Agent-Regret and Regret Consequentialism
badly by spending his life savings on lottery tickets, regret was not fitting since he
won 2.4 billion dollars. Bitcoin Pizza Guy showed us that bad deliberation is not
necessary for regret. Laszlo Hanyecz deliberated rationally when he bought pizza
with bitcoin given the available information, and yet regret was still fitting since
he spent 170,000,000 dollars on pizza. So, bad deliberation was not necessary to
make Hanyecz’s regret fitting. Therefore, because bad deliberation is neither a
necessary nor sufficient condition for regret, bad deliberation is inessential for
regret.
In addition, Bitcoin Pizza Guy showed us that a bad outcome is sufficient
for regret. The only negative feature in this case was a bad outcome, and that
alone was enough to make regret fitting. We have not, however, established that a
bad outcome is necessary for regret. I will defend this claim in two stages. First,
notice that regret is only fitting in cases where there is a bad outcome, e.g., in
Bitcoin Pizza Guy , where Hanyecz spent 170,000,000 dollars on pizza, and in
Roulette , where you lose your life savings. Incontrast, in Rock/Paper/Scissors,
where you win 10 dollars, and in Luigi , where Luigi wins 2.4 billion dollars in the
lottery, regret is not fitting. Second, it seems like the best explanation for why
regret is fitting in Bitcoin Pizza Guy and Roulette is because there was a bad
outcome. It is not just a coincidence that regret, and bad outcomes stay together.
The bad outcomes are what make regret fitting. That is, they are required for
regret to be fitting. Both points – (1) that regret is only fitting in cases where there
is a bad outcome and (2) that bad outcomes make regret fitting – strongly suggest
that a bad outcome is necessary for regret to be fitting. Therefore, since a bad
outcome is both a necessary and sufficient condition for regret to be fitting, it
follows that bad outcomes are essential for regret. Lastly, to return to Roulette :
Given that bad deliberation is inessential for regret, and bad outcomes are
essential for regret, it is most reasonable to interpret regret as focusing on the fact
that you lost your life savings. Additionally, the ‘extra’ negative feelings in this
case are best interpreted as coming from self-reproach, since you are also
Volume VI (2023)
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