A Critique of Poverty: Exploring the Underground of Social Philosophy

Poverty is the primary focus of this paper; more particularly, the critique of poverty and not its mere description. It would not be an overstatement to say that one of the common grounds for poverty theories is that they describe the poor as those who systematically experience their lives in privation, namely around having the minimum when it comes to needs such as housing, food, health, education, free time, etc. There is, therefore, a theoretical and socially accepted orientation that promotes the sedimentation of a deep affinity between poverty and the minimum. Based on this reasoning, what is set on the horizon is a kind of non-explicit acceptance that the overcoming of poverty can be achieved by granting the poor something beyond the minimum, however elementary that “something extra” may be. Thus, if the experience of poverty involves some sort of lack or privation, and if this condition can be fully filled by something that has already been socially produced, then what would justify the fact that some people are able to fully fill it while others (the poor) can only secure the bare minimum? In light of this, perhaps it would be better not to question the acceptable “minimum” but, rather, to ask: Why would the notion of poverty be guided by this normative criterion? Therefore, a way of describing my broader hypothesis on poverty would be to understand that it should be measured based on the level of denial of access to what has been socially produced. The further one is from accessing social wealth, the poorer one is. Finally, this tendency toward assimilation between poverty and the minimum engenders a depressive effect on demands for social change.

Jürgen Habermas

This chapter argues that Jürgen Habermas’s engagement with the debates on the German student movement of 1968 led him to question the common tendency to consider the transience of spontaneous popular action a failure. Habermas’s democratic theory construes the ephemerality of such events as an asset that ensures they remain unrestricted by existing norms. The “wild” and “anarchic” moments of direct citizen action constitute the radical core of deliberative democracy. Yet, even as he emphasizes the democratic moments’ unrestricted quality, Habermas, like Rousseau, is also wary of their unpredictability. In his discussions on civil disobedience, Habermas turns to “constitutional patriotism” as a normative criterion to contain the dangers that emanate from the unpredictability of spontaneous action. In doing so, however, Habermas risks transforming political theory into a disciplinary mechanism whereby the theorist, à la Rousseau, takes on the role of an authority figure charged with guiding democratic action.

El Espejismo de la Eficiencia Económica

There is an international growing consensus about the need of promoting economic efficiency as the yardstick of modern economic policymaking, especially in the promotion of market transition in de-veloping countries. This essay objects the supporting premises of such assumption. It exposes why economic efficiency represents a normative criterion for the assignment of social resources which undermines markets’ creative functioning. Given the utopian founding premises within which such social welfare cost-benefit analysis is built, its enforcement cannot be meaningfully applied to judge entrepreneurs’ market conduct. Economic efficiency leaves aside all connection with the creative evolutionary dynamics of markets. Because of this, it diverts the attention of regulatory authorities into policy problems which are irrelevant, even counterproductive, for the promotion of free markets. By applying market process ideas expounded by F.A. Hayek, I. Kirzner and G.B.Richardson, this essay shows that invest-ment promotion, which is the very foundation of economic growth, is linked to entrepreneurs’ seizure of useful information which they need to under-take their investments. This essay shows how competition policies, by grounding their views in a structural and static vision of markets, end up distorting their very policy purpose. Key words: Economic efficiency, public policies. Clasificación JEL: B53, D61, D83, D84 Resumen: Existe un consenso internacional creciente acerca de la nece-sidad de impulsar la eficiencia económica como principio rector de la for-mulación de políticas públicas en el campo económico, especialmente para promover la transición de las economías de países en desarrollo hacia los mercados. Este ensayo objeta las premisas intelectuales que sus-tentan esa creencia, y expone por qué la eficiencia económica representa un criterio normativo de asignación de los recursos sociales que obsta-culiza el proceso creador de los mercados. Dadas las condiciones utó-picas bajo las cuales se construye dicho cálculo de coste-beneficio de bie-nestar social, no es posible su aplicación normativa para juzgar la conducta de los empresarios en los mercados. La eficiencia económica deja de lado todo contacto con la dinámica evolutiva, renovadora y creadora de los mercados. Por ello, distrae la atención del regulador hacia problemas irre-levantes para la promoción del libre mercado. Empleando las ideas de proceso de mercado de F.A. Hayek, I. Kirzner y G.B.Richardson, este ensayo muestra que el desarrollo de inversiones en los mercados, base del crecimiento económico, está ligado a que los empresarios obtengan la información útil que necesitan para hacer inversiones. Se muestra de qué manera las políticas de competencia, al fundarse en una visión epis-temológica estructural y estática de los mercados, terminan por distor-sionar su propia finalidad de políticas públicas. Palabras clave: Eficiencia económica, políticas públicas.

