Game Theory and Economic Behavior

Until the beginning of 1950s, the economic theory in general, and the microeconomic theory in particular, relied totally on the deterministic character of economic phenomena. Nowadays microeconomic models are built on uncertain elements in a competitive environment that is affected by risk and uncertainty. Two centuries later, traditional microeconomics, also known as derived microeconomics, continues to be based on Adam Smith’s theory. As individuals are interested in participating in commercial transactions, but for these to take place effectively, two essential principles should be observed: the principle of rationality and the principle of pure and perfect competition. The link between Brower’ fixed point theorems on the one hand and John von Neumann’s minimax theorem on the other hand enabled other authors such as McKenzie Arrow and Debreu Uzawa to state and demonstrate simpler but more general theorems than that of Abraham Wald. It was thus supposed that consumer preferences in a pool of possible consumptions are reflexive, transitive and all are comparable. Using game theory as a reference framework to represent the behavior of economic agents, microeconomics strongly renews its scope of investigation. The problem that arises is no longer linked to the study of perfectly competitive markets, but mostly to how agents coordinate their decisions in different strategic configuration circumstances. The use of such concepts as risk, antiselection or coordination limits has opened new scopes to economy in general and to microeconomics in particular.Game Theory, behavior of economic, traditional microeconomics, new microeconomics

Escaping the frameworks: Arguments for CPD as a practice-led break-out from normative occupational standards in health and social care

The newly introduced CPD structures of post-registration training and learning requirements for registered social workers are already under review to examine whether they are ‘fit for purpose’. Quite what ‘fit’ might mean is no clearer than what the ‘purpose’ of CPD should be in the fast changing world of health and social care services. The theoretical arguments that I will advance in this paper set out to problematise some of the current conceptions of social work CPD. I will maintain that the continuing professional development and education of social workers requires a more fundamental analysis in order that ‘people and practices’ can be prioritised. This paper will draw upon social theory and psychological constructivist perspectives with arguments being illustrated through reference to policy documents in this field as well as a small empirical study of post-qualification CPD students carried out by the author

Apperceptive patterning: Artefaction, extensional beliefs and cognitive scaffolding

In “Psychopower and Ordinary Madness” my ambition, as it relates to Bernard Stiegler’s recent literature, was twofold: 1) critiquing Stiegler’s work on exosomatization and artefactual posthumanism—or, more specifically, nonhumanism—to problematize approaches to media archaeology that rely upon technical exteriorization; 2) challenging how Stiegler engages with Giuseppe Longo and Francis Bailly’s conception of negative entropy. These efforts were directed by a prevalent techno-cultural qualifier: the rise of Synthetic Intelligence (including neural nets, deep learning, predictive processing and Bayesian models of cognition). This paper continues this project but first directs a critical analytic lens at the Derridean practice of the ontologization of grammatization from which Stiegler emerges while also distinguishing how metalanguages operate in relation to object-oriented environmental interaction by way of inferentialism. Stalking continental (Kapp, Simondon, Leroi-Gourhan, etc.) and analytic traditions (e.g., Carnap, Chalmers, Clark, Sutton, Novaes, etc.), we move from artefacts to AI and Predictive Processing so as to link theories related to technicity with philosophy of mind. Simultaneously drawing forth Robert Brandom’s conceptualization of the roles that commitments play in retrospectively reconstructing the social experiences that lead to our endorsement(s) of norms, we compliment this account with Reza Negarestani’s deprivatized account of intelligence while analyzing the equipollent role between language and media (both digital and analog)