ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to clarify the transformation of Kenneth Arrow’s ideas and, hence, his attitude toward war. This transformation allows us to examine whether economists should analyze social affairs, such as war, scientifically and in a value-neutral way, if they should accept a social decision as the criterion of social welfare, or if they should suggest a positive policy that, theoretically, improves social welfare. In this study, first, we emphasize that Arrow initially intended to analyze the social decision process scientifically, and did not regard the consequences of a social decision as a value judgment. To clarify this point, we provide the background of Arrow’s theorem, especially the relationship between his theorem and the Cold War. Second, we show that he came to believe that the consequence of a social decision is a value judgment; however, he also realized that this is not always a criterion of social welfare. Then he considered whether the armament policy improves social welfare, eventually concluding that it does not. Thus, he ended up being against the armament policy, regardless of the consequence of the social decision.
