In this paper, we introduce a notion of epistemic equivalence between hierarchies of conditional beliefs and hierarchies of lexicographic beliefs, thus extending the standard equivalence results of Halpern (2010) and Brandenburger et al. (2007) to an interactive setting, and we show that there is a Borel surjective function, mapping each conditional belief hierarchy to its epistemically equival...

A dimensionally continued background-field method makes the rationality of the 4-loop quenched QED beta function far more reasonable than had previously appeared. After 33 years of quest, dating from Rosner’s discovery of 3-loop rationality, one finally sees cancellation of zeta values by the trace structure of individual diagrams. At 4-loops, diagram-by-diagram cancellation of ζ(5) does not ev...

Social science employs teleological explanations which depend upon the rationality principle, according to which people exhibit instrumental rationality. Popper points out that people also exhibit critical rationality, the tendency to stand back from, and to question or criticise, their views. I explain how our critical rationality impugns the explanatory value of the rationality principle and ...

Economists claim that principles of rationality are normative principles. Nevertheless, they go on to explain why it is in a person’s own interest to be rational. If this were true, being rational itself would be a means to an end, and rationality could be interpreted in a non-normative or naturalistic way. The alternative is not attractive: if the only argument in favor of principles of ration...

Much research on structured argumentation aims to satisfy the rationality postulates of direct and indirect consistency and strict (deductive) closure. However, examples like the lottery paradox indicate that it is sometimes rational to accept sets of propositions that are indirectly inconsistent or not deductively closed. This paper proposes a variant of the ASPIC+ framework that violates indi...

When it comes to belief dynamics Y how a rational agent ought to change her full-beliefs after learning something new Y doxastic conservatism seems to have a lot going for it. Information is not gratuitous, the slogan goes, and so changes in view should always be minimal changes in view. This is the core of conservatism, and looks like just the kind of constraint that rationality imposes on bel...

Nevertheless, he seems wrong to assert that anyone should accept his argument, even if they ‘believe embryos have full moral status and their right to life can never be balanced with any other social or individual benefits’. Zuradzki believes that his argument concerning the ‘hypothetical rationality’ and ‘patient autonomy’ of embryos binds everyone—no ethical frameworks excepted—to endorse PGD...

rationality of religious belief is one of the most important issues in the philosophy of religion and includes five epistemological approaches. up till recent times, evidentialism was the approach prevalent in the field of rationality of religious beliefs. and it was considered as a symbol of maximal rationalism. reformed epistemology, however, is a newly-emerged school which opposes evidential...