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The Puzzle of the Absent-Minded Driver is Not about Absent-Mindedness, but about Indexical Belief

Wolfgang Spohn

Homo Oeconomicus2025https://doi.org/10.1007/s41412-025-00151-2article
ABDC C
Weight
0.37

What the paper says

Abstract This paper does not add a novel solution or a novel justification for an existing solution of the puzzle of the absent-minded driver. Rather it wants to set existing solutions into the right perspective. It argues that the puzzle is not about absent-mindedness at all, but about indexically presented indistinguishable alternatives. It identifies a common assumption as one about the relation between beliefs about indexical and non-indexical propositions. So, this is what is involved in the puzzle. This assumption entails the favorite solution of the puzzle and is stated as a general a priori symmetry principle for indexical propositions.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/s41412-025-00151-2

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@article{wolfgang2025,
  title        = {{The Puzzle of the Absent-Minded Driver is Not about Absent-Mindedness, but about Indexical Belief}},
  author       = {Wolfgang Spohn},
  journal      = {Homo Oeconomicus},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/s41412-025-00151-2},
}

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Evidence weight

0.37

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.16 × 0.4 = 0.06
M · momentum0.53 × 0.15 = 0.08
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.