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Small amendment arguments: how they work and what they do and do not show

Author

Listed:
  • Martin van Hees

    (VU - Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam [Amsterdam])

  • Akshath Jitendranath

    (PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement)

  • Roland Iwan Luttens

    (VU - Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam [Amsterdam])

Abstract

The small improvement argument has been said to establish that the standard weak preference or value relation can be incomplete. We first show that the argument is one of three possible ‘small amendment arguments', each of which would yield the same conclusion. Generalizing the analysis thus, we subsequently present a strong and a weak version of small amendment arguments and derive the exact rationality conditions under which they reveal incompleteness. The results show that the arguments (in any of their variants) need not reveal a problem for the possibility of rational choice. In fact, it can be argued that they only reveal such a problem if the underlying relation is complete rather than incomplete.

Suggested Citation

  • Martin van Hees & Akshath Jitendranath & Roland Iwan Luttens, 2025. "Small amendment arguments: how they work and what they do and do not show," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-04960740, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:pseptp:halshs-04960740
    DOI: 10.1007/s11238-024-10002-2
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