Trust and trustworthiness

What is it to trust someone? What is it for someone to be trustworthy? These are the two main questions that this paper addresses. There are various situations that can be described as ones of trust, but this paper considers the issue of trust between individuals. In it, I suggest that trust is distinct from reliance or cases where someone asks for something on the expectation that it will be done due to the different attitude taken by the trustor. I argue that the trustor takes Holton's 'participant stance' and this distinguishes trust from reliance. I argue that trustworthiness is different from reliability and that an account of trustworthiness cannot be successful whilst ignoring the point that aligning trustworthiness with reliability removes the virtue from being trustworthy. On the question of what it is distinguishes trustworthiness from reliability, I argue that the distinction is in the opportunity for the trustee to act against the wishes of the trustor and the trustee's consideration of the value of the trust that has been placed in them by the trustor

Individual Rights, Economic Transactions, and Recognition: A Legal Approach to Social Economics

Modernity brought the idea of individual property rights as a com- plex phenomenon. However, economics adopted a simplistic view of property as a fundamental institution, understating the complex interaction of different rights and obligations that frame the legal environment of economic processes with an insufficiently elaborated tool. Here, a more elaborate view of legal elements will be propose

Must we measure what we mean?

This paper excavates a debate concerning the claims of ordinary language philosophers that took place during the middle of the last century. The debate centers on the status of statements about “what we say”. On one side of the debate, critics of ordinary language philosophy argued that statements about “what we say” should be evaluated as empirical observations about how people do in fact speak, on a par with claims made in the language sciences. By that standard, ordinary language philosophers were not entitled to the claims that they made about what we would say about various topics. On the other side of the debate, defenders of the methods of ordinary language philosophy sought to explain how philosophers can be entitled to statements about what we would say without engaging in extensive observations of how people do in fact use language. In this paper I defend the idea that entitlement to claims about what we say can be had in a way that doesn’t require empirical observation, and I argue that ordinary language philosophers are (at least sometimes) engaged in a different project than linguists or empirically minded philosophers of language, which is subject to different conditions of success

European skills framework? - but what are skills? Anglo-Saxon versus German concepts

With the proposed introduction of a common framework for comparing qualifications within the European Union (EU), as a result of the Lisbon agreement of 2000, the question of commonly agreed transnational concepts of skills and qualifications is has become a pressing political and practical issue. The paper argues that there are grounds for doubting that there is a ready translation of the English terms 'skill'and 'qualification' in a way that avoids problems of comparing and calibrating German and English vocational qualifications. Reasons for this difficulty are explored, the most important of which relate to: a) the conceptual structure of skill and its cognates in the two languages; b) the differing socio-political role of qualifications; c) different industrial structures and labour processes; d) differences in institutions regulating vocational education and training (VET). These problems are discussed in relation to examples of similar industries and occupations and apparently similar levels of qualification in England and Germany

Reconciling the biogeography of an invader through recent and historic genetic patterns: the case of topmouth gudgeon Pseudorasbora parva

© 2018 The Author(s) The genetic variability and population structure of introduced species in their native range are potentially important determinants of their invasion success, yet data on native populations are often poorly represented in relevant studies. Consequently, to determine the contribution of genetic structuring in the native range of topmouth gudgeon Pseudorasbora parva to their high invasion success in Europe, we used a dataset comprising of 19 native and 11 non-native populations. A total of 666 samples were analysed at 9 polymorphic microsatellite loci and sequenced for 597 bp of mitochondrial DNA. The analysis revealed three distinct lineages in the native range, of which two haplogroups were prevalent in China (100%), with a general split around the Qinling Mountains. Dating of both haplogroups closely matched past geological events. More recently, its distribution has been influenced by fish movements in aquaculture, resulting in gene flow between previously separated populations in Northern and Southern China. Their phylogeography in Europe indicate as few as two introductions events and two dispersal routes. Microsatellite data revealed native populations had higher genetic diversity than those in the invasive range, a contrast to previous studies on P. parva. This study confirms the importance of extensive sampling in both the native and non-native range of invasive species in evaluating the influence of genetic variability on invasion success

The Critique of Scholastic Language in Renaissance Humanism and Early Modern Philosophy

This article studies some key moments in the long tradition of the critiqueof scholastic language, voiced by humanists and early-modern philosophers alike. It aims at showing how the humanist idiom of “linguistic usage,” “convention,” “custom,” “common” and “natural” language, and “everyday speech” was repeated and put to new use by early-modern philosophers in their own critique of scholastic language. Focusing on Valla, Vives, Sanches, Gassendi, Hobbes, and Leibniz, the article shows that all these thinkers shared a conviction that scholastic language, at least in its more baroque forms, was artificial, unnatural, uninformative, ungrammatical, and quasi-precise. The scholastics were accused of having introduced a terminology that was a far cry from the common language people spoke, wrote, and read. But what was meant by “common language” and such notions? They were not so easy to define. For the humanists, it meant the Latin of the great classical authors, but this position, as the article suggests, had its tensions. In the later period it became even more difficult to give positive substance to these notions, as the world became, linguistically speaking, increasingly more pluralistic. Yet the attack on scholasticlanguage continued to be conducted in these terms. The article concludes that the long road of what we may call the democratization of philosophical language, so dear to early-modern philosophers, had its roots – ironically perhaps – in the humanist return to classical Latin as the common language

Understanding the social context of fatal road traffic collisions among young people: A qualitative analysis of narrative text in coroners' records

Background: Deaths and injuries on the road remain a major cause of premature death among young people across the world. Routinely collected data usually focuses on the mechanism of road traffic collisions and basic demographic data of those involved. This study aimed to supplement these routine sources with a thematic analysis of narrative text contained in coroners' records, to explore the wider social context in which collisions occur. Methods. Thematic analysis of narrative text from Coroners' records, retrieved from thirty-four fatalities among young people (16-24 year olds) occurring as a result of thirty road traffic collisions in a rural county in the south of England over the period 2005-2010. Results: Six key themes emerged: social driving, driving experience, interest in motor vehicles, driving behaviour, perception of driving ability, and emotional distress. Social driving (defined as a group of related behaviours including: driving as a social event in itself (i.e. without a pre-specified destination); driving to or from a social event; driving with accompanying passengers; driving late at night; driving where alcohol or drugs were a feature of the journey) was identified as a common feature across cases. Conclusions: Analysis of the wider social context in which road traffic collisions occur in young people can provide important information for understanding why collisions happen and developing targeted interventions to prevent them. It can complement routinely collected data, which often focuses on events immediately preceding a collision. Qualitative analysis of narrative text in coroner's records may provide a way of providing this type of information. These findings provide additional support for the case for Graduated Driver Licensing programmes to reduce collisions involving young people, and also suggest that road safety interventions need to take a more community development approach, recognising the importance of social context and focusing on social networks of young people. © 2014 Pilkington et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd