I finally read Rational preference: Decision theory as a theory of practical rationality, and it basically has all of the technical content of this post; I’d recommend it as a more in-depth version of this post. (Unfortunately I don’t remember who recommended it to me, whoever you are, thanks!) Some notable highlights:
It is, I think, very misleading to think of decision theory as telling you to maximize your expected utility. If you don’t obey its axioms, then there is no utility function constructable for you to maximize the expected value of. If you do obey the axioms, then your expected utility is always maximized, so the advice is unnecessary. The advice, ‘Maximize Expected Utility’ misleadingly suggests that there is some quantity, definable and discoverable independent of the formal construction of your utility function, that you are supposed to be maximizing. That is why I am not going to dwell on the rational norm, Maximize Expected Utility! Instead, I will dwell on the rational norm, Attend to the Axioms!
Very much in the spirit of the parent comment.
Unfortunately, the Fine Individuation solution raises another problem, one that looks deeper than the original problems. The problem is that Fine Individuation threatens to trivialize the axioms.
(Fine Individuation is basically the same thing as moving from preferences-over-snapshots to preferences-over-universe-histories.)
All it means is that a person could not be convicted of intransitive preferences merely by discovering things about her practical preferences. [...] There is no possible behavior that could reveal an impractical preference
His solution is to ask people whether they were finely individuating, and if they weren’t, then you can conclude they are inconsistent. This is kinda sorta acknowledging that you can’t notice inconsistency from behavior (“practical preferences” aka “choices that could actually be made”), though that’s a somewhat inaccurate summary.
There is no way that anyone could reveal intransitive preferences through her behavior. Suppose on one occasion she chooses X when the alternative was Y, on another she chooses Y when the alternative was Z, and on a third she chooses g when the alternative was X. But that is nonsense; there is no saying that the Y she faced in the first occasion was the same as the Y she faced on the second. Those alternatives could not have been just the same, even leaving aside the possibility of individuating them by reference to what else could have been chosen. They will be alternatives at different times, and they will have other potentially significant differentia.
Basically making the same point with the same sort of construction as the OP.
I finally read Rational preference: Decision theory as a theory of practical rationality, and it basically has all of the technical content of this post; I’d recommend it as a more in-depth version of this post. (Unfortunately I don’t remember who recommended it to me, whoever you are, thanks!) Some notable highlights:
Very much in the spirit of the parent comment.
(Fine Individuation is basically the same thing as moving from preferences-over-snapshots to preferences-over-universe-histories.)
His solution is to ask people whether they were finely individuating, and if they weren’t, then you can conclude they are inconsistent. This is kinda sorta acknowledging that you can’t notice inconsistency from behavior (“practical preferences” aka “choices that could actually be made”), though that’s a somewhat inaccurate summary.
Basically making the same point with the same sort of construction as the OP.