亚里士多德对“偏好”如是说

亚里士多德在《前分析篇》和《论辩篇》中提出了关于“偏好”的理论。本文从现代偏好逻辑的观点分析亚里士多德的偏好理论,作者认为亚里士多德提出了“强偏好”和“无差别偏好”等概念,提出了“强偏好的完全性”、“强偏好的不对称性”、“强偏好的换质位”以及“强偏好的合取扩展”等等原理。作者希望本文的分析能对现代偏好逻辑的研究提供一些资料。     

Minimal mimicry: Mere effector matching induces preference

Both mimicking and being mimicked induces preference for a target. The present experiments investigate the minimal sufficient conditions for this mimicry-preference link to occur. We argue that mere effector matching between one’s own and the other person’s movement is sufficient to induce preference, independent of which movement is actually performed. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants moved either their arms or legs, and watched avatars that moved either their arms or legs, respectively, without any instructions to mimic. The executed movements themselves and their pace were completely different between participants (fast circular movements) and targets (slow linear movements). Participants preferred avatars that moved the same body part as they did over avatars that moved a different body part. In Experiment 3, using human targets and differently paced movements, movement similarity was manipulated in addition to effector overlap (moving forward–backward or sideways with arms or legs, respectively). Only effector matching, but not movement matching, influenced preference ratings. These findings suggest that mere effector overlap is sufficient to trigger preference by mimicry.     

Minimal mimicry: Mere effector matching induces preference

Both mimicking and being mimicked induces preference for a target. The present experiments investigate the minimal sufficient conditions for this mimicry-preference link to occur. We argue that mere effector matching between one’s own and the other person’s movement is sufficient to induce preference, independent of which movement is actually performed. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants moved either their arms or legs, and watched avatars that moved either their arms or legs, respectively, without any instructions to mimic. The executed movements themselves and their pace were completely different between participants (fast circular movements) and targets (slow linear movements). Participants preferred avatars that moved the same body part as they did over avatars that moved a different body part. In Experiment 3, using human targets and differently paced movements, movement similarity was manipulated in addition to effector overlap (moving forward–backward or sideways with arms or legs, respectively). Only effector matching, but not movement matching, influenced preference ratings. These findings suggest that mere effector overlap is sufficient to trigger preference by mimicry.     

Decision theoretic foundations for axioms of rational preference

Rationality postulates for preferences are developed from two basic decision theoretic principles, namely: (1) the logic of preference is determined by paradigmatic cases in which preferences are choice-guiding, and (2) excessive comparison costs should be avoided. It is shown how the logical requirements on preferences depend on the structure of comparison costs. The preference postulates necessary for choice guidance in a single decision problem are much weaker than completeness and transitivity. Stronger postulates, such as completeness and transitivity, can be derived under the further assumption that the original preference relation should also be capable of guiding choice after any restriction of the original set of alternatives.     

Robustness of Additive Value Function Methods in MCDM

A simulation model is constructed of choice between a discrete number of non-dominated alternatives. The long-run goals of the decision maker are assumed to be consistent with a hypothetical preference structure which satisfies assumptions of completeness, transitivity and additive independence for an ideal set of criteria. The use of additive value functions to aid the decision maker in this choice is simulated for a variety of contexts and under a number of non-idealities such as the omission of criteria, confounding of criteria and inconsistent responses. It is found that ideal preference orderings are well identified by additive value functions provided that the non-idealities are moderate and that sufficient effort is put into modelling changing marginal values for different levels of performance. One of the potentially most sensitive areas is that of shifts in the decision maker's reference points as a result of the types of preference information asked.     

Bigger is better: the influence of physical size on aesthetic preference judgments

The hypothesis that the physical size of an object can influence aesthetic preferences was investigated. In a series of four experiments, participants were presented with pairs of abstract stimuli and asked to indicate which member of each pair they preferred. A preference for larger stimuli was found on the majority of trials using various types of stimuli, stimuli of various sizes, and with both adult and 3‐year‐old participants. This preference pattern was disrupted only when participants had both stimuli that provided a readily accessible alternative source of preference‐evoking information and sufficient attentional resources to make their preference judgments. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Infants’ sensitivity to uniform connectedness as a cue for perceptual organization

A new grouping principle, uniform connectedness (UC), has been posited to be a basic organizer of visual pattern information, one that takes precedence over other, more classic grouping principles (Palmer & Rock, 1994), but its ontogenetic origins have not previously been investigated. We examined whether 3- to 4-month-olds and 6- to 7-month-olds utilize UC to organize static two-dimensional displays. Infants habituated to uniformly connected patterns exhibited a novelty preference for disconnected element patterns, whereas those without any habituation failed to exhibit a preference. The results indicate that infants are sensitive to UC as a cue for perceptual organization. Prior studies indicate that some Gestalt principles (e.g., common movement) are functional during the first half year of life, but that other principles (e.g., form similarity) are less readily available. The present finding showing that young infants are sensitive to UC points to the foundational nature of this cue and adds to an emerging body of evidence indicating that at least some of the mechanisms believed to produce perceptual organization in adults are already operational in the first months of life. nt]mis|This research was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (BCS 0224240) and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD042451).     

Valence and instrumentality contributions to understanding occupational preference

Studies on the expectancy model have presented conflicting results concerning the usefulness of valence ratings. There has been some support for valence as significantly adding to the predictability of occupational preference, while other studies have indicated that instrumentality ratings alone are sufficient.     

What should we expect from a dual-process theory of preference construction in choice?

Dhar and Gorlin (2013) proposed a dual-process framework for understanding the effects of preference construction in choice. Drawing on the distinction operating principles and operating conditions, it is argued that their emphasis on cognitive elaboration fails to specify the mental operations involved in preference construction. This limitation makes their dual-process framework circular and susceptible to the criticism of single-process alternatives. The distinction between associative and propositional processes has the potential to fill this conceptual gap, thereby providing a more thorough understanding of preference construction effects in choice.     

Unconsidered preferences

Modern contractarians ground morality on preferences that are “considered' to the requisite degree. This move is inadmissible for contractarians. If what counts as a considered preference is external to the agent's estimations, it robs the requisite (to contractarians) motivational force for agents to be moral. There is also a danger of begging the question by grounding morality on pre-approved motives. If the determination of considered preferences is subjective, on the other hand, then a considered preference can be none other than a preference held presently by the actor—whether or not it will sustain sufficient reflection. If so, the introduction of ‘considered’ preferences is idle. Either way, it's bad.     

Applied Ethics: Naturalism, Normativity and Public Policy

abstract   Normative argument is supposed to guide ways in which we might change the world, rather than to fit the world as it is. This poses certain difficulties for the notion of applied ethics. Taken literally the phrase 'applied ethics' suggests that principles or standards with substantial philosophical justification, in particular ethical and political principles with such justification, are applied to particular cases and guide action. However, the 'cases' which applied ethics discusses are themselves indeterminate, and the relation of principles to these 'cases' differs from the relation of principles to cases in naturalistic, truth-oriented inquiry. Writing in 'applied ethics', I shall argue, does not need elaborate case histories or scenarios, since the testing points for normative principles are other normative principles rather than particular cases. Normative principles and contexts to which they are applicable are indeed needed for any reasoning that is practical, but they are not sufficient. Practical ethics needs principles that can not merely be applied in certain cases or situations, but also enacted in certain ways, and requires an account of practical judgement and of the public policies that support that judgement .     

Selecting explanations from causal chains: Do statistical principles explain preferences for voluntary causes?

We investigate whether people prefer voluntary causes to physical causes in unfolding causal chains and whether statistical (covariation, sufficiency) principles can predict how people select explanations. Experiment 1 shows that while people tend to prefer a proximal (more recent) cause in chains of unfolding physical events, causality is traced through the proximal cause to an underlying distal (less recent) cause when that cause is a human action. Experiment 2 shows that causal preference is more strongly correlated with judgements of sufficiency and conditionalised sufficiency than with covariation or conditionalised covariation. In addition, sufficiency judgements are partial mediators of the effect of type of distal cause (voluntary or physical) on causal preference. The preference for voluntary causes to physical causes corroborates findings from social psychology, cognitive neuroscience and jurisprudence that emphasise the primacy of intentions in causal attribution processes. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Preference for information about intensity of signaled tailshock

Three experiments are reported which were designed to demonstrate preference for signaled shock and to delineate the roles of the preparatory-response, information-seeking, and signaled-safety hypotheses of this phenomenon. Experiment 1 demonstrated a preference for a signal-tailshock condition over a tailshock-signal condition in a shuttlebox. In Experiment 3, rats were exposed to signaled tailshock of two intensities in both compartments of the shuttlebox, but in one compartment the signals provided information about the intensity of the impending tailshock, whereas in the other compartment the signals did not. The tailshock intensities were .6 and 1.3 mA for one group and .6 and 1.8 mA for a second group. Experiment 2 assured that even the smaller intensity difference was readily discriminable. For Group .6-1.8 a significant preference for the condition in which the signals predicted the intensity of the impending tailshocks was obtained, but no preference for either condition was found for Group .6-1.3. As signaled safety was equated in the two compartments of Experiment 3, the observed preference cannot be accounted for by the signaled-safety hypothesis. Information seeking cannot explain the lack of preference in Group .6-1.3 as the difference between those two intensities was proven discriminable in Experiment 2. Assuming that sufficient differences in shock intensity yield different preparatory responses, the present results are compatible with the preparatory-response hypothesis and suggest that preparatory responding plays a role in producing the preference for signaled shock.     

What is the ethical in fear and trembling?

