Behavioural public policies and charitable giving

Some of the challenges in Sanders et al. (this issue) can be aptly illustrated by means of charity nudges, that is, nudges designed to increase charitable donations. These nudges raise many ethical questions. First, Oxfam’s triptychs with suggested donations are designed to increase giving. If successful, do our actions match ex ante or ex post preferences? Does this make a difference to the autonomy of the donor? Second, the Behavioural Insights Team conducted experiments using social networks to nudge people to give more. Do these appeals steer clear of exploiting power relations? Do they respect boundaries of privacy? Third, in an online campaign by Kiva, donors are asked to contribute directly to personalized initiatives. In many cases, the initiative has already been funded and donor money is funnelled to a new cause. Is such a “pre-disbursal” arrangement truthful and true to purpose as a social business model

The Ethics of Making Risky Decisions for Others

Utilitarianism, it has been said, is not sensitive to the distribution of welfare. In making risky decisions for others there are multiple sensitivities at work. I present examples of risky decision-making involving drug allocations, charitable giving, breast-cancer screening and C-sections. In each of these examples there is a different sensitivity at work that pulls away from the utilitarian prescription. Instances of saving fewer people at a greater risk to many is more complex because there are two distributional sensitivities at work that pull in opposite directions from the utilitarian calculus. I discuss objections to these sensitivities and conclude with some reflections on the value of formal modelling in thinking about societal risk

‘Interview’, Probability and Statistics: 5 Questions

Intervie

'From Each according to Ability; To Each according to Needs': Origin, Meaning, and Development of Socialist Slogans

There are three slogans in the history of Socialism that are very close in wording, viz. the famous Cabet-Blanc-Marx slogan: "From each according to his ability; To each according to his needs"; the earlier Saint-Simon-Pecqueur slogan: "To each according to his ability; To each according to his works"; and the later slogan in Stalin’s Soviet Constitution: "From each according to his ability; To each according to his work." We will consider the following questions regarding these slogans: a) What are the earliest occurrences of each of these slogans? b) Where does the inspiration for each half of each slogan come from? c) What do the Saint-Simonians mean by “To each according to his ability”? d) What do they mean by “To each according to his works”? e) What motivates the shift from “To each according to his ability” to “From each according to his ability”? f) How should we envisage the progression toward “To each according to his needs”? g) What is the distinction between from “To each according to his works” and “To each according to his work”

Nudging the pub: a change in choice architecture can help pubgoers drink less

The Government uses various policy tools to reduce alcohol consumption. There are restrictions on promotions, information campaigns, and pricing policies. These policies do not stand unchallenged. Restrictions on promotions irk business, information campaigns fail to reach the less educated, and pricing policies hurt responsible but poor consumers. So what about Thaler and Sunstein’s Nudge? Nudges keep choices open but change the “choice architecture” so as to help those who would like to drink less, and they do so in ways that constructively engage business. Let us focus on one choice environment here, namely beer consumption in British pubs

The Last Hope Part 1: A worthwhile life

In the first in this three-part series, Luc Bovens looks at death, immortality and the worthwhile life

Coping

Coping is a collection of philosophical essays on how we deal with life’s challenges. We hope for better times, but what is hope, and is it a good thing to hope? How do we look back and make sense of our lives in the face of death? What is the nature of love, and how do we deal with its hardships? What makes for a genuine apology, and is there too much or too little apologizing in this world? Can we bring about changes in ourselves to adapt to our circumstances? How can we make sense of all the good advice—such as, count your blessings, don’t cry over spilled milk—that people have on offer? Coping is a perfect companion text for a moral psychology course, a resilience course, or part of an ethics course. The material is written for readers who are new to philosophy and progresses in short self-contained sections. It draws on literature, music, podcasts, and news items. Each chapter has questions for discussion or essay writing and suggestions for material to explore the topic further

Globalisation has made education the new political cleavage in Europe

Several recent European elections, as well as the UK's referendum on Brexit, have produced a clear split in voting choices between citizens with different levels of education. Mark Bovens and Anchrit Wille argue that a new political cleavage in Europe has emerged between citizens with high levels of education and those with lower levels of educational attainment, with the former ..

Метод моделювання поверхневих плазмонних хвиль на тривимірних поверхнях довільної форми

Запропоновано модифікацію FDTD-методу для тривимірної області, яка дозволяє збільшити точність розрахунку векторів електричного та магнітного полів на границях розділу середовищ. Ця модифікація дозволяє моделювати процеси збудження та розповсюдження поверхневих плазмонних хвиль на поверхні металевих конструкцій довільної форми.Предложена модификация FDTD-метода для трехмерной области, которая позволяет увеличить точность расчета векторов электрического и магнитного полей на границах раздела сред. Эта модификация позволяет моделировать процессы возбуждения и распространения поверхностных плазмонных волн на поверхности металлических конструкций произвольной формы.FDTD-method modification for 3D-domain is proposed. This modification increases accuracy of electric and magnetic fields vectors calculation on dielectric-dielectric and metal-dielectric interfaces. It allows modeling processes of excitation and propagation of surface plasmon waves for curved metaldielectric interfaces