Kenneth Arrow - Individual Quotes

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The idealist doctrine then may be summed up by saying that each individual has two orderings, one which governs him in his everyday actions, and one which would be relevant under some ideal conditions and which is in some sense truer than the first ordering. It is the latter which is considered relevant to social choice, and it is assumed that there is complete unanimity with regard to the truer individual ordering.

Kenneth Arrow
I want, however, to conclude by calling attention to a less visible form of social action: norms of social behavior, including ethical and moral codes. I suggest as one possible interpretation that they are reactions of society to compensate for market failures. It is useful for individuals to have some trust in each other's word. In the absence of trust it would become very costly to arrange for alternative sanctions and guarantees, and many opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation would have to be, foregone.

Kenneth Arrow
Collective action is a means of power, a means by which individuals can more fully realize their individual values.

Kenneth Arrow
In this aspect, the case for democracy rests on the argument that free discussion and expression of opinion are the most suitable techniques of arriving at the moral imperative implicitly common to all. Voting, from this point of view, is not a device whereby each individual expresses his personal interests, but rather where each individual gives his opinion of the general will.

Kenneth Arrow
I want to stress that rationality is not a property of the individual alone, although it is usually presented that way. Rather, it gathers not only its force but also its very meaning from the social context in which it is embedded.

Kenneth Arrow
From the point of view of seeking a consensus of the moral imperative of individuals, such consensus being assumed to exist, the problem of choosing an electoral or other choice mechanism, or, more broadly, of choosing a social structure, assumes an entirely different form from that discussed in the greater part of this study.

Kenneth Arrow
As is by now well known, attempts to form social judgments by aggregating individual expressed preferences always lead to the possibility of paradox.

Kenneth Arrow
The purpose of organizations is to exploit the fact that many (virtually all) decisions require the participation of many individuals for their effectiveness.

Kenneth Arrow
We will also assume in the present study that individual values are taken as data and are not capable of being altered by the nature of the decision process itself

Kenneth Arrow