Here’s a comment on the value of moral information. First a quibble: the setup in the Wise Philanthropist case strikes me as slightly strange. If one thinks that studying more would improve one’s evidence, and one suspects that studying more would increase one’s credence in A relative to B, then this in itself should already be shifting one’s credence from B to A (cf. e.g. Briggs 2009).
Still, I think that the feature of Wise Philanthropist that I am quibbling about here is inessential to the worry that the internal bargaining approach will lead us to undervalue moral information. Suppose that I’m 50% confident in moral theory T1, 50% confident in T2, and that I can learn for some small fee $x from some oracle which theory is in fact correct. Intuitively, I should consult the oracle. But if the T1 and T2 subagents each think that there’s a 50% chance the oracle will endorse T1 and a 50% chance she’ll endorse T2, then each subagent might well think that she has just as much to lose by consulting the oracle as she has to gain, so might prefer not to spend the $x.
Fortunately for the internal bargaining theory, I think that Michael (the OP) opens himself up to these results only by being unfaithful to the motivating idea of internal bargaining. The motivating idea is that each subagent is certain in the moral theory that she represents. But in that case, in the oracle example the T1 and T2 subagents should each be certain that the oracle will endorse their preferred theory! Each subagent would then be willing to pay quite a lot in order to consult the oracle. Hence—as is intuitive—it is indeed appropriate for the uncertain decision maker to do so.
(FYI, I develop this line of thought more formally in work in progress that I’d be very happy to share with anyone interested :) )
Ah, this is very interesting! My only comment on this, which develops the idea, is that the agents would realise that the other agents are also certain, so won’t change their minds whatever the oracle pronounces. If we conceive of there as being undecided sub-agents, then the decided sub-agents could think about the value of getting information that might convince them.
Hmm, I don’t think that we need for any theory-agents to change their minds when the oracle delivers her pronouncement though—we just need for the theory-agents’ resource endowments to be sensitive to what the oracle says. We can think of all the same theory-agents still hanging around after the oracle delivers her pronouncement, still just as certain in the theory they represent—it’s just that now only one of them ever gets endowed with any resources.
Here’s a comment on the value of moral information. First a quibble: the setup in the Wise Philanthropist case strikes me as slightly strange. If one thinks that studying more would improve one’s evidence, and one suspects that studying more would increase one’s credence in A relative to B, then this in itself should already be shifting one’s credence from B to A (cf. e.g. Briggs 2009).
Still, I think that the feature of Wise Philanthropist that I am quibbling about here is inessential to the worry that the internal bargaining approach will lead us to undervalue moral information. Suppose that I’m 50% confident in moral theory T1, 50% confident in T2, and that I can learn for some small fee $x from some oracle which theory is in fact correct. Intuitively, I should consult the oracle. But if the T1 and T2 subagents each think that there’s a 50% chance the oracle will endorse T1 and a 50% chance she’ll endorse T2, then each subagent might well think that she has just as much to lose by consulting the oracle as she has to gain, so might prefer not to spend the $x.
Fortunately for the internal bargaining theory, I think that Michael (the OP) opens himself up to these results only by being unfaithful to the motivating idea of internal bargaining. The motivating idea is that each subagent is certain in the moral theory that she represents. But in that case, in the oracle example the T1 and T2 subagents should each be certain that the oracle will endorse their preferred theory! Each subagent would then be willing to pay quite a lot in order to consult the oracle. Hence—as is intuitive—it is indeed appropriate for the uncertain decision maker to do so.
(FYI, I develop this line of thought more formally in work in progress that I’d be very happy to share with anyone interested :) )
Ah, this is very interesting! My only comment on this, which develops the idea, is that the agents would realise that the other agents are also certain, so won’t change their minds whatever the oracle pronounces. If we conceive of there as being undecided sub-agents, then the decided sub-agents could think about the value of getting information that might convince them.
Hmm, I don’t think that we need for any theory-agents to change their minds when the oracle delivers her pronouncement though—we just need for the theory-agents’ resource endowments to be sensitive to what the oracle says. We can think of all the same theory-agents still hanging around after the oracle delivers her pronouncement, still just as certain in the theory they represent—it’s just that now only one of them ever gets endowed with any resources.