Rational Attitudes toward Risks

Abstract

Abstract Rationality requires aversions to risks, considering them in isolation, but permits attractions to risks, taken as means to attainment of goals. It specifies the strength of an intrinsic aversion to a risk in the sense of a chance of a bad event, but leaves open the strength of an intrinsic aversion to a risk in the sense of an act’s exposure to chance. Principles of consistency and proportionality govern attitudes to risks and attitudes to prospects, taken as chances for good events. Rationality prohibits being more intrinsically averse to losses than attracted to gains of equal magnitude, provided that losses and gains are assessed using their intrinsic utility assignments. However, it permits attitudes to risks to change as risks move into the past. Requirements concerning attitudes to risks and prospects ground evaluation of acts using their expected utilities.

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