James Bogen misinterprets what Kierkegaard (or more accurately, Johannes de Silentio) meant by the ethical in Fear and Trembling (see Inquiry, 5 [1962], pp. 305–17). Kierkegaard did not intend to depict morality as a system of duties where moral duties derive from the particular position(s) one holds in society. Kierkegaard thought that moral duties were based on universal principles that were divine commands. Although Kierkegaard thought that it was necessary for an action to be moral that it be done in accord with such universal principles, he did not think that this was sufficient. In order to be a moral action, the action must be done not only in accord with certain universal principles but in a certain way. Kierkegaard notes the appropriate way by saying the agent must reveal himself in his action. Thus revelation by the agent and acting in accordance with certain principles are jointly sufficient and singly necessary conditions for an action to be moral.     

Transfer and Scaffolding of Perceptual Grouping Occurs Across Organizing Principles in 3- to 7-Month-Old Infants

ABSTRACT— Previous research has demonstrated that organizational principles become functional over different time courses of development: Lightness similarity is available at 3 months of age, but form similarity is not readily in evidence until 6 months of age. We investigated whether organization would transfer across principles and whether perceptual scaffolding can occur from an already functional principle to a not-yet-operational principle. Six- to 7-month-old infants (Experiment 1) and 3- to 4-month-old infants (Experiment 2) who were familiarized with arrays of elements organized by lightness similarity displayed a subsequent visual preference for a novel organization defined by form similarity. Results with the older infants demonstrate transfer in perceptual grouping: The organization defined by one grouping principle can direct a visual preference for a novel organization defined by a different grouping principle. Findings with the younger infants suggest that learning based on an already functional organizational process enables an organizational process that is not yet functional through perceptual scaffolding.     

Arms races and the opportunity for peace

We model the evolution of international conflict as a game of sequential decisions and show that arms races are neither necessary nor sufficient for peace or war. Peaceful intentions are not adequate to insure peace, even when both rivals wish to avoid violence. Peaceful intentions together with complete information are sufficient for peace. A preference for forcefully pursuing foreign policy goals also is not sufficient to preclude the peaceful resolution of disputes, and this is true even if there is complete information. In some circumstances, the absence of an arms race can precipitate violence, even giving the military advantage to a nation that unilaterally stopped getting ready for a war it would initiate. Finally, we also show that empirical research is likely to be biased in favor of the hypothesis that deterrence leads to peace. Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum.Vegetius,Artes Latinae     

道德困境研究的范式沿革及其理论价值

通过评述道德困境研究范式的发展过程, 系统阐释了经典两难法、加工分离法、CNI模型法和CAN算法的优缺点和理论价值。后来的研究范式均在一定程度上克服了之前研究范式的局限。加工分离法克服了经典两难法的加工纯粹性假设等局限, CNI模型法在加工分离法基础上进一步分离了道德困境决策的多种心理过程, CAN算法则修正了CNI模型法的序列加工的不恰当预设。研究范式的沿革启示研究者综合应用新方法来解决研究争议和重新审视以往道德理论, 合理应用新方法来探索其他具有潜在冲突性的研究议题。总之, 本文为道德困境及相关研究提供了方法学参考。     

行为可见增加利他偏好及其社会规范机制

在不同社会偏好类型中,研究者较为关注利他偏好及其信号功能。本研究探究在独裁者游戏中,决策者的利他偏好如何受到分配方案对接受者可见性的影响。实验1采用行为实验结合计算建模的方法,发现无论在选择或评分条件下,相比于行为不可见,当分配者的行为能够为接受者所见时,分配者都表现出更大程度的利他偏好。此外,相比于评分条件,在选择时人们更加在意分配效率。实验2仅使用选择条件,并操纵社会规范,发现行为可见增加利他偏好的作用依赖于利他的社会规范,当存在非利他社会规范时,行为可见的影响减小。本研究结果表明,在利他社会规范下,当行为对接受者可见时,人们将表现出更多利他偏好。     

The relative energy of fcc and hcp foams

The energies of face-centred cubic (fcc) and hexagonal close-packed (hcp) monodisperse foams, associated with their total surface area, are equal in the wet and dry limits, in the usual model. We prove that for all intermediate values of liquid fraction, hcp has lower energy. Energy considerations are thus not sufficient to explain the observed preference for crystallization into fcc over hcp in experiments using monodisperse bubbles.     

Lexicographic order preservation and stochastic dominance

Stochastic dominance concerns conditions on outcome probabilities that are necessary and sufficient for one act to be (strictly) preferred to another according to all preference relations that share certain properties, one of which customarily is an Archimedean property sufficient to entail existence of real-valued representations. We relax this assumption to permit linear lexicographic utility of finite and known dimensionality. In some situations, levels of the lexicographic hierarchy could correspond to explicit criteria or attributes. In our model, subjective probabilities emerge as matrix premultipliers of the outcome utility vectors. We thus obtain matrix probability generalizations of the familiar cumulative probability conditions for stochastic dominance.