PHIL 105 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Critical Thinking, Decision Theory, Decision Matrix

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHIL 105
• Professor: Tim Christie

Document Summary

Decision theory: critical thinking teaches the skill of thinking well. When we reason about practical life everyday action we can directly use our critical thinking skills to make decisions. The study of this field of applied critical thi(cid:374)ki(cid:374)g is (cid:272)alled (cid:862)de(cid:272)isio(cid:374) theor(cid:455)(cid:863). It has (cid:271)ee(cid:374) used i(cid:374) la(cid:449), poli(cid:272)i(cid:374)g, government policy, war, environmental protection, medicine and many, many other fields of study where making decisions is common and lives often hang in the balance. Our knowledge in these contexts is said to be partial or i(cid:374)(cid:272)o(cid:373)plete. (cid:863) Page 233 the patient in need of surgery example. How can we decide: pretend the most likely thing that could happen, would for sure happen, and act accordingly, no good! Leads to foolishness (no seatbelts: always choose the action that could result in the highest utility, no good! Leads to foolishness (lotto: use a si(cid:373)ple (cid:862)e(cid:454)pe(cid:272)ted utilit(cid:455)(cid:863) (cid:272)al(cid:272)ulatio(cid:374), o(cid:373)e li(cid:373)its (cid:449)he(cid:374) (cid:862)utilit(cid:455)(cid:863) is diffi(cid:272)ult to use, (cid:271)ut ofte(cid:374) (cid:448)er(cid:455) useful.