Logical Methods in the Humanities

The Logic and Mathematics of Voting Procedures

Weekly seminar using logic and mathematics to study voting procedures.

Upcoming Meeting

The next meeting will be on Thursday, November 20, 4:15 - 5:30 in conjunction with the Symbolic Systems Forum. The meeting will take place in 380-380C. Ken Arrow will speak on The Subject-matter of Social Choice Theory (abstract).

Todd Davies talk is rescheduled for Friday, December 5, 12 - 1:15 in Cordura 100.


Brief Synopsis: The centerpiece of any democratic society is the procedure used to elect its leaders. A quick survey of different elections held throughout the world reveals a great variety of methods that can be employed. For example, here in the US we use Plurality Voting to choose our leaders while Australia uses a more complex procedure called Single Transferable Voting. How should we compare two different voting procedures? Is there one particular voting procedure that is "best" among all others? During the fall quarter, we will run a weekly workshop seminar on voting procedures (and social choice theory more generally) to address these important and timely issues.

A comprehensive reader has been prepared as the basic text for our work; see the link to Topics and Readings above. In addition we shall invite leading experts in the field to give some special lectures. This workshop will be suitable for advanced undergraduates, graduate students and interested faculty in a variety of fields; though some mathematics will be used there are no special prerequisites.

Support from the Humanities Center and the Symbolic Systems Program is gratefully acknowledged