Collective Rationality, Agency and Consequentialism
Author(s)
Hausman, Daniel M.
Abstract
In the social choice literature various rationality conditions have been imposed on collectivities – mainly on governments of all sorts, from national governments to ruling bodies of clubs. This paper will consider whether collective rationality should satisfy the same necessary conditions as individual rationality. In particular, it will argue that it is sometimes not irrational for collective agents to violate extremely plausible conditions on individual rationality, such as transitivity. Exactly the same considerations that show that collective rationality does not always demand transitivity or context independence show that individual rationality does not always demand them either.
IssueNo
Pages
1-24
Article
Article Not Available
Source
An Address Given at the Kline Memorial Conference at the University of Missouri