Reproducibility as a Tool of Cognition (Epistemological Analysis)

One of the most advanced areas of modern science is polydisciplinary research, which is based on experimental practices with special technical parameters. From the point of view of the philosophy of science, their specificity is directly related to the problem of results’ reproducibility because the cooperating discip­lines have different levels of sensitivity to technical details and side effects. Moreover, the details and accuracy of the actual reproducibility are discussed in various languages. Epistemologists focus on, first of all, the question of whether it is possible to replicate (i.e., absolutely exact repetition) the experiment results in a polydisciplinary space. And if not, then what is considered essential in the process of such experimentation with a particular subject field, and what is sec­ondary, what treat as a background, and what is a reproducibility result? In addi­tion, the methodological understanding of the reproducibility acquires unique heuristic significance in connection with the analysis of “deviations” arising from its replication. This means that the actual repetition of an experiment can be considered a normative criterion for its results’ scientific status and as a cog­nitive tool that opens up new research prospects. As a tool for expanding re­search horizons, the requirement of reproducibility in polydisciplinary experi­mental practices is at the center of attention of modern philosophical and methodological reflection on science.

Deriving an Objective Criterion Contextualizing the Meaning of Lateral Entry Schemes

Lateral entry schemes are intended to admit meritorious Diploma holders to the second year/third semester of various Bachelor degrees in a given discipline. Lateral entry has been accepted as a mode of admission in principle by the Sri Lankan qualification framework. Lateral entry schemes have been basically introduced at medical faculties and agriculture faculties in a couple of universities in Sri Lanka. However, there was no proper review so far undertaken to assess the criterion adopted in admitting students. Thus, this study is to contextualize the meaning of lateral entry at the outset and reveal the level of emphasis given to lateral entry schemes in both local and international arena. A literature survey, desk review and an expert interview were conducted to expose a normative criterion of admission with a future direction.

АGE ASPECTS OF CHANGE OF REPRODUCTIVE FUNCTION TREASURES MANUFACTURERS

Проведено исследование качества спермы с учетом возраста жеребцов-производителей. Такие показатели как объем эякулята и концентрация спермиев во всех возрастных группах соответствовали действующим нормам. Показатели активности и живучести спермиев были ниже нормативного критерия у жеребцов молодого и старшего возраста, а по количеству спермиев с анормальной морфологией в этих группах данный показатель превышен в два раза. Отмечено, что количество неполноценных спермиев у производителя уменьшается к моменту его физиологической зрелости. У полновозрастных жеребцов наблюдалось 16,8% патологий шейки и хвоста, однако это в 1,5-2 раза меньше по сравнению с другими возрастными группами производителей. Биохимические показатели спермы жеребцов, такие как общий белок и его фракции, ферменты лактатдегидрогеназа, креатинфосфокиназа, щелочная фосфатаза и гамма-глутамилтранспептидаза имели возрастную динамику и характеризовались наибольшим содержанием у полновозрастных жеребцов. Так, у молодых жеребцов и жеребцов старшего возраста было отмечено наиболее низкое содержание КФК – 1757,33 Ед/л и 783 Ед/л соответственно. У полновозрастных жеребцов уровень КФК составлял 1993,25 Ед/л. Анализ результатов позволил нам выявить четкое различие между возрастными группами по активности щелочной фосфатазы: содержание ЩФ у полновозрастных жеребцов превышает данный показатель у молодых особей в 2,6 раза и в 6,2 раза у старшего возраста. Установлено, что наиболее высоко по качеству была оценена сперма полновозрастных жеребцов. Для сохранения генетического потенциала в племенной работе следует рекомендовать выборочное использование молодых перспективных жеребцов, а также использование спермы ценных жеребцов старшего возраста. A study of the quality of sperm, taking into account the age of the stallions-producers. Such indicators as the volume of ejaculate and the concentration of sperm in all age groups corresponded to current standards. Sperm activity and vitality were lower than the normative criterion for young and older stallions, and this indicator was doubled in the number of sperm with abnormal morphology in these groups. With age, at the time of the physiological maturity of the producer, the number of abnormal sperm decreases. In full-aged stallions, 16.8% of pathologies of the neck and tail were observed, but this is 1.5-2 times less compared to other age groups of producers. Biochemical parameters of stallion sperm, such as total protein and its fractions, enzymes lactate dehydrogenase, creatine phosphokinase, alkaline phosphatase and gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase, had age-related dynamics and were characterized by the highest content in full-aged stallions. So, among young stallions and older stallions, the lowest CPK content was 1757.33 U / L and 783 U / L, respectively. In full-aged stallions, the CPK level was 1993.25 U / L. An analysis of the results allowed us to identify a clear difference between age groups in alkaline phosphatase activity: the content of alkaline phosphatase in full-aged stallions exceeds this indicator in young individuals by 2.6 times and 6.2 times in older adults. It was established that sperm of full-aged stallions was rated the highest in quality. To preserve the genetic potential in breeding, we recommend the selective use of promising young stallions, as well as the use of sperm of valuable older stallions.

