There is a difference between a program and the function it computes. The notion of preference is perhaps captured best by a function, not a program.
No, a program. What the program defines is a single constant value, not a function (remember: if we are talking about a program, it’s a constant program, taking no parameters!). And of course it matters how that constant is defined, and not at all what that constant is. More generally, we can define that constant not by a program, but by a logical theory, which will be the topic of my next post.
By a “logical theory” do you mean what logicians usually mean by a “theory”? A deductively closed set of sentences?
Wow! Well, that eliminates a lot of the arbitrary character I was objecting to in using programs to represent the world/decision problem. But there still are a lot of deductive systems to choose among. I await your next post with interest.
No, a program. What the program defines is a single constant value, not a function (remember: if we are talking about a program, it’s a constant program, taking no parameters!). And of course it matters how that constant is defined, and not at all what that constant is. More generally, we can define that constant not by a program, but by a logical theory, which will be the topic of my next post.
By a “logical theory” do you mean what logicians usually mean by a “theory”? A deductively closed set of sentences?
Wow! Well, that eliminates a lot of the arbitrary character I was objecting to in using programs to represent the world/decision problem. But there still are a lot of deductive systems to choose among. I await your next post with interest.
I won’t settle the choice, only point out the generality of notion and how it applies, direction to look for further refinements.