Central and East European
Society for Phenomenology

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235548

An impossibility theorem for amalgamating evidence

Jacob Stegenga

pp. 2391-2411

Abstract

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.

Publication details

Published in:

(2013) Synthese 190 (12).

Pages: 2391-2411

DOI: 10.1007/s11229-011-9973-x

Full citation:

Stegenga Jacob (2013) „An impossibility theorem for amalgamating evidence“. Synthese 190 (12), 2391–2411.