Consequentialist Decision Theory and Utilitarian Ethics

Abstract

Abstract Normative social choice theory seems to have started out as a discussion of how to design suitable political systems and voting schemes-as in the work of well..known writers like Borda (1781), Condorcet (1785), Dodgson (1884), Black (1948), and Arrow (I95I; I963). Yet, in its attempt to aggregate individual preferences or interests into some kind of collective choice criterion, it would appear equally suited to the general issue of how to make good decisions which affect several different individuals. This, of course, is the subject of ethics in general, rather than just of political philosophy. After all, the design of suitable political systems is just one particular kind of ethical issue. So is the design of economic systems, and even the adjustment of features like tax rates within an existing system.

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