Related papers: The Algebra of Utility Inference
Engineering needs mathematics, but the converse is also increasingly evident. Indeed, mathematics is still recovering from the drawbacks of several "reforms". Encouraging is the revived interest in proofs indicated by various recent…
Ranking individuals based on their performance in different coalitions is a problem emerging in various domains (teams sports, scientific evaluation, argumentation, etc.). Often, for practical reasons, the number of comparable coalitions is…
Classical Decision Theory provides a normative framework for representing and reasoning about complex preferences. Straightforward application of this theory to automate decision making is difficult due to high elicitation cost. In response…
Human cooperation depends on how accurately we infer others' motives--how much they value fairness, generosity, or self-interest from the choices they make. We model that process in binary dictator games, which isolate moral trade-offs…
We introduce a set of eight universal Rules of Inference by which computer programs with known properties (axioms) are transformed into new programs with known properties (theorems). Axioms are presented to formalize a segment of Number…
We establish an equivalence between two seemingly different theories: one is the traditional axiomatisation of incomplete preferences on horse lotteries based on the mixture independence axiom; the other is the theory of desirable gambles…
Since Leonard Savage's epoch-making "Foundations of Statistics", Subjective Expected Utility Theory has been the presumptive model for decision-making. Savage provided an act-based axiomatization of standard expected utility theory. In this…
Mathematical analysis of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) led to the development of a mathematical function, usually called the inconsistency index, which has the center role in measuring the inconsistency of the judgements in AHP.…
The long-standing unitary-actor assumption in strategy research -- treating firms as monolithic entities with coherent preferences -- misses that organizations are coalitions of individuals with diverse and often conflicting goals. Although…
The handling of user preferences is becoming an increasingly important issue in present-day information systems. Among others, preferences are used for information filtering and extraction to reduce the volume of data presented to the user.…
We consider a model where a subset of candidates must be selected based on voter preferences, subject to general constraints that specify which subsets are feasible. This model generalizes committee elections with diversity constraints,…
An important use of machine learning is to learn what people value. What posts or photos should a user be shown? Which jobs or activities would a person find rewarding? In each case, observations of people's past choices can inform our…
An important characteristic of many logics for Artificial Intelligence is their nonmonotonicity. This means that adding a formula to the premises can invalidate some of the consequences. There may, however, exist formulae that can always be…
The construction of numerical value scales (or priority values) is a recurrent topic in decision-aiding research. However, in real contexts, uncertainty and limited cognitive precision often lead decision-makers to provide interval…
The aim of this paper is to propose a many-valued modal framework to formalize reasoning with both graded preferences and propositions, in the style of van Benthem et al.'s classical modal logics for preferences. To do so, we start from Bou…
Dependence on the parameter is continuous when perturbations of the parameter preserves strict preference for one alternative over another. We characterise this property via a utility function over alternatives that depends continuously on…
The problem of induction has persisted since Hume exposed the logical gap between repeated observation and universal inference. Traditional attempts to resolve it have oscillated between two extremes: the probabilistic optimism of Laplace…
We ask if participants in a choice experiment with repeated presentation of the same menus and no feedback provision: (i) exhibit overall behaviour that is consistent with ordinal and expected utility theory under *weak* preferences; (ii)…
In this pedagogical text aimed at those wanting to start thinking about or brush up on probabilistic inference, I review the rules by which probability distribution functions can (and cannot) be combined. I connect these rules to the…
We introduced a decision-making model based on value functions that included individualistic utility function and socio-constructivistic norm function and proposed a norm-fostering process that recursively updates norm function through…