Mini-Workshop in Decision and Action Theory

Program

Abstracts:

1. Nicolien Janssens, "Ranking on Online Deliberation and Decision-Making Platforms"

In recent years there has been an increase in the number of online deliberation and decision making platforms (DDPs). One of the main objectives of DDPs is to make democracy more participatory. On these platforms, citizens can both upload and evaluate proposals. This paper focuses on the ranking of ideas within DDPs. Our contribution is threefold. Firstly, we argue that a principled approach to ranking is necessary to uphold the core objective of DDPs. Secondly, upon studying a set of existing DDPs, we observe that the approach to ranking, in practice, tends to be rather ad hoc. Therefore, thirdly, we introduce three ranking principles and critically examine arguments for and against them. Ultimately, by introducing these principles, the goal is to give a better understanding of ranking rules, so that in the future, platform designers, hosts and users can make a well-advised choice for a ranking rule.

2. Dan Baras, "Calling for Explanation"

This talk explores the idea that some facts call for explanation. This idea serves as a premise in influential arguments for the inexistence of moral facts, for the inexistence of mathematical facts, for the existence of a god, for the existence of multiple universes, and other topics. Despite its prevalence and importance in debates across fields of study, however, this premise is rarely questioned, and the distinction between facts that call for explanation and those that do not has thus far received little careful attention. The talk gives an overview of an approach towards filling this gap.