Rawls on the maximin rule and distributive justice

Philosophical Studies -     

Minimizing indexicality

I critically examine Cappelen and Lepore’s definition of and tests for indexicality, and refine them to improve their adequacy. Indexicals cannot be defined as expressions with different referents in different contexts unless linguistic meaning and circumstances of evaluation are held constant. I show that despite Cappelen and Lepore’s claim that there are only a handful of indexical expressions, their “basic set” includes a number of large and open classes, and generates an infinity of indexical phrases. And while the tests can be used effectively to combat contextualism concerning ‘knows’ and ‘actual,’ many expressions not in their basic set test positive for indexicality, including quantifier nouns, weather reports, and comparative adjectives. I rebut their claim that context-shifting arguments inevitably lead to radical contextualism, and that if there were any indexicals beyond their basic set, communication would be impossible.     

A maximin model for IRT-based test design with practical constraints

A maximin model for IRT-based test design is proposed. In the model only the relative shape of the target test information function is specified. It serves as a constraint subject to which a linear programming algorithm maximizes the information in the test. In the practice of test construction, several demands as linear constraints in the model. A worked example of a text construction problem with practical constraints is presented. The paper concludes with a discussion of some alternative models of test construction.The authors are indebted to Jos J. Adea for suggesting Equation 17 as a Simplification of an earlier version of this constraint. This research was suuorted in part by a grant from the Dutch Organization for Research (NWO) through the Foundation for Psychological and Psychonomic Research in the Netherlands (Psychon).     

A game-theoretic comparison of the utilitarian and maximin rules of social choice

I will characterize the utilitarian and maximin rules of social choice game-theoretically. That is, I will introduce games whose solutions are the utilitarian and maximin distributions respectively. Then I will compare the rules by exploring similarities and differences between these games. This method of comparison has been carried out by others. But I characterize the two rules using games that involve bargaining within power structures. This new characterization better highlights the ethical differences between the rules.     

Minimizing cost in resource-allocation decisions

Decisions about resource-allocation are faced by us daily, but only recently has published research explored how people make resource-allocation decisions. Previous studies examined resource-allocation tasks where the goal was to maximize payoff with limited resources. In the present study, we extended the literature by examining resource-allocation problems where the goal was to achieve a fixed objective while minimizing the consumption of resources. We asked participants to minimize cost by scheduling two aircraft with differing personnel and fuel requirements under conditions of certainty, risk, and uncertainty. Results indicated that participants could solve such problems surprisingly well, performing best under certainty and worst under uncertainty.     

Minimizing rivalry in San Miniato

A workshop on binocular rivalry and perceptual ambiguity was held in San Miniato, Italy, on 12-15 June, 2002.     

Minimizing Inaccuracy for Self-Locating Beliefs

One's inaccuracy for a proposition is defined as the squared difference between the truth value (1 or 0) of the proposition and the credence (or subjective probability, or degree of belief) assigned to the proposition. One should have the epistemic goal of minimizing the expected inaccuracies of one's credences. We show that the method of minimizing expected inaccuracy can be used to solve certain probability problems involving information loss and self-locating beliefs (where a self-locating belief of a temporal part of an individual is a belief about where or when that temporal part is located). We analyze the Sleeping Beauty problem, the duplication version of the Sleeping Beauty problem, and various related problems.     

Subjective Rightness and Minimizing Expected Objective Wrongness

It has become increasingly common for philosophers to distinguish between objective and subjective rightness, and there has been much discussion recently about what an adequate theory of subjective rightness looks like. In this article, I propose a new theory of subjective rightness. According to it, an action is subjectively right if and only if it minimizes expected objective wrongness. I explain this theory in detail and argue that it avoids many of the problems that other theories of subjective rightness face. I end by responding to some objections.     

Minimizing Intergroup Contact: An Urban Field Study

This study examines the effects of observing the negative or neutral behavior of a black or a white couple on white subjects' subsequent social interactions with either a black or a white person. Subjects encountered either a black or a white couple having an argument or a neutral interaction. Shortly thereafter the subjects were approached by either a black or white male confederate who asked for directions. A 2 (Couple's Race) × 2 (Couple's Behavior) × 2 (Confederate's Race) analysis of variance revealed that white subjects interacted with a black confederate for a shorter period of time after having observed a black couple's argument.     

Minimizing subject loss in a longitudinal study of deviant behavior

A number of techniques are described to prevent attrition of four different categories of subjects in a longitudinal study of deviant behavior.Difficult to schedule subjects required persistence, empathy and flexibility to ensure their continued participation.Reluctant subjects were persuaded to participate by taking special care to build rapport with that family.Subjects who initially refused were turned around by assuming that a subject's refusal one year was circumstantial, and approaching that subject the following year with personalized correspondence that emphasized the importance of their contribution to the research. Persistence was an important factor in successfully locating and recruitingtransient subjects.     

