ABSTRACT
This chapter expresses that the very description of a certain situation as socially problematic is a practical exercise of morality. In the case of social problems there are many criteria which can be considered for evaluating the relative goodness or badness of a particular social situation. The description of a certain situation as problematic must depend on what individuals think about it. The acceptance of different stands would only imply a solution when these positions are either different but compatible with each other, or the same. In many cases, though, individuals have different conceptualisations about what they consider to be right or good, and these differences are incompatible. Hence, a complete moral relativism would not permit us to obtain one aggregate moral solution. Arrow's theorem proves the impossibility of a general rule for deriving social preferences from individual preferences, while respecting basic requests of coherence and without imposing restriction on individual preferences.
