A few revisions

[Itzhak Gilboa]

Hi all,

A few papers have undergone non-trivial revisions.  Comments (or revised comments) are always welcome!

Happy holidays and a great new 2026!

Tzachi

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Gayer, Gabrielle (r), Stefania Minardi, (r) Fan Wang, (r) and Itzhak Gilboa (2025), "Association Rules: An Axiomatic Approach"

The previous version had a qualitative likelihood relation defined by (aggregation over) rules, and an axiomatization based on these relations being observable.  The current version has the corresponding results for probabilities, with some comments on the common structure to these derivations. 

Gayer, Gabrielle and Itzhak Gilboa (2025), "Imagination and Planning"

This version has a variant of the model (with very similar results), and some comments on its relationship to the literature on vector addition systems.

Gilboa, Itzhak (2025), "Free Will: A Rational Illusion" (Revised version)

This sharpens some arguments in the note from 2007 with the same title.  In particular, it emphasizes the fact that only "psychological" free will is discussed, and highlights the relationship to formal models of reasoning in general.

[Itzhak GILBOA]

Hi all,

Alyssa Rusonik, Larry Samuelson, and I just completed the first draft of a new paper, "Lexitarian Population Ethics: A Position-Based Axiomatic Approach".  It's available at

https://itzhakgilboa.weebly.com/uploads/8/3/6/3/8363317/rusonik_samuelson_gilboa_lexitarianism.pdf 

and the abstract is appended below.  Comments are very welcome!

Best,

Tzachi

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Abstract

The paper makes three contributions to the preference aggregation and population ethics literatures. First, we propose the "lexitarian" criterion, according to which the social planner maximizes a vector of lexicographically-ranked utilitarian functions. Second, we suggest modeling the social choice problem using "positions" as a primitive, and axiomatize the lexitarian rule in this context. Third, we argue for an interpretation of the model in terms of the impersonal approach, while prioritizing needs over wants.