Minimizing sleep deprivation effects in healthy adults by differential outcomes

Sleep deprivation reduces vigilance or arousal levels, affecting the efficiency of certain cognitive functions such as learning and memory. Here we assessed whether the differential outcomes procedure (DOP), a learning procedure that has proved useful to ameliorate episodic memory deficits, can also improve memory performance in sleep-deprived participants. Photographs were presented as sample faces. A probe face was then presented for recognition after either short or long delays. In the differential outcomes condition a unique reinforcer followed correct responses. In the non-differential outcomes condition reinforcers were provided in a random manner. The results indicated that the DOP prevented the recognition memory to decrement during the long delay in the control group, replicating previous findings. The sleep-deprived group showed DOP benefits mainly with the short delay, when working memory could be affected by low arousal. These findings confirm that the DOP can overcome impaired recognition memory due to sleep deprivation conditions.     

Sexting on Campus: Minimizing Perceived Risks and Neutralizing Behaviors

This study analyzes 85 personal narratives to explore the ways young adults navigate sexting exchanges and find meaning in them within the college context. We find that respondents who sext and those who abstain both believe that sexting carries significant risks, including the possibility that one’s sext could be shared with unintended viewers. Respondents attempt to minimize perceived risks through content control strategies such as “keeping it fun,” limiting explicitness, and creating plausible deniability. Moreover, respondents offer accounts aimed at neutralizing their discreditable actions through the claim of normalcy, justification by comparison, and the claim of benefits. We conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for micro-sociological perspectives on deviant behavior.     

Minimizing prediction errors in predictive processing: from inconsistency to non-representationalism

Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences - Predictive processing is an increasingly popular approach to cognition, perception and action. It says that the brain is essentially a hierarchical...     

Minimizing the number of observations: A generalization of the spearman-brown formula

A new method for determining the minimum number of observations per subject needed to achieve a specific generalizability coefficient is presented. This method, which consists of a branch-and-bound algorithm, allows for the employment of constraints specified by the investigator.     

Minimizing Arbitrariness: Toward a Metaphysics of Infinitely Many Isolated Concrete Worlds

A particular fact or event often appears arbitrary and puzzling, until it is exhibited as the outcome of certain causal processes. Usually, though not always, such a causal explanation helps to relieve the feeling of arbitariness, at least for a while. But it is easy and natural for our feeling to reassert itself: We are moved to ask why just those causal processes governed the situation of that fact or event, rather than some others. To deal with this further, larger question, often we can exhibit those causal processes as being, themselves, the results of, or certain specific instances of, prior or more general causalities. Or, much the same, we can redescribe the initial particular fact, and perhaps the cited cause as well, and display the items thus described as an instance of some very general, fundamental law or phenomenon. But any of this will only push the question back one step more. For we can always press on and ask: Why is it that just that very general phenomenon, or law, should be so fundamental, or indeed obtain at all, in the world in which we have our being? Within the usual framework of explanation, law and causation, there seems no place for such curiosity to come to rest. There seems no way for us to deal adequately with the brute and ultimate specificity of the ways in which almost everything appears to happen. And what seems worse, the specific character of certain of these laws or ways, even of quite fundamental ones, often seems so quirky, the very height of arbitrariness.     

Minimizing Bias and Maximizing the Potential Strengths of Autoethnography as a Narrative Research

Up to the current time, psychology has provided very limited space for qualitative research to contribute to the discipline, even though psychology has a lot to do with subjectivity and intersubjectivity in its work. This article discusses autoethnography, which by some qualitative researchers is still being debated. The author argues that autoethnography contains strong narrative components or analysis with potential contribution to provide new understanding and to build knowledge. The article discusses criticisms against autoethnography, followed by its distinctive characteristics, which at the same time bring significant potential power. Clear guidelines and steps are needed to minimize biases and to bring about the potential power of autoethnography, and this article aims to address the issues through discussions on intersubjectivity, reflexivity, and ethics. At the end, it might be concluded that autoethnography is a method to investigate not merely the researchers, but to reveal certain phenomena and issues. Autoethnography is one good alternative among other methods that can contribute to developing understanding and knowledge through the construction of substantive theories about a particular issue.     

Minimizing motor mimicry by myself: Self-focus enhances online action-control mechanisms during motor contagion

Ideomotor theory of human action control proposes that activation of a motor representation can occur either through internally-intended or externally-perceived actions. Critically, sometimes these alternatives of eliciting a motor response may be conflicting, for example, when intending one action and perceiving another, necessitating the recruitment of enhanced action-control to avoid motor mimicry. Based on previous neuroimaging evidence, suggesting that reduced mimicry is associated with self-related processing, we aimed to experimentally enhance these action-control mechanisms during motor contagion by inducing self-focus. In two within-subjects experiments, participants had to enforce their action intention against an external motor contagion tendency under heightened and normal self-focus. During high self-focus participants showed reduced motor mimicry, induced either by mirror self-observation or self-referential judgments. This indicates that a self-focus provoking situation can enhance online action-control mechanisms, needed to resist unintentional motor contagion tendencies and thereby enables a modulation of automatic mirroring responses.