An impossibility theorem for amalgamating evidence

作者：Stegenga Jacob^*

来源：Synthese, 2013, 190(12): 2391-2411.

DOI：10.1007/s11229-011-9973-x

• Evidence
• Arrow's theorem
• Amalgamating evidence
• Confirmation

Amalgamating evidence of different kinds for the same hypothesis into an overall confirmation is analogous, I argue, to amalgamating individuals' preferences into a group preference. The latter faces well-known impossibility theorems, most famously "Arrow's Theorem". Once the analogy between amalgamating evidence and amalgamating preferences is tight, it is obvious that amalgamating evidence might face a theorem similar to Arrow's. I prove that this is so, and end by discussing the plausibility of the axioms required for the theorem.

• 出版日期2013-8