Jonathan Sinclair-Wilson
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265536
- eISBN:
- 9780191760327
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265536.003.0023
- Subject:
- Political Science, Environmental Politics
Tipping points are troublesome metaphors. They may be more the products of our own imagination than any possible reality. Confusion and uncertainty, together with the possible suddenness and ...
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Tipping points are troublesome metaphors. They may be more the products of our own imagination than any possible reality. Confusion and uncertainty, together with the possible suddenness and catastrophe, make our imaginings even more lurid. We depend on models but more so because they are the only ones we use to predict. We may reach a state of justifiable alarm, but this is not a recipe for purposeful collective action. What is now required is a sense of common humanity which instils hope and courage and a sense that a better future is still within our grasp.Less
Tipping points are troublesome metaphors. They may be more the products of our own imagination than any possible reality. Confusion and uncertainty, together with the possible suddenness and catastrophe, make our imaginings even more lurid. We depend on models but more so because they are the only ones we use to predict. We may reach a state of justifiable alarm, but this is not a recipe for purposeful collective action. What is now required is a sense of common humanity which instils hope and courage and a sense that a better future is still within our grasp.
D. D. Raphael
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199213337
- eISBN:
- 9780191707544
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199213337.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Explanation of moral judgement in terms of the feelings of spectators is found in Hutcheson and Hume as well as in Adam Smith. Smith's theory marks an advance on the other two.
Explanation of moral judgement in terms of the feelings of spectators is found in Hutcheson and Hume as well as in Adam Smith. Smith's theory marks an advance on the other two.
Ishtiyaque Haji
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199899203
- eISBN:
- 9780199949885
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199899203.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
To have free will with respect to an act is to have the ability both to perform and to refrain from performing it. This book argues that no one can have practical reasons of a certain sort—“objective ...
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To have free will with respect to an act is to have the ability both to perform and to refrain from performing it. This book argues that no one can have practical reasons of a certain sort—“objective reasons”—to perform some act unless one has free will regarding that act. So we cannot have objective reasons to perform an act unless we could have done otherwise. This is reason’s debt to freedom. the book argues, further, for the thesis that various things we value, such as moral and prudential obligation, intrinsic value, and a range of moral sentiments that figure centrally in interpersonal relationships, presuppose our having free will. They do so because each of these things essentially requires that we have objective reasons, the having of which, in turn, demands that we have alternatives. Finally, the book distinguishes between two sorts of alternative, strong or incompatibilist alternatives and weak or compatibilist alternatives. Assuming, on the one hand, that obligation and some of the other things we value require strong alternatives, the book concludes that determinism precludes these things because determinism expunges strong alternatives. If, on the other hand, they require only weak alternatives, a chief compatibilist agenda of establishing the compatibility of these things with determinism without appeal to alternatives of any kind—the semi-compatibilist’s agenda—is jeopardized.Less
To have free will with respect to an act is to have the ability both to perform and to refrain from performing it. This book argues that no one can have practical reasons of a certain sort—“objective reasons”—to perform some act unless one has free will regarding that act. So we cannot have objective reasons to perform an act unless we could have done otherwise. This is reason’s debt to freedom. the book argues, further, for the thesis that various things we value, such as moral and prudential obligation, intrinsic value, and a range of moral sentiments that figure centrally in interpersonal relationships, presuppose our having free will. They do so because each of these things essentially requires that we have objective reasons, the having of which, in turn, demands that we have alternatives. Finally, the book distinguishes between two sorts of alternative, strong or incompatibilist alternatives and weak or compatibilist alternatives. Assuming, on the one hand, that obligation and some of the other things we value require strong alternatives, the book concludes that determinism precludes these things because determinism expunges strong alternatives. If, on the other hand, they require only weak alternatives, a chief compatibilist agenda of establishing the compatibility of these things with determinism without appeal to alternatives of any kind—the semi-compatibilist’s agenda—is jeopardized.
Andrei Shleifer
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198292272
- eISBN:
- 9780191596933
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198292279.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Financial Economics
This book describes an approach, alternative to the theory of efficient markets, to the study of financial markets: behavioural finance. It begins by assessing the efficient market hypothesis, ...
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This book describes an approach, alternative to the theory of efficient markets, to the study of financial markets: behavioural finance. It begins by assessing the efficient market hypothesis, emphasising how some of its foundations are contradicted by psychological and institutional evidence. It then introduces the theory of behavioural finance and devotes the rest of the book to explore its main aspects, concentrating on the role and characteristics of noise traders, arbitrageurs, and investors. Chapters 2 through 4 focus on the limits imposed on arbitrage by factors such as risk aversion or agency problems. Two crucial conclusions are reached. First, plausible theories of arbitrage do not lead to the prediction that markets are efficient—quite the opposite. Second, the recognition that arbitrage is limited, even without specific assumptions about investor sentiment, generates new empirically testable predictions, some of which have been confirmed in the data. Chapters 5 and 6 centre on how investor sentiments are built, emphasising some empirical violations to the idea of efficient markets such as price bubbles. The book concludes suggesting that the theory of behavioural finance is indeed more effective that the efficient market theory in explaining some financial evidence.Less
This book describes an approach, alternative to the theory of efficient markets, to the study of financial markets: behavioural finance. It begins by assessing the efficient market hypothesis, emphasising how some of its foundations are contradicted by psychological and institutional evidence. It then introduces the theory of behavioural finance and devotes the rest of the book to explore its main aspects, concentrating on the role and characteristics of noise traders, arbitrageurs, and investors. Chapters 2 through 4 focus on the limits imposed on arbitrage by factors such as risk aversion or agency problems. Two crucial conclusions are reached. First, plausible theories of arbitrage do not lead to the prediction that markets are efficient—quite the opposite. Second, the recognition that arbitrage is limited, even without specific assumptions about investor sentiment, generates new empirically testable predictions, some of which have been confirmed in the data. Chapters 5 and 6 centre on how investor sentiments are built, emphasising some empirical violations to the idea of efficient markets such as price bubbles. The book concludes suggesting that the theory of behavioural finance is indeed more effective that the efficient market theory in explaining some financial evidence.
Ishtiyaque Haji
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199899203
- eISBN:
- 9780199949885
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199899203.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
The final chapter summarizes the book’s principal argument and it draws some general conclusions.
The final chapter summarizes the book’s principal argument and it draws some general conclusions.
Yoon Sun Lee
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195162356
- eISBN:
- 9780199787852
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195162356.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
In the late 18th and 19th centuries, non-English conservatives such as Burke, Scott, and Carlyle, among others, influentially shaped Britain's political attitudes and literary genres because they ...
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In the late 18th and 19th centuries, non-English conservatives such as Burke, Scott, and Carlyle, among others, influentially shaped Britain's political attitudes and literary genres because they stressed the conventional, theatrical, and even fetishistic character of civic emotions such as patriotism — and they illuminated the crucial role that irony could play in the construction of nationalism. They represent a public sphere shaped less by natural sentiment or rationality than by equivocal, even ironic deference and a highly conventional suspension of disbelief in the face of political fictions. Burke's counter-revolutionary works present British politics as a theater in which sublime ideas and abstractions are not always convincingly personified. Scott's activities as historical novelist and as antiquarian only thinly reconcile the disparities between the realities of British commercial empire and the sentimental, archaicizing self-image of a nation at war. Carlyle expands the insights of Romantic irony through the trope and eventual doctrine of fetishism: labor that forgets the role it has played in creating the forces that appear to command it.Less
In the late 18th and 19th centuries, non-English conservatives such as Burke, Scott, and Carlyle, among others, influentially shaped Britain's political attitudes and literary genres because they stressed the conventional, theatrical, and even fetishistic character of civic emotions such as patriotism — and they illuminated the crucial role that irony could play in the construction of nationalism. They represent a public sphere shaped less by natural sentiment or rationality than by equivocal, even ironic deference and a highly conventional suspension of disbelief in the face of political fictions. Burke's counter-revolutionary works present British politics as a theater in which sublime ideas and abstractions are not always convincingly personified. Scott's activities as historical novelist and as antiquarian only thinly reconcile the disparities between the realities of British commercial empire and the sentimental, archaicizing self-image of a nation at war. Carlyle expands the insights of Romantic irony through the trope and eventual doctrine of fetishism: labor that forgets the role it has played in creating the forces that appear to command it.
