University of Kansas, Fall 2007
Philosophy 666: Rational Choice Theory
Ben Eggleston—eggleston@ku.edu
Preview of test on utility theory
The test will be given in class on Friday, September 21. You do not need to
bring anything, except for something to write with; this will be a closed-book,
closed-notes test, and you will be provided with paper on which to write your
answers. At the beginning of the exam period, the following instructions will be
written on the board:
- Please put away everything except for something to write with.
- This exam may be graded on a curve.
- Please number each of your 10 answers
conspicuously.
Also, you will be asked to close and/or put away all books, notebooks,
newspapers, calculators, computers, cell phones, and other possible sources of
inappropriate aid. The
instructions at the top of the test will read as follows:
- Answer all of the following questions on the answer sheets provided. You can write on this
list of
questions, but credit will be awarded only for answers written on answer
sheets.
- Do not access any book, notebook, newspaper, calculator, computer, cell
phone, or other possible source of inappropriate aid during the test, do not
leave the room before you are finished taking the test, and be sure to finish
the test within this 50-minute testing period—no credit will be given for any
work done after you access any possible source of inappropriate aid, after you
leave the room for any reason, or after the end of the testing period.
- When you are finished, be sure your name is written on each of your answer
sheets, and turn them in. You do not need to turn in this list of questions.
Regarding the content of the test, I anticipate that the following will be
the case, but I reserve the right to depart from this plan:
- There will be 10 questions worth 10 points each.
- Questions 1–2 will pertain to sections 7–8 of my handouts.
- Questions 3–4 will pertain to sections 11–12.
- Questions 5–7 will pertain to sections 14–15.
- Questions 8–9 will pertain to section 16.
- Question 10 will pertain to the representation theorem,
but without requiring you to have memorized the six conditions that are part of the
representation theorem—it’ll probably be more of a “big picture” question.
In addition to studying my handouts and the problems for credit, you could also prepare for this test by
answering the questions on the test on utility theory that I gave in my Fall
2006 section of this course. That test, and the answer key for it, are at the
web site that I set up for that course, at http://web.ku.edu/~utile/courses/rct2.
This Friday’s test will be somewhat similar to that one (while also differing from
it in some significant ways).