John Kekes
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199588886
- eISBN:
- 9780191595448
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199588886.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
This book is a response to the growing disenchantment in the Western world with contemporary life. It provides rationally justified answers to questions about the meaning of life, the basis of ...
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This book is a response to the growing disenchantment in the Western world with contemporary life. It provides rationally justified answers to questions about the meaning of life, the basis of morality, the contingencies of human lives, the prevalence of evil, the nature and extent of human responsibility, and the sources of values we prize. It offers a realistic view of the human condition that rejects both facile optimism and gloomy pessimism; acknowledges that we are vulnerable to contingencies we cannot fully control; defends a humanistic understanding of our condition; recognizes that the values worth pursuing are plural, often conflicting, and that there are many reasonable conceptions of well‐being. It emphasizes the importance of facing the fact that man's inhumanity to man is widespread. It rejects as simple‐minded both the view that human nature is basically good and that it is basically bad, and argues that our well‐being depends on coping with the complex truth that human nature is basically complicated. It argues that the scheme of things is indifferent to our fortunes and that we can rely only on our own resources to make what we can of our lives.Less
This book is a response to the growing disenchantment in the Western world with contemporary life. It provides rationally justified answers to questions about the meaning of life, the basis of morality, the contingencies of human lives, the prevalence of evil, the nature and extent of human responsibility, and the sources of values we prize. It offers a realistic view of the human condition that rejects both facile optimism and gloomy pessimism; acknowledges that we are vulnerable to contingencies we cannot fully control; defends a humanistic understanding of our condition; recognizes that the values worth pursuing are plural, often conflicting, and that there are many reasonable conceptions of well‐being. It emphasizes the importance of facing the fact that man's inhumanity to man is widespread. It rejects as simple‐minded both the view that human nature is basically good and that it is basically bad, and argues that our well‐being depends on coping with the complex truth that human nature is basically complicated. It argues that the scheme of things is indifferent to our fortunes and that we can rely only on our own resources to make what we can of our lives.
Arad Reisberg
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199204892
- eISBN:
- 9780191709487
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199204892.003.0008
- Subject:
- Law, Company and Commercial Law
This chapter examines four possible avenues to rectify the economic impediments to derivative actions. The first two focus on short-term solutions and involve the company and the claimant ...
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This chapter examines four possible avenues to rectify the economic impediments to derivative actions. The first two focus on short-term solutions and involve the company and the claimant shareholder. Section 7.2.1 considers making a mandatory requirement for the company to pay the costs of the action. Section 7.2.2 then looks at the merits and demerits of rewarding the shareholder with part of the proceeds of a successful action. The last two sections concentrate on solutions in which the risk of loss is shifted on to the claimant's attorney. Section 7.3 explores new possibilities in the guise of conditional fee agreements; Section 7.4 assesses the possibility of adopting a US-style contingency fees in the limited context of derivative actions. Section 7.5 concludes.Less
This chapter examines four possible avenues to rectify the economic impediments to derivative actions. The first two focus on short-term solutions and involve the company and the claimant shareholder. Section 7.2.1 considers making a mandatory requirement for the company to pay the costs of the action. Section 7.2.2 then looks at the merits and demerits of rewarding the shareholder with part of the proceeds of a successful action. The last two sections concentrate on solutions in which the risk of loss is shifted on to the claimant's attorney. Section 7.3 explores new possibilities in the guise of conditional fee agreements; Section 7.4 assesses the possibility of adopting a US-style contingency fees in the limited context of derivative actions. Section 7.5 concludes.
David M. Armstrong
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199590612
- eISBN:
- 9780191723391
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199590612.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Metaphysics/Epistemology
It is argued, using the Entailment Principle, that for any contingent truth, the truthmaker for the truth is also a truthmaker for the possibility that it is false. This may be called the Possibility ...
