Download or read book Principia Economica written by G. Bernard and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It has already been said, if not written, that progress in knowledge in any domain consists mainly of expressing things that are well known in a different and, if possible, new way. That is the purpose of this book. In his solitary effort an author is entirely and solely responsible for what he writes, including any mistakes or errors in the text. This is the case here as this book is not a result of a pluridisciplinary effort. It seems to the author that while reflection can be and sometimes is fruitful in a team, the task of bringing to light new ideas or to shed new light on old ones is mostly a solitary exercise. There are many illustrious examples to which, of course, the author does not compare himself: Quesnay, Rousseau, A. Smith, D. Ricardo, Fourier, Walras, Keynes, Freud and many others. The text contains many analogies between economics and phys ics. This last 'exact' science has adopted two paradigms in this century: disequilibria are essential and normal states; the dynamics of events, the temporal evolution of states, is the explanation of Nature. One could also add a third, the fundamental principles of uncertainty and randomness. The deterministic models that were current at the end of the last century were, on the contrary, attached to states of equilibrium and were invariant with respect to time as they assumed perfect causa lity, i.e. a perfect knowledge of the future.
Download or read book Evolution and Constitution written by E.F. Oeser and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-06-29 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work for the first time brings together case law and law based on norms. It offers the reader a survey and a new explanation of evolutionary emergence of social contracts and constitutions in the European history, and should help to build a bridge between 'two cultures', science and humanities. It is addressed to philosophers of law, historians of law, theorists of science and social scientists.
Download or read book Economic Rationality and Practical Reason written by Julian Nida-Rümelin and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-06-29 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The theory of practical rationality does not belong to one academic discipline alone. There are quite divergent philosophical, economical, sociological, psychological and politological contributions. Sometimes the disciplinary boundaries impede theoretical progress. On the other hand it is an indication for the high complexity of the subject that so many divergent paradigms compete with one another, or - what is worse - live separately in a kind of splendid isolation. Decision theory in the broader sense, embracing the theory of games and collective choice theory, can help to understand practical reason in philosophical analysis. But there are interesting aspects which cannot be dealt with adequately within a decision-theoretic conceptual framework. To have both of these convictions justifies to neglect dis ciplinary boundaries and poses a problem for the orthodoxies of either sides. All the essays of this volume focus on the relation between economic rationality and practical reason and discuss different aspects of the same problem, i. e. a basic deficiency in the standard economic theory of practical rationality. But philosophical analysis would not be of much help if it just rejected the economic paradigm. It must rather help to integrate economic aspects into a broader view on practical reason.
Download or read book Principia Economica written by G. Bernard and published by Springer. This book was released on 1989-06-30 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It has already been said, if not written, that progress in knowledge in any domain consists mainly of expressing things that are well known in a different and, if possible, new way. That is the purpose of this book. In his solitary effort an author is entirely and solely responsible for what he writes, including any mistakes or errors in the text. This is the case here as this book is not a result of a pluridisciplinary effort. It seems to the author that while reflection can be and sometimes is fruitful in a team, the task of bringing to light new ideas or to shed new light on old ones is mostly a solitary exercise. There are many illustrious examples to which, of course, the author does not compare himself: Quesnay, Rousseau, A. Smith, D. Ricardo, Fourier, Walras, Keynes, Freud and many others. The text contains many analogies between economics and phys ics. This last 'exact' science has adopted two paradigms in this century: disequilibria are essential and normal states; the dynamics of events, the temporal evolution of states, is the explanation of Nature. One could also add a third, the fundamental principles of uncertainty and randomness. The deterministic models that were current at the end of the last century were, on the contrary, attached to states of equilibrium and were invariant with respect to time as they assumed perfect causa lity, i.e. a perfect knowledge of the future.
Download or read book Morality and Rational Choice written by J. Baron and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Public controversies - such as those about the distribution of goods between rich and poor, trade and population policies, allocation of medical resources, and the tradeoff between environment al protection and economic efficiency - often hinge on fundamental views about how we ought to make decisions tImt affect each other, that is, what principles we ought to follow. Efforts to find an acceptable public philosophy, a set of such principles on which people might agree, have foundered because of dis agreement among philosophers and others who are concerned with such issues. One view, which I shall develop and defend here, holds that decisions that affect others should be made according to an overall evaluation of the consequences of each option. This consequentialist view is opposed by a variety of alternatives, but many of the alternatives have in COlllmon a basis in moral intuition. To take a simple example, consequentialism holds that, other things equal, if we have decided that it is better to let a terminally ill patient die than to prolong her agony by keeping her alive, then we ought to kill her.
