Q&A: A Rational Approach
A Rational Approach
Question
Hello Rabbi,
A question came up in my daily life that made me think about what the rational way to act would be. I’d be glad if you could share your opinion on it.
I live in a room with two friends, and there is a fan in the room. It has only two settings: on or off. Two people want it on, and one wants it off.
I thought of three possible ways to act:
1. Every day ask who wants the fan on; that would mean that every day we would turn on the fan, because we would go by the majority.
2. Each day give someone else the right to choose; that is, we would do two days with the fan on and one day without.
3. Each person should get the same amount of benefit, and therefore one day it would be on and one day it would be off.
Which way should we act?
Of course, the question is about a specific case, but it can also be addressed more generally in terms of decision rights.
Thanks in advance
Answer
I don’t think there is a textbook answer to this question. It depends on how much each person needs the fan and how much it bothers the one who doesn’t want it. It also depends on the criteria adopted for making the decision (maximum average happiness, minimum average suffering, and many other possibilities).