An Autonomy-Based Argument for Democracy

2021 ◽  
pp. 194-226
Author(s):  
James Lindley Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Basic Structure ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Ideal Self ◽  
Political Equality ◽  
Common Life ◽  
First Order ◽  
The Social

Democracy uniquely respects an important set of persons’ autonomy claims. Along with standard first-order autonomy claims to act without interference, persons have second-order autonomy claims to authority over the social context of their choice. These second-order claims are grounded in the same ideal self-direction that grounds first-order claims. One triggers another’s second-order claims when one directs another’s will by shaping the context of her choice, or when one implicates another’s will by shaping the nature of her responsibility for her actions. When a basic structure exists in which individuals continuously direct and implicate one another’s wills, each person has a second-order autonomy claim to authority over the terms of that structure. Because each person is equally entitled to respect for her autonomy, each is equally entitled to authority over the basic structure. Political equality—the equal authority of each citizen over the terms of common life—therefore uniquely respects these autonomy claims of each citizen. We therefore have non-instrumental, autonomy-based reasons to support democratic decision-making.

The Socio-Temporary in Architecture

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-56
Author(s):  
Sana Murrani
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Close Relation ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Transdisciplinary Research ◽  
Architectural Theory ◽  
Art Practice ◽  
Theoretical Underpinning ◽  
Participatory Art ◽  
The Social

The temporary in architecture is a state of territorial instability that emerges out of interactions between transdisciplinary narratives and architectural theory and its practice. This article extends this notion to the socio-temporary, which is a state arising from constant synergies between the social context and worldmaking. Such narratives were originally influenced by the field of cybernetics and later on by second-order cybernetics reflected in the emergent participatory art practice of the mid-twentieth century through transdisciplinary research. Derived from the theoretical underpinning of this article a simulation is exhibited, which illustrates theoretically elements of Varela and Maturana’s autopoietic system behaviour and its close relation to temporality in the worldmaking of architecture. This is a theoretical article – with an element of practice – that seeks to highlight the temporality of the process of worldmaking in architecture.

scholarly journals Incorporating the social context into neurocognitive models of adolescent decision-making: A neuroimaging meta-analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 101 ◽  
pp. 129-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorien van Hoorn ◽  
Holly Shablack ◽  
Kristen A. Lindquist ◽  
Eva H. Telzer
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
The Social

scholarly journals Prosocial Influence and Opportunistic Conformity in Adolescents and Young Adults

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (12) ◽  
pp. 1585-1601 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriele Chierchia ◽  
Blanca Piera Pi-Sunyer ◽  
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Social Influence ◽  
Social Decision ◽  
Charitable Donations ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Decision Making ◽  
Age Range ◽  
Value Of Money

Adolescence is associated with heightened social influence, especially from peers. This can lead to detrimental decision-making in domains such as risky behavior but may also raise opportunities for prosocial behavior. We used an incentivized charitable-donations task to investigate how people revise decisions after learning about the donations of others and how this is affected by age ( N = 220; age range = 11–35 years). Our results showed that the probability of social influence decreased with age within this age range. In addition, whereas previous research has suggested that adults are more likely to conform to the behavior of selfish others than to the behavior of prosocial others, here we observed no evidence of such an asymmetry in midadolescents. We discuss possible interpretations of these findings in relation to the social context of the task, the perceived value of money, and social decision-making across development.

scholarly journals Political equality without social equality? Social distortion of voter turnout in the European elections 2019 across nine European capitals

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 205316802092815
Author(s):  
Stefan Haußner ◽  
Michael Kaeding
Keyword(s):  
Social Inequality ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Political Equality ◽  
European Elections ◽  
The Social ◽  
European Parliament Elections

Although we know a lot about why citizens vote or abstain in elections, the social inequality of low turnout in European elections has attracted little attention. This paper focuses on voter turnout in the last 2019 European elections and examines whether low voter turnout in second-order elections is automatically associated with high social inequality, using Tingsten’s law as inspiration. By contrasting a second-order election with other high and low turnout elections, the paper deepens our understanding of the mechanisms behind low turnout in European elections. Following the argument that the macrolevel social imbalances of low turnout can best be analysed at the neighbourhood level, we develop a small-scale analysis of turnout across nine capitals of the European Union for the 2019 European Parliament (election and perform a regression model with interaction effects to examine the effects between different types of elections. Our results do not find differences in the effect of neighbourhoods’ social context on voter turnout between these elections. Although turnout in all cities is socially biased across all types of elections, jeopardising the ideal of political equality across Europe, we find no evidence that the 2019 European Parliament elections were more socially unequal than other elections – regardless of their second-order nature.

