[EM] So "preference" means "representation of preference"?

[MIKE OSSIPOFF]

Markus--

You wrote:

I absolutely agree with Blake: "A method is just a function from
a hypothetical set of preference orders to a set of winners.
Where the preference orders come from is of no concern."

I reply:

A method is a function from a set of not-so-hypothetical representations
of preference order to a set of winners.

Every conceivable voting system has as its input some sort of
representation of voters' preferences or ratings of the candidates.

Preferences and representations of preferences obviously aren't the
same thing. You & Blake seem to be invoking the academic authors,
as if their misuse of "preference" is official & correct usage because you 
found it in a journal.

I'm sorry, but I've never heard of a voting system that uses hypothetical 
preferences, whatever that means. As I said, they all have
as their input a not-hypothetical set of representations of preference
ordering. Or, as it makes more sense to say it, a set of candidate
orderings or ratings. You probably understand that it makes more sense
to speak of input that is a set of candidate orderings, than to call
those orderings preferences or hypothetical preferences, unnecessarily
changing a word's meaning or inventing a new term for a candidate ordering.

Mike Ossipoff





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