Journal | Volume | Article

235593

A general model of a group search procedure, applied to epistemic democracy

Christopher Thompson

pp. 1233-1252

Abstract

The standard epistemic justification for inclusiveness in political decision making is the Condorcet Jury Theorem, which states that the probability of a correct decision using majority rule increases in group size (given certain assumptions). Informally, majority rule acts as a mechanism to pool the information contained in the judgements of individual agents. I aim to extend the explanation of how groups of political agents track the truth. Before agents can pool the information, they first need to find truth-conducive information. Increasing group size is also important in the initial search for truth-conducive information.

Publication details

Published in:

Ahlstrom-Vij Kristoffer, Kappel Klemens, Pedersen Nikolaj Yang Lee Linding (2013) The epistemology of inclusiveness. Synthese 190 (7).

Pages: 1233-1252

DOI: 10.1007/s11229-012-0108-9

Full citation:

Thompson Christopher (2013) „A general model of a group search procedure, applied to epistemic democracy“. Synthese 190 (7), 1233–1252.