Noumenal Alienation: Rousseau, Kant and Marx on the Dialectics of Self-Determination

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 523-551 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rainer Forst
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
First Order ◽  
Normative Authority ◽  
Political Form

AbstractThis article argues that alienation (asEntfremdung) should be understood as a particular form of individual and social heteronomy that can only be overcome by a dialectical combination of individual and collective autonomy, recovering a deontological sense of normative authority. If we think about alienation in Kantian terms, the main source of alienation is a denial of standing or, in the extreme, losing a sense of oneself as a rational normative authority equal to all others. I call the former kind of alienation, where persons deny others equal standing as a normative authority in moral or political terms, first order noumenal alienation, as there is no proper mutual cognition and recognition of each other in such a social context. I call the latter kind of alienation, where a subject does not consider themselves an equal normative authority – or an ‘end in oneself’ – second order noumenal alienation (again, in a moral and a political form). In this sense, alienation violates the dignity of humans as moral and political lawgivers – a dignity seen by Rousseau, Kant and Marx as inalienable: It can be denied or violated, but it cannot be lost.

Theoretical and Empirical Insights into Ethical Decision Making: The Role of the Social Context

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (1) ◽  
pp. 13452
Author(s):  
Bruce Barry ◽  
Oyku Arkan ◽  
Joseph P. Gaspar ◽  
Brian Gunia ◽  
Jessica Alynn Kennedy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Ethical Decision ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
The Social

scholarly journals 02. Social Pathologies, Reflexive Pathologies, and the Idea of Higher-Order Disorders

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arto Laitinen
Keyword(s):  
Social Reality ◽  
Social Criticism ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Third Order ◽  
First Order ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Social ◽  
Order Reflection

This paper critically examines Christopher Zurn’s suggestion mentioned above that various social pathologies (pathologies of ideological recognition, maldistribution, invisibilization, rationality distortions, reification and institutionally forced self-realization) share the structure of being ‘second-order disorders’: that is, that they each entail ‘constitutive disconnects between first-order contents and secondorder reflexive comprehension of those contents, where those disconnects are pervasive and socially caused’ (Zurn, 2011, 345-346). The paper argues that the cases even as discussed by Zurn do not actually match that characterization, but that it would be premature to conclude that they are not thereby social pathologies, or that they do not have a structure in common. It is just that the structure is more complex than originally described, covering pervasive socially caused evils (i) in the social reality, (ii) in the first order experiences and understandings, (iii) in the second order reflection as discussed by Zurn, and also (iv) in the ‘third order’ phenomenon concerning the pre-emptive silencing or nullification of social criticism even before it takes place 

scholarly journals Social information impairs reward learning in depressive subjects: behavioral and computational characterization

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lou Safra ◽  
Coralie Chevallier ◽  
Stefano Palminteri
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Depressive Disorders ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Reward Processing ◽  
Reward Learning ◽  
Depression And Anxiety ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
The Social

AbstractDepression is characterized by a marked decrease in social interactions and blunted sensitivity to rewards. Surprisingly, despite the importance of social deficits in depression, non-social aspects have been disproportionally investigated. As a consequence, the cognitive mechanisms underlying atypical decision-making in social contexts in depression are poorly understood. In the present study, we investigate whether deficits in reward processing interact with the social context and how this interaction is affected by self-reported depression and anxiety symptoms. Two cohorts of subjects (discovery and replication sample:N= 50 each) took part in a task involving reward learning in a social context with different levels of social information (absent, partial and complete). Behavioral analyses revealed a specific detrimental effect of depressive symptoms – but not anxiety – on behavioral performance in the presence of social information, i.e. when participants were informed about the choices of another player. Model-based analyses further characterized the computational nature of this deficit as a negative audience effect, rather than a deficit in the way others’ choices and rewards are integrated in decision making. To conclude, our results shed light on the cognitive and computational mechanisms underlying the interaction between social cognition, reward learning and decision-making in depressive disorders.

Proportional Representation

2019 ◽  
pp. 193-215
Author(s):  
James Lindley Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Coalition Formation ◽  
Basic Structure ◽  
Proportional Representation ◽  
Political Equality ◽  
Turn On ◽  
Alternative Systems ◽  
Fair Representation ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Fundamental Requirement

This chapter studies the claim—common among political theorists who consider the matter—that political equality requires proportional legislative representation. This issue involves fundamental questions about the proper relationship between citizens' votes and the makeup of the legislature, and therefore about the basic structure of electoral systems. Debates about proportional legislatures turn on what constitutes fair representation of groups of voters. The chapter argues that proportional representation is not a fundamental requirement of political equality. Proportional representation of groups in the legislature does not necessarily guarantee appropriate consideration more reliably than single-member district (SMD) systems with plurality elections. In some circumstances, proportional representation may better secure certain forms of consideration and practical consequence for citizens than would other legislative systems. But the suitability of different legislative schemes varies with historical and social context. In some circumstances, alternative systems may better secure consideration for group members without guaranteeing those members official presence in the legislature. Securing legislative presence often comes at the expense of voter authority over coalition formation in the legislature itself. There is no general reason to think this sacrifice is justified, either for particular groups or for the citizenry as a whole.

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