Normative uncertainty meets voting theory

Abstract

Recent attempts to provide a viable account of decision making under normative uncertainty through the use of voting procedures seem promising, but incomparable options pose a challenge. This paper focuses on the so-called Borda approach to decision making under normative uncertainty (MacAskill, Mind 125(500):967–1004, 2016; MacAskill et al., Moral uncertainty, Oxford University Press, 2020) and illustrates how an extended version of it aimed at accommodating incomplete preference orderings associated with normative theories fails. I propose a different account for proponents fond of the voter-theoretic approach that is grounded by approval voting, which sufficiently addresses the problem of option incomparability and is pragmatically compelling due to its simpler structure.