The Logics of Preference : A Study of Prohairetic Logics in Twentieth Century Philosophy

Extrapolating from Hallden's approach is the formalized account of preference expressions proposed by Lennart Aqvist. The latter's innovation is to introduce a calculus of preference which is an extension of a deontic logic. Aqvist's allusion to the obligatory, the forbidden, and the value-indifferent, as a means of securing the formal properties of preference-relations in the inten- With characteristic incisiveness Georg Henrik von Wright identifies pro haireticIogic (i. e. the logic of preference) as the core of a general theory of value concepts. Essentially, this nucleus involves the logical study of acts from the point of view of their preferability. 1 (italics added) Though the term prohairesis is found in Plato, as well as in Aristotle's treatment of the relations of preference, it is von Wright who introduces this word into contemporary analytical philoso phy, and succinctly specifies the philosophical dimensions it encompasses. The above emphasis upon the philosophical study of the formalization of preferences is a matter of utmost importance for understanding the type of in quiry this investigation attempts to initiate. Over the past one hundred years the literature on general theories of subjective utility has become massive, where one considers the work done in psychometrics, econometrics, statistical theories, probability theories, etc., etc. Histories in these areas are strong in tracing various evolutions in the development of the concept of preference in decision-making. However, what has not been investigated with sustained at tention are the fundamentally philosophical inquiries into the formalization of preference-relations Front Matter....Pages i-vii Introduction....Pages 1-9 Front Matter....Pages 11-11 Prototheoretic Attempts Toward a Logic of Preference....Pages 13-55 Aristotelean Reflections in Richard M. Martin’s Extensionalized Pragmatics of Preference....Pages 57-88 Rescher’s Logic of Preference and Linguistic Analysis....Pages 89-117 Richard C. Jeffrey’s Logic of First and Higher-Order Preferences....Pages 119-164 Front Matter....Pages 165-165 Soren Hallden’s “Puristic” Logic of the Better and Same....Pages 167-190 The Many Modal Interpretations of Prohairetic Logic: Aqvist, Chisholm, Sosa and Hansson....Pages 191-219 Von Wright’s Logic of Propositions Expressing Preferences....Pages 221-255 Hochberg on the Logic of “Extrinsic Epistemic Preferability”....Pages 257-268 Back Matter....Pages 259-287