Schroeder and Whiting on Knowledge and Defeat

Daniel Whiting has argued, in this journal, that Mark Schroeder’s analysis of knowledge in terms of subjectively and objectively sufficient reasons for belief makes wrong predictions in fake barn cases. Schroeder has replied that this problem may be avoided if one adopts a suitable account of perceptual reasons. I argue that Schroeder’s reply fails to deal with the general worry underlying Whiting’s purported counterexample, because one can construct analogous potential counterexamples that do not involve perceptual reasons at all. Nevertheless, I claim that it is possible to overcome Whiting’s objection, by showing that it rests on an inadequate characterization of how defeat works in the examples in question

Akrasia and the Desire to Become Someone Else: Venturinha on Moral Matters

This paper discusses practical akrasia from the perspective of the sophisticated form of moral subjectivism that can be derived from Nuno Venturinha’s (2018) remarks on moral matters

Entrepreneurship, Management Servicesand Economic Growth

We set out to model the joint production of entrepreneurs and workers assuming that the former contribute to the output of the firm by making entrepreneurial decisions (with increasing returns), and managing the productive resources (with decreasing returns). The model explains the equilibrium output of the representative firm and the equilibrium share of entrepreneurs in the working population, as a function of the quality of the entrepreneur and of the elasticity of output to the entrepreneur’s management services. The time dynamics of the solution imply that the contribution to labor productivity growth from increases in the quality of entrepreneurs over time is higher in countries with a larger starting share of entrepreneurs and higher in countries with lower starting labor productivity (convergence enhancing). The model predictions are tested with data from OECD countries for the period 1970-2002. We find that improvements in the quality of entrepreneurs can make a substantial contribution to economic growth by means of more productive management services.Entrepreneurial quality, productivity growth, OECD countries, Coasian entrepreneur

On the monotonicity of the correction term in Ramanujan's factorial approximation

We present two new proofs of the monotonicity of the correction term $\theta_n$ in Ramanujan's refinement of Stirling's formula.Comment: Latex, 5 page

¿Por qué los altos ejecutivos muestran falta de interés al momento de seleccionar y contratar nuevo personal en las grandes empresas del Ecuador?

In this paper an analysis is performed to identify the reasons that senior management does not care about the selection and recruitment of new staff for your company. To develop this work we sampled ten largest companies Ecuador to them that they will be interviewing for information on how your organization operates when selecting and hiring new staff. Furthermore, we analyze the organizational environment that causes the lack of interest from the commanding heights of the different companies. The surveyed companies are in the ranking of the best thirty companies that provide thousands Ecuador same of jobs to different people, who are chosen to develop a research plan. Finally we investigate how increased staff turnover in business for lack of interest when selecting and hiring new staff of chiefs of them. In addition we analyze the degree of communication between new employees before and after the process of selection and recruitmentEn el presente trabajo se realiza un análisis para identificar las razones por las que la alta gerencia no se preocupa por la selección y contratación de nuevo personal para su empresa. Para el desarrollo de este trabajo hemos tomado como muestra a diez empresas grandes del Ecuador a las mismas que se les va a entrevistar para obtener información de cómo funciona su organización al momento de seleccionar y contratar nuevo personal. Por otro lado, analizamos el ambiente organizacional que provoca la ausencia de interés por parte de los altos mandos de las distintas empresas. Las empresas investigadas están dentro del ranking de las mejores treinta empresas del Ecuador mismas que brindan miles de plazas de trabajo a distintas personas, las cuales son elegidas para desarrollar un plan de investigación. Por último investigamos cómo incrementa la rotación de personal en las empresas por falta de interés al momento de seleccionar y contratar nuevo personal de los altos mandos de las mismas. Además analizamos el grado de comunicación que existe entre los nuevos colaboradores antes y después del proceso de selección y contratación de personal

La carta de Aretas al emir de Damasco

El artículo es un estudio sobre la datación, autoría, contenido e intencionalidad de una carta atribuida al ilustrado bizantino Aretas en respuesta a un enigmático emir con residencia en Damasco. También se presenta la primera traducción de la epístola, así como el texto original griegoThe present article constitutes a thorough study on dating, authorship, content and purpose of a letter attributed to the Byzantine scholar Aretas in response to a mysterious emir settled in Damascus. The first translation of the letter is also included, as well as the original Greek text

A Note on Shapleys Convex Measure Games

L. S. Shapley, in his paper Cores of Convex Games, introduces Convex Measure Games, those that are induced by a convex function on R, acting over a measure on the coalitions. But in a note he states that if this function is a function of several variables, then convexity for the function does not imply convexity of the game or even superadditivity. We prove that if the function is directionally convex, the game is convex, and conversely, any convex game can be induced by a directionally convex function acting over measures on the coalitions, with as many measures as players.supermodularity, multilinear extension, convex cooperative games, directional convexity

Still Unsuccessful: The Unsolved Problems of Success Semantics

Success semantics is a theory of content that characterizes the truth-conditions of mental representations in terms of the success-conditions of the actions derived from them. Nanay (Philos Stud 165(1): 151-165, 2013) and Dokic and Engel (Frank Ramsey London: Routledge, 2003) have revised this theory in order to defend it from the objections that assailed its previous incarnations. I argue that both proposals have seemingly decisive flaws. More specifically, these revised versions of the theory fail to deal adequately with the open-ended possibility of unforeseen obstacles for the success of our actions. I suggest that the problem of ignored obstacles undermines success semantics quite generally, including alternative formulations such as Blackburn’s.; La Semántica del Éxito es una teoría del contenido que caracteriza las condiciones de verdad de las representaciones mentales en términos de las condiciones de éxito de las acciones que se derivan de ellas. Nanay (PhilosStud 165(1): 151-165, 2013) y Dokic y Engel (Frank Ramsey London: Routledge, 2003) han revisado esta teoría para defenderla de objeciones que socavaban sus formulaciones previas. Aquí argumento que ambas propuestas se enfrentan a dificultades decisivas. Más específicamente, estas versiones revisadas de la teoría no responden satisfactoriamente al problema planteado por la posible existencia de un número indefinido de obstáculos imprevistos para el éxito de nuestras acciones. En el artículo sugiero que la posible presencia de obstáculos ignorados supone un problema general para la Semántica del Éxito, incluyendo formulaciones alternativas como la de Blackburn