Course on Logic and Social Choice Theory at ESSLLI-2013


This is the website for the course on logic and social choice theory at the 25th European Summer School in Logic, Language and Information (ESSLLI-2013) in Düsseldorf in August 2013.

Outline. This course will provide a thorough introduction to social choice theory, the formal study of mechanisms for collective decision making, and highlight the role that logic has taken, and continues to take, in its development. We will cover the axiomatic method in social choice theory and see proofs for some of the seminal results in the field, such as Arrow's Theorem. We will also discuss how modern logic and automated reasoning might be used to provide deeper insights into the nature of social choice. Finally, we will give an introduction to judgment aggregation, which is concerned with the aggregation of the judgments of several agents expressed in terms of formulas of propositional logic. Throughout the week, we will cover both classical results and touch upon recent research. No specific technical background is required to follow this course.

Slides. Please find the set of slides used during the course below:

Reading. The course is based on the following expository paper:

For additional material, consult the website of my course on computational social choice, given annually at the ILLC.

You may also be interested in the ESSLLI Workshop on Logical Models of Group Decision Making, taking place during the same week each day at 17:00-18:30.