The View from `Manywhere’: Normative Economics with Context-Dependent Preferences

We propose a methodology for normative economics in presence of context-dependent preferences. The key feature of our approach is to locate normative authority, not in the synoptic and third-person judgement of the social planner (‘view from nowhere'), nor in the first-person judgement of the individual (‘view from somewhere'), but in the second-person ability of the individual to confront conflicting judgements across contexts (‘view from manywhere'). We offer a precise definition of context-dependence and detail our own proposition. We formulate a normative criterion of self-determination and advance two complementary justifications, interpreting the view from manywhere either as an extension of Sugden's opportunity criterion, or as an application of Sen's positional views in his theory of justice.