Universität Hamburg - der Forschung, der Lehre, der Bildung, zur Homepage
DFG Graduate Program Collective Decision-Making

Photo: Pixabay/Geralt

Research

P6: Causality and responsibility in collective decision-making

Attributions of responsibility are a very elementary means by which we regulate our social, political, and economic affairs. As a matter of fairness and efficiency it is quite obvious that we need to get the “responsibility system” right. There are two approaches to understanding and designing a responsibility system. The first is abstract: it starts from general concepts and principles including prerequisites for responsibility in terms of causation (we call this theoretical responsibility). The second is behavioral: it starts from purposive agents in whom morality is one of many determinants of behavior.

This research project will examine responsibility from these two perspectives, thus naturally combining and integrating philosophical and economic methodologies, along with reflections on responsibility.

Objectives

  • To develop a unified framework for causal contributions in collective decision-making.
  • To explore metrics of moral responsibility for collective decision-making.
  • To investigate the effect of technology on the distribution of responsibility.

Suggested Readings

Barberà, S. and A. Gerber (2017): “Sequential Voting and Agenda Manipulation,” Theoretical Economics, 12, 211-247.

Braham, M. and M. van Hees (2012): “An Anatomy of Responsibility,” Mind, 121, 601-634.

Dehez, P. and S. Ferey (2013): “How to share joint liability: A cooperative game approach,” Mathematical Social Sciences, 66, 44-50

Duch, R., Przepiorka, W. and R. Stevenson (2015): “Responsibility Attribution for Collective Decision Makers”, American Journal of Political Science, 59, 372-389.

Floridi, L. (2013): “Distributed morality in an information society,” Science and Engineering Ethics, 19, 727-743.

Halpern, J. (2016): Actual Causality, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Kroedel, T. (2015): “A Simple Argument for Downward Causation,” Synthese, 192, 841-858.

List, C. and P. Pettit (2011): Group Agency: The Possibility, Design, and Status of Corporate Agents, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Moore, M. (2009): Causation and Responsibility: An Essay in Law, Morals, and Metaphysics, Oxford:Oxford University Press.

Rothenhäusler, D., Schweizer, N. and N. Szech (2018): “Guilt in voting and public good games,” European Economic Review, 101, 664-681.