Do Good Citizens Need Good Laws? Economics and the Expressive Function

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-174
Author(s):  
Michael D. Gilbert ◽  
Andrew T. Hayashi
Keyword(s):  
Social Welfare ◽  
Moral Obligation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Moral Commitment ◽  
Expressive Function ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
As If

Abstract We explore how adding prosocial preferences to the canonical precaution model of accidents changes either the efficient damages rule or the harm from accidents. For a utilitarian lawmaker, making the potential injurer sympathetic to the victim of harm has no effect on either outcome. On the other hand, making injurers averse to harming others reduces the harm from accidents but has no effect on efficient damages. For an atomistic lawmaker — one who excludes prosocial preferences from social welfare — cultivating a taste for either harm aversion or perfect sympathy can reduce efficient damages, though neither has any effect on the amount of harm from accidents. On the other hand, causing people to act as if they are averse to harm creation, such as out of habit or moral obligation, reduces both the efficient amount of damages and total harm. In general, encouraging either a distaste for, or moral commitment against, harm creation is useful while inculcating sympathy for victims of harm is not.

When Do Politicians Lie?

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Armstrong-Taylor
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Simple Observation ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
As If

Abstract When do politicians lie? A politician who admits to wrongdoing will likely suffer some loss of popularity, but probably not as great as if he denied wrong doing and was subsequently discovered to have lied. This simple observation has a number of implications. For example, a politician in a marginal seat may have little choice but to risk lying as admitting will lose him too much popularity to survive. On the other hand, a politician in a relatively safe seat might survive the loss from admitting, but not from lying and being caught. Therefore we might predict the likelihood that a politician admits to a scandal to be positively related (over some range at least) to the security of his seat. This paper tests this prediction, and some others, with data from House bank scandal of 1991-92.

An experiment on dispersion

1933 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 417-422
Author(s):  
R. C. Evans
Keyword(s):  
White Light ◽  
Visible Spectrum ◽  
Anomalous Dispersion ◽  
The Other ◽  
Sharp Edge ◽  
Light Spectrum ◽  
Minimum Deviation ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
As If

In the spectrum formed by a grating the red is more deviated than the blue, while in that formed by a prism, which does not exhibit anomalous dispersion in the visible spectrum, the reverse is the case. If, then, white light is passed first through a grating and then through a prism, the nature of the spectrum produced will depend on the relative dispersions of the grating and prism. If throughout the spectrum the dispersion of the prism is less than that of the grating, the sequence of colours will be the same as that in the spectrum due to the grating alone, red being more deviated than blue. If, on the other hand, the dispersion of the prism is throughout the spectrum greater than that of the grating, the sequence of colours will be reversed. On account of the rapid increase in the dispersion of glass near the blue end of the spectrum, it may, however, be possible that the dispersion of the prism exceeds that of the grating in the blue while in the red the reverse is the case. Under these conditions both red and blue will be more deviated than some intermediate colour for which the dispersions of the grating and prism are equal. The spectrum will thus have a sharp edge of this colour at the end of minimum deviation, while in the direction of greater deviation it will at each point consist of two superimposed colours. It is as if an ordinary white light spectrum was folded back on itself about the sharp edge.

scholarly journals The defence of the honeybee community

1954 ◽  
Vol 142 (909) ◽  
pp. 514-524 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Partial Separation ◽  
Sugar Syrup ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
As If

Pairs of colonies of differently coloured bees were placed with their entrances only 2 in. apart, and m any bees tried to enter the wrong colony, as if it were their own. Strangers were recognized by their different scent, and their reception depended upon foraging conditions. In nectar flows there was no hostility and the bees of both colonies mingled indiscriminately. In fairly good conditions there was no hostility, but partial separation was maintained through the discrimination shown by incoming foragers. In dearth conditions, when bees try to rob other colonies, all strangers were received with hostility; most were thrown out and many were killed. In dearth conditions marked foragers from one of the two colonies were fed with sugar syrup, but they were nevertheless repelled when they tried to enter the unfed colony; on the other hand, unfed strangers were more readily admitted into the fed colony. Thus hostility to strangers was inversely proportional to the availability of forage; the condition of the community which was to be entered was important, but the behaviour of the intruder was not. These results are discussed in relation to the defence of the community against both robber bees and strange queens.

