2025/01/27 by Johan E. Gustafsson, Kacper Kowalczyk · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Psychology · Arts and Humanities · #Latin American and Latino Studies #Philosophy and Theoretical Science #Contemporary Literature and Criticism
paper · doi:10.5840/jphil20251177
openalex publication_date 2025/01/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/26
Anna Mahtani describes a puzzle meant to show that the Ex Ante Pareto Principle is incomplete as it stands and, since it cannot be completed in a satisfactory manner, decades of debate in welfare economics and ethics are undermined. In this paper, we provide a better solution to the puzzle which saves the Ex Ante Pareto Principle from this challenge. We also explain how the plausibility of our solution is reinforced by its similarity to a standard solution to an analogous puzzle in quantified epistemic logic. We also show that even if the puzzle were to remain unsolved, its impact on welfare economics and ethics would be limited.