Download or read book Creating Wealth written by Gwendolyn Hallsmith and published by New Society Publishers. This book was released on 2011-06-28 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The power of local currencies
Download or read book Generating Images of Stratification written by Thomas J. Fararo and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-09 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Generating Images of Stratification is a self-contained presentation of a theoretical research program that deals with a significant explanatory problem relating to social inequality and that constructs generative theoretical models in doing so. In more detail: -Self-contained presentation - In respect to the background sociological facts and theoretical ideas and also the formal methods the book provides clear and simple accounts accompanied by examples. - A theoretical research program - The emphasis is on theory development, involving a series of theoretical models constructed within a core framework of principles and methods. - Deals with a significant explanatory problem relating to social inequality - We know from research that how people perceive the stratification system of a society depends upon their position in that system. So the problem is: What process generates this regularity and thereby explains empirical generalizations about the social structuration of images? - Constructs generative theoretical models - The book is an extended presentation of "generative theory" in sociology, a formal method of producing effective theoretical explanations. Generating Images of Stratification is of interest to mathematical sociologists and formal theorists in sociology; sociologists interested in social stratification; methodologists, both in sociology and in other fields; philosophers of social science; and theoretical scientists and mathematicians who are interested in applying their analytical tools to social science topics.
Download or read book Cooperative Agents written by N.J. Saam and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-06-29 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Agent-based modelling on a computer appears to have a special role to play in the development of social science. It offers a means of discovering general and applicable social theory, and grounding it in precise assumptions and derivations, whilst addressing those elements of individual cognition that are central to human society. However, there are important questions to be asked and difficulties to overcome in achieving this potential. What differentiates agent-based modelling from traditional computer modelling? Which model types should be used under which circumstances? If it is appropriate to use a complex model, how can it be validated? Is social simulation research to adopt a realist epistemology, or can it operate within a social constructionist framework? What are the sociological concepts of norms and norm processing that could either be used for planned implementation or for identifying equivalents of social norms among co-operative agents? Can sustainability be achieved more easily in a hierarchical agent society than in a society of isolated agents? What examples are there of hybrid forms of interaction between humans and artificial agents? These are some of the sociological questions that are addressed.
Download or read book Intentional Acts and Institutional Facts written by Savas L. Tsohatzidis and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-06-17 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ten original essays examine the central themes of John Searle’s ontology of society. Written by an international team of philosophers and social scientists, the essays contribute to a deeper understanding of Searle’s work. Moreover, these essays open the door to new approaches to addressing fundamental questions about social phenomena. This book also features a new essay by Searle himself that summarizes and further develops his work.
Download or read book Evolution and Progress in Democracies written by Johann Götschl and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-09 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a ground-breaking series of articles, one of them written by a Nobel Laureate, this volume demonstrates the evolutionary dynamic and the transformation of today's democratic societies into scientific-democratic societies. It highlights the progress of modeling individual and societal evaluation by neo-Bayesian utility theory. It shows how social learning and collective opinion formation work, and how democracies cope with randomness caused by randomizers. Nonlinear `evolution equations' and serial stochastic matrices of evolutionary game theory allow us to optimally compute possible serial evolutionary solutions of societal conflicts. But in democracies progress can be defined as any positive, gradual, innovative and creative change of culturally used, transmitted and stored mentifacts (models, theories), sociofacts (customs, opinions), artifacts and technifacts, within and across generations. The most important changes are caused, besides randomness, by conflict solutions and their realizations by citizens who follow democratic laws. These laws correspond to the extended Pareto principle, a supreme, socioethical democratic rule. According to this principle, progress is any increase in the individual and collective welfare which is achieved during any evolutionary progress. Central to evolutionary modeling is the criterion of the empirical realization of computed solutions. Applied to serial conflict solutions (decisions), evolutionary trajectories are formed; they become the most influential causal attractors of the channeling of societal evolution. Democratic constitutions, legal systems etc., store all advantageous, present and past, adaptive, competitive, cooperative and collective solutions and their rules; they have been accepted by majority votes. Societal laws are codes of statutes (default or statistical rules), and they serve to optimally solve societal conflicts, in analogy to game theoretical models or to statistical decision theory. Such solutions become necessary when we face harmful or advantageous random events always lurking at the edge of societal and external chaos. The evolutionary theory of societal evolution in democracies presents a new type of stochastic theory; it is based on default rules and stresses realization. The rules represent the change of our democracies into information, science and technology-based societies; they will revolutionize social sciences, especially economics. Their methods have already found their way into neural brain physiology and research into intelligence. In this book, neural activity and the creativity of human thinking are no longer regarded as linear-deductive. Only evolutive nonlinear thinking can include multiple causal choices by many individuals and the risks of internal and external randomness; this serves the increasing welfare of all individuals and society as a whole. Evolution and Progress in Democracies is relevant for social scientists, economists, evolution theorists, statisticians, philosophers, philosophers of science, and interdisciplinary researchers.
Download or read book Alternative Action Theory written by Ota Weinberger and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Action is conceived of as an intentional behavior of an individual or of an institutional subject; it is determined by information processing, namely by a process in which pieces of descriptive and practical information are involved. Action is explained by a formal and finalistic theory which is connected with a specific theory of institutions. The philosophical basis of the logic of norm sentences and of other systems of practical thinking (formal teleology, axiology, logic of preferences) is discussed. The author criticizes traditional deontic logic and argues in favor of a genuine logic of norms. The book gives a structure analysis of the so-called practical inference and of nomic causal propositions. Besides a critical account of von Wright's practical philosophy the author offers critical analyses of discourse rationality (Habermas, Apel, Alexy) and of Wittgenstein's views on philosophizing. The book addresses readers interested in philosophical logic, practical philosophy, sociology of institutions, legal philosophy, and theory democracy.
