One of my distant relatives, William S. Rosecrans, was a General in the American Civil War. My Grandmother's maiden name was Rosenkrans, but one branch of the family changed the spelling of the name to "Rosecrans" supposedly so it "wouldn't sound so German." I found all this out from a book I got out of the UCSD library entitled something like "Rosecrans: The Edge of Glory." After graduating from West Point before the Civil War, Rosecrans became a General and a rival of Ulysses S. Grant. After not showing up for a battle where the two of them were supposed to fight together, Grant was criticized by Rosecrans and the two of them became lifelong enemies.
Rosecrans was ordered to go behind Confederate lines in Tennessee where the Confederates massed their troops against him. Rosecrans' requests for reinforcements and more supplies were ignored by a power structure that had taken sides in favor of Grant. Consequently, he got his butt kicked at the Battle of Chickamauga. What I learned from him though, which I think is one of life's most important lessons, is that as Rosecrans' options diminished, he always took the best option that was available at any point in time. I think this is what a rational person does. At any point one has a set of available options. This set is time-varying. The set may be augmented with better options or it may be diminished with the good options vanishing. The important thing is to always take the best option even as the available options are getting worse. This is precisely what Rosecrans did!
After he lost the Battle of Chickamauga, he was sent to the Boonies in Missouri or somewhere for the duration of the war, a sort of demotion, on orders signed by none other than U. S. Grant, his nemesis. After the war, Rosecrans moved to California where he had a 14,000 acre ranch in Redondo Beach. Still a major thoroughfare, Rosecrans Blvd. is now located in the heart of LA. Rosecrans was involved in various railroad and mining ventures in Mexico and elsewhere. He was twice elected to Congress. When U.S. Grant went broke after his term as President, Rosecrans rose from the floor of Congress to speak against providing him with a pension.
Garfield was Rosecrans' friend, and, when he was President and under other friendly Presidents, Rosecrans was named Ambassador to Mexico and Secretary of the Treasury. A military installation in San Diego was named Fort Rosecrans and Rosecrans Blvd. is still a major street in San Diego as well as LA. The U.S. Grant Hotel in San Diego was built by one of Grant's sons or grandsons so the Civil War presence of these two rivals exists side by side in this great city.
Rosecrans's various ventures were none too successful, and he cut a rather sad figure at Civil War reunions, apparently never having recovered from his loss at Chickamauga and criticism that was directed at him for leaving the field of battle, a fact that still is in dispute, although Rosecrans had his defenders as well as detractors. General Thomas, on the other hand, became known as the "Rock of Chickamauga" for holding his part of the line as the rest collapsed. I think the book was entitled "The Edge of Glory" since Rosecrans came so close to being the winning Civil War General. His skills were probably superior to Grant's. However, "politics" and Rosecrans' tendency to criticize his superiors combined to convey the glory on Grant not Rosecrans.
What does this have to do with Preferensism and Social Choice? The basis of these fields is the individual's forming a preference list over a set of options ranking his preferences from top to bottom or from first to last. It would seem fundamental that this set is time varying although this basic fact is the cause of Arrow proving that Social Choice is impossible. However, as I've said before, "the difficult we do right away, the impossible will take a little longer." For why I think Social Choice is possible, please see my website, Social Choice and Beyond.
