A Survey of Ranking Theory

Essay Review: The Laws of BeliefWolfgang Spohn, The Laws of Belief: Ranking Theory and Its Philosophical Applications. Oxford: Oxford University Press (2012), 625 pp., £75.00 (cloth).

Philosophy of Science ◽

10.1086/667998 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 79 (4) ◽

pp. 584-588

Author(s):

Franz Huber

Keyword(s):

Essay Review ◽

Oxford University ◽

Ranking Theory ◽

Oxford University Press

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Conditional Belief

10.1093/oso/9780199976119.003.0004 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 62-92

Author(s):

Franz Huber

Keyword(s):

Conditional Belief ◽

Ranking Theory

This chapter first presents the static and dynamic rules of ranking theory. Then it shows how ranking theory solves the problem of iterated belief revisions.

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Ranking-Theory Methods for Solving Multicriteria Decision-Making Problems

Advances in Operations Research ◽

10.1155/2019/3217949 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 2019 ◽

pp. 1-7 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Joseph Gogodze

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Multicriteria Decision Making ◽

Pareto Optimal ◽

Materials Selection ◽

Ranking Methods ◽

New Approach ◽

Multicriteria Decision ◽

Multicriteria Decision Making Problems ◽

Ranking Theory ◽

Score Matrix

The Pareto optimality is a widely used concept for the multicriteria decision-making problems. However, this concept has a significant drawback—the set of Pareto optimal alternatives usually is large. Correspondingly, the problem of choosing a specific Pareto optimal alternative for the decision implementation is arising. This study proposes a new approach to select an “appropriate” alternative from the set of Pareto optimal alternatives. The proposed approach is based on ranking-theory methods used for ranking participants in sports tournaments. In the framework of the proposed approach, we build a special score matrix for a given multicriteria problem, which allows the use of the mentioned ranking methods and to choose the corresponding best-ranked alternative from the Pareto set as a solution of the problem. The proposed approach is particularly useful when no decision-making authority is available, or when the relative importance of various criteria has not been evaluated previously. The proposed approach is tested on an example of a materials-selection problem for a sailboat mast.

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An Accuracy Argument in Favor of Ranking Theory

Journal of Philosophical Logic ◽

10.1007/s10992-019-09518-8 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 49 (2) ◽

pp. 283-313

Author(s):

Eric Raidl ◽

Wolfgang Spohn

Keyword(s):

Ranking Theory

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Degrees of Doxastic Justification

Erkenntnis ◽

10.1007/s10670-020-00334-0 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Moritz Schulz

Keyword(s):

Causal Models ◽

Doxastic Justification ◽

Ranking Theory ◽

Causal Chains ◽

Dependency Relations

AbstractThis paper studies degrees of doxastic justification. Dependency relations among different beliefs are represented in terms of causal models. Doxastic justification, on this picture, is taken to run causally downstream along appropriate causal chains. A theory is offered which accounts for the strength of a derivative belief in terms of (i) the strength of the beliefs on which it is based, and (ii) the epistemic quality of the belief-forming mechanisms involved. It is shown that the structure of degrees of justification converges to ranking theory under ideal conditions.

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Markedness conflation in Optimality Theory

Phonology ◽

10.1017/s0952675704000193 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 21 (2) ◽

pp. 145-199 ◽

Cited By ~ 33

Author(s):

Paul de Lacy

Keyword(s):

Optimality Theory ◽

Full Range ◽

Dominance Relations ◽

Ranking Theory

Markedness distinctions can be ignored. For example, in some languages stress avoids central vowels, and falls on high peripheral vowels, yet in the Uralic language Nganasan central and high peripheral vowels are treated in the same way: stress avoids both types equally. Such ‘conflation’ of markedness categories is not only language-specific, but also phenomenon-specific. In contrast, dominance relations in markedness hierarchies are universal; e.g. stress never seeks out a central vowel when a high peripheral vowel is available. This article argues that both language-specific conflation and universal markedness relations can be expressed in Optimality Theory. Constraints that refer to a markedness hierarchy must be freely rankable and mention a contiguous range of the hierarchy, including the most marked element. The empirical focus is sonority-driven stress in Nganasan and Kiriwina. In addition, Prince & Smolensky's (1993) fixed ranking theory of markedness hierarchies is shown to be unable to produce the full range of attested conflations.

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