Philosophy

The two boxes that split philosophers down the middle

A near-omniscient predictor offers you an open box holding $1,000 and a closed box holding either $1,000,000 or nothing, depending on what it predicted you would choose. You may take just the closed box, or both, but the predictor has already set the payout before you pick. Devised by physicist William Newcomb and analyzed by philosopher Robert Nozick in 1969, it still splits experts roughly evenly between one-boxers and two-boxers.

Robert Nozick, Newcomb's Problem and Two Principles of Choice — Essays in Honor of Carl G. Hempel, 1969

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