Download or read book Science Politics and Morality written by R. von Schomberg and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-06-29 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Current environmental problems and technological risks are a challenge for a new institutional arrangement of the value spheres of Science, Politics and Morality. Distinguished authors from different European countries and America provide a cross-disciplinary perspective on the problems of political decision making under the conditions of scientific uncertainty. cases from biotechnology and the environmental sciences are discussed. The papers collected for this volume address the following themes: (i) controversies about risks and political decision making; (ii) concepts of science for policy; (iii) the use of social science in the policy making process; (iv) ethical problems with developments in science and technology; (v) public and state interests in the development and control of technology.
Download or read book The Dynamics and Evolution of Social Systems written by Jürgen Klüver and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-09 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When I started with this book several years ago I originally intended to write an introduction to mathematical systems theory for social scientists. Yet the more I thought about systems theory on the one side and theoretical sociology on the other the more I became convinced that the classical mathematical tools are not very well suited for the problems of sociology. Then I became acquainted with the researches on complex systems by the Santa Fe Institute and in particular with cellular automata, Boolean networks and genetic algorithms. These mathematically very simple but extremely efficient tools are, in my opinion, very well appropriate for modeling social dynamics. Therefore I tried to reformulate several classical problems of theoretical sociology in terms of these formal systems and outline new possibilities for a mathematical sociology which is able to join immediately on the great traditions of theoretical sociology. The result is this book; whether I succeeded with it is of course up to the readers. As the readers will perceive, the book could not have been written by me alone but only by the joint labors of the computer group at the Interdisciplinary Center of Research in Higher Education at the University of Essen. The members of the group, Christina Stoica, Jom Schmidt and Ralph Kier, are named in several subchapters as co-authors. Yet even more important than their contributions to this book were the permanent discussions with them and their patience with my new and very speculative ideas. Many thanks.
Download or read book Economic Models Estimation and Risk Programming Essays in Honor of Gerhard Tintner written by K. A. Fox and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These essays in honor of Professor Gerhard Tintner are substantive contributions to three areas of econometrics, (1) economic models and applications,. (2) estimation, and (3) stochastic programming, in each of which he has labored with outstanding success. His own work has extended into multivariate analysis, the pure theory of decision-making under un certainty, and other fields which are not touched upon here for reasons of space and focus. Thus, this collection is appropriate to his interests but covers much less than their full range. Professor Tintner's contributions to econometrics through teaching, writing, editing, lecturing and consulting have been varied and inter national. We have tried to highlight them in "The Econometric Work of Gerhard Tintner" and to place them in historical perspective in "The Invisible Revolution in Economics: Emergence of a Mathematical Science. " Professor Tintner's career to date has spanned the organizational life of the Econometric Society and his contributions have been nearly coextensive with its scope. His principal books and articles up to 1968 are listed in the "Selected Bibliography. " Professor Tintner's current research involves the intricate problems of specification and application of stochastic processes to economic systems, particularly to growth, diffusion of technology, and optimal control. As always, he is moving with the econometric frontier and a portion of the frontier is moving with him. IV Two of the editors wrote dissertations under Professor Tintner's sup- vision; the third knew him as a colleague and friend.
Download or read book Enlightened Aid written by Amanda Kay McVety and published by OUP USA. This book was released on 2012-03-30 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Enlightened Aid examines the intellectual and political origins of Point Four, the first American aid program for the developing world, and the economic and diplomatic implications of its operations in Ethiopia.
Download or read book Uncertainty and Quality in Science for Policy written by S.O. Funtowicz and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 1990-10-31 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explains the notational system NUSAP (Numeral, Unit, Spread, Assessment, Pedigree) and applies it to several examples from the environmental sciences. The authors are now making further extensions of NUSAP, including an algorithm for the propagation of quality-grades through models used in risk and safety studies. They are also developing the concept of `Post-normal Science', in which quality assurance of information requires the participation of `extended peer-communities' lying outside the traditional expertise.
Download or read book Heterodox views on economics and the economy of the global society written by G. Meijer and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2023-08-28 with total page 399 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book contains ideas to develop interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary views on economy and society. It aims to disseminate heterodox ideas on various subjects related to economics and global society. The book is organised in six parts. Part 1 contains the key lectures of Backhaus on the concept of state sciences and of Klamer on the importance of culture for economics. Parts 2- 6 contain successively contributions in the areas of economic paradigms and theories, population and society, corporate issues, environment, and international relations. Examples of the content are: - the changes of family life cycles due to the rise of non-traditional households; - subjective and objective inflation rates after the introduction of the Euro; - the economics of genetic engineering; - the contribution of foreign direct investment to the economic development of host countries; - the inaccuracy of economic models applied in places characterized by extreme income disparities; - the improvement of political and corporate governance; - evolutionary thinking and emission trading; - freedom and order in the European Union; - the reform of social policy in Europe. The book provides interesting creative multi-disciplinary ideas with respect to various topical issues concerning the contemporary global society. It is highly recommended for economists and social scientists in search of broad views on social science and society."
