-----Original Message-----
From: David Catchpole [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Tuesday, 7 November 2000 16:02
To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'
Subject: RE: [EM] Voting methods & utility
>If we're to express any meaningful concept of utility we have to do it on
>an individual basis.
If that were true, there would never be any basis for measuring any action
(political or otherwise) against any other aside from self interest. While
this is actually a very strong argument, I doubt if you believe it, nor most
people reading this. I agree that that is the approach when you are
modeling, but I wouldn't say that expressing utility on an individual basis
is meaningful at all.
>An actor with utilities from three respective outcomes (no
>others can occur)-
>
>1,2,3
>
>will have exactly the same response if his utilities are-
>
>-5,-3,-1
In order for this to be the case, you must assume the following; the actors
preferences correspond to utility outcomes (often not the case); the actor
has omnipotent control over the outcomes by virtue of his own actions (never
true); all of the possible actions require no effort whatsoever (also never
true). I understand your point, but it is still not an approach I endorse.
>When one talks about utility, one's not referring to utilitarianism etc.
You cannot talk of utility unless you support its pursuit and you cannot
support its pursuit unless you are a utilitarian.
