Here’s a related idea that is maybe clearer: Suppose an agent has the ability to self-modify to use any decision theory, would they decide to stick with their current decision theory? (I’m actually not sure what term has been explicitly defined to mean this, so I’ll just call it “self-endorsement” for now.)
This sounds similar to what’s called “self-recommendation”—see e.g. Skyrms (1982, pp. 707-709), Meacham (2010, §3.3) and Pettigrew (2023). In the abstract Pettigrew writes: “A decision theory is self-recommending if, when you ask it which decision theory you should use, it considers itself to be among the permissible options.”.
I have actually been thinking about ways of extending Pettigrew’s work to theories of dynamic choice. That is: is sophistication/resoluteness self-recommending? I don’t think it is immediately clear what the answers are, and it might depend on the interpretations of sophistication and resoluteness one adopts, but yeah, I do agree that it seems like sophistication might be self-undermining.
This sounds similar to what’s called “self-recommendation”—see e.g. Skyrms (1982, pp. 707-709), Meacham (2010, §3.3) and Pettigrew (2023). In the abstract Pettigrew writes: “A decision theory is self-recommending if, when you ask it which decision theory you should use, it considers itself to be among the permissible options.”.
I have actually been thinking about ways of extending Pettigrew’s work to theories of dynamic choice. That is: is sophistication/resoluteness self-recommending? I don’t think it is immediately clear what the answers are, and it might depend on the interpretations of sophistication and resoluteness one adopts, but yeah, I do agree that it seems like sophistication might be self-undermining.