Kaj_Sotala comments on Harsanyi’s Social Aggregation Theorem and what it means for CEV

Kaj_Sotala 6 Jan 2013 6:43 UTC
9 points

Axiom 1: Every person, and the FAI, are VNM-rational agents.

[...]

So why should you accept my axioms?

Axiom 1: The VNM utility axioms are widely agreed to be necessary for any rational agent.

Though of course, humans are not VNM-rational.
- AlexMennen 6 Jan 2013 21:10 UTC
  2 points
  −1
  Parent
  Only a VNM-rational agent can have preferences in a coherent way, so if we’re talking about aggregating people’s preferences, I don’t see any way to do it other than modeling people as having underlying VNM-rational preferences that fail to perfectly determine their decisions.
  - Academian 7 Jan 2013 18:22 UTC
    6 points
    3
    Parent
    Non-VNM agents satisfying only axiom 1 have coherent preferences… they just don’t mix well with probabilities.
- steven0461 6 Jan 2013 20:40 UTC
  2 points
  Parent
  Presumably there would be first be an extrapolation phase resulting in rational preferences.