22,105 research outputs found
About the Notion of Truth in the Decoherent Histories Approach: a reply to Griffiths
Griffiths claims that the ``single family rule'', a basic postulate of the
decoherent histories approach, rules out our requirement that any decoherent
history has a unique truth value, independently from the decoherent family to
which it may belong. Here we analyze the reasons which make our requirement
indispensable and we discuss the consequences of rejecting it.Comment: 4 pages, Latex, to appear in Phys. Lett.
The New Science of Virtues
Although Vico\u2019s New Science (NS) has been interpreted from the standpoint of practical philosophy, his treatment of moral virtues has largely been overlooked. I show the pivotal role they play in the NS, where the history of humankind is the story of how vices and virtues unfold, and the domain of free will is centered on the possibility of making virtues of the passions. This sheds new light on such notions as the \u201cheterogony of ends\u201d; the relationship between \u201cbestioni\u201d and humankind; and the threat of the \u201cbarbarism of reflection\u201d. Also, it allows us to focus on fictional, mythological and historical figures, which are exemplary for their virtues/vices and which provide an insight into the way virtues shape the stages of history. After presenting an overview of some of Vico\u2019s sources, I argue that he engages in a close dialogue with the Aristotelian tradition and interprets moral virtues as a historical framework and a hermeneutical tool, suitable for assessing the moral stages of human historical evolution on the route to and from civilisation
The relativistic attitude in development: reflections on the implementation of the Ethiopian multinational Constitution
Lâapproccio allo sviluppo che considera la crescita economica come unico obiettivo puĂČ produrre degli effetti deleteri sui gruppi marginalizzati. Lo sviluppismo adottato in Etiopia dal 1991 illustra questo punto con riferimento ai contadini, ai popoli pastorali e alle minoranze etniche. La riflessione internazionale sullo sviluppo e il progresso nel campo dei diritti umani hanno portato allâemergere di nuovi paradigmi. Lâarticolo mostra come le misure correttive siano state caratterizzate da una crescente attitudine ârelativisticaâ, che consiste nel dare considerazione alla rilevanza di articolazioni particolari di cultura, norme formali o informali, e condizioni locali. Lâattitudine relativistica Ăš prima definita e poi considerata in relazione alla compatibilitĂ con la Costituzione Etiopica, adottata nel 1995 ma mai messa realmente in pratica. La pressione del movimento Qeerroo sta inducendo la coalizione al potere ad aprire effettivamente alla democratizzazione del paese e alla decentralizzazione. CâĂš quindi una concreta possibilitĂ di rivedere anche le politiche sviluppiste, in linea sia con la Costituzione sia con i diritti umani di seconda e terza generazione.Under the development approach that targets economic growth as its sole objective the marginalised groups may seriously be impacted. The developmental policy adopted since 1991 in Ethiopia illustrates it in relation to small-holding farmers, pastoralists and ethnic minorities. At the international level, alternative development paradigms have evolved along with progress in human rights. This article shows that the corrective measures have been informed by a growing ârelativisticâ attitude, consisting in giving consideration to the relevance of specific articulations of culture, formal or informal norms and local conditions. The relativistic attitude is first defined and then considered in terms of compatibility with the Ethiopian multinational Constitution, adopted in 1995 but never really implemented. Under the pressure of the Qeerroo movement the ruling coalition in Ethiopia is today opening up to democracy and effective decentralisation. There is today a concrete possibility to revise the countryâs developmental policy, in line with the Constitution and respecting second and third generation human rights
Book Review: "Quantum Theory as an Emergent Phenomenon", by Stephen L. Adler
This is a book review of the book: "Quantum Theory as an Emergent
Phenomenon", by Stephen L. Adler (Cambridge University Press - 2004)Comment: 3 pages, LaTe
I Will Survive: Capital Taxation, Voter Turnout and Time Inconsistency
This paper reconsiders the debate around the political determination of capital income taxes and explains why such taxes survive in most OECD countries. The political economy literature on redistributive politics (Persson and Tabellini 2003) emphasizes the role played by the lower class in the political arena: being labor more concentrated than capital, the majority of the population benefits by overtaxing capital and undertaxing labour. However, in reality, political participation (voting, lobbying, protesting etc.) is positively correlated with income. Therefore, a paradoxical result emerges: why do the upper class, who is politically more active and own most of the capital, still favour a positive capital tax? Hence, voters' income is not the sole relevant variable in the political determination of the capital