Andrew Stewart Skinner
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198233343
- eISBN:
- 9780191678974
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198233343.003.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
Following the publication of The Theory of Moral Sentiments, it appears that Adam Smith gave greater emphasis to jurisprudence and economics at the expense of the ethical material. While the lectures ...
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Following the publication of The Theory of Moral Sentiments, it appears that Adam Smith gave greater emphasis to jurisprudence and economics at the expense of the ethical material. While the lectures on theology have not been discovered as yet, it is at least possible that Smith's position would have shown agreement with that of Isaac Newton. Smith made use of a number of Newtonian analogies whose implications are not inconsistent with the view of God as the Divine Architect or Great Superintendent of the Universe. He made wide use of mechanistic (and other) analogies, seeing in the universe a ‘great machine’ wherein we may observe ‘means adjusted with the nicest artifice to the ends which they are intended to produce’. The remaining parts of Smith's lectures — ethics, jurisprudence, and economics — were seen by him as the parts, separate but interconnected, of an even wider system of social science, a point that emerges clearly from the advertisement to the sixth edition of The Theory of Moral Sentiments, published in the year of Smith's death.Less
Following the publication of The Theory of Moral Sentiments, it appears that Adam Smith gave greater emphasis to jurisprudence and economics at the expense of the ethical material. While the lectures on theology have not been discovered as yet, it is at least possible that Smith's position would have shown agreement with that of Isaac Newton. Smith made use of a number of Newtonian analogies whose implications are not inconsistent with the view of God as the Divine Architect or Great Superintendent of the Universe. He made wide use of mechanistic (and other) analogies, seeing in the universe a ‘great machine’ wherein we may observe ‘means adjusted with the nicest artifice to the ends which they are intended to produce’. The remaining parts of Smith's lectures — ethics, jurisprudence, and economics — were seen by him as the parts, separate but interconnected, of an even wider system of social science, a point that emerges clearly from the advertisement to the sixth edition of The Theory of Moral Sentiments, published in the year of Smith's death.
Manuel Castells and Pekka Himanen
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199256990
- eISBN:
- 9780191698415
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199256990.003.0009
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Information Technology
The chapter enumerates several lessons that other countries can learn from the development experiences of Finland. The country's welfare state compliments its information society. Another lesson is ...
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The chapter enumerates several lessons that other countries can learn from the development experiences of Finland. The country's welfare state compliments its information society. Another lesson is that flexibility with work and smooth industrial relations are caused by cooperation between businesses and the welfare state. Third, Finland's has a main role in guiding the economic development of the country and molding the information society. Its citizens are oriented towards a strong national sentiment and a sense of identity. It also has utilized hackers in private and public firms in order to provide creativity and innovation in the industries. Finland has not been a rich state for several decades; it has also been on an equal footing with other less developed nations in the past.Less
The chapter enumerates several lessons that other countries can learn from the development experiences of Finland. The country's welfare state compliments its information society. Another lesson is that flexibility with work and smooth industrial relations are caused by cooperation between businesses and the welfare state. Third, Finland's has a main role in guiding the economic development of the country and molding the information society. Its citizens are oriented towards a strong national sentiment and a sense of identity. It also has utilized hackers in private and public firms in order to provide creativity and innovation in the industries. Finland has not been a rich state for several decades; it has also been on an equal footing with other less developed nations in the past.
John Mullan
- Published in print:
- 1990
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198122524
- eISBN:
- 9780191671449
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198122524.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
With the rise of the novel in the mid-18th century came the rise of sentimentalism. While the fondness for sentiment embarrassed later literary critics, it originally legitimized a morally suspect ...
