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Social choice, nondeterminacy, and public reasoning

Herlitz, Anders LU and Sadek, Karim (2021) In Res Philosophica 98(3). p.377-401
Abstract
This article presents an approach to how to make reasonable social choices when independent criteria (e.g., prioritarianism, religious freedom) fail to fully determine what to do. The article outlines different explanations of why independent criteria sometimes fail to fully determine what to do and illustrates how they can still be used to eliminate ineligible alternatives, but it is argued that the independent criteria cannot ground a reasonable social choice in these situations. To complement independent criteria when they fail to fully determine what to do, it is suggested that society must engage in public deliberation by way of generating new reasons that can determine how to rank the alternatives. It is suggested that the approach... (More)
This article presents an approach to how to make reasonable social choices when independent criteria (e.g., prioritarianism, religious freedom) fail to fully determine what to do. The article outlines different explanations of why independent criteria sometimes fail to fully determine what to do and illustrates how they can still be used to eliminate ineligible alternatives, but it is argued that the independent criteria cannot ground a reasonable social choice in these situations. To complement independent criteria when they fail to fully determine what to do, it is suggested that society must engage in public deliberation by way of generating new reasons that can determine how to rank the alternatives. It is suggested that the approach to social choice presented here reveals a way of accepting the relevance of independent criteria for social choice without letting go of the idea that the attitudes of affected parties matter. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Res Philosophica
volume
98
issue
3
pages
377 - 401
external identifiers
  • scopus:85109542375
DOI
10.11612/resphil.2072
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
c9f6b4e2-f6c0-4d84-ad7d-da74c5475625
date added to LUP
2024-12-10 14:45:30
date last changed
2025-04-04 15:13:33
@article{c9f6b4e2-f6c0-4d84-ad7d-da74c5475625,
  abstract     = {{This article presents an approach to how to make reasonable social choices when independent criteria (e.g., prioritarianism, religious freedom) fail to fully determine what to do. The article outlines different explanations of why independent criteria sometimes fail to fully determine what to do and illustrates how they can still be used to eliminate ineligible alternatives, but it is argued that the independent criteria cannot ground a reasonable social choice in these situations. To complement independent criteria when they fail to fully determine what to do, it is suggested that society must engage in public deliberation by way of generating new reasons that can determine how to rank the alternatives. It is suggested that the approach to social choice presented here reveals a way of accepting the relevance of independent criteria for social choice without letting go of the idea that the attitudes of affected parties matter.}},
  author       = {{Herlitz, Anders and Sadek, Karim}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{3}},
  pages        = {{377--401}},
  series       = {{Res Philosophica}},
  title        = {{Social choice, nondeterminacy, and public reasoning}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.11612/resphil.2072}},
  doi          = {{10.11612/resphil.2072}},
  volume       = {{98}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}