Spring 2014
Philosophy 666:
Rational Choice Theory
Course documents:
Syllabus
Paper assignment
Survey of ex ante responses
Test on utility theory
Test on utility theory—answer key (#4, 7, 9, 10)
Test on game theory
Test on game theory—answer key (#1, 3, 7)
Test on social choice theory
Test on social choice theory—answer key (#1b, 2b, 5, 6, 9)
Questions for credit
Announcements:
| date | reading (and practice questions) (on Blackboard unless otherwise noted) | questions for credit |
|---|---|---|
| Friday, January 24 | course overview | none |
| Monday, January 27 | introduction and section 1.1 | 1 |
| Wednesday, January 29 | sections 1.2–1.3 | 2–3 |
| Friday, January 31 | sections 2.1–2.2 | 4 |
| Monday, February 3 | sections 2.3–2.4 | 5–7 |
| Wednesday, February 5 | none (snow day) | none |
| Friday, February 7 | no additional reading | 8–9 |
| Monday, February 10 | section 3.1 | 10 |
| Wednesday, February 12 | section 3.2 | 11 |
| Friday, February 14 | sections 4.1–4.4 | 12–15 |
| Monday, February 17 | sections 4.5–4.8 | 16–19 |
| Wednesday, February 19 | chapter 5 | 20–21 |
| Friday, February 21 | no additional reading | 22–23 |
| Monday, February 24 | section 6.1 | 24–27 |
| Wednesday, February 26 | no additional reading | 28–30 |
| Friday, February 28 | no additional reading (test 1 in class) | none |
| Monday, March 3 | pp. 1–11 and pp. 42–51 | none |
| Wednesday, March 5 | pp. 11–13 and pp. 52–58 | 31–34 |
| Friday, March 7 | pp. 13–16 | 35–36 |
| Monday, March 10 | pp. 16–19.3 and pp. 59–64 | 37–39 |
| Wednesday, March 12 | pp. 19.3–21 and p. 65 | 40–45 |
| Friday, March 14 | optional: pp. 23–25 and pp. 67–72 | 46–47 |
| Monday, March 24 | pp. 25–28 | 48–51 |
| Wednesday, March 26 | pp. 28–31 | 52–54 |
| Friday, March 28 | pp. 31–34 and pp. 73–76 | 55–57 |
| Monday, March 31 | pp. 35–41 | 58–60 |
| Wednesday, April 2 | no additional reading | 61–62 |
| Friday, April 4 | no additional reading (test 2 in class) | none |
| Monday, April 7 | sections 1–3 | none |
| Wednesday, April 9 | sections 4–5 | 63–65 |
| Friday, April 11 | sections 6–7 | 66–68 |
| Monday, April 14 | sections 8–10 | 69–71 |
| Wednesday, April 16 | sections 11–12 | 72–75 |
| Friday, April 18 | sections 13–15 | 76–77 |
| Monday, April 21 | section 16 | 78 |
| Wednesday, April 23 | section 16, continued | 79–80 |
| Friday, April 25 | section 17 | 81–84 |
| Monday, April 28 | section 18 | 85–87 |
| Wednesday, April 30 | no additional reading | 88–90 |
| Friday, May 2 | no additional reading (test 3 in class) | none |
| Monday, May 5 | no additional reading | none |
| Wednesday, May 7 | no additional reading | none |
May 2, 2014:
Today I sent the following e-mail message to all enrolled students:
From: Eggleston, Ben
Sent: Friday, May 02, 2014 6:12 PM
To: PHIL666{63855}Sp14
Subject: social choice theory test recap
Hi everybody,
I have graded today’s test, have posted the test and an answer key for the hardest questions on the course web site (http://www.benegg.net/courses/rct5), and have posted the scores on the online gradebook at the Blackboard site for our course.
In case you are interested in how you did relative to the whole class, here is some statistical information. The average of the scores was 91.4, and the scores had a standard deviation of 10.0. Of the eight scores, there were seven within one standard deviation of the mean (i.e., between 81.4 and 101.4) and one below that range.
I will return the tests in class on Monday.
Best,
Ben Eggleston
April 4, 2014:
Today I sent the following e-mail message to all enrolled students:
From: Eggleston, Ben
Sent: Friday, April 04, 2014 8:17 PM
To: PHIL666{63855}Sp14
Subject: game theory test recap
Hi everybody,
I have graded today’s test, have posted the test and an answer key for the hardest questions on the course web site (http://www.benegg.net/courses/rct5), and have posted the scores on the online gradebook at the Blackboard site for our course.
In case you are interested in how you did relative to the whole class, here is some statistical information. The average of the scores was 89.8, and the scores had a standard deviation of 5.5. Of the eight scores, there were four within one standard deviation of the mean (i.e., between 84.3 and 95.3), two above that range, and two below it.
I will return the tests in class on Monday.
Best,
Ben Eggleston
March 1, 2014:
Today I sent the following e-mail message to all enrolled students:
From: Eggleston, Ben
Sent: Saturday, March 01, 2014 11:18 AM
To: PHIL666{63855}Sp14
Subject: utility theory test recap
Hi everybody,
I have graded yesterday’s test, have posted the test and an answer key for the hardest questions on the course web site (http://www.benegg.net/courses/rct5), and have posted the scores on the online gradebook at the Blackboard site for our course.
In case you are interested in how you did relative to the whole class, here is some statistical information. The average of the scores was 92.5, and the scores had a standard deviation of 5.4. Of the eight scores, there were five within one standard deviation of the mean (i.e., between 87.1 and 97.9), one above that range, and two below it.
I will return the tests in class on Monday.
Best,
Ben Eggleston