This project will investigate social procedures as executed by rational and not-so rational agents. This is an area where many disciplines meet and have already made important contributions. The problem we focus on is how to understand the complex phenomena that arise when people taking part in a social procedure interact. A careful analysis of these phenomena relies on results and techniques from a variety disciplines, including Logic, Social Philosophy, Game Theory, Social Choice Theory, and Artificial Intelligence. In fact, many social procedures, such as fair division algorithms and voting procedures, have been analyzed in detail by mathematicians and political scientists. These analyses typically focus on comparing the mathematical properties of the various procedures. This is an important step towards understanding how social procedures work, but the main goal of this project is to place these issues in the context of a larger discussion on "designing a good social procedure”. The main theme of this project is that logical methods can facilitate such a discussion. The primary goal is to develop logical frameworks for studying social procedures and surrounding issues. More specifically, this project will investigate logical frameworks that will analyze:

1. The structure of social procedures,
2. The nature of (rational) agents (focusing on informational and preferential dynamics), and
3. The nature of social interaction.

The result will be a comprehensive study of social procedure integrating important insights from the different disciplines mentioned above.

For more information feel free to contact Eric Pacuit.

More information on this research area and on related events and activities is available here:

loriweb.org
Workshop on Logic and Rational Interaction, October 8 - 11, 2009