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With the rise of the novel in the mid-18th century came the rise of sentimentalism. While the fondness for sentiment embarrassed later literary critics, it originally legitimized a morally suspect phenomenon: the novel. This book describes that legitimation, yet it looks beyond the narrowly literary to the lives and expressed philosophies of some of the major writers of the age, showing the language of feeling to be a resource of philosophers like David Hume and Adam Smith, as much as novelists like Samuel Richardson and Laurence Sterne.Less
With the rise of the novel in the mid-18th century came the rise of sentimentalism. While the fondness for sentiment embarrassed later literary critics, it originally legitimized a morally suspect phenomenon: the novel. This book describes that legitimation, yet it looks beyond the narrowly literary to the lives and expressed philosophies of some of the major writers of the age, showing the language of feeling to be a resource of philosophers like David Hume and Adam Smith, as much as novelists like Samuel Richardson and Laurence Sterne.
Thomas E. Hill, Jr.
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199252633
- eISBN:
- 9780191597695
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199252637.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
The essays in this collection interpret and develop Kant's ideas on ethics. The first part of the book focuses on basic concepts: a priori method, good will, categorical imperatives, autonomy, and ...
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The essays in this collection interpret and develop Kant's ideas on ethics. The first part of the book focuses on basic concepts: a priori method, good will, categorical imperatives, autonomy, and constructivist strategies of argument. The second part concerns issues regarding human welfare: the moral significance of altruistic sentiments, the source of other‐regarding and self‐regarding reasons, different conceptions of happiness and personal values, and interpretation of the duty of beneficence. The third part concerns the moral assessment of persons as guilty or innocent, deserving or undeserving, motivated in a worthy way or not. More specifically, these last essays compare Kant's conception of conscience with other conceptions, contrast his theory of punishment with utilitarian and deeply retributivist theories, and distinguish morally worthy from unworthy motivation by conscience and punishment. The final essay proposes a Kantian perspective on moral dilemmas, gaps in moral theory, and residual feelings of guilt and regret in cases of irresolvable moral conflicts. Although the essays are often critical of Kant's particular views, they show how many familiar objections miss the mark. They emphasize features of Kant's ethics that remain worthy of attention today. They attempt to develop these independently of Kant's more dubious beliefs, for example, his rigorism regarding particular substantive principles and his transcendental idealism. The essays often propose readings of specific controversial texts and challenge common interpretations, but they also explore ways that Kantian ethics can be valuable in addressing moral, social, and political problems.Less
The essays in this collection interpret and develop Kant's ideas on ethics. The first part of the book focuses on basic concepts: a priori method, good will, categorical imperatives, autonomy, and constructivist strategies of argument. The second part concerns issues regarding human welfare: the moral significance of altruistic sentiments, the source of other‐regarding and self‐regarding reasons, different conceptions of happiness and personal values, and interpretation of the duty of beneficence. The third part concerns the moral assessment of persons as guilty or innocent, deserving or undeserving, motivated in a worthy way or not. More specifically, these last essays compare Kant's conception of conscience with other conceptions, contrast his theory of punishment with utilitarian and deeply retributivist theories, and distinguish morally worthy from unworthy motivation by conscience and punishment. The final essay proposes a Kantian perspective on moral dilemmas, gaps in moral theory, and residual feelings of guilt and regret in cases of irresolvable moral conflicts. Although the essays are often critical of Kant's particular views, they show how many familiar objections miss the mark. They emphasize features of Kant's ethics that remain worthy of attention today. They attempt to develop these independently of Kant's more dubious beliefs, for example, his rigorism regarding particular substantive principles and his transcendental idealism. The essays often propose readings of specific controversial texts and challenge common interpretations, but they also explore ways that Kantian ethics can be valuable in addressing moral, social, and political problems.
Christopher Tyerman
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198227960
- eISBN:
- 9780191678776
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198227960.003.0019
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History, British and Irish Modern History
Since the 18th century, the myth or myths of Harrow School provided consistent support to the practical efforts of governors and masters to sustain the institution. The memories of former schoolboys ...