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It is argued, using the Entailment Principle, that for any contingent truth, the truthmaker for the truth is also a truthmaker for the possibility that it is false. This may be called the Possibility Principle. These possibilities, therefore, come at a very low ontological cost. They supervene. The actual is identical with the existents, with the being. There are no levels of being, and no special link with the present. What exist are contingent states of affairs. There are no necessary beings. The truthmakers for analytic truths are the meanings of the symbols used to assert them. The truthmakers for conceptual truths are mental concepts. But necessary connections in the world between contingent existences are not ruled out, e.g. universals and particulars, and the fundamental logical and mathematical laws. It seems possible that there could have been nothing at all.Less
It is argued, using the Entailment Principle, that for any contingent truth, the truthmaker for the truth is also a truthmaker for the possibility that it is false. This may be called the Possibility Principle. These possibilities, therefore, come at a very low ontological cost. They supervene. The actual is identical with the existents, with the being. There are no levels of being, and no special link with the present. What exist are contingent states of affairs. There are no necessary beings. The truthmakers for analytic truths are the meanings of the symbols used to assert them. The truthmakers for conceptual truths are mental concepts. But necessary connections in the world between contingent existences are not ruled out, e.g. universals and particulars, and the fundamental logical and mathematical laws. It seems possible that there could have been nothing at all.
Matthew Soberg Shugart and Martin P. Wattenberg
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199257683
- eISBN:
- 9780191600241
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019925768X.003.0026
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
Reviews the experiences of several existing mixed‐member electoral systems in an effort to assess the likely prospects for the continued spread of this mode of electoral reform. There are three ...
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Reviews the experiences of several existing mixed‐member electoral systems in an effort to assess the likely prospects for the continued spread of this mode of electoral reform. There are three sections. The first, ‘Inherent and Contingent Factors in Electoral Reform’, looks at extreme electoral systems and systemic failure, act‐contingent explanations of pressures for reform, and outcome‐contingent explanations of political compromise leading to reform. The second section, ‘The Best of Both Worlds’, looks at the interparty and intraparty dimensions of mixed‐member electoral systems, and offers an assessment of these systems. The third section briefly assesses the prospects for continued spread of the mixed‐member idea.Less
Reviews the experiences of several existing mixed‐member electoral systems in an effort to assess the likely prospects for the continued spread of this mode of electoral reform. There are three sections. The first, ‘Inherent and Contingent Factors in Electoral Reform’, looks at extreme electoral systems and systemic failure, act‐contingent explanations of pressures for reform, and outcome‐contingent explanations of political compromise leading to reform. The second section, ‘The Best of Both Worlds’, looks at the interparty and intraparty dimensions of mixed‐member electoral systems, and offers an assessment of these systems. The third section briefly assesses the prospects for continued spread of the mixed‐member idea.
Wallace Matson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199812691
- eISBN:
- 9780199919420
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199812691.003.0019
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Although participants in the scientific enterprise comply at least tacitly with the Milesian requirements of monism, naturalism, and rationalism, not all philosophers have followed suit. Many ...
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Although participants in the scientific enterprise comply at least tacitly with the Milesian requirements of monism, naturalism, and rationalism, not all philosophers have followed suit. Many metaphysicians continue to believe in the contingency of the world, thereby still stirring the pot in which simmer the traditional ‘problems’ of external-world skepticism, induction, other minds, etc. But two 17th century philosophers, Thomas Hobbes and Benedict Spinoza, produced Grand Theories satisfying the Milesian requirements. Hobbes's Monism consisted in asserting that nothing exists but bodies in motion. Sensations and all mental items are motions in the brain. Hobbesian Naturalism was his claim that bodies are not driven by forces other than those inherent in them. He was a Rationalist, holding that all true propositions are necessarily true. He did not distinguish between philosophy and science: both are the finding out of causes from effects and vice versa, by “ratiocination.”Less
Although participants in the scientific enterprise comply at least tacitly with the Milesian requirements of monism, naturalism, and rationalism, not all philosophers have followed suit. Many metaphysicians continue to believe in the contingency of the world, thereby still stirring the pot in which simmer the traditional ‘problems’ of external-world skepticism, induction, other minds, etc. But two 17th century philosophers, Thomas Hobbes and Benedict Spinoza, produced Grand Theories satisfying the Milesian requirements. Hobbes's Monism consisted in asserting that nothing exists but bodies in motion. Sensations and all mental items are motions in the brain. Hobbesian Naturalism was his claim that bodies are not driven by forces other than those inherent in them. He was a Rationalist, holding that all true propositions are necessarily true. He did not distinguish between philosophy and science: both are the finding out of causes from effects and vice versa, by “ratiocination.”
Sydney Finkelstein, Donald C. Hambrick, and Albert A. Cannella
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195162073
- eISBN:
- 9780199867332
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195162073.003.0008
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Strategy
This chapter provides an overview of the key driving forces influencing the makeup and behavior of boards of directors. Theories of resource dependence, institutionalization, and agency are all ...
