Since our discussion of the Dutch Book Argument was pretty brief in class, I’ve rounded up a few explainers here that you might find interesting.
This video is particularly good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_aIq-gZkGk&t=934s
The explainer here is also pretty accessible: http://wmbriggs.com/post/3632/
The Wikipedia page and the Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy page are also worth checking out, though the former is rather skimpy and the latter is rather difficult.
Finally, for those who were interested to know the origin of the term, there is, unfortunately, little to say. I asked around, and my colleagues who do work in formal epistemology and logic told me they’ve never come across a good explanation. The internet wasn’t very helpful, either. Some claim it is related to derogatory uses of “Dutch” that arise from the period of the 17th-century war between the Dutch and the English. Others claim it is early 20th-century American slang. None of this is definitive. This pretty well sums up the lack of consensus:
Someone told me around 1987 that the term Dutch book had been invented when Dutch insurance companies for ships in the 19th century would organize and combine insurances in such a way as to make money whatever contingency occurred. When I later asked the person for references or evidence otherwise he did not know.
The English language has several negative expressions using the term Dutch, such as Dutch uncle, Dutch treat, etc. This terminology seems to date from the 17th century, when Holland and England had powerful and rivalry fleets. The term Dutch book is in line with this tradition.
I heard it say that Dutch book is a common term in horse racing and possibly it was taken from there. Lehman, R. (1955) writes that the term is known among professional bettors. I never investigated this possibility but it seems to be a plausible origin, in agreement with the linguistic tradition just mentioned. In horse racing, “making a book” means setting the betting odds and the “bookmaker” is the person doing it. See for instance the opening sentence in Cain, Michael, David Law, & Dennis V. Lindley (2000), “The Construction of a Simple Book,” Journal of Risk and Uncertainty 20, 119–140. The paper doesn’t give further references to specific literature on horse racing. The terms do not entail that the bookmaker will always make a profit no matter what happens, as they do in decision theory. Maybe the adjective Dutch is used to add that meaning?
The earliest written explanation of the concept that I am aware of is in works by de Finetti, but Ramsey has a mysterious use of the term, without explanation, as if well-known in those days.