Background
Levi, Isaac was born on June 30, 1930 in New York City. Son of Eliezer Asher and Eva (Lunenfeld) Levi.
(Isaac Levi's new book is concerned with how one can justi...)
Isaac Levi's new book is concerned with how one can justify changing one's beliefs. The discussion is deeply informed by the belief-doubt model advocated by C. S. Peirce and John Dewey, of which the book provides a substantial analysis. Professor Levi then addresses the conceptual framework of potential changes available to an inquirer. A structural approach to propositional attitudes is proposed which rejects the conventional view that a propositional attitude involves a relation between an agent and either a linguistic entity or some other intentional object such as a proposition or set of possible worlds. The last two chapters offer an account of change in states of full belief understood as changes in commitments rather than changes in performance; one chapter deals with adding new information to a belief state, the other with giving up information. The book builds upon topics discussed in some of Levi's earlier work. It will be of particular interest to discussion theorists, epistemologists, philosophers of science, computer scientists, and cognitive psychologists.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521110297/?tag=2022091-20
(It is a commonplace that in making decisions agents often...)
It is a commonplace that in making decisions agents often have to juggle competing values, and that no choice will maximize satisfaction of them all. However, the prevailing account of these cases assumes that there is always a single ranking of the agent's values, and therefore no unresolvable conflict among them. Isaac Levi denies this assumption, arguing that agents often must choose without having balanced their different values and that to be rational, an act does not have to be optimal, only what Levi terms "admissible." This book explores the consequences of denying the assumption and develops a general approach to decision-making under unresolved conflict. Professor Levi argues not only against the "strict Bayesian" position, but also against all the recent attempts to develop alternative models to Bayesianism. The book, which continues from his earlier The Enterprise of Knowledge, is certain to make an original and controversial contribution to the debates over choice theory.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521386306/?tag=2022091-20
(This book offers an account of suppositional reasoning re...)
This book offers an account of suppositional reasoning relevant to practical deliberation, explanation, prediction and hypothesis testing. In arguing that supposition plays a far greater role in deliberation and decision than it is given credit for, this major study will be required reading for all philosophers and logicians concerned with conditionals, decision theory and inductive inference. It will also interest those in artificial intelligence who work on expert systems, default reasoning, and nonmonotonic reasoning.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521497132/?tag=2022091-20
( This comprehensive discussion of the problem of rationa...)
This comprehensive discussion of the problem of rational belief develops the subject on the pattern of Bayesian decision theory. The analogy with decision theory introduces philosophical issues not usually encountered in logical studies and suggests some promising new approaches to old problems."We owe Professor Levi a debt of gratitude for producing a book of such excellence. His own approach to inductive inference is not only original and profound, it also clarifies and transforms the work of his predecessors. In short, the book deserves to become a classic....There is a great deal of interest in the book besides these basic matters forumlating rules of acceptance. Some of the most interesting chapters are those that examine the implications of such rules. The discussions of probability, generalization, and various forms of inference are brilliant and enlightening. Indeed, the problems and methods elaborated by Professor Levi in his book serve as a new foundation for the study of inductive inference."--Keith Lehrer, Nous"Levi's book is an extremely interesting report on 'tentative and speculative first steps' toward a decision-theoretic approach to inductive inference....Professor Levi is to be congratulated on his ingenious development and application of this approach...."--Richard C. Jeffrey, The Journal of Philosophy
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0710029837/?tag=2022091-20
Levi, Isaac was born on June 30, 1930 in New York City. Son of Eliezer Asher and Eva (Lunenfeld) Levi.
Bachelor of Arts, New York University, 1951; student, Jewish Theological Seminary, 1947-1952; Master of Arts, Columbia, 1953; Doctor of Philosophy, Columbia, 1957; Doctor of Philosophy honoris causa, Lund U., 1988.
He is the John Dewey Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Columbia University. Levi came onto the philosophic scene with his groundbreaking first book, Gambling with Truth. In the text Levi offers a decision theoretic reconstruction of epistemology with a close-eye towards the classical pragmatist philosophers like William James and Charles Sanders Peirce.
Levi is known for his pioneering work in belief revision and imprecise probability.
Levi is one of several doctoral students of Ernest Nagel who were influential in American post-war philosophy. Others were Morton White, Patrick Suppes, Henry Kyburg, and Sidney Morgenbesser.
Levi also served as doctoral advisor to prominent formal philosophers, including Horacio Arló-Costa and Teddy Seidenfeld. There is a rich literature of debate between Kyburg and Levi on topics in what has come to be known as formal epistemology.
(It is a commonplace that in making decisions agents often...)
(This book offers an account of suppositional reasoning re...)
( This comprehensive discussion of the problem of rationa...)
(This book presents a major conceptual and speculative phi...)
(Isaac Levi is one of the preeminent philosophers in the a...)
(Isaac Levi's new book is concerned with how one can justi...)
(This is a collection of Isaac Levi's philosophical papers...)
Fellow American Academy Arts and Sciences. Member American Association of University Professors, American Philos.Assn., Philosophy of Science Association, British Society Philosophy of Science, Phi Beta Kappa, Pi Mu Epsilon.
Married Judith S. Rubins, December 25, 1951. Children: Jonathan Abram, David Isser.