Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas

220 | Lara Buchak on Risk and Rationality

Dec 12, 2022

In this thought-provoking discussion, Lara Buchak, a Princeton philosophy professor, dives deep into decision theory and the complexities of rational choice. She explores the nuances of risk and uncertainty, questioning conventional wisdom on risk aversion. The conversation touches on the influence of personal values, the paradox of needing more information in decision-making, and how worst-case thinking can skew judgment. Buchak's insights challenge us to rethink what it means to be rational in a world filled with unpredictability.

01:16:52

Episode guests

Lara Buchak

Highlights

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Expected Utility Maximization and the Bottom 10%

04:05

Rationality: The Key to Making Good Decisions

01:06

Are There Moral Implications of Many Worlds?

02:30

Are You Trying to Describe How People Actually Behave?

01:35

Intro

2min

Navigating Risk and Rationality in Decision-Making

4min

The Paradox of Rationality

7min

Navigating Decision Theory

16min

Navigating Risk and Rationality

12min

Navigating Risk: Decision-Making Insights

17min

Quantum Ethics and Decision-Making

13min

The Paradox of Information in Risky Decision-Making

2min

Understanding Risk: Personal Choices and Societal Impacts

4min

Life is rich with moments of uncertainty, where we’re not exactly sure what’s going to happen next. We often find ourselves in situations where we have to choose between different kinds of uncertainty; maybe one option is very likely to have a “pretty good” outcome, while another has some probability for “great” and some for “truly awful.” In such circumstances, what’s the rational way to choose? Is it rational to go to great lengths to avoid choices where the worst outcome is very bad? Lara Buchak argues that it is, thereby expanding and generalizing the usual rules of rational choice in conditions of risk.

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Lara Buchak received a Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton University. She is currently a professor of philosophy at Princeton. Her research interests include decision theory, social choice theory, epistemology, ethics, and the philosophy of religion. She was the inaugural winner of the Alvin Plantinga Prize of the American Philosophical Association. Her book Risk and Rationality proposes a new way of dealing with risk in rational-choice theory.

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