Configuration of Quadrivalent Atoms

1929 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-221
Author(s):  
T. M. Lowry
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Tetrahedral Configuration ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Metallic Atom ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Function Change ◽  
The One ◽  
Image Position ◽  
Octahedral Configuration ◽  
As If

Two alternative views have been expressed in regard to the configuration of quadrivalent atoms. On the one hand le Bel and van't Hoff assigned to quadrivalent carbon a tetrahedral configuration, which has since been confirmed by the X-ray analysis of the diamond. On the other hand, Werner in 1893 adopted an octahedral configuration for radicals of the type MA6, e.g. inand then suggested that “the molecules [MA4]X2 are incomplete molecules [MA6]X2. The radicals [MA4] result from the octahedrally-conceived radicals [MA6] by loss of two groups A, but with no function-change of the acid residue…. They behave as if the bivalent metallic atom in the centre of the octahedron could no longer bind all six of the groups A and lost two of them leaving behind the fragment [MA4]” (p. 303).

The Genesis of Mind

1862 ◽  
Vol 7 (40) ◽  
pp. 461-494 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Maudsley
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Close Resemblance ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Being There ◽  
The One ◽  
As If

As it has ever been the custom of man to act as if he were eternal, and lavishly to scatter the limited force which he embodies as though the supply were inexhaustible, it produces no unaccustomed surprise to witness the useless expenditure of force which is so frequently made at the present time. It may even, perhaps, be deemed a token of some modesty, that the being, who since his first formation has been continually occupied in metaphysical regions with the investigation of the origin of all things, should be content for a while to amuse himself with physical theories concerning his own origin. That which is to be regretted in the new and comparatively praiseworthy occupation is the old evil of hasty theorizing on the one hand, and on the other hand, the evil, scarcely less ancient, of an impetuous eagerness to demolish any theory, however plausible, which comes athwart a favourite prejudice. What though the anatomist does discover a very close resemblance and very slight differences between the structure of a gorilla and the structure of a human being; there is no need, on that account, that mankind in a feeling of injured dignity should angrily rouse up and disclaim the undesired relationship. Whatever may be said or written, it is quite plain after all that a man is not a gorilla, and that a gorilla is not a man; it is furthermore manifest that gorillas do not breed men now-a-days, and that we have not the shadow of any evidence to guide us in forming; an opinion as to what they may have clone in times past. The negative testimony of Du Chaillu, who says that he searched in vain in the gorilla region for any intermediate race or link between it and man, scarcely adds anything to the conviction of the non-existence of any such link, which has long been universally entertained.*

scholarly journals The Metrological Relief at Oxford

1883 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 335-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ad. Michaelis
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Early Period ◽  
The Other ◽  
Very Old ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Greek Art ◽  
Artistic Interest ◽  
As If

Of peculiar interest among the Arundel marbles of the Pomfret donation at Oxford, is a slab in the shape of a pediment, ‘in which there is in basso relievo the figure of a man as big as the life with his arms extended as if he was crucified, but no lower than about his paps is seen, the cornice cutting him off as it were; and this extension of his arms is called a grecian measure, and over his arm is a grecian foot.’ The marble thus described by George Vertue, the engraver, was first published in Chandler's Marmora Oxoniensia, Pt. I., Pl. lix., No. 166, but its importance was completely overlooked until the late Prof. Matz, in one of his last papers, published a better drawing and pointed out the artistic interest of the relief as a sculpture belonging to a rather early period of Greek art. On the other hand, the merit of the monument as an authentic document of Greek metrology was set forth, at my request, by my friend Dr. Fr. Hultsch, the author of Griechische Metrologie, whose views are repeated in my Ancient Marbles in Great Britain. The chief result of his exposition was that our relief unites in a most interesting way the indication of the length of a fathom (ὀρλυιά) of 2·06 or 20·07 m. with that of a foot of 0·295 m., which is not, as one might expect, the sixth, but exactly the seventh part of the fathom. As such a division of the fathom does not agree with the well-known facts of Greek metrology, Hultsch imagined that the foot on our marble might rather be a modulus used by sculptors and architects, and he observed that the recent excavations of Olympia seem to show the dimensions of some of the temples, particularly of the very old temple of Heré, to be based on a double measure, on a foot but little longer (of 0·298 m.), as well as on a fathom of 2·084 m. which, again, corresponds to seven of those feet.