Two Histories of Bioinformatics: Data Science vs Life Science

This paper focuses on two attempts to reconstruct the history of bioinformatics as a scientific discipline. Paulien Hogeweg who coined the term “bioinformatics,” presents one of them, while Hallam Stevens, who is both a historian and sociologist of science, offers the other. Although both of them can speak authoritatively about bioinformatics inasmuch as Hogeweg was personally involved in creating the field while Stevens has amassed a substantial amount of microsociological, scientometric and other evidence, they tell two fundamentally different stories. According to Hogeweg, bioinformatics came about as a response to new epistemic demands on the life sciences that arose from several key discoveries in molecular biology in the middle of 20th century. For Stevens, the new discipline was the result of transplanting computational methods and technologies into biology. This difference stems from divergent interpretations of what bioinformatics is, and these in turn depend upon different ontological claims about the nature of living things. The link between the concepts of life and information is explained by Hogeweg through a systems approach. Stevens discounts that link and concentrates instead on the transposition of scientific practices from other disciplines and on the new ways of understanding the living which are generated by this transposition. The attempt to define bioinformatics as a scientific discipline ends for both of these theorists a tautology: the discipline is defined by something defined by this same discipline, that is, by a certain idea about information and/or data. The effect of this tautology is that a normative criterion for delimitation of disciplines (a set of requirements which are necessary and sufficient for considering a field of research as a scientific discipline) does not allow us to explain how each of them occurs individually. Instead, a descriptive criterion is proposed, which is to be understood as the study of the conditions which make possible the differentiations in scientific practices which have already taken place. A distinct understanding of information or data and the ontology associated with it should be the outcome of a study of this kind and not presupposed by it.

About Linda Again: How Narratives and Group Reasoning Can Influence Conjunction Fallacy

Conjunction fallacy (together with other systematic reasoning errors) is usually explained in terms of the dual process theory of reasoning: Biases should be ascribed to fast and automatic processes, whereas slow and deliberative processes are responsible of producing answers that are correct with respect of normative criterion. The dual process theory is related to Bruner’s distinction between narrative and paradigmatic thought: Both modes of thought can be characterized by the two different processes of reasoning. In this paper, we explore the role of Bruner’s mode of thought manipulating also the difference between group vs individual reasoning. We observed that the narrative strategy of response induces more wrong answers. However, narrative-based strategies have higher effectiveness in the case of group reasoning. Our results suggest that narrative reasoning and group reasoning may induce violations of the conjunction rule when acceptable by the verisimilitude of the story. Five models are also presented in order to predict answer correctness and strategy of reasoning using a text analysis software.

Citizens–experts’ interactions under different institutional arrangements: assessing the role of uncertainty, interests, and values

In this paper, we develop a framework to analyze the relationship between evidence and policy. Postulating a normative criterion based on cost–benefit analysis and the value of a piece of information, as well as a topology of the policy space defined by three characteristics (epistemic uncertainty, interests, and the degree of value conflicts), we identify the (Nash) equilibria of an interaction between experts and citizens in providing information to a decision maker. In this setup, we study three institutional arrangements (evidence-based policy, deliberative governance, and negotiated conflict) that differ in terms of reliance on experts and citizens for providing information. We show that different degrees of uncertainty, interests, and value-relevance surrounding the issue at stake result in vastly different arrangement performances; hence, to foster efficiency, rules should be contingent.