Isaac Levi
American philosopher in the pragmatist tradition, noted for influential work in decision theory, epistemology, and belief revision. He was a longtime professor at Columbia University and the author of works such as Gambling with Truth, Hard Choices, and The Enterprise of Knowledge.
Books
This list of books are ONLY the books that have been ranked on the lists that are aggregated on this site. This is not a comprehensive list of all books by this author.
-
1. The Enterprise Of Knowledge
An Essay on Knowledge, Credal Probability, and Chance
A pragmatic account of inquiry that fuses epistemology, decision theory, and subjective—often imprecise—probability. Knowledge growth is modeled as managing a corpus of accepted statements through evidence-driven expansion and contraction while balancing the risks and costs of error. It defends fallibilism and acceptance rules grounded in credal probability to explain how rational agents navigate uncertainty, maintain consistency, and make value-sensitive choices in the pursuit of truth.
-
2. Hard Choices
Decision Making under Unresolved Conflict
A philosophically grounded account of decision making under uncertainty, explaining how difficult decisions arise from unresolved conflicts among aims and incomplete comparative judgments. It models indecision with sets of probabilities and utilities rather than a single prior and utility function, evaluates options by admissibility (including E-admissibility), and resists forcing complete preference orderings. The work links rational choice to inquiry, arguing that acceptance policies and deliberate commitments can legitimately resolve conflict over time.
Purchase from Bookshop.org