scholarly journals On the role of hypocrisy in escaping the tragedy of the commons

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amos Korman ◽  
Robin Vacus

AbstractWe study the emergence of cooperation in large spatial public goods games. Without employing severe social-pressure against “defectors”, or alternatively, significantly rewarding “cooperators”, theoretical models typically predict a system collapse in a way that is reminiscent of the “tragedy-of-the-commons” metaphor. Drawing on a dynamic network model, this paper demonstrates how cooperation can emerge when the social-pressure is mild. This is achieved with the aid of an additional behavior called “hypocrisy”, which appears to be cooperative from the external observer’s perspective but in fact hardly contributes to the social-welfare. Our model assumes that social-pressure is induced over both defectors and hypocritical players, though the extent of which may differ. Our main result indicates that the emergence of cooperation highly depends on the extent of social-pressure applied against hypocritical players. Setting it to be at some intermediate range below the one employed against defectors allows a system composed almost exclusively of defectors to transform into a fully cooperative one quickly. Conversely, when the social-pressure against hypocritical players is either too low or too high, the system remains locked in a degenerate configuration.

2021 ◽  
pp. 91-130
Author(s):  
Miguel Ángel Quintana Paz

We intend to analyze the plausibility of the two kind of ethical justi-fications that are most commonly used in order to defend the concept of an «intellectual property» of copyrights. Firstly, we will examine justifications of property based on natural law, like the one originally provided by John Locke. We will argue, with the help of authors like Lysander Spooner, that the same arguments that Locke uses for property in general are entirely appli-cable to intellectual property, although this is certainly a peculiar kind of property. Secondly, we will examine whether or not we can apply to inte-llectual property the same two arguments that Utilitarian authors use for justifying property in general: the «tragedy of the commons» argument and the scarcity argument. We will claim that the first one is fully pertinent here, and that the second one is not: but this is a problem of that kind of justifi-cation of property in general, and not a problem of intellectual property as such. Key words: Intellectual property, copyright, Ethics, John Locke, Lysander Spoo-ner, Benjamin Tucker, plagiarism, Utilitarianism, iusnaturalism, natural law, commons, scarcity. Código JEL: Z0. Resumen: Se trata aquí de examinar cuán razonables resultan los dos tipos más frecuentes de justificaciones éticas que se suelen dar para abogar a favor de la existencia de una propiedad intelectual de los derechos de autor. En primer lugar, analizaremos las justificaciones de corte iusnaturalista, re-montables a John Locke. Defenderemos, con ayuda de autores como Lysan-der Spooner, que, aun cuando la propiedad intelectual es un tipo de propie-dad en cierto sentido distinto a aquella en la que Locke seguramente estaba pensando, aun así son plenamente pertinentes para ella los mismos argu-mentos que Locke ya adujo para las propiedad «material». En segundo lugar, consideraremos la aplicabilidad al caso de la propiedad intelectual de los dos argumentos utilitaristas que se suelen usar con miras a justificar la propiedad privada en general: el argumento de la «tragedia» de los bie-nes comunales y el de la escasez de recursos. Argüiremos que el primer tipo de argumento es plenamente aplicable al caso de la propiedad de dere-chos de autor; y que, aunque el segundo ciertamente no lo es, en todo caso ello no representa seguramente un problema para la propiedad intelectual, sino para la capacidad de ese argumento a la hora de dar cumplida cuen-ta de todos los tipos de propiedades existentes. Palabras clave: Propiedad intelectual, derechos de autor, ética, John Locke, Lysander Spooner, Benjamin Tucker, plagio, utilitarismo, iusnaturalismo, dere-cho natural, bienes comunales, escasez.


2005 ◽  
Vol 31 (10) ◽  
pp. 1358-1368 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Keith Campbell ◽  
Carrie Pierce Bush ◽  
Amy B. Brunell ◽  
Jeremy Shelton

Author(s):  
Antonios Broumas

The fourth chapter of the book narrates the history of culture from the prism of the intellectual commons. It thus shifts the focus of analysis from the enclosures of intellectual property law to the significance of intellectual sharing and collaboration across history. Further developing arguments of legal historians over the evolution of copyright this chapter unfolds the argument that, despite their prominence, in recent historical periods socialised creativity and inventiveness have been framed by copyright laws in a way that has suppressed the social potential of the intellectual commons, instead of accommodating them. This theorisation of the intellectual commons across history examines the evolution of the regulation of cultural commons from the Renaissance to postmodernity. Its aim is to examine in parallel, on the one hand, the importance of the commons for art and culture and, on the other hand, the discrepancy of their treatment under positive law.


