Reasoned discussion in diverse societies

Reading together the reedition of Amartya Sen's book on social choice and Scott Page's book on diversity, a coherent picture emerges of the challenges and promise of diverse societies. Societies where individuals have different instrumental or fundamental preferences have difficulties in making collective choices that are stable, rational and efficient. That is the message from Arrow's impossibility theorem. Sen takes these difficulties very seriously and argues that they can be to some extent overcome by having more information about the concerned individuals, and by reasoned discussion with facilities for fact checking. In a footnote in page 276 (which deserves to be expanded in a whole new book) Sen argues that "there may be something unsatisfactory even in political problems in the possibility of going for a vote-based resolution instead of having further discussion, thereby neglecting the need for any required clarification and understanding of the issues involved. Voting on underdescribed -and sometimes misdescribed- alternatives, for a quick resolution, can go against a better informed -and wiser- social choice. There may be good reasons for restraint before going for a vote." David Cameron probably did not know about it. Individual preferences are not exogenous, but depend on social structure and the evolution of institutions, technology and culture. The genesis of individual preferences deserves scientific and cultural scrutiny. As we move from committees to nations to global issues, the need exists for examining ethical claims from a certain distance. Then Scott Page also argues that diverse preferences, although presenting social choice challenges, also offer the opportunity for diverse perspectives that help to solve problems with uncertain solutions. Diverse communities or groups do not succeed automatically, as cycling is not something that one learns without some training. But once you learn, cycling goes much faster than running, which is much easier.