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Since the 18th century, the myth or myths of Harrow School provided consistent support to the practical efforts of governors and masters to sustain the institution. The memories of former schoolboys are notoriously pliable, yet they provide the basis upon which their later support or disapproval is based. Those working within the institution rarely bother to question whatever interpretation is currently fashionable. Until the mid-19th century, Harrow and Harrovians treasured an image of rowdy independence. From Charles Vaughan and Montagu Butler, previous assumptions of power and rule became self-conscious and sought justification in the idea of duty, religion, and manliness. These found a voice with Edward Bowen. Both were some way removed from the daily routine of school life, yet provided the intellectual and cultural framework in which members and observers of the school interpreted their experiences. The role of sentiment was and is fundamental not just to understanding the school's history but to how it actually operates.Less
Since the 18th century, the myth or myths of Harrow School provided consistent support to the practical efforts of governors and masters to sustain the institution. The memories of former schoolboys are notoriously pliable, yet they provide the basis upon which their later support or disapproval is based. Those working within the institution rarely bother to question whatever interpretation is currently fashionable. Until the mid-19th century, Harrow and Harrovians treasured an image of rowdy independence. From Charles Vaughan and Montagu Butler, previous assumptions of power and rule became self-conscious and sought justification in the idea of duty, religion, and manliness. These found a voice with Edward Bowen. Both were some way removed from the daily routine of school life, yet provided the intellectual and cultural framework in which members and observers of the school interpreted their experiences. The role of sentiment was and is fundamental not just to understanding the school's history but to how it actually operates.
Mariano Torcal, Richard Gunther, and José Ramón Montero
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199246748
- eISBN:
- 9780191599385
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199246742.003.0010
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
Political scientists who have written about party decline (the ‘crisis of parties’) fall into two broad categories: one group includes those who focus their analysis on the organizational structures, ...
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Political scientists who have written about party decline (the ‘crisis of parties’) fall into two broad categories: one group includes those who focus their analysis on the organizational structures, functions and membership of parties, and their performance in government and in representative institutions; a second group has been more concerned with citizens’ attitudes towards political parties, although their empirical studies have rarely focused on the question of the decline in public support for parties, and have instead been primarily concerned with themes such as the evolution of party identification, electoral participation, and the traditional social ties linking parties to citizens. Despite widespread interest in this theme, there have been surprisingly few empirical studies of the extent and possible origins of anti‐party attitudes. Aims to fill this gap in the literature by systematically exploring the hypothesis of the ‘decline of parties’ from the standpoint of citizen support for these key institutions in four Southern European democracies, although the existing literature on the topic has produced contradictory findings. Has four complementary objectives: (1) to develop and discuss attitudinal indicators that can serve as adequate measures of anti‐party sentiments; (2) to observe the evolution of these indicators over time in a variety of contexts; (3) to discuss their relationship with other aspects of political behaviour; and (4) to speculate about the origins of anti‐party sentiments. While most of the analysis focuses on Spain, similar attitudes are also explored in Portugal, Italy, and Greece, in an effort to determine the extent to which an increase in anti‐party sentiments represents a general feature of contemporary West European democracies, and to what extent it maybe linked to a broader concept of political disaffection; also examined are some of the consequences of this phenomenon with regard to electoral behaviour, to psychological identification of citizens with parties, and to the overall level of involvement of citizens in public life.Less
Political scientists who have written about party decline (the ‘crisis of parties’) fall into two broad categories: one group includes those who focus their analysis on the organizational structures, functions and membership of parties, and their performance in government and in representative institutions; a second group has been more concerned with citizens’ attitudes towards political parties, although their empirical studies have rarely focused on the question of the decline in public support for parties, and have instead been primarily concerned with themes such as the evolution of party identification, electoral participation, and the traditional social ties linking parties to citizens. Despite widespread interest in this theme, there have been surprisingly few empirical studies of the extent and possible origins of anti‐party attitudes. Aims to fill this gap in the literature by systematically exploring the hypothesis of the ‘decline of parties’ from the standpoint of citizen support for these key institutions in four Southern European democracies, although the existing literature on the topic has produced contradictory findings. Has four complementary objectives: (1) to develop and discuss attitudinal indicators that can serve as adequate measures of anti‐party sentiments; (2) to observe the evolution of these indicators over time in a variety of contexts; (3) to discuss their relationship with other aspects of political behaviour; and (4) to speculate about the origins of anti‐party sentiments. While most of the analysis focuses on Spain, similar attitudes are also explored in Portugal, Italy, and Greece, in an effort to determine the extent to which an increase in anti‐party sentiments represents a general feature of contemporary West European democracies, and to what extent it maybe linked to a broader concept of political disaffection; also examined are some of the consequences of this phenomenon with regard to electoral behaviour, to psychological identification of citizens with parties, and to the overall level of involvement of citizens in public life.