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This chapter provides an overview of the key driving forces influencing the makeup and behavior of boards of directors. Theories of resource dependence, institutionalization, and agency are all examined, with still-unanswered questions posed as propositions. The concept of board vigilance is introduced as perhaps the central construct in corporate governance. Vigilant boards are effective at monitoring and disciplining managers and are appropriately involved in strategic decision making. What accounts for board vigilance is of fundamental importance in research and in practice. While the relative power of a CEO to a board is a key influence, recent research has also considered a variety of interpersonal mechanisms that are at play. What remains is a key set of research opportunities to explore the vigilance dynamic in much greater detail, including the development of considerably more valid measures of vigilance than has historically been the case.Less
This chapter provides an overview of the key driving forces influencing the makeup and behavior of boards of directors. Theories of resource dependence, institutionalization, and agency are all examined, with still-unanswered questions posed as propositions. The concept of board vigilance is introduced as perhaps the central construct in corporate governance. Vigilant boards are effective at monitoring and disciplining managers and are appropriately involved in strategic decision making. What accounts for board vigilance is of fundamental importance in research and in practice. While the relative power of a CEO to a board is a key influence, recent research has also considered a variety of interpersonal mechanisms that are at play. What remains is a key set of research opportunities to explore the vigilance dynamic in much greater detail, including the development of considerably more valid measures of vigilance than has historically been the case.
E. J. Lowe
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- May 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199254392
- eISBN:
- 9780191603600
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199254397.003.0012
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
The notion of truthmaking is examined. A distinction is drawn between formal ontological predicates — which should not be taken to denote elements of being — and other predicates, with ‘is true’, ...
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The notion of truthmaking is examined. A distinction is drawn between formal ontological predicates — which should not be taken to denote elements of being — and other predicates, with ‘is true’, ‘exists’, and ‘is identical with’ belonging to the former class. Metaphysical realism is defended in the face of W. V. Quine’s doctrine of ontological relativity. Various species of metaphysical dependence are identified, and an account of truthmaking as a species of essential dependence is proposed and defended. It is explained how contingent truths are possible, given this account and the framework of the four-category ontology.Less
The notion of truthmaking is examined. A distinction is drawn between formal ontological predicates — which should not be taken to denote elements of being — and other predicates, with ‘is true’, ‘exists’, and ‘is identical with’ belonging to the former class. Metaphysical realism is defended in the face of W. V. Quine’s doctrine of ontological relativity. Various species of metaphysical dependence are identified, and an account of truthmaking as a species of essential dependence is proposed and defended. It is explained how contingent truths are possible, given this account and the framework of the four-category ontology.
Matthew Flinders
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199271603
- eISBN:
- 9780191709241
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199271603.003.0010
- Subject:
- Political Science, UK Politics, Political Economy
This final chapter locates the core findings of this book within a number of broader themes and agendas. In particular, it argues for scholarly interest in the politics of delegation to be matched by ...
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This final chapter locates the core findings of this book within a number of broader themes and agendas. In particular, it argues for scholarly interest in the politics of delegation to be matched by what is termed the politicization of delegation. By this, the chapter means that the logic of delegation itself, rather than its consequences, needs to be the focus of critical political analysis in order to push the process back within the sphere of public contestation.Less
This final chapter locates the core findings of this book within a number of broader themes and agendas. In particular, it argues for scholarly interest in the politics of delegation to be matched by what is termed the politicization of delegation. By this, the chapter means that the logic of delegation itself, rather than its consequences, needs to be the focus of critical political analysis in order to push the process back within the sphere of public contestation.
Francesca Aran Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199219285
- eISBN:
- 9780191711664
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199219285.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter is about arguments for the existence of God. It shows how grammatical Thomists like Herbert McCabe and Denys Turner make proving that God exists into a matter of proving that it is ...
