Summary
Community standards of decency, fairness, and reasonableness guide judgments in ambiguous contexts, modeled as intervals aggregated by endpoint rules. These rules are strategyproof under generalized single-peaked preferences, ensuring fair, independent aggregation of judgments.
Highlights
- Community standards influence judgments by evolving norms of decency and fairness.
- Obscene speech may be criminalized based on contemporary community standards in the US.
- Standards modeled as intervals, aggregated via p,q-th endpoint rules.
- Endpoint rules aggregate independently by lower and upper endpoints, not pointwise.
- Strategyproofness requires single-peaked preferences and independent endpoint aggregation.
- Median and maximal rules represent spectrum ends between liberalism and democracy.
- Responsiveness, anonymity, continuity, and neutrality axioms characterize endpoint rules.
Key Insights
- Community standards adapt over time, reflecting diversity and fluid social norms, which necessitates flexible aggregation methods rather than fixed absolutes.
- Modeling standards as intervals enables formal aggregation of individual judgments, capturing variability in perceptions of decency and reasonableness.
- Endpoint rules aggregate judgments by independently combining lower and upper bounds, addressing challenges where median judgments may not exist.
- Strategyproof aggregation mandates restrictions on preference structures, specifically generalized single-peakedness, preventing manipulative reporting of intervals.
- The median rule is strategyproof within this framework, ensuring collective judgments reflect a stable consensus despite individual preference variation.
- Responsiveness and neutrality axioms enforce fairness and consistency, such that aggregate judgments appropriately adjust to shifts in individual standards.
- The framework bridges liberal and democratic values by situating endpoint and consent rules along a spectrum, balancing inclusiveness with reasoned consensus.
Mindmap
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Citation
Miller, A. D. (2025). The limits of tolerance (Version 1). arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/ARXIV.2501.00578