Richard Rorty
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198294962
- eISBN:
- 9780191598708
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198294964.003.0009
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Most people nowadays believe both that a free society is one in which citizens participate in government, and that it is one in which people are, within the limits Mill defined, left alone to choose ...
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Most people nowadays believe both that a free society is one in which citizens participate in government, and that it is one in which people are, within the limits Mill defined, left alone to choose their own values and ends. Liberals should not allow themselves to be encumbered with the idea of a self which is prior to its ends: existentialist, Californian, self which can somehow sit back and choose ends, values, and affiliations without reference to anything except its own momentary pleasure. The pragmatist, minimalist liberal, position is: try to educate the citizenry in the civic virtue of having as few compelling interests, beliefs, and desires as possible, to get them to be as flexible and wishy-washy as possible, and to value democratic consensus more than they value almost anything else. When Sandel says that liberals who have a merely “cooperative” vision of a community cannot meet Nozickian objections to redistributivist policies, the minimalist liberal should reply that they are met sentimentally, by telling sob stories about what happens to the poor in nonredistributivist societies. What emerges from Rawlsian attempts to put the search for consensual compromise above moral and religious conviction is not an absence of morality and religion, but new moralities and new religions.Less
Most people nowadays believe both that a free society is one in which citizens participate in government, and that it is one in which people are, within the limits Mill defined, left alone to choose their own values and ends. Liberals should not allow themselves to be encumbered with the idea of a self which is prior to its ends: existentialist, Californian, self which can somehow sit back and choose ends, values, and affiliations without reference to anything except its own momentary pleasure. The pragmatist, minimalist liberal, position is: try to educate the citizenry in the civic virtue of having as few compelling interests, beliefs, and desires as possible, to get them to be as flexible and wishy-washy as possible, and to value democratic consensus more than they value almost anything else. When Sandel says that liberals who have a merely “cooperative” vision of a community cannot meet Nozickian objections to redistributivist policies, the minimalist liberal should reply that they are met sentimentally, by telling sob stories about what happens to the poor in nonredistributivist societies. What emerges from Rawlsian attempts to put the search for consensual compromise above moral and religious conviction is not an absence of morality and religion, but new moralities and new religions.
Robert C. Solomon
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- November 2004
- ISBN:
- 9780195145502
- eISBN:
- 9780199834969
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019514550X.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
Too often, since the 19th century, sensitivity is dismissed as mere “sentimentality” in philosophy and in literature. It is charged that sentimentality is distorting, self-indulgent, self-deceptive. ...
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Too often, since the 19th century, sensitivity is dismissed as mere “sentimentality” in philosophy and in literature. It is charged that sentimentality is distorting, self-indulgent, self-deceptive. I argue that all of these charges are misplaced or themselves distorted and betray a suspicion of emotions and the tender sentiments that is unwarranted.Less
Too often, since the 19th century, sensitivity is dismissed as mere “sentimentality” in philosophy and in literature. It is charged that sentimentality is distorting, self-indulgent, self-deceptive. I argue that all of these charges are misplaced or themselves distorted and betray a suspicion of emotions and the tender sentiments that is unwarranted.
Matthew Mutter
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195342536
- eISBN:
- 9780199867042
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195342536.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter discusses Ralph Waldo Emerson's prophetic announcement of both the decay of orthodox, institutional religion and the ascent of a solitary spirituality founded upon the intuition of the ...
