UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

The Value of Biased Information

Das, N; (2020) The Value of Biased Information. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 10.1093/bjps/axaa003. (In press). Green open access

[thumbnail of Das_axaa003.pdf]
Preview
Text
Das_axaa003.pdf - Accepted Version

Download (312kB) | Preview

Abstract

In this article, I cast doubt on an apparent truism: namely, that if evidence is available for gathering and use at a negligible cost, then it’s always instrumentally rational for us to gather that evidence and use it for making decisions. Call this the ‘value of information’ thesis. I show that the value of information thesis conflicts with two other plausible theses. The first is the view that an agent’s evidence can entail non-trivial propositions about the external world. The second is the view that epistemic rationality requires us to update our credences by conditionalization. These two theses, given some plausible assumptions, make room for rationally biased inquiries where the value of information thesis fails. I go on to argue that this is bad news for defenders of the value of information thesis.

Type: Article
Title: The Value of Biased Information
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1093/bjps/axaa003
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/bjps/axaa003
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Dept of Philosophy
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10089757
Downloads since deposit
117Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item