Abstract
Research on geometric representations of human choice is a classic example of scientific progress. In this paper I argue that this subfield has developed a body of scientific knowledge using the scientific method.
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Notes
For example, a respondent is asked “on a scale of one to ten with ten being identical, how similar is candidate A to candidate B.”
For examples, see the references in my book Spatial models of parliamentary voting (2005).
See Ordeshook (1986, chapter 1) for a clear discussion of the foundations of rational choice.
I thank Gary Cox for suggesting this formulation to me.
Ontology is the science of being or reality; the branch of knowledge that investigates the nature, essential properties, and relations of being.
These quotes are taken from Kuhn (1962/1996, p. 206).
For a lucid account of the controversy of science being “socially constructed,” see Hacking (1999, chapter 3).
Andrew Carnegie, who befriended the Kaiser, built the “Peace Palace” in The Hague, and indefatigable international peace activist, thought that peace had finally arrived. By 1912, he believed that the “millennium was at hand” (Wall, 1970/1989, p. 1006). He was devastated by the war and never recovered his old optimism (see Wall 1970/1989, chapter XXV).
This seems to echo the famous passage in the Gospel of John (18:38): “‘Truth?’ said Pilate. ‘What is that?’” Jesus did not answer.
The two dissenters were Chief Justice William Rehnquist and justice John Paul Stevens.
See the website http://www.daubertontheweb.com/ for long lists of relevant cases by knowledge area.
See the extensive list of citations in my book of work done by psychologists that essentially is equivalent to our basic geometric approach to choice.
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Acknowledgements
Remarks delivered at the Washington University, St. Louis Conference “Measures of Legislators’ Policy Preferences and the Dimensionality of Policy Spaces”, September 2009.
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Poole, K.T. The scientific status of geometric models of choice and similarities judgment. Public Choice 171, 245–256 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11127-017-0443-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11127-017-0443-y