The Neuroscience and Condorcet’s Paradox of Inequalities in International Perspectives: Reaching an Acceptable Efficiency with the Gini Coefficientby (This paper was
accepted for presentation at the Eighth International Conference on
Interdisciplinary Social Sciences from 30 July to 1 August, 2013, at Charles
University's faculty of social sciences in Prague, Czech Republic.) Abstract: Inequality is an international
perspective commonly expressed by voters.
Neuroscience warns of the individual harm released cortisol can have due
to chronic stress. Violent
revolutions are caused by chronic societal stress. Marquis de Condorcet (1743-1794) is
credited with addressing the paradox of individual voter preferences. His paradox demonstrates how majority
voter wishes can conflict. The
potential of those observations are explored here. An equivalence relation partitions a
set, in this case voters, so that every element of the set is a member of one
and only one cell of the partition.
A binary relation of a set must be reflexive, transitive, and
symmetric. Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923)
described efficient as when goods are gained by one person while making another
person worse off. A Pareto
improvement makes one person better off while not making another person worse
off. Pareto efficiency is reached
when no more improvements can be made.
A Gini coefficient, named for Corrado Gini (1884-1965), uses a point
between 0 and 1 to index inequality.
0 signifies voter perception of perfect equality. 1 signifies the voter perception of only
one person having satisfaction and is considered to be a state of perfect
inequality. It is argued that an equilibrium
of acceptable voter perspectives can be reached by creating an electoral
process, whereby, there are many initial candidates that address all majority
issues which are finally condensed into a runoff election. It is believed the models by Glenn
Firebaugh and John Roemer support this assertion which when enacted will
stabilize individuals and the nation-states they represent. Keywords: neuroscience, Condorcet's paradox,
inequalities, Pareto efficiency, Gini coefficient, equilibrium. ……………………… It is a common international phenomenon for voters to express the
perspective of inequality concerning their socio-political issues. The term "equality"[1]
is used to describe a qualitative relationship. We know that 2 + 2 = 4 in vacuo. Those numbers are exact but
non-numerical objects often change the quality and circumstances of the relationship. For example, if 2 rotten apples are
added to 2 ripe apples they would not normally equal 4 marketable apples. Other dimensions of considerations for
apples could be their weight, their texture, and their vitamin C content. Our finite mind has difficulty in truly
determining equality and is why it is futile for man to judge the spiritual
dimension of other men.[2] Equality between 2 non-identical objects could never really be
completely equal. Stefan Gosepath,
a moral and political philosophy professor at the Free University of Berlin,
says the concept of equality does not have a different ontological status as
other concepts like truth etc.[3] Equality, as with truth or justice, can
be seen to transcend time and space, and is to be considered an eternal
concept. Then equality and,
conversely, inequality must have a universal standard[4]
for mankind as is observed in mathematics. Innate justice emanates from an immutable theological standard for
equality.[5] This aseity (L. from self)
requires a self-existent and pre-existent Creator that is necessarily a
monotheistic being.[6] These are incommunicable Divine
attributes, along with omnipresence and omniscience etc. All intellects created by this Creator
are subject to communicable attributes, such as equality, justice, love, wisdom[7]
and liberty, etc.[8] Equality and liberty are compatible in that we can not have equal
choice to express love without liberty.
However, with the freedom to choose love indicates an inequality of
outcomes, as U.S. founding father Alexander Hamilton (c. 1755-1804)
explained. To remove unequal
outcomes requires the removal of freedom which creates a loveless
environment. That effort is against
nature and can not be sustained.
God must be love and a lack of love separates the loveless from God.[9] Love allows for self-sacrifice and its
subset of charity and other individual self-equalizing behaviors necessary for
societal cohesion. Therefore,
eternal bondage comes from rejecting God's ways and eternal liberty comes from
accepting God's ways.[10] The Thomas
Jefferson (1743-1826) view of the foundation principle for the U.S. Declaration
of Independence[11]
was that "all men are created equal by the Creator with certain unalienable
rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."[12] This does not mean all men are
equal. Men are created equal and
should be created equal under the law.[13] On the other hand, the French Revolution
adopted the motto of liberté, équalité, fraternité
(F. liberty, equality, fraternity or brotherhood) from Antoine-Francois Momoro
(1756-1794). This became
problematic in that equality of outcomes was wrongly added to judicial
equality. Socialists and communists
have adopted this evil falsehood.
