Search Results

Thought

Rushmir Mahmutćehajić

in On Love: In the Muslim Tradition

Thought remains forever caught in the tension between the elements of duality. It knows only duality and functions only within it. However, duality is nothing other than the proclamation and ... More

Thought remains forever caught in the tension between the elements of duality. It knows only duality and functions only within it. However, duality is nothing other than the proclamation and confirmation of oneness. But oneness is neither comparable nor similar. In addition, it is present in everything that is duality, and that means in the totality of existence. Consequently, to think means to compare. And that is possible only in a world of multiplicity, where phenomena are forms in movement. Thought can bring one to the border, where comparability ends or begins. If thought has a purpose, if it becomes meaning, then God is its foundation. If oneness is infinitely close to everything, then it entails multiplicity as its need. In oneness are all possibilities, but indivisible and unrevealed. Just as the hiddenness of fullness demands or loves oneness as its confirmation, so oneness too loves its revelation in countless multiplicity. Thought is possible only with reason, while loving almost does not care for the help and cooperation of thought.Less

New Accounting for Goodwill: Application of American Criteria from a German Perspective

Walther Busse von Colbe

in The Economics and Politics of Accounting: International Perspectives on Trends, Policy, and Practice

A critical examination is made, from a German perspective, of accounting for purchased goodwill using the new (American) Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) standard: Statement of Financial ... More

A critical examination is made, from a German perspective, of accounting for purchased goodwill using the new (American) Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) standard: Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS)142 (Goodwill and other intangible assets). It is argued that SFAS 142 provides substantial room for manipulation, which raises doubts about its enforceability. The various sections of the chapter introduce some of the economic criteria that lend structure to the ongoing debate on accounting for goodwill – criteria that especially address the question of whether the impairment-only approach or the traditional amortization approach is more appropriate for satisfying investors’ information requirements. The following criteria are considered: relevance for capital markets; reliability of the accounting numbers; verifiability; comparability; conservatism; consistency/compatibility with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP); suitability as a basis for dividend payout. Influence on management compensation/capital budgeting is also briefly discussed.Less

Research Plan

Paul S. Goodman

in Organizational Learning Contracts: New and Traditional Colleges

This chapter outlines the book’s research strategy. It reviews the rationale for the book’s approach, features of the sample, and the nature of the measures, including the coding process and the form ... More

This chapter outlines the book’s research strategy. It reviews the rationale for the book’s approach, features of the sample, and the nature of the measures, including the coding process and the form of analysis. All of these factors are designed to answer the basic three questions of this book: (1) how to measure and operationalize the OLC, (2) how to identify differences across institutions in dimensions of their learning contracts and (3) how do differences in OLCs affect indicators of individual and institutional effectiveness? Three institutions were studied in depth. Two are new colleges, and one is established. They are matched in terms of discipline and student and faculty input quality.Less

Desert Taken as a Whole

Shelly Kagan

in The Geometry of Desert

This chapter analyzes the nature of desert when taken as a whole. It studies partial values, which help determine value from the standpoint of desert as a whole, and states that desert as a whole ... More

This chapter analyzes the nature of desert when taken as a whole. It studies partial values, which help determine value from the standpoint of desert as a whole, and states that desert as a whole considers both noncomparative and comparative desert. The next section addresses some open questions related to partial values. It then looks at the rough comparability of two partial values and explains how various worlds compare, taking into consideration not only desert, but also other values relevant to assessing their goodness. This chapter concludes that an appropriate theory of desert cannot be achieved by considering the various choices individually; rather, these elements need to be examined and assessed as a whole in order to provide a better understanding of the nature of desert taken as a whole.Less

Inertia I: Price Competition

Spiegler Ran

in Bounded Rationality and Industrial Organization

This chapter analyzes implications of consumer inertia and default bias for market competition. In particular, the link between the competitiveness of the market outcome and the equilibrium level of ... More

This chapter analyzes implications of consumer inertia and default bias for market competition. In particular, the link between the competitiveness of the market outcome and the equilibrium level of consumer switching is explored. The chapter highlights the role that framing of market alternatives plays in exacerbating inertia by lowering their comparability. It is shown that consumer protection policies that aim to weaken inertia by fostering comparability may be harmful to consumer welfare.Less

Commensuration and Public Reason

John Finnis

in Reason in Action: Collected Essays Volume I

‘Measure’ is highly analogous, and some assertions about incommensurability are unwarranted. Relativist, Kantian, and intuitionist objections to utilitarianism's claims about commensurability are ... More