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This chapter is about arguments for the existence of God. It shows how grammatical Thomists like Herbert McCabe and Denys Turner make proving that God exists into a matter of proving that it is rational to question whether God exists. Their leading question, ‘why is there something rather than nothing?’ assumes rather than proves that the world is contingent: it takes us around the ‘story’ of God's existence from the inside of faith, and does not refer to any specific creative action of God. Circulating thus within human psychological acts, the grammatical Thomist argument is focussed on the act of questioning rather as a movie holds our attention by repeatedly posing new questions, causing us to suspend disbelief but not to credit it with real agency. The way in which story Barthians use the ‘ontological argument’ makes the Biblical stories about God into an evidential basis of God's existence. Robert Jenson's ‘story Thomism’ takes Thomistic and Barthian narrative theology to a logical conclusion by making ‘God’ a character within a wider story, whose plot requires ‘contingent’ and ‘Creator’ characters.Less
This chapter is about arguments for the existence of God. It shows how grammatical Thomists like Herbert McCabe and Denys Turner make proving that God exists into a matter of proving that it is rational to question whether God exists. Their leading question, ‘why is there something rather than nothing?’ assumes rather than proves that the world is contingent: it takes us around the ‘story’ of God's existence from the inside of faith, and does not refer to any specific creative action of God. Circulating thus within human psychological acts, the grammatical Thomist argument is focussed on the act of questioning rather as a movie holds our attention by repeatedly posing new questions, causing us to suspend disbelief but not to credit it with real agency. The way in which story Barthians use the ‘ontological argument’ makes the Biblical stories about God into an evidential basis of God's existence. Robert Jenson's ‘story Thomism’ takes Thomistic and Barthian narrative theology to a logical conclusion by making ‘God’ a character within a wider story, whose plot requires ‘contingent’ and ‘Creator’ characters.
Karen Bennett and Dean W. Zimmerman (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199659081
- eISBN:
- 9780191745201
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199659081.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
Oxford Studies in Metaphysics is dedicated to the timely publication of new work in metaphysics, broadly construed. These volumes provide a forum for the best new work in this flourishing field. They ...
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Oxford Studies in Metaphysics is dedicated to the timely publication of new work in metaphysics, broadly construed. These volumes provide a forum for the best new work in this flourishing field. They offer a broad view of the subject, featuring not only the traditionally central topics such as existence, identity, modality, time, and causation, but also the rich clusters of metaphysical questions in neighbouring fields, such as philosophy of mind and philosophy of science. This book is the seventh volume in the series. Topics covered include counterpart theory, the idea of absolute generality, humean supervenience, coincident objects, open future, presentism, laws, and identity.Less
Oxford Studies in Metaphysics is dedicated to the timely publication of new work in metaphysics, broadly construed. These volumes provide a forum for the best new work in this flourishing field. They offer a broad view of the subject, featuring not only the traditionally central topics such as existence, identity, modality, time, and causation, but also the rich clusters of metaphysical questions in neighbouring fields, such as philosophy of mind and philosophy of science. This book is the seventh volume in the series. Topics covered include counterpart theory, the idea of absolute generality, humean supervenience, coincident objects, open future, presentism, laws, and identity.
Alexander Kaufman
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198294672
- eISBN:
- 9780191599637
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198294670.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Two formal arguments in favour of the traditional (libertarian) interpretation of Kant's political thought remain influential. The first argument asserts that Kant's metaphysical principles of right ...
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Two formal arguments in favour of the traditional (libertarian) interpretation of Kant's political thought remain influential. The first argument asserts that Kant's metaphysical principles of right severely constrain the authority of the state to intervene to influence subjective welfare. The second claims that Kant's account of right cannot guide the positive content of the law, since positive law is by definition contingent. The first argument, however, is inconsistent with Kant's explicit arguments in the Rechtslehre, while the second argument confuses contingency of content with contingency of form in Kant's account of positive law.Less
Two formal arguments in favour of the traditional (libertarian) interpretation of Kant's political thought remain influential. The first argument asserts that Kant's metaphysical principles of right severely constrain the authority of the state to intervene to influence subjective welfare. The second claims that Kant's account of right cannot guide the positive content of the law, since positive law is by definition contingent. The first argument, however, is inconsistent with Kant's explicit arguments in the Rechtslehre, while the second argument confuses contingency of content with contingency of form in Kant's account of positive law.
Alexander Kaufman
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198294672
- eISBN:
- 9780191599637
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198294670.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Many scholars view Kant's explicit rejection of the principle of ’welfare’, as a basis for legislation, as decisive in favour of the traditional (libertarian) interpretation of Kant's political ...