If men are inherently equal, there can be no difference or distinction
allowed. Israel founded
their legislative body in 1948, called the Knesset,[14]
based on 2,000 year old rabbinical tradition.[15] It has the same number of members, 120.[16] After the election of many parties a
government is formed and a prime minister is selected by the president to lead
the government who must be confirmed by the Knesset. At any time the majority of the Knesset
can vote in favor of no-confidence and end the government's term. The president can ask the deposed prime
minister to try to form a new acceptable government or can call for early
elections. The stress caused by a perceived lack of liberty and equality causes
the release of the steroid hormone cortisol from the adrenal cortex. Cortisol binds to receptors in
neurons. That causes the neurons to
admit more calcium (Ca2+) into ion channels. If neurons are chronically overloaded
with calcium they will die in a state of excitotoxicity.[17] It also suppresses the immune system in
preparation for a fight-or-flight type survival response[18]
to physiological and psychological stress.
This can produce widespread alterations in the physiology of both the
body and the brain, even short and long term memory encoding. Violent revolution is caused by prolonged stress. A chief reason is perceived inequality
of issues represented by voters.[19] The ideation of voter inequality can be
compared to triangle inequality.
The sum of the length of any two sides must be greater than the
remaining side. It is an unnatural
state for there to be only one credible issue/candidate, as seen in
dictatorships, or just two credible issue/candidates, as seen in societies such
as the U.S. The more the issues,
the greater the potential perception of inequality. An ideal election begins with an
electoral process accommodating the representation of all issues, narrowed to
two, followed by a runoff election to select the final candidate to govern. Marquis de Condorcet's paradox looked at how 3 equal groups of voters
with 3 separate issues could support 3 separate candidates. A majority rule would not work in such a
case. That voter paradox (Gr. para
meaning along side of, doxa meaning to seem or appear) is not a
contradiction. It is the
observation of an unexpected circumstance.
This situation is less likely if voters have the same immutable
standards for prioritizing issues/candidates. The highest voter goal is to prioritize
with God's laws and with self-sacrificing as examples to those self-serving
people indifferent to or hostile to God's laws. Whoever forms the values that leads to
formation of issues (e.g. government schools, parents, media etc.) will control
the electorate. An equivalence relation partitions a set, in this case voters, so that
every element of the set is a member of one and only one cell partition. A binary relation of a set must be
reflexive (a = a), symmetrical (a = b then b = a), and transitive (a = b and b
= c then a = c). Vilfredo Pareto
described efficiency as when goods are gained by one person while making another
person worse off. A Pareto
improvement makes one person better off while not making another person worse
off. A weak improvement is
considered only if an allocation is strictly preferred by all individuals. Pareto efficiency is reached when no
more improvements can be made. A Gini coefficient, named for Corrado Gini, uses a point between 0 and
1 to index inequality. The formula
is as follows. 
0 signifies unattainable voter perception of perfect equality of
representation of issues. 1
signifies the voter perception of only one person having satisfaction of issue
representation and is a perfect state of inequality seen in dictatorships by
socialist and communist regimes. An
equilibrium of acceptable voter perspectives can be reached by creating an
electoral process described earlier.
The many viable initial candidates address all majority issues are
finally condensed into a runoff election.
Of course, the variable of population numbers and history, average IQ or
problem solving abilities of the voters, and theological beliefs will affect
the process. Glenn Firebaugh reduces the standard inequality indices to a
generalized form,
Inequality Index =
Drew Westen's[22]
(2007) book, The Political Brain: The
Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of a Nation, analyzes the brain scan
of two U.S. political parties in the highly contested presidential election of
2004. Essentially he concluded that
the brain processes politics like emotions. He believes the brain is not a
dispassionate political machine looking for correct facts and figures to form
policies and reasonable decisions.[23] David Hume (1711-1776) suggested reason
is slave to emotion.[24] Joshua Greene and Jonathan Haidt used fMRI
scans and found that moral decision-making is a competing process between
reason and emotion.[25] That reality must be ultimately