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This chapter discusses Ralph Waldo Emerson's prophetic announcement of both the decay of orthodox, institutional religion and the ascent of a solitary spirituality founded upon the intuition of the “moral sentiment.” Matthew Mutter argues that this dual expectation is made possible by a radicalization of the Puritan project of integrating the sacred and the secular. This radicalization ultimately placed the burden of sacred order on the vision of the perceiving individual, which in turn diminished the significance of outward social and political arrangements. Attention is given to Emerson's misapprehension of the actual trends in nineteenth‐century American religious life, to the differences between Emerson's prophetic stance and those of Whitman, Thoreau, Melville and Lincoln, and to the effects of the Civil War on Emerson's thought and American public religion in general. The conclusion looks at Emerson's legacy in American religious history.Less
This chapter discusses Ralph Waldo Emerson's prophetic announcement of both the decay of orthodox, institutional religion and the ascent of a solitary spirituality founded upon the intuition of the “moral sentiment.” Matthew Mutter argues that this dual expectation is made possible by a radicalization of the Puritan project of integrating the sacred and the secular. This radicalization ultimately placed the burden of sacred order on the vision of the perceiving individual, which in turn diminished the significance of outward social and political arrangements. Attention is given to Emerson's misapprehension of the actual trends in nineteenth‐century American religious life, to the differences between Emerson's prophetic stance and those of Whitman, Thoreau, Melville and Lincoln, and to the effects of the Civil War on Emerson's thought and American public religion in general. The conclusion looks at Emerson's legacy in American religious history.
Russell Hardin
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199232567
- eISBN:
- 9780191715976
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199232567.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This chapter explores Hume's moral theory. Topics discussed include Hume's claim that utility pleases, morality is a natural phenomenon arising from human psychology, the limited role of reason, ...
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This chapter explores Hume's moral theory. Topics discussed include Hume's claim that utility pleases, morality is a natural phenomenon arising from human psychology, the limited role of reason, sympathy and moral sentiments as two important terms of art in Hume's moral and political theory, mirroring, natural and artificial virtues, and Hume's argument that social institutions are largely unplanned, they are products of social evolution.Less
This chapter explores Hume's moral theory. Topics discussed include Hume's claim that utility pleases, morality is a natural phenomenon arising from human psychology, the limited role of reason, sympathy and moral sentiments as two important terms of art in Hume's moral and political theory, mirroring, natural and artificial virtues, and Hume's argument that social institutions are largely unplanned, they are products of social evolution.
Michael L. Frazer
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195390667
- eISBN:
- 9780199866687
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195390667.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Although known as “the age of reason,” the eighteenth century was actually an era in which many leading moral and political philosophers placed equal emphasis on feeling. While Enlightenment ...
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Although known as “the age of reason,” the eighteenth century was actually an era in which many leading moral and political philosophers placed equal emphasis on feeling. While Enlightenment rationalists such as Immanuel Kant separated reflective reason from the unreflective mental faculties which must obey its commands, their sentimentalist contemporaries such as David Hume, Adam Smith, and J. G. Herder did not. Instead, they saw moral and political reflection as the proper work of the mind as a whole. Without emotion, imagination and the imaginative sharing of emotion then known as “sympathy,” we would be incapable of developing the reflectively-refined moral sentiments which are the basis of our commitment to justice and virtue. This book seeks to reclaim the sentimentalist theory of reflection as a resource for enriching social science, normative theory, and political practice today.Less
Although known as “the age of reason,” the eighteenth century was actually an era in which many leading moral and political philosophers placed equal emphasis on feeling. While Enlightenment rationalists such as Immanuel Kant separated reflective reason from the unreflective mental faculties which must obey its commands, their sentimentalist contemporaries such as David Hume, Adam Smith, and J. G. Herder did not. Instead, they saw moral and political reflection as the proper work of the mind as a whole. Without emotion, imagination and the imaginative sharing of emotion then known as “sympathy,” we would be incapable of developing the reflectively-refined moral sentiments which are the basis of our commitment to justice and virtue. This book seeks to reclaim the sentimentalist theory of reflection as a resource for enriching social science, normative theory, and political practice today.
