complex environmental problems and decisions on funding scientific research. The expected outcome of the project will be a formal model of decision theory incorporating principles of resilience, sustainability and transformative experience.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE130101601
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$337,940.00
Summary
Wellbeing, preferences, and basic goods. Since individual choice and public policy aim at promoting wellbeing, it is crucial to understand what wellbeing is. This project develops an account of wellbeing that is grounded in individual preferences, but acknowledges that people sometimes desire what is harmful to them.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE180101119
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$357,008.00
Summary
Making more effective groups and group decisions. This project aims to devise strategies that a wide range of groups, such as those in healthcare, science, business etc can use to improve their judgements and decisions. It begins with a philosophical approach to develop a practical framework for understanding and working with groups. This interdisciplinary examination will include devising concrete guidelines that various groups can use to improve the quality of their enquiries and decisions.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE170100126
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$314,809.00
Summary
Groups as individuals: Group rationality and agency. This project aims to understand group rationality and to explore its implications for the design of public institutions. Some institutions act in a unified way despite members having diverse views. In such cases, the institution may seem to be an agent with its own beliefs, intentions and goals – but how does group rationality and agency affect the design and treatment of institutions? This project aims to develop a philosophical theory of gro ....Groups as individuals: Group rationality and agency. This project aims to understand group rationality and to explore its implications for the design of public institutions. Some institutions act in a unified way despite members having diverse views. In such cases, the institution may seem to be an agent with its own beliefs, intentions and goals – but how does group rationality and agency affect the design and treatment of institutions? This project aims to develop a philosophical theory of group rationality that allows institutions to qualify as rational agents without the group’s interests overriding those of individuals. Expected outputs include proposals for the design and legal treatment of groups to advance individual interests.Read moreRead less
Decision theory in crisis. Decision theory's goals are to characterise and to guide rational decision-making—from the minor decisions of daily life, to the major decisions of industry and government— which, in its current state, it is unfit to do. This project will refine decision theory so that it may better achieve these goals.