Continuity properties of a factor of Markov chains

Starting from a Markov chain with a finite alphabet, we consider the chain obtained when all but one symbol are undistinguishable for the practitioner. We study necessary and sufficient conditions for this chain to have continuous transition probabilities with respect to the past

The continuing relevance of Fred Hirsch's insights on markets and morality

This article argues for the continuing relevance of Fred Hirsch’s The Social Limits to Growth (1976), valued as a critical analysis of the consequences of markets on the moral fabric of society. Two concepts that are fundamental to Hirsch – the commercialization bias and the depleting moral legacy – will be scrutinised. We further claim that this book, by emphasizing the tendency to market expansion and the corresponding commodification of increasing spheres of social life, while simultaneously acknowledging its adverse consequences on the motivational appeal of social and moral norms, offers insights that are more relevant today then when it was conceived

On the split between the ‘science’ and the ‘art’ of political economy: nineteenth century controversies

In the first half of the nineteenth century, Nassau Senior and John Stuart Mill advanced two influential methodological accounts of ‘classical’ political economy, arguing for a distinction between the ‘science’ and the ‘art’ of political economy, and thus heralding the positive/normative divide that would become pervasive in economics. At the time, these views aroused controversy. In this paper two critical perspectives are examined: Friedrich List’s and John Ruskin’s. List tried to build his approach to political economy upon a ‘middle ground’ between ‘theory’ and ‘practice’, openly integrating the political element in economic discourse. Ruskin strongly objected to the possibility and the significance of the art/science split, since he maintained that political economy must be explicitly prescriptive and grounded on articulated value choices. By recalling the terms of nineteenth-century controversies, this paper seeks to draw some implications for contemporary debates.FC

Maximally Localized States in Quantum Mechanics with a Modified Commutation Relation to All Orders

We construct the states of maximal localization taking into account a modification of the commutation relation between position and momentum operators to all orders of the minimum length parameter. To first order, the algebra we use reproduces the one proposed by Kempft, Mangano and Mann. It is emphasized that a minimal length acts as a natural regulator for the theory, thus eliminating the otherwise ever appearing infinities. So, we use our results to calculate the first correction to the Casimir Effect due to the minimal length. We also discuss some of the physical consequences of the existence of a minimal length, culminating in a proposal to reformulate the very concept of "position measurement"