From Social Choice to Theory Choice

Michael Morreau (University of Maryland) gives a talk at the 9th Formal Epistemology Workshop (Munich, May 29–June 2, 2012) titled "From Social Choice to Theory Choice". Abstract: Arrow's theorem of social choice (Arrow 1951) has been thought to limit the possibilities for choosing rationally among rival scientific theories on the basis of their accuracy, simplicity, scope and other relevant criteria. It does not. Possible orderings of theories by these criteria are so severely restricted that the theorem is irrelevant in this connection. On the contrary, what is known about social choice in restricted domains implies that there are many acceptable procedures for choosing among theories on the basis of their various merits and demerits.