We have the pleasure to invite you to a research seminar in the ‘BIOUNCERTAINTY’ research project. The subject of the seminar is 'Normative Uncertainty Meets Social Choice Theory' and it will be delivered by Lee Elkin (Jagiellonian University). The seminar will take place on Thursday, 12th of November, at 5:30pm on MS Teams (link below).

Abstract: William MacAskill (2016) cleverly combines elements of social choice theory and expected value theory in forming a proposal for decision making under normative uncertainty that he calls the Borda Rule. However, the decision criterion is challenged by incomplete orderings of the options available to a decision maker. In this paper, I show that MacAskill’s robustified extension of the Borda Rule is an unsatisfying solution to the problem and propose amending it with a Borda scoring rule for partially ordered ballots. Besides avoiding the struggles MacAskill’s robust version faces, I demonstrate that the amended rule better accommodates group decision making under normative uncertainty—a matter that has yet to receive serious attention.
 

Lee Elkin defended his PhD thesis in philosophy and economics in 2017. His main areas of interest are formal epistemology and philosophy of science as well as decision theory, logic, and philosophy of cognitive science. Lee is a post-doctoral researcher in the Interdisciplinary Centre for Ethics in the BIOUNCERTAINTY project.

Join the meeting here