tax. To reconcile this apparent puzzle, we propose a model that incorporates time inconsistency Ă la Laibson in individual preferences We show that time inconsistent individuals are politically more homogeneous (or âsingle-mindedâ) than far-sighted, and prefer to tax more capital income, instead of labor income, since accumulated saving are below the planned (and optimal) level and the distortionary effects of a higher capital tax are not only reduced but also delayed in time. We demonstrate that, since politicians find easier to please hyperbolic voters by proposing a tax policy that includes lower labor and higher capital taxes compared to an economy with only far sighted. Moreover, we show that, as the proportion of time inconsistent individuals in the population increases, the tax policy becomes more and more biased towards capital taxation.Political Economy, Multidimensional Voting, Capital Taxation, Redistribution, Hyperbolic Discounting
Que piensan los latinoamericanos del BID? (What Do Latin Americans Think of the IDB? )
Este trabajo emplea la encuesta LatinobarĂłmetro para analizar las percepciones de los latinoamericanos sobre el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID), el Banco Mundial y el Fondo Monetario Internacional (FMI). Se analiza la manera en que las nociones de la gente sobre estas organizaciones multilaterales y sus juicios sobre las mismas se ven influenciados por las caracterĂsticas demogrĂĄficas y socioeconĂłmicas de los encuestados, el paĂs donde viven, la posiciĂłn financiera del BID en ese paĂs, las condiciones macroeconĂłmicas y la orientaciĂłn polĂtica de los encuestados, asĂ como las actitudes hacia la democracia y el libre mercado. Los resultados indican que hay noticias tanto buenas como malas para el BID. Por el lado negativo, el BID es la menos conocida de las tres organizaciones internacionales, pero por el lado positivo, es la que tiene el mejor nivel entre los que estĂĄn familiarizados con ellas. (Disponible en inglĂ©s)
Dissipative Continuous Spontaneous Localization (CSL) model
Collapse models explain the absence of quantum superpositions at the
macroscopic scale, while giving practically the same predictions as quantum
mechanics for microscopic systems. The Continuous Spontaneous Localization
(CSL) model is the most refined and studied among collapse models. A well-known
problem of this model, and of similar ones, is the steady and unlimited
increase of the energy induced by the collapse noise. Here we present the
dissipative version of the CSL model, which guarantees a finite energy during
the entire system's evolution, thus making a crucial step toward a realistic
energy-conserving collapse model. This is achieved by introducing a non-linear
stochastic modification of the Schr\"odinger equation, which represents the
action of a dissipative finite-temperature collapse noise. The possibility to
introduce dissipation within collapse models in a consistent way will have
relevant impact on the experimental investigations of the CSL model, and
therefore also on the testability of the quantum superposition principle.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure; v2 title changed, closer to published versio
An Egg Today and a Chicken Tomorrow: A Model of Social Security with Quasi-Hyperbolic Discounting
Strotz (1956) first suggested that individuals are more impatient when making short-run tradeoffs than long-run ones. Many experimental studies supports his conjecture. Motivated by recent evidence from the British Department of Work and Pension (2006), this paper applies this behavioral framework to retirement decisions. We propose a three-periods OLG model with quasi-hyperbolic consumers whosave for post retirement consumption in the first period and choose their retirement age in the second. We show that this behavioral assumption explains the observed drop in post retirement consumptiondue to lack of saving and the high level of voluntary (i.e. not due to disability or dismission from the firm) early exit from the labor force. When deciding about their retirement age, workers weight too much the costs of remaining at work (i.e. disutility of working, implicit tax on continued activity) and too little the benefits of postponed retirement (i.e. increase of the Bismarckian component of the pension formula), perceived as too far in the future. We investigate the implications of time inconsistent preferences for a political economy model in which voters determine simultaneously thesize and the degree of redistribution of the pension system. We show that, when voting over thepayroll tax, time inconsistent young workers, who look for a commitment device that increases boththeir saving and retirement age, form a coalition with rich in order to decrease the size of the system. When voting over the degree of redistribution, they form a coalition with poor individuals as to in-crease the at part of the pension formula. Our political model provides a political justification for the negative relationship between size and redistribution observed in most OECD countries (Disney 2004).Hyperbolic Discounting, Majority Voting, Redistribution, Retirement Age, Saving Behaviour
- âŠ