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Many scholars view Kant's explicit rejection of the principle of ’welfare’, as a basis for legislation, as decisive in favour of the traditional (libertarian) interpretation of Kant's political thought. This reading, in fact, misconstrues both the subject matter and analytical level of Kant's claims. First, the traditional interpretation conflates the notion of welfare to which Kant objects with the general notion of social welfare. Second, the traditional interpretation misconstrues the level of generality of Kant's argument: Kant argues against a principle of welfare as the ground of a system of legislation, not as the ground of individual legislative acts.Less
Many scholars view Kant's explicit rejection of the principle of ’welfare’, as a basis for legislation, as decisive in favour of the traditional (libertarian) interpretation of Kant's political thought. This reading, in fact, misconstrues both the subject matter and analytical level of Kant's claims. First, the traditional interpretation conflates the notion of welfare to which Kant objects with the general notion of social welfare. Second, the traditional interpretation misconstrues the level of generality of Kant's argument: Kant argues against a principle of welfare as the ground of a system of legislation, not as the ground of individual legislative acts.
Mathew Humphrey
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199242672
- eISBN:
- 9780191599514
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199242674.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, Environmental Politics
Here the threads of the previous chapters are pulled together, and problems posed in the putative relationship between ontology and axiology are considered. A serious problem with ecocentric argument ...
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Here the threads of the previous chapters are pulled together, and problems posed in the putative relationship between ontology and axiology are considered. A serious problem with ecocentric argument is its attempt to eliminate political contingency from arguments for nature preservation, such contingency cannot be overcome by appeals to the existence of natural values. The argument is made that the ‘strong irreplaceability’ of natural entities provides sound (but not incontrovertible) grounds for nature preservation, and does so irrespective of any position with respect to the ecocentric‐anthropocentric divide in axiology.Less
Here the threads of the previous chapters are pulled together, and problems posed in the putative relationship between ontology and axiology are considered. A serious problem with ecocentric argument is its attempt to eliminate political contingency from arguments for nature preservation, such contingency cannot be overcome by appeals to the existence of natural values. The argument is made that the ‘strong irreplaceability’ of natural entities provides sound (but not incontrovertible) grounds for nature preservation, and does so irrespective of any position with respect to the ecocentric‐anthropocentric divide in axiology.
Richard I. Hofferbert and David Louis Cingranelli
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198294719
- eISBN:
- 9780191599361
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198294719.003.0025
- Subject:
- Political Science, Reference
How can we explain policy similarities and differences across time, jurisdiction, and country? Examples are offered in a comparison of social and economic context, the role of institutions, ideology, ...
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How can we explain policy similarities and differences across time, jurisdiction, and country? Examples are offered in a comparison of social and economic context, the role of institutions, ideology, democratic type, industrialization, and social change as they account for two political outcomes: welfare policy and party election programs. Key methodological and theoretical issues are raised, relating to the empirical demands of causality and contingency. ‘How politics matters’ is ultimately left unanswered because of methodological indeterminacies, though three findings remain: policies are not made in a socio‐economic vacuum, institutional effects are still an open question, and policy conditions are attributable to partisan conditions.Less
How can we explain policy similarities and differences across time, jurisdiction, and country? Examples are offered in a comparison of social and economic context, the role of institutions, ideology, democratic type, industrialization, and social change as they account for two political outcomes: welfare policy and party election programs. Key methodological and theoretical issues are raised, relating to the empirical demands of causality and contingency. ‘How politics matters’ is ultimately left unanswered because of methodological indeterminacies, though three findings remain: policies are not made in a socio‐economic vacuum, institutional effects are still an open question, and policy conditions are attributable to partisan conditions.
Allan McCutcheon and Colin Mills
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198292371
- eISBN:
- 9780191600159
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198292376.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Reference
Extending the basic regression model to the analysis of contingency tables, using odds and odds ratios. The worked example shows how log‐linear and latent class techniques can be assimilated into a ...
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Extending the basic regression model to the analysis of contingency tables, using odds and odds ratios. The worked example shows how log‐linear and latent class techniques can be assimilated into a single model using GLIM, LCAG, and LEM software, and how to interpret the BIC and AIC statistics.Less
Extending the basic regression model to the analysis of contingency tables, using odds and odds ratios. The worked example shows how log‐linear and latent class techniques can be assimilated into a single model using GLIM, LCAG, and LEM software, and how to interpret the BIC and AIC statistics.
Penelope Mackie
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199272204
- eISBN:
- 9780191604034
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199272204.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
Having rejected the standard views about the essential properties of ordinary individuals, this chapter confronts the question whether such individuals have any interesting essential properties at ...
