2000/10/01 by Gustaf Arrhenius · 4 citations
Arts and Humanities · Decision Sciences · Psychology · #Arrow's impossibility theorem #Axiology #Computer science #Construct (python library) #Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics #Economics #Epistemology #Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics #Impossibility #Law #Mathematical economics #Object (grammar) #Philosophy #Philosophy and Theoretical Science #Political science #Population #Social choice theory #Sociology
paper · doi:10.1017/s0266267100000249
openalex publication_date 2000/10/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/16
A search is under way for a theory that can accommodate our intuitions in population axiology. The object of this search has proved elusive. This is not surprising since, as we shall see, any welfarist axiology that satisfies three reasonable conditions implies at least one of three counter-intuitive conclusions. I shall start by pointing out the failures in three recent attempts to construct an acceptable population axiology. I shall then present an impossibility theorem and conclude with a short discussion of how it might be extended to pluralist axiologies, that is, axiologies that take more values than welfare into account.