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European Conference on Symbolic and Quantitative Approaches to Reasoning and Uncertainty

ECSQARU 2003: Symbolic and Quantitative Approaches to Reasoning with Uncertainty pp 1–21Cite as

Qualitative Decision Rules under Uncertainty

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 2711))

Abstract

This paper is a survey of qualitative decision theory focused on the available decision rules under uncertainty, and their properties. It is pointed out that two main approaches exist according to whether degrees of uncertainty and degrees of utility are commensurate (that is, belong to a unique scale) or not. Savage-like axiomatics for both approaches are surveyed. In such a framework, acts are functions from states to results, and decision rules are used to characterize a preference relation on acts. It is shown that the emerging uncertainty theory in qualitative settings is possibility theory rather than probability theory. However these approaches lead to criteria that are either little decisive due to incomparabilities, or too adventurous because focusing on the most plausible states, or yet lacking discrimination because or the coarseness of the value scale. Some new results overcoming these defects are reviewed. Interestingly, they lead to genuine qualitative counterparts to expected utility.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. IRIT, Université Paul Sabatier, 31062, Toulouse Cedex 4, France

    Didier Dubois & Hélène Fargier

  2. INRA-BIA, Chemin de Borde Rouge, B.P37, 31326, Castanet-Tolosan cedex

    Régis Sabbadin

Authors
  1. Didier Dubois
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  2. Hélène Fargier
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  3. Régis Sabbadin
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Aalborg University, Fredrik Bajersvej 7E, 9220, Aalborg, Denmark

    Thomas Dyhre Nielsen

  2. Department of Computer Science, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, ClearWater Bay Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China,

    Nevin Lianwen Zhang

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© 2003 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Dubois, D., Fargier, H., Sabbadin, R. (2003). Qualitative Decision Rules under Uncertainty. In: Nielsen, T.D., Zhang, N.L. (eds) Symbolic and Quantitative Approaches to Reasoning with Uncertainty. ECSQARU 2003. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 2711. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-45062-7_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-45062-7_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-40494-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45062-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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