‘Measure’ is highly analogous, and some assertions about incommensurability are unwarranted. Relativist, Kantian, and intuitionist objections to utilitarianism's claims about commensurability are inadequate, but sound objections remain and are developed in this extended survey of the elements of commensurability and incommensurability in the goods and bads in alternative available courses of action. The survey considers the irreducible distinction between the cultural-technical and the moral domains; the significance of choice as free and as lasting in the acting person's character, the open-ended horizon of individual and social life, and the relevance of risk; the integral directiveness of practical reason's first principles, and the availability of standards for comparing options without impossible commensurations; the rationality of refusing to do evil for the sake of good; and the sub-rational factors involved in applying the rational Golden Rule.Less

Normative Twist and Antinomy

Alexander Somek

in Engineering Equality: An Essay on European Anti-Discrimination Law

Systemic discrimination is the core concern of anti-discrimination law. Surprisingly, even direct discrimination can be understood to be a special case of indirect discrimination. In most instances, ... More

Systemic discrimination is the core concern of anti-discrimination law. Surprisingly, even direct discrimination can be understood to be a special case of indirect discrimination. In most instances, however, the observable impact of systemic discrimination is called ‘indirect’ or ‘disparate impact’ discrimination. Some groups end up worse off than others. The causal mechanisms may remain difficult to untangle. Yet, both categories are normatively deficient. Indirect discrimination is susceptible to justification on the ground of the proportionate pursuit of legitimate objectives. Determining the scope of legitimate objectives is not constrained by any distributive norm. Likewise, a case of direct discrimination cannot be established where the anti-discrimination norm does not declare a certain act to be an act of discrimination. The absence of a distributive norm comes to the fore, in this context, as a problem of identification. The emerging normative deficiency is the consequence of a deeper-seated antinomy of anti-discrimination law.Less

Language Diversity as a Resource for Understanding Cultural Evolution

Nicholas Evans

in Cultural Evolution: Society, Technology, Language, and Religion

The study of linguistic diversity, and the factors driving change between language states, in different sociocultural contexts, arguably provides the best arena of human culture for the application ... More

The study of linguistic diversity, and the factors driving change between language states, in different sociocultural contexts, arguably provides the best arena of human culture for the application of evolutionary approaches, as Darwin realized. After a long period in which this potential has been neglected, the scene is now set for a new reconnection of evolutionary approaches to the astonishingly diverse range of languages around the world, many on the verge of extinction without trace. This chapter outlines the various ways coevolutionary models can be applied to language change, and surveys the many ways diversity manifests itself both in language structure and in the organization of diversity beyond the language unit. Problems of establishing comparability and characterizing the full dimensions of the design space are discussed, including the distribution of characters across it, the correlations between them, and the challenge of establishing diachronic typologies (i.e., establishing the likelihood of different types of transition, including the insights that could be reached through properly focused studies of micro-variation). It concludes by surveying the main types of selection that mold the emergence of linguistic diversity—psychological/ physiological, system/semiotic, and genetic/ epidemiological—and spells out seven major challenges that confront further studies of linguistic diversity within an evolutionary framework. Published in the Strungmann Forum Reports Series.Less

Comparisons

David Damrosch

in Comparing the Literatures: Literary Studies in a Global Age

This chapter explains the literary theory that bridge the divides between national traditions in a balanced assessment of similarities and differences called “perspectivism.” It addresses the ... More

This chapter explains the literary theory that bridge the divides between national traditions in a balanced assessment of similarities and differences called “perspectivism.” It addresses the question of comparability that grew sharper during the 1980s as comparatists began to give more attention to non-Western literatures and struggled to locate their studies along an expanded spectrum. It also analyzes Claudio Guillén's Entre louno y lo diverso, which asserts the necessity of keeping in mind the constant to and fro between the unity sought by human consciousness and the countless historical–spatial differentiations in the field of literature. The chapter looks into an essay by Robert Magliola that asserts a close comparability of sexualized religious iconography in the European Renaissance and in tantric Buddhism. It also talks about Pauline Yu's “Alienation Effects” as a skeptical discussion of the limits of East/West comparability.Less

Early Utilitarians

Louis Narens and Brian Skyrms

in The Pursuit of Happiness: Philosophical and Psychological Foundations of Utility

Bentham on measurement of utility has a rich set of ideas. Edgeworth follows Bentham and contemporary psychophysics. Mill adds less than is usually supposed. Jevons ducks the issue. There are ... More

Bentham on measurement of utility has a rich set of ideas. Edgeworth follows Bentham and contemporary psychophysics. Mill adds less than is usually supposed. Jevons ducks the issue. There are different stances taken toward interpersonal comparisons.Less

The Best Tools to Tackle the Job

Andrea Volkens, Judith Bara, Ian Budge, Michael D. McDonald, Robin Best, and Simon Franzmann

in Mapping Policy Preferences From Texts: Statistical Solutions for Manifesto Analysts

