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  3. Essai sur l'application de l'analyse à la probabilité des décisions rendues à la pluralité des voix
  • Cited by 27
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
June 2016
Print publication year:
2014
First published in:
1785
Online ISBN:
9781139923972
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139923972
Subjects:
Mathematics (general), Mathematics, History of Science, History of Mathematical Texts, General Science
Series:
Cambridge Library Collection - Mathematics
Information

Book description

A central figure in the early years of the French Revolution, Nicolas de Condorcet (1743–94) was active as a mathematician, philosopher, politician and economist. He argued for the values of the Enlightenment, from religious toleration to the abolition of slavery, believing that society could be improved by the application of rational thought. In this essay, first published in 1785, Condorcet analyses mathematically the process of making majority decisions, and seeks methods to improve the likelihood of their success. The work was largely forgotten in the nineteenth century, while those who did comment on it tended to find the arguments obscure. In the second half of the twentieth century, however, it was rediscovered as a foundational work in the theory of voting and societal preferences. Condorcet presents several significant results, among which Condorcet's paradox (the non-transitivity of majority preferences) is now seen as the direct ancestor of Arrow's paradox.

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