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Show Chapter III. The Concept of a Genuine Preference 154 Another, potential application of such a property ordering would treat numerically nondeterminate degrees of probability or Bayesian confidence as properties of alternatives the ranking of which might similarly modify the ranking of those alternatives.21 9. De Jongh and Liu's Constraint-Based Analysis of Strict Preference With the above property ordering and the account of subsentential predication in which it is embedded in hand, I now examine briefly a competing analysis of strict preference that begins with the same intuitions as mine about first-order logical formulations of it, but introduces predicate letters in advance of the intensional apparatus I have proposed so far. De Jongh and Liu approach the formulation of the preference relation through the lens of optimality theory in linguistics.22 Sometimes a uniquely optimal solution - a single and singularly correct speech act appropriate to the circumstances - cannot be produced by the grammatical theory in question. In this case, optimality theory first engenders a set of alternative solutions: for example, the set A consisting in {"Glad to meet you.", "Hey, man!", "Yes, well, hmmm …", "It's good to meet you.", "How nice …?", "Howdy!", "It is a privilege to make your acquaintance.", "Yo!", "How do you do?", "Charmed, I'm sure."}. A set of conditions or constraints, strictly and lexically ordered according to their importance, is then applied to these alternatives, and the alternative that best satisfies conditions imposed earlier in the sequence is stipulated to be a uniquely optimal solution. Thus the ordering of alternatives is fixed by their more or less successful satisfaction of the constraints. For example, the set C consisting in {expresses respect for the eminent personage to whom one is being introduced, is acceptable at a formal foreign embassy dinner, is uttered at a first meeting among strangers, puts both speakers at ease, establishes relations of casual familiarity} picks out "It is a privilege to make your acquaintance" as a uniquely optimal solution relative to C. For a thought-provoking discussion of this possibility, see Mark Kaplan, "Decision Theory and Epistemology," Section III, in Paul K. Moser, Ed., The Oxford Handbook of Epistemology (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002). 22 Op. cit. Note 9. 21 © Adrian Piper Research Archive Foundation Berlin |
