Preference-based choice functions

a generalized approach

Sven Hansson

pp. 257-269

in: Hans van Ditmarsch, Brian Hill, Ondrej Majer (eds), Knowledge, rationality & action, Synthese 171 (2), 2009.

Abstract

Although choice and preference are distinct categories, it may in some contexts be a useful idealization to treat choices as fully determined by preferences. In order to construct a general model of such preference-based choice, a method to derive choices from preferences is needed that yields reasonable outcomes for all preference relations, even those that are incomplete and contain cycles. A generalized choice function is introduced for this purpose. It is axiomatically characterized and is shown to compare favourably with alternative constructions.