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Having rejected the standard views about the essential properties of ordinary individuals, this chapter confronts the question whether such individuals have any interesting essential properties at all. It defends a version of ‘extreme haecceitism’, also known as ‘minimalist essentialism’, according to which ordinary individuals have relatively few interesting essential properties. According to this theory, many properties that might be assumed to be essential properties of ordinary individuals are not, strictly speaking, essential, but rather ‘tenacious’ or ‘quasi-essential’, where this implies that the possibility that the thing should lack the property is so remote as normally to be ignored in the context of counterfactual speculation. It is argued that the appearance of conflict between this version of extreme haecceitism and our intuitions may largely be dispelled, partly by appeal to the fact that in many contexts in which we make de re modal claims, we restrict ourselves to what all theorists must acknowledge to be a limited subset of the full range of de re possibilities. It is also argued that extreme haecceitism need not undermine the role played by an appeal to essential properties in various philosophical arguments, such as the debate between psychological and biological theorists concerning personal identity and a standard form of argument that appeals to modal distinctions, in order to establish the numerical distinctness of coincident entities.Less
Having rejected the standard views about the essential properties of ordinary individuals, this chapter confronts the question whether such individuals have any interesting essential properties at all. It defends a version of ‘extreme haecceitism’, also known as ‘minimalist essentialism’, according to which ordinary individuals have relatively few interesting essential properties. According to this theory, many properties that might be assumed to be essential properties of ordinary individuals are not, strictly speaking, essential, but rather ‘tenacious’ or ‘quasi-essential’, where this implies that the possibility that the thing should lack the property is so remote as normally to be ignored in the context of counterfactual speculation. It is argued that the appearance of conflict between this version of extreme haecceitism and our intuitions may largely be dispelled, partly by appeal to the fact that in many contexts in which we make de re modal claims, we restrict ourselves to what all theorists must acknowledge to be a limited subset of the full range of de re possibilities. It is also argued that extreme haecceitism need not undermine the role played by an appeal to essential properties in various philosophical arguments, such as the debate between psychological and biological theorists concerning personal identity and a standard form of argument that appeals to modal distinctions, in order to establish the numerical distinctness of coincident entities.
Colin M. Macleod
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199242689
- eISBN:
- 9780191598715
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199242682.003.0012
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Inequalities that arise because of the influence of arbitrary factors of social or natural contingency, as opposed to choices, are unjust. But whilst liberals wish to preserve and protect the ...
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Inequalities that arise because of the influence of arbitrary factors of social or natural contingency, as opposed to choices, are unjust. But whilst liberals wish to preserve and protect the affective family, parental partiality to their own children can result in an inequality that is unjust on account of it being attributable to arbitrary factors. Children's access to resources and opportunities should not be significantly determined by parental entitlement to resources. Justice requires not the abandonment of the family, but it does impose constraints on the ways in which parents can permissibly express their partiality for their children.Less
Inequalities that arise because of the influence of arbitrary factors of social or natural contingency, as opposed to choices, are unjust. But whilst liberals wish to preserve and protect the affective family, parental partiality to their own children can result in an inequality that is unjust on account of it being attributable to arbitrary factors. Children's access to resources and opportunities should not be significantly determined by parental entitlement to resources. Justice requires not the abandonment of the family, but it does impose constraints on the ways in which parents can permissibly express their partiality for their children.
Gary Herrigel
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199557738
- eISBN:
- 9780191720871
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199557738.003.0009
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Political Economy
The conclusion addresses three areas of theoretical interest posed by empirical and theoretical arguments made in the substantive chapters of Manufacturing Possibilities. First it elaborates more ...