Hersh Shefrin
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195161212
- eISBN:
- 9780199832996
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195161211.003.0006
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Financial Economics
Many investors believe they can make money by betting against the market predictions contained in advisory newsletters. Yet, they are wrong. Investors are wrong about advisory newsletters, and they ...
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Many investors believe they can make money by betting against the market predictions contained in advisory newsletters. Yet, they are wrong. Investors are wrong about advisory newsletters, and they hold fast to mistaken beliefs. And the issue goes beyond the predictions of newsletter writers. The general question, the core issue of the chapter, is why people hold views that fly in the face of empirical evidence. The general explanation centers on overconfidence, overconfidence that stems from the tendency to overlook disconfirming evidence. Consequently, overconfident investors come to hold invalid beliefs. They succumb to what psychologists Robin Hogarth and the late Hillel Einhorn call the illusion of validity.Less
Many investors believe they can make money by betting against the market predictions contained in advisory newsletters. Yet, they are wrong. Investors are wrong about advisory newsletters, and they hold fast to mistaken beliefs. And the issue goes beyond the predictions of newsletter writers. The general question, the core issue of the chapter, is why people hold views that fly in the face of empirical evidence. The general explanation centers on overconfidence, overconfidence that stems from the tendency to overlook disconfirming evidence. Consequently, overconfident investors come to hold invalid beliefs. They succumb to what psychologists Robin Hogarth and the late Hillel Einhorn call the illusion of validity.
Jonathan Riley
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195381245
- eISBN:
- 9780199869213
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195381245.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
Mill's moral theory, which holds that an act or omission is wrong if and only if it is deserving of punishment for the kind of harm it causes to others without their consent, must be integrated with ...
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Mill's moral theory, which holds that an act or omission is wrong if and only if it is deserving of punishment for the kind of harm it causes to others without their consent, must be integrated with the rest of his utilitarian “Art of Life,” which aims to maximize happiness as Mill conceives it. He indicates that the kind of pleasant feeling associated with the moral sentiments is qualitatively superior to any competing kinds of pleasures. The upshot is that a social code of justice that distributes equal rights and duties has absolute priority over competing considerations within his utilitarianism. Even so, an aesthetic kind of utility may still be qualitatively supreme because it does not conflict with the moral sentiments. This highest kind of utility attaches to praiseworthy supererogatory conduct, where an agent chooses to waive his equal rights so as to promote the happiness of others.Less
Mill's moral theory, which holds that an act or omission is wrong if and only if it is deserving of punishment for the kind of harm it causes to others without their consent, must be integrated with the rest of his utilitarian “Art of Life,” which aims to maximize happiness as Mill conceives it. He indicates that the kind of pleasant feeling associated with the moral sentiments is qualitatively superior to any competing kinds of pleasures. The upshot is that a social code of justice that distributes equal rights and duties has absolute priority over competing considerations within his utilitarianism. Even so, an aesthetic kind of utility may still be qualitatively supreme because it does not conflict with the moral sentiments. This highest kind of utility attaches to praiseworthy supererogatory conduct, where an agent chooses to waive his equal rights so as to promote the happiness of others.
Russell J. Dalton
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199268436
- eISBN:
- 9780191708572
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199268436.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This chapter examines the theory that the poor economic performance of government has eroded political support by the citizenry. The analyses examine the relationship between perceptions of the ...
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This chapter examines the theory that the poor economic performance of government has eroded political support by the citizenry. The analyses examine the relationship between perceptions of the economy and support for government. Using either opinion surveys or timeseries data, there is little evidence that economic performance is a major reason for the decline in political support.Less
This chapter examines the theory that the poor economic performance of government has eroded political support by the citizenry. The analyses examine the relationship between perceptions of the economy and support for government. Using either opinion surveys or timeseries data, there is little evidence that economic performance is a major reason for the decline in political support.