addressed by successful election models. The equilibrium
of acceptable voter perspectives can be reached with an accommodating electoral
process model which when enacted provides the opportunity to stabilize
individual behavior and the nation-states they represent and can be measured by
the tools presented. This is only
an efficient opportunity and does not guarantee the best voter decision-making.[26] It is known[27]
that many times the only thing we (voters) learn from history is that we
(voters) do not learn from history—quod
erat faciendum. [1] Find more information on equality at the following address. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/equality/ [2] Man judges wrongly (KJV Bible Gen. 39:10-20; Luke 7:38-50). Man is not to judge other men (Matt. 7:1-5). [3] Gosepath's comments were expressed to Dallas F. Bell Jr. in an email exchange during April, 2013. [4] Eze. 18:25, 29; II Cor. 6:14. [5] Theology (Ps. 98:9; Eph. 6:8-9). Justice (Ps. 99:4; Prov. 1:3). [6] The Christian doctrine of the triune God maintains a monotheistic being with three essences of the Father, the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit all complete and acting in one accord (Gen. 1:26; Matt. 28:19). [7] The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the holy is understanding (Prov. 9:10). To depart from evil is understanding (Job 28:28). Those with understanding will do God's commandments (Ps. 111:10). [8] Views of equality and liberty would likely be extended to non-human intellects. For the expressed purpose (see the 2010 book titled The Grand Design roundly criticized by scientists, such as Baroness Susan Greenfield, as being based on very flawed science) of disproving biblical teaching and therefore the existence of God, it has been speculated by atheist Oxford physicist Stephen Hawking and others that there is other intelligent life in the universe. If so they would be subject to communicable attributes. Thomas O'Meara, a theology professor emeritus at the University of Notre Dame, has written a (2012) book titled Vast Universe: Extraterrestrials and Christian Revelation that looks at this idea. In an email exchange with Dallas F. Bell Jr. in April, 2013, O'Meara recommends his book for possible variety of intelligence and freedom for extraterrestrials (ETs). Br. Guy Consolmagno, Specola Vaticana (Vatican Observatory headquartered in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, with an observatory on Mount Graham, Arizona, which employs the Lucifer camera imager) public relations coordinator for the Vatican State, also recommends O'Meara's book but expressed in an email exchange with Dallas F. Bell Jr. in April, 2013, that he does not even know if ETs exist. Lucifer (Heb. hēlēl means morning star) is considered to be another name for Satan (Is. 14:12-18; Luke 10:18). In an email exchange with Dallas F. Bell Jr. in April, 2013, Anne Rice (ne Howard Allen Frances O'Brien) the highly successful author on many subjects expressed that she cannot point to any definable resource on this matter. Bible prophecy discusses the last days before Jesus' return (Matt. 24:37; Luke 17:26) as being like the days of Noah or Noe (Gen. 6:1-7) with nephilim (giant beings of evil) that God needed to destroy. People in those last days will believe a great delusion (II Thes. 2:7-12; I Tim. 4:1-3) having been shown signs and wonders (Matt. 24:24) and this has been speculated that there is a return of the demonic nephilim disguised as ETs or angels of good etc. Such a delusion would entail an assault on clear biblical doctrine (e.g. deity of Jesus [Is. 9:6; John 20:28-30], immutability and inerrancy of scripture [John 10:35; Gal. 1:7-9; Rev. 22:18-20] etc.). In an email exchange with Fr. Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti, Opus Dei Theology of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, during April, 2013, he recommended his 2008 work at the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science at http://www.inters.org/extraterrestrial-life The 2005 Gallup poll of paranormal beliefs
for the U.S., Canada, and England shows women are much
more likely than men to have paranormal beliefs with the exception of the belief that ET's have
visited Earth. www.gallup.com/poll/19558/paranormal-beliefs-come-supernaturally-some.aspx A 2008 Harris
poll in the U.S. shows that Catholics are more likely than Protestants to
believe in Darwin«s disproven theory of evolution (disproven due to species DNA
inability to increase and only able to be corrupted) (52 % to 32 %), ghosts (57
% to 41 %), UFOs (43 % to 31 %), and astrology (40 % to 28 %). Protestants are
more likely than Catholics to believe in creationism (54 % to 46 %). www.harrisinteractive.com/Insights/HarrisVault.aspx The Harris 2009 poll of U.S.
Jews shows that they are by far the most likely to believe in Darwin's disproven
theory of evolution (80%) and the least likely to believe in creationism (20%).
