Essay on Aggregation in Discussion and Inquiry

Mathematical aggregation frameworks are general and precise settings in which to study ways of forming a consensus or group point of view from a set of potentially diverse points of view. Aggregation is an important topic in economics (e.g., allocation aggregation), political science (e.g., social choice theory), and statistics (e.g., opinion pooling), but it also finds application throughout decision theory and epistemology. Consensus between points of view is central to any developed account of rationality. While it may be obvious that common ground or consensus matters in settings of group decision-making and non-question-begging joint inquiry, such notions are also crucial for single agents. A rational agent can have multiple goals or values that come into conflict or she may suspend judgment between various ways of evaluating events with respect to subjective probability, for example.