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The conclusion addresses three areas of theoretical interest posed by empirical and theoretical arguments made in the substantive chapters of Manufacturing Possibilities. First it elaborates more precisely the ways that pragmatist notions of creative action and recomposition are superior to various forms of institutionalism (sociological, rational choice and historical institutionalism). Second it more explicitly elaborates the non-structural, relational and contextual understanding of power that undergirds the analysis of industrial change. Thirdly it points out that pragmatism involves a distinctive approach to social science : It encourages the search for interesting possibilities, rather than determinate forms of causality which tend to place undue attention on constraint. Pragmatist social science, ultimately, is science in the interest of greater democracyLess
The conclusion addresses three areas of theoretical interest posed by empirical and theoretical arguments made in the substantive chapters of Manufacturing Possibilities. First it elaborates more precisely the ways that pragmatist notions of creative action and recomposition are superior to various forms of institutionalism (sociological, rational choice and historical institutionalism). Second it more explicitly elaborates the non-structural, relational and contextual understanding of power that undergirds the analysis of industrial change. Thirdly it points out that pragmatism involves a distinctive approach to social science : It encourages the search for interesting possibilities, rather than determinate forms of causality which tend to place undue attention on constraint. Pragmatist social science, ultimately, is science in the interest of greater democracy
Jan Christoph Meister
Apostolos Doxiadis and Barry Mazur (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691149042
- eISBN:
- 9781400842681
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691149042.003.0015
- Subject:
- Mathematics, History of Mathematics
This chapter examines whether mathematics can help us model aesthetic contingency, and hence create narrative subjectivity. It begins by considering narrative subjectivity as a hard-wired feature of ...
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This chapter examines whether mathematics can help us model aesthetic contingency, and hence create narrative subjectivity. It begins by considering narrative subjectivity as a hard-wired feature of narrative representation and how this feature reflects the post-Enlightenment view of human existence that replaced the old belief in Providence with a new explanatory model, that of existential contingency. The discussion proceeds by exploring the aesthetic and philosophical consequences of this explanatory model for narrative, first by looking at Leo Perutz's stories that illustrate the problem of contingency from various angles, and then by discussing the so-called story generator algorithm (SGA) that aims to fabricate contingency. The chapter also explains how perspective and focalization, two ways in which theorists have tried to understand narrative subjectivity, can be formalized in the context of the SGA. Finally, it offers suggestions for how mathematical tools may help in the computational modeling of narrative subjectivity.Less
This chapter examines whether mathematics can help us model aesthetic contingency, and hence create narrative subjectivity. It begins by considering narrative subjectivity as a hard-wired feature of narrative representation and how this feature reflects the post-Enlightenment view of human existence that replaced the old belief in Providence with a new explanatory model, that of existential contingency. The discussion proceeds by exploring the aesthetic and philosophical consequences of this explanatory model for narrative, first by looking at Leo Perutz's stories that illustrate the problem of contingency from various angles, and then by discussing the so-called story generator algorithm (SGA) that aims to fabricate contingency. The chapter also explains how perspective and focalization, two ways in which theorists have tried to understand narrative subjectivity, can be formalized in the context of the SGA. Finally, it offers suggestions for how mathematical tools may help in the computational modeling of narrative subjectivity.
Frank Hendriks
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199572786
- eISBN:
- 9780191722370
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199572786.003.0008
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics, Political Theory
Referring to the empirical exploration in the previous chapters, it is concluded in this chapter that real democracy – wherever it is practised with some level of success – is always hybrid ...
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Referring to the empirical exploration in the previous chapters, it is concluded in this chapter that real democracy – wherever it is practised with some level of success – is always hybrid democracy, resulting from a process of push and pull between competing models of democracy. Consensus democracy may be most prominent in some countries, and pendulum democracy in others, but this never occurs in an exclusive or uncontested way. A vital democracy, it is argued here, is a democracy that combines the elementary forms of democracy in a way that is both creative and contingent and, thus, manages to unite effectiveness with legitimacy: the core principles of good governance. A democratic hybrid is creative if it succeeds in making the most of the advantages of the combined models and in compensating their disadvantages as much as possible. It is contingent if the coexistence of models is sensitive to the situational and cultural context in which democracy must gain effectiveness and legitimacy.Less
Referring to the empirical exploration in the previous chapters, it is concluded in this chapter that real democracy – wherever it is practised with some level of success – is always hybrid democracy, resulting from a process of push and pull between competing models of democracy. Consensus democracy may be most prominent in some countries, and pendulum democracy in others, but this never occurs in an exclusive or uncontested way. A vital democracy, it is argued here, is a democracy that combines the elementary forms of democracy in a way that is both creative and contingent and, thus, manages to unite effectiveness with legitimacy: the core principles of good governance. A democratic hybrid is creative if it succeeds in making the most of the advantages of the combined models and in compensating their disadvantages as much as possible. It is contingent if the coexistence of models is sensitive to the situational and cultural context in which democracy must gain effectiveness and legitimacy.
