More on preference and freedom

The paper seeks to formalize the notion of effective freedom or freedom to realize meaningful choices. The definition of meaningful choice used in this paper is based on the preference orderings of a reasonable person in a society. 1 argue that only the alternatives that can be selected by a reasonable person from the set of all possible alternatives provide a meaningful choice. 1 discuss this approach and provide an axiomatization of the cardinal rule and two lexicographic versions of this rule in this context

The thinking styles of university mathematics students

In this paper, we focus on the relationship between studying university mathematics and the ‘thinking styles’ of both undergraduate and postgraduate mathematics students. A crosssectional quantitative study (N = 238) was conducted in a large Greek university, identifying the thinking styles of second, third and fourth year undergraduates, as well as those of students following a postgraduate degree in mathematics. The analysis revealed that the more experienced undergraduates and the postgraduates showed a stronger preference for originality and freedom in thinking, low degrees of structure, high levels of freedom and more complex information processing, combined with non-prioritised thinking. However, the postgraduates combine these preferences with a stronger preference for implementing rules and instructions. A discussion on these findings and on the factors that may account for them is presented

A Framework for Unbiased Model Selection Based on Boosting

Variable selection and model choice are of major concern in many statistical applications, especially in high-dimensional regression models. Boosting is a convenient statistical method that combines model fitting with intrinsic model selection. We investigate the impact of base-learner specification on the performance of boosting as a model selection procedure. We show that variable selection may be biased if the covariates are of different nature. Important examples are models combining continuous and categorical covariates, especially if the number of categories is large. In this case, least squares base-learners offer increased flexibility for the categorical covariate and lead to a preference even if the categorical covariate is non-informative. Similar difficulties arise when comparing linear and nonlinear base-learners for a continuous covariate. The additional flexibility in the nonlinear base-learner again yields a preference of the more complex modeling alternative. We investigate these problems from a theoretical perspective and suggest a framework for unbiased model selection based on a general class of penalized least squares base-learners. Making all base-learners comparable in terms of their degrees of freedom strongly reduces the selection bias observed in naive boosting specifications. The importance of unbiased model selection is demonstrated in simulations and an application to forest health models

An Interdisciplinary Perspective on the Relationship between Ethics and Today’s Capitalism

The paper begins by emphasizing the fact that, on a historical scale, one can have several views of the relationship that has existed over time between ethics and capitalism, namely: missionary, ‘Nietzschean’, critical, and ‘regulatory’. It is argued that, nowadays, the capitalization of the contributions supplied, over time, by the four views embraces the form of two modern diametrically opposed perspectives, i.e.: on the one hand, there is the interpretation given by the neo-classical school of thought (mainstream economics) and, on the other hand, it comes to the interpretation given by the Austrian praxeological economic school (libertarian economics). The emphasis of the analysis is put on the assertions developed by the last one, libertarian thinking, that insists on the necessity to operate with a well-defined distinction between the legal level of the matter, the ethical level and the moral one. At the core of the libertarian analysis there is the understanding of the capitalist system being naturally impregnated by ethical values. And this intrinsic ethical nature of capitalism is organically bound to the sphere of the ownership-type relationship. In line with the understanding of the economic system, based on the institutions of the free market as representing ethical capitalism per se, the paper argues that the realities of the world today show governmental interventionism as a main factor that supports non-ethical economic behaviour. As a consequence, the more limited government intervention is, the greater the chance of ethical capitalism, that is, voluntary, non-conflictual and non-aggressive economic market relationships. Under such conditions, a ‘minimal state’ institutional arrangement (that is, the legitimate use of power by the state is limited to preventing fraud or the use of force; it does not include the power to tax or to confiscate property) is the basic condition for the existence of an ethical capitalism that works, which is to say that the chance of an economic system based on ethical values stands in people’s willingness to be part of such an evolution in society that aims to minimise the role of the state. Further, the paper argues that any historical analysis on how societies asserted such a willingness outlines the expression of a secular and unshaken option for growing rather than diminishing state involvement in the economy. It is about people’s perennial preference for the state, namely for the organization of society based on state interventionism (respectively, their preference for the coercive order imposed by the state authorities, order based, through its own nature, on the subjugation of private property and the aggression against individual freedom), with a preference for the government intervention over the organization of a society based on free market functioning (which is equivalent, in fact, to their rejection of a voluntarily and spontaneously non-violent order, based on the observance of private property and individual freedom, brought about by the free functioning of markets). In the last part of the paper there are put forward for discussion the possible explanations for this perennial preference for non-ethical capitalism, the analysis focusing on two directions: firstly, on that of social ontology; and then, on that of human psychology

