Which worlds are possible? A judgment aggregation problem

Christian List*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Suppose the members of a group (e.g., committee, jury, expert panel) each form a judgment on which worlds in a given set are possible, subject to the constraint that at least one world is possible but not all are. The group seeks to aggregate these individual judgments into a collective judgment, subject to the same constraint. I show that no judgment aggregation rule can solve this problem in accordance with three conditions: "unanimity," "independence" and "non-dictatorship," Although the result is a variant of an existing theorem on "group identification" (Kasher and Rubinstein, Logique et Analyse 160:385-395, 1997), the aggregation of judgments on which worlds are possible (or permissible, desirable, etc.) appears not to have been studied yet. The result challenges us to take a stance on which of its conditions to relax.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)57-65
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Philosophical Logic
Volume37
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2008
Externally publishedYes

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