I do understand from the SEP, like Wei, that sophisticated means “backwards planning”, and resolute means “being able to commit to a policy” (correct me if I’m wrong).
That seems roughly correct, but note that there are different interpretations of resolute choice floating around[1], and I think McClennen’s (1990) presentation is somewhat unclear at times. Sometimes resoluteness seems to be about the ability to make internal commitments, and other times it seems to be about being sensitive to the dynamic context in a particular way, and I think these can come apart. You might be interested in these notes I took while reading McClennen’s book.
My usage of “dynamic instability” (which might be contrary to academic usage) was indeed what Wei mentions: “not needing commitments”. Or equivalently, I say a decision theory is dynamically stable if itself and its resolute version always act the same.
Then that sounds a bit question-begging. Do you think dynamic instability is a problem (normatively speaking)?
Thanks for the clarification!
That seems roughly correct, but note that there are different interpretations of resolute choice floating around[1], and I think McClennen’s (1990) presentation is somewhat unclear at times. Sometimes resoluteness seems to be about the ability to make internal commitments, and other times it seems to be about being sensitive to the dynamic context in a particular way, and I think these can come apart. You might be interested in these notes I took while reading McClennen’s book.
Then that sounds a bit question-begging. Do you think dynamic instability is a problem (normatively speaking)?
See e.g. Gauthier (1997) and Buchak (2013, §6).