Publications |
Rational Preference in Transformative Experiences
L. A. Paul argues that some decisions are epistemically transformative in such a way that we cannot assign subjective value to the outcomes. She claims we cannot use traditional decision theory to make these decisions rationally. I argue that Paul fails to engage critically with traditional accounts of decision theory and, on closer inspection, it is not clear that her version of decision theory entails a tension between rational and authentic choice. Furthermore, if her contribution is instead to bring to light the importance of authenticity alongside rational decision-making, the definition she provides of authenticity in fact undermines her argument.
You can find the paper here.
A more public-facing version of my thoughts on Transformative Experience is featured here, on a philosophy of science blog called the The Crow's Nest.
You can find the paper here.
A more public-facing version of my thoughts on Transformative Experience is featured here, on a philosophy of science blog called the The Crow's Nest.
Metatickles and Death in Damascus
Simon Huttegger has developed a version of deliberative decision theory that reconciles the prescriptions of the evidentialist and causalist decision theory. I extend this framework to problems characterised by decision instability, and show that it cannot deliver a resolute answer under a plausible specification of the independence dynamics. I prove that there exists a robust method of determining whether the specification of the independence dynamics matters for all two-state, two-act problems whose payoff tables exhibit some basic mathematical relationships.
You can find the paper here.
You can find the paper here.
Review of The Mirror and the Mind: A History of Self-Recognition in the Human Sciences, by Katja Guenther
In The Mirror and the Mind, Katja Guenther traces the rich history of mirror experiments over the past 150 years. Clearly written and beautifully detailed, this book will be of interest to psychologists, neuroscientists and anthropologists at all levels of expertise interested in issues of self-recognition or misidentification between the self and other.
You can find the review here.
You can find the review here.
Working Papers
Drafts available on request
Commitment: From Hunting to Promising (under review)
I illustrate the transition between two forms of commitment in our evolutionary history: from pre-linguistic commitment, in the form of participation in group hunting among early hominins, to linguistic commitment, in the form of explicit promises. I show how group hunting changed our cooperative landscape and provided the selective environment for the evolution of a more effective commitment.
From Anti-Realism to Realism about Beliefs and Utilities
Historically, traditional decision theorists have interpreted the representation theorems in anti-realist ways while many more recent decision theorists take psychological realist stance toward beliefs and utilities and are concerned with instrumental reasoning. I consider what this shift entails for our understanding of the normativity of decision theory.
Toward Explaining Wolf-Pack Predation in Myxococcus xanthus
I consider whether our current theories of the evolution of cooperation are nuanced enough to capture the group predation strategy of the strain of myxobacteria known as Myxococcus xanthus. I illustrate the genomic, ecological and modelling difficulties in constructing an adequate simplified model of this social behaviour, with lessons for the modelling of cooperative behaviour among other organisms.
The Evolution of Commitment (with Jack VanDrunen and Jeffrey Barrett)
We consider how commitments might evolve with few cognitive resources in the context of evolutionary games. We evaluate the relative success of commitment versus reliance on an unspoken convention for coordinating action in two games: one where the agents have a pre-existing language and one where they do not.
Relying on Retweeting: Information-resharing on Networks
Information can be reshared around the same social network multiple times. An agent may encounter the same information again but takes it to be new evidence. I model this phenomenon, the "illusory truth effect", on a network of Bayesian agents, examining how relative connectedness and resharing help or hinder convergence to the truth.
Dissertation Research
The Coevolution of Commitment and Cooperation over Human History
Many explanations for the evolution of cooperation have been offered by biologists and anthropologists ranging from kin selection, group selection, reciprocal altruism and cultural evolution, among others. In my dissertation, I present a new hypothesis which draws our attention to a coevolutionary relationship in our history that has previously been overlooked -- the coevolution of commitment and cooperation. I show how different methods of undertaking commitments in our evolutionary history have enabled more sophisticated forms of cooperation over time which, in turn, create the selective environment for the evolution of increasingly effective commitments. I detail the emergence and consequences of four types of commitment: commitment in shared activity, linguistic commitment, moralised commitment, and institutionalised commitment.
Future Research
In future work in the philosophy of biology, I am interested in extending my research by (i) understanding explanations for the stability group hunting in a variety of non-human organisms; (ii) investigating the importance of ecological context in understanding how our theories of cooperation apply to the behaviours of organisms in the real world, and; (iii) exploring the cognitive preconditions for human cooperation, in particular, cultural norm psychology. In decision theory, I am interested in adaptive preferences and their interaction with gender roles in society.