This chapter demonstrates the uniqueness of the Manifesto estimates and encapsulates the main objective of the book, which is to review methodological issues that have got in the way of ... More

This chapter demonstrates the uniqueness of the Manifesto estimates and encapsulates the main objective of the book, which is to review methodological issues that have got in the way of straightforwardly using the Manifesto data since our two preceding volumes were published and to underpin their quality. Central to this is validity. Validity is often (wrongly) ignored in discussions of measurement accuracy and data quality – where in fact it should dominate. If estimates are valid they cannot be unreliable or much in error. The best way to check validity is to examine the range of research estimates have been used in and whether problems have arisen – particularly for external users. Not only have the estimates been extensively validated in this way but very few users have reported problems. It is also clear that in most cases the research could not have been done without them – there are no substitute indicatorsLess

Afterword

Eric Richards

in Global Migrations: The Scottish Diaspora since 1600

Scotland from the mid-18th century found a distinctive place in the international league tables of emigration and imperial involvement. Questions discussed in this chapter include the paradox of ... More

Scotland from the mid-18th century found a distinctive place in the international league tables of emigration and imperial involvement. Questions discussed in this chapter include the paradox of Scotland’s precocious industrialisation concurrent with its early and continuing outflows of emigrants and capital exports. These matters also relate to the problem of regional divergence within Scotland during the nineteenth century and the fate of the Highlands. The idea of the ‘diaspora’ generates currently controversial claims about Scottish identity at home and abroad. Quantifying Scotland’s exceptionality on all these issues entails tricky comparisons with other countries and also exposes important immeasurable elements in such comparisons. They all connect with the life’s work of Tom Devine.Less

When Values Collide: Pidgins, Creoles, and Smashdowns

Owen Flanagan

in The Geography of Morals: Varieties of Moral Possibility

Cultures, cultural groups, and individuals collide and interpenetrate in many ways with many results. There is an analogy between linguistic collision and moral collision. A pidgin is a simplified ... More

Cultures, cultural groups, and individuals collide and interpenetrate in many ways with many results. There is an analogy between linguistic collision and moral collision. A pidgin is a simplified version of a language that results when two groups who speak different tongues need to communicate for some mutual end, for example, trade. A creole is a full-fledged language that emerges from mixing two or more languages or from a pidgin that is enhanced and passed on over generations. A smashdown is when a dominant language is imposed and a local language is extinguished. This chapter explores moral collisions, pidgins, creoles, and smashdowns, and what such collisions teach about moral disagreement, holism, comparability/incomparability, incommensurability, fundamental disagreement, inversions, and power. The clash between settlers and the original peoples of the Americas, especially the Crow, serves as the primary example.Less

Add to Cart? Environmental “Amenities” and Cost-Benefit Analysis

Chrisoula Andreou

in The Environment: Philosophy, Science, and Ethics

This chapter discusses the utility of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) in decision making, specifically environmental decision making. For the purposes of the discussion here, it uses a type of CBA that ... More

This chapter discusses the utility of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) in decision making, specifically environmental decision making. For the purposes of the discussion here, it uses a type of CBA that incorporates two controversial characteristics, namely, the assumption of comparability and the willingness-to-pay measure. The chapter aims to show that the recognition of a well motivated holistic decision-making strategy can shed light on debates regarding CBA. This strategy is concerned with patterns of choices rather than individual ones, and corresponds with two familiar phenomena—the “pricing” of alternatives and the “embedding effect” in willingness-to-pay studies. This chapter also differentiates CBA from cost-preparedness analysis, and concludes that there need not be any inconsistency in pricing alternatives deemed incomparable and that willingness-to-pay studies can be more accurately interpreted as tracking the “preparedness to pay.”.Less

Comparability Effects: The Limits of Equivalence

in The Total Survey Error Approach: A Guide to the New Science of Survey Research

Comparability issues arise when different surveys are compared. Surveys taken by different organizations, in different countries, and/or at different times are often compared, but the differences ... More

Comparability issues arise when different surveys are compared. Surveys taken by different organizations, in different countries, and/or at different times are often compared, but the differences that are found are not necessarily meaningful. The first section of this chapter focuses on the meaning of equivalence between surveys, after which the second section briefly examines three related comparability issues: “house effects,” cross-cultural differences, and over-time differences. House effects refers to the differences that different survey organizations sometimes obtain even when they ask the same question to the same population. Cross-cultural differences are the factors that preclude total equivalence when the same question is asked in multiple countries. Over-time differences relate to changes in the meaning of survey questions over time.Less