They are also less likely than all adults to
believe in ghosts (10% to 42%), UFOs (20% to 32%), astrology (19% to 26%); and witches (8% to 23%). www.harrisinteractive.com/Insights/HarrisVault.aspx [9] I John 4:7-12. [10] Rom. 6: 18-23, 8:15. [11] www.SystematicPoliticalScience.org/independence.html [12] This theological principle is only supported by adherents of biblical scriptures (Acts 17:26). [13] This is a biblical principle with man being free to make biblically accepted choices reflected by societal law(s) and does not address the expected inequality of outcome for different choices. In Earl Shorris' recent book, The Art of Freedom: Teaching the Humanities to the Poor, he asked a female prisoner in New York's maximum-security Bedford prison why she thought the poor were poor. She replied it was because the poor do not have the morals of those people that live in downtown. She explained that moral life had to begin with teaching children the morals of people downtown. They have to be taken to plays, museums, concerts and lectures. They must be taught the humanities. In April 2013, the Sorbonne, University of Paris, held a conference to discuss uniting socio-economic science and humanities (SSH). In an email exchange with Dallas F. Bell Jr., Harvey Mansfield, a professor of government and political philosophy at Harvard University, also supported the unification of the humanities and social sciences to make society more efficient. [14] Knesset is a term derived from the Great Assembly or Great Synagogue (Heb. כְּנֶסֶת הַגְּדוֹלָה Knesset HaGedolah). [15] This tradition is uniquely discussed in both the Babylonian Talmud and the Jerusalem Talmud regarding the number of those assembled. [16] 12 (the biblical/Hebrew number for Divine governance) x 10 (the biblical/Hebrew number for Divine order) = 120 Knesset members. [17] See chapters 6 and 15 of the 2007 book by M. Bear et al. titled Neuroscience: Exploring the Brain, 3d Ed. Also see the paper at www.SystematicPoliticalScience.org/virtue.html [18] The fight-or-flight response is known as the acute stress response. It was discussed by Walter Cannon, M.D. (1871-1945) at Harvard Medical School in his 1936 book, The Wisdom of the Body. [19] Commonly known Western examples are the English Civil Wars (three wars occurring between 1642-1651) with parliament supporters opposed by a tyrannical king system led for a time by the puritan Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) and the American revolt against England in 1776 for taxation without representation and other grievous inequality and liberty reducing policies. As we see, governing against nature will cause revolt and must eventually fail. [20] Firebaugh, Professor of American Institutions, Sociology, and Demography at Pennsylvania State University, made this recommendation to Dallas F. Bell Jr. in an email exchange during March, 2013. [21] Roemer, Professor of Political Science and Economics at Yale University, and Dallas F. Bell Jr. exchanged email on this topic in March, 2013. [22] Westen is a psychologist and professor of psychology, psychiatry, and behavioral sciences at Emory University. [23] Bryan Caplan's 2007 book titled The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies provides additional information on voters and their policy choices. Caplan exchanged email regarding this issue with Dallas F. Bell Jr. during April, 2013. [24] http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/emotions-17th18th/LD8Hume.html [25] Greene is a professor of social sciences in the
department of psychology at Harvard University. Jonathan Haidt is professor at the Stern
School of Business, New York University.
See Greene, J. D., & Haidt,
J. (2002). How (and where) does moral judgment work? Trends
in Cognitive Sciences, 6, 517-523. Haidt and Dallas F. Bell Jr.
exchanged email on this issue in April, 2013. He said that MRIs of psychopathy indicates a smaller frontal cortex or at least
less activity there (See work by Adrian Raine). For fMRI, he says, there is work showing
that when people have damage to parts of frontal cortex, they behave/judge in
some ways as though they had acquired psychopathy. See the work by Antonio Damasio, and
newer work by Koenigs, M., Young, L., Adolphs, R., Tranel, D., Cushman, F.,
Hauser, M., & Damasio, A. (2007). Damage to the prefrontal cortex increases
utilitarian moral judgments. Nature, 446(7138), 908-911. It can be found at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2244801/ Greene and Dallas F. Bell Jr.
exchanged email in April, 2013. He recommended his papers in re the large and complicated
questions posed by fMRI data of differences between moral foundations of
individuals and the effects on their emotions. www.wjh.harvard.edu/~jgreene/ Baroness Susan
Greenfield, is a British scientist and member of the House of Lords, explained
in an email exchange with Dallas F. Bell Jr. during April, 2013, that though
huge amounts of literature has been created on brain scanning and emotions
there has not been systematic applications to morality. [26] The terms of primacy and recency are used in psychology to describe effects of the order of presentation on memory dominance. Primacy results in information presented earlier being better remembered than information presented later. Conversely, the recency effect results in better remembering of the most recent information presented. Each of these two effects result in the earliest and latest information in a given presentation being recalled best. Information in the middle time span is least remembered. Rev. Thomas Bayes (1701-1761) developed a theorem that adds new information to known information in order to determine probabilities. Bayes' theorem is a tool used by many risk analysts. [27] See note 16 (I Cor. 1:18-31, 2:1-14). —ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ©2013 DALLAS F. BELL, JR— |
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