2002 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Trawick

In the Andes of Peru a familiar story has unfolded in many communities around the sharing and use of water, a tragedy often attributed to an irresolvable conflict between the inherently selfish interests of the individual and the cooperative needs of the group. This article traces the history of irrigation in one highland valley based on comparative ethnographic research, examining the reasons for both success and failure in governing the commons and trying to explain why the former has given way to the latter in many, but by no means all, places. It reveals that success can be relatively unproblematic and was once widespread at the local level, and thatfailure has occurred where institutional arrangements have been imposed that, according to the conventional theory, should have prevented the tragedy instead of bringing it about: privatization of the resource, on the one hand, and State control of it on the other. Where selfishness and discord have prevailed they are driven by an apparent water scarcity that is socially constructed, the product of a new political ecology imposed initially by the local elite and then dominated by them with the State’s help, at the expense of the peasantry. The author argues that, far from beinginevitable, the tragedy of the commons in water management can be avoided, arrested, and perhaps even reversed, in the Andes and other arid and mountainous parts of the world.Key words: Andes, tragedy of the commons, political ecology, water scarcity, watermanagement, arid, mountain.


2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 38-48
Author(s):  
A. A. Shevchenko

The article explores the use of philosophical techniques of abstraction and idealization in the creation of normative theoretical models. It shows the difficulties related to distinguishing abstractions from idealizations in scientific research, as well as their common functional features, the main of which is the representation of the object under study in a form that would meet the goals and objectives of the researcher. The paper also demonstrates the ongoing popularity of ideal normative theories in the social field and explicates the problems that provoke criticism of ideal theories from various theoretical positions. It is concluded that it is necessary to strengthen such normative models by distinguishing between heuristically «good» and «bad» idealizations within the framework of the general ideal theory, and also providing methods of transition from an ideal theoretical model to the one that could be applied in practice.


2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Hardisty ◽  
Howard Kunreuther ◽  
David H. Krantz ◽  
Poonam Arora

1970 ◽  
pp. 38-45
Author(s):  
May Abu Jaber

Violence against women (VAW) continues to exist as a pervasive, structural,systematic, and institutionalized violation of women’s basic human rights (UNDivision of Advancement for Women, 2006). It cuts across the boundaries of age, race, class, education, and religion which affect women of all ages and all backgrounds in every corner of the world. Such violence is used to control and subjugate women by instilling a sense of insecurity that keeps them “bound to the home, economically exploited and socially suppressed” (Mathu, 2008, p. 65). It is estimated that one out of every five women worldwide will be abused during her lifetime with rates reaching up to 70 percent in some countries (WHO, 2005). Whether this abuse is perpetrated by the state and its agents, by family members, or even by strangers, VAW is closely related to the regulation of sexuality in a gender specific (patriarchal) manner. This regulation is, on the one hand, maintained through the implementation of strict cultural, communal, and religious norms, and on the other hand, through particular legal measures that sustain these norms. Therefore, religious institutions, the media, the family/tribe, cultural networks, and the legal system continually disciplinewomen’s sexuality and punish those women (and in some instances men) who have transgressed or allegedly contravened the social boundaries of ‘appropriateness’ as delineated by each society. Such women/men may include lesbians/gays, women who appear ‘too masculine’ or men who appear ‘too feminine,’ women who try to exercise their rights freely or men who do not assert their rights as ‘real men’ should, women/men who have been sexually assaulted or raped, and women/men who challenge male/older male authority.


Author(s):  
Mykhaylo Loshchinin ◽  
Yurii Privalov ◽  
Yuriy Sapelkin

The article discusses the understanding of civilizational choice as a sequence of political, social, cultural and other historical events. An assessment is made of the scale of social actions aimed at the civilizational reversal of society. The authors attempted to assess the risks of civilizational choice along the social vertical, using previously developed theoretical models of social risks for a socially heterogeneous society. In the course of the study, different phenomena related to the solution of the problem of ethics of civilizational choice were considered.


2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1032-1035 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramzi Suleiman

The research on quasi-luminal neutrinos has sparked several experimental studies for testing the "speed of light limit" hypothesis. Until today, the overall evidence favors the "null" hypothesis, stating that there is no significant difference between the observed velocities of light and neutrinos. Despite numerous theoretical models proposed to explain the neutrinos behavior, no attempt has been undertaken to predict the experimentally produced results. This paper presents a simple novel extension of Newton's mechanics to the domain of relativistic velocities. For a typical neutrino-velocity experiment, the proposed model is utilized to derive a general expression for . Comparison of the model's prediction with results of six neutrino-velocity experiments, conducted by five collaborations, reveals that the model predicts all the reported results with striking accuracy. Because in the proposed model, the direction of the neutrino flight matters, the model's impressive success in accounting for all the tested data, indicates a complete collapse of the Lorentz symmetry principle in situation involving quasi-luminal particles, moving in two opposite directions. This conclusion is support by previous findings, showing that an identical Sagnac effect to the one documented for radial motion, occurs also in linear motion.


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