Some formal models of grading principles

The present paper offers an analysis of grading principles from the viewpoint of statistical decision theory and game theory. The mistaken notion is widely held that the plain man is really clear about practical ethical and moral issues and that philosophers need only tidy up certain wayward corners of the subject.2 Personally I find difficult the problem of devising any general ethical rules of behavior for simple two-person games; the ethical complexities of progressive taxation, tariff barriers, or treatment of sexual psychopaths are beyond any exact conceptual analysis. That decisions are and must be made about these issues no more proves that their ethical aspects are completely understood than does the fact that the Romans built bridges prove that they had any quantitative grasp of the mechanical theory of stress.