Two Methodological Worlds Apart? Praises and Critiques from a European Comparativist

2006 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 332-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benoît Rihoux
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Social Inquiry ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One ◽  
As If

Social scientists who strive to reflect on their research “while they're doing it” (Becker 1998) live in very fortunate times. On the one hand, it seems as if an increasing number of scholars want to do a little more than simply apply ready-made recipes. On the other hand, a few key volumes have recently been published that move beyond ready-made recipes. In my personal top three, I would most probably place Mahoney and Rueschemeyer (2003), George and Bennett (2005), and—last but not least—the volume discussed in this symposium. What distinguishes Rethinking Social Inquiry (RSI) from the two other volumes, in my view, is that it has a broader agenda and hence a broader ambition.

scholarly journals Customs War of the Kingdom of Serbia and the Habzburg Monarchy at the beginning of the 20th century

Ekonomika ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 95-103
Author(s):  
Dušan Jerotijević ◽  
Živanka Bogavac-Miladinović ◽  
Ljubiša Stamatović
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Great Difficulty ◽  
The Other ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
National Unification ◽  
Balkan States ◽  
As If

After gaining independence at the Berlin Congress, Serbia became the center around which all the surrounding Serbs gathered, seeking final liberation and unification. The great difficulty for a small Serbia was the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which in every way was trying to influence the Serbian internal and foreign policy. In doing so, she succeeded to a large extent during the reign of King Milan, even after his abdication, until the beginning of the XX century. The change in the throne after the May uprising led to the emancipation of Serbia from the influence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the influence of other powers, in particular France and Russia. On the other hand, Serbia is increasingly independent in foreign policy and tries to connect with other Balkan states as if it economically strengthens to carry out a national unification mission. That is why the Austro-Hungarian conflict with Serbia on the economic plane, the Customs War, was inevitable. At the same time, this conflict has shown the strength and weaknesses of both countries. Serbia's victory in the Customs War showed her great economic rise, and Austro-Hungary became its fatal enemy.

Drei Phantasiestücke (3)

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seth Brodsky
Keyword(s):  
East Germany ◽  
The Other ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Society Of The Spectacle ◽  
The Media ◽  
The One ◽  
Empty Signifier ◽  
As If ◽  
The Revolution

In the quarter century since the collapse of East Germany, the uncountable reflections that flower the media landscape inevitably turn to music. And when they do, they waffle. There is something untimely, and uncanny, about this waffling. It is as if the tensions structuring music's role in the heady days of the late 1960s were being therapeutically replayed twenty years later: 1968 yet again as the fetish object. On the one hand, music here is the fantasmatic sound of revolution itself, of truth speaking to power, and power falling to pieces under the weight of truth's irrefutable audibility, equal parts libido and righteousness. On the other hand, it is the traumatic reminder of failure, and the disenchanting premise that this “society of the spectacle” was not so powerful after all—that the revolution, in merely appearing, failed to show up. Judging from the examples of Hasselhoff, Rostropovich, and Bernstein, this chapter argues that music seems woven perfectly into a master's discourse: a process of shoring up a sovereign, of suturing itself to an empty signifier, producing a split subject, and precipitating an excessive enjoyment in the form of an object of desire.

Democracy and Industrialisation

1967 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernest Gellner
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Democratic Institutions ◽  
Transitional Societies ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
New States ◽  
As If

Looking at the contemporary world, two things are obvious: democracy is doing rather badly, and democracy is doing very well. ‘New states are born free, yet everywhere they are in chains.’ Democracy is doing very badly in that democratic institutions have fallen by the wayside in very many of the newly independent ‘transitional’ societies, and they are precarious elsewhere. Democracy, on the other hand, is doing extremely well in as far as it is almost (though not quite) universally accepted as a valid norm. It is almost as if its success as a norm of legitimacy were inversely related to its success in concrete implementation.

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