Freedom, opportunity and uncertainty: A logical approach

Abstract

The paper explores the possibility of analyzing opportunities within a logical framework. We make clear how a person's freedom in different choice situations yield opportunity rankings by showing how such rankings are completely determined by subjacent logical chains. We explore one interpretation of such chains in particular, and show that it leads to results similar to those obtained earlier by Nehring and Puppe. Furthermore, for contexts in which not all of the consequences of one's acts are known, we present an alternative characterization of the leximin-ranking. © 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.