Vaihinger’s Fictionalism Meets Binmore’s Knowledge-as-Commitment

John Weymark

Homo Oeconomicus: Journal of Behavioral and Institutional Economics, 2022, vol. 39, issue 2, No 6, 199-217

Abstract: Abstract This article considers how Ken Binmore’s use of as-if reasoning is related to Hans Vaihinger’s fictionalism. Fictionalism is concerned with the role of idealizations that individuals use to guide their actions and to make sense of the world. Fictionalism employs idealizations that are adopted in spite of being known not to be true. Binmore distinguishes between knowledge-as-commitment and knowledge-as-certainty. With the former, one behaves as if what one knows cannot be wrong, whereas with the latter, behavior is predicated on justified-true-belief. It is argued that by treating knowledge as knowledge-as-commitment, Binmore is employing fictions in Vaihinger’s sense. This argument is developed by considering how knowledge-as-commitment is used in Binmore’s model of Bayesian decision-making.

Keywords: Ken Binmore; Hans Vaihinger; Fictionalism; Idealizations; As-if reasoning; Bayesian decision theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B40 D01 D81 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1007/s41412-021-00116-1

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