Freedom matters: A theoretical-practical approach to the measurement of freedom

397 p.Freedom matters is a strong statement on one of the most important concepts behind the political scene in modern times. This research features two significant contributions: it shows the hegemonic theoretical conceptualization of freedom insocial sciences and unveils those theories as the ideological foundations of modern global freedom indices. Using mixed methodologies proper of the social sciences, I developed a discourse analysis in its qualitative aspect of the most influential texts inthe field to continue with the data analysis of secondary data provided by essential freedom indices from around the globe. It links both methods into a matrix of analysis that provides valuable information about ideological and political alignments of the institutions behind the production of each index. The research also unveils the methodology currently used for measuring freedom (although not exclusively on this subject) and how this is detrimental to the plural and multicultural understanding of the global and local reality. With its unique theoretical-practical components, this research has significant implications for social policy. It will soon provide a more unified understanding of security, self-preference, and opportunity as components of a more integrating knowledge of freedom

Relic Neutrinos, thermal axions and cosmology in early 2014

We present up to date cosmological bounds on the sum of active neutrino masses as well as on extended cosmological scenarios with additional thermal relics, as thermal axions or sterile neutrino species. Our analyses consider all the current available cosmological data in the beginning of year 2014, including the very recent and most precise Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) measurements from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey. In the minimal three active neutrino scenario, we find Sum m_nu < 0.22 eV at 95% CL from the combination of CMB, BAO and Hubble Space Telescope measurements of the Hubble constant. A non zero value for the sum of the three active neutrino masses of about 0.3 eV is significantly favoured at more than 3 standard deviations when adding the constraints on sigma_8 and Omega_m from the Planck Cluster catalog on galaxy number counts. This preference for non zero thermal relic masses disappears almost completely in both the thermal axion and massive sterile neutrino schemes. Extra light species contribute to the effective number of relativistic degrees of freedom, parameterised via Neff. We found that when the recent detection of B mode polarization from the BICEP2 experiment is considered, an analysis of the combined CMB data in the framework of LCDM+r models gives Neff=4.00pm0.41, suggesting the presence of an extra relativistic relic at more than 95 % c.l. from CMB-only data.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figure

Dr. Johnson on Shakespeare : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English at Massey University

The thesis examines Dr Johnson's opinions about Shakespeare's poetic language and wishes to question the view that Johnson, blinded by his concern for linguistic propriety, was incapable of properly appreciating Shakespeare's freedom with the English language. The thesis proceeds by looking at the Notes in Johnson's edition of Shakespeare and by analysing the passages to which they refer, in order to ascertain the real meaning and implications of Johnson's comments. Chapter I outlines the problem. Chapter II notes some points at which Johnson seems unjustly to apply such terms as "harsh" to Shakespeare's poetry. Chapter III looks at the concept of "harshness" in more detail. Chapter IV takes the word "nature" as a focus for Johnson's positive appreciation of Shakespeare's poetic language. Chapter V analyses some Shakespearean passages of the general type for which Johnson, in his Preface to Shakespeare, indicates a preference. Chapter VI considers some Notes in which Johnson specifically praises Shakespeare's poetry. Chapter VII looks at points at which Johnson's adverse comments on the poetry might be argued to be justified