Dynamics of choice: a tutorial

Choice may be defined as the allocation of behavior among activities. Since all activities take up time, choice is conveniently thought of as the allocation of time among activities, even if activities like pecking are most easily measured by counting. Since dynamics refers to change through time, the dynamics of choice refers to change of allocation through time. In the dynamics of choice, as in other dynamical systems that include feedback, change is away from perturbation and toward a steady state. Steady state or equilibrium is assessed on a longer time scale than change because change is only visible on a smaller time scale. When we compare laws of equilibrium, such as the matching law with laws of dynamics, two possibilities emerge. Self-similarity occurs when the same law can be seen across smaller time scales, with the result that the law at longer time scales may be understood as the expression of its application at smaller time scales. Reduction occurs when the dynamics at a small time scale are incommensurate with the dynamics at longer time scales. Then the process at the longer time scale is reduced to a qualitatively different process at the smaller time scale, as when choice is reduced to switching patterns. When reduction occurs, the dynamics at the longer time scale may be derived from the process at the smaller time scale, but not the other way around. Research at different time scales is facilitated by the molar view of behavior.     

Covenant,blood, and violence: America at war with itself and others

Religious nationalism is dangerous, because it tends toward violence. In the case of America, religious nationalism is preceded by, and dependent upon, a covenant with God that renders judgment against the nation when it fails to embody divine justice. The second use of the law in Lutheran theology, combined with René Girard's scapegoat theory, provides the prophetic public theologian with a searchlight to make visible the nation's justification of violence. The haunting question becomes this: should the prophetic public theologian expose the lie on which American religious nationalism is built and risk sundering human community?     

Is there a world Lutheranism? Accountability and representation in ecumenical dialogue

The following thoughts were occasioned by my experiences representing the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in a variety of international ecumenical dialogues over the past thirteen years. I reflect on some of the fundamental challenges faced by many Lutherans as we seek to represent, as conscientiously as possible, the global communion of which we are members. The question we face is a very simple one: Whom do we represent?     

Home to men’s business and bosoms: philosophy and rhetoric in Francis Bacon’s Essayes

This article claims that today’s reading of Francis Bacon’s Essayes as a solely literary text turns upon philosophers’ having largely lost access to the renaissance culture which Bacon inherited, and the renaissance debates about the role of rhetoric in philosophy in which Bacon participated. The article has two parts. Building upon Ronald Cranes’ seminal contribution on the place of the Essayes in Bacon’s ‘great instauration’, Part 1 examines how the subjects of Bacon’s Essayes need to be understood as Baconian contributions to ‘morrall philosophye’ and ‘civile knowledge’, rather than rhetorical or poetic exercises. In Part 2, contesting the interpretations of Crane, Fish, Ferrari and others, I will argue that the Essayes’ striking rhetorical form needs to be conceptualized in light of Bacon’s renaissance account of the ‘duty and office’ of rhetoric in any moral and civil philosophy that would look to actively cure mental afflictions and cultivate the virtuous or canny conduct it extols. Bacon’s Essayes, in this light, are best understood as a legatee and transformation of the popular early modern genre of books of apothegms and maxims designed to guide conduct.     

医患关系的本质属性及其立法取向

考察医患关系的本质属性,结合国家医疗事业的公益性、医疗立法的宗旨和发展趋势,得出如下结论：医患关系本质平等,医事法属平权法。医事法律关系本质平等,是一种民事法律关系,现行医患关系立法体系下医患关系的某些特征,不能反映医事法律关系的本质属性。     

图形用户界面环境中的鼠标操作活动分析

本研究探讨GUI环境中目标的方向、大小和距离对鼠标指点定位和拖动操作的影响。实验结果表明 ,鼠标指点定位和拖动操作的MT随着目标距离的增加而增加 ,随着目标的增大而减小 ,但下降率呈递减趋势。对于指点定位任务 ,目标方向对鼠标操作的MT有影响 ,而对于拖动操作任务 ,这一影响不明显。总体上 ,以上 3个因素交互地影响鼠标操作的MT。根据本实验数据 ,我们为上述两种常规鼠标操作任务建立了 8个方向的费茨模型。这些结果有助于GUI的工效学设计。     

Virtue Jurisprudence A Virtue–Centred Theory of Judging

"Virtue jurisprudence" is a normative and explanatory theory of law that utilises the resources of virtue ethics to answer the central questions of legal theory. The main focus of this essay is the development of a virtue–centred theory of judging. The exposition of the theory begins with exploration of defects in judicial character, such as corruption and incompetence. Next, an account of judicial virtue is introduced. This includes judicial wisdom, a form of phronesis , or sound practical judgement. A virtue–centred account of justice is defended against the argument that theories of fairness are prior to theories of justice. The centrality of virtue as a character trait can be drawn out by analysing the virtue of justice into constituent elements. These include judicial impartiality (even–handed sympathy for those affected by adjudication) and judicial integrity (respect for the law and concern for its coherence). The essay argues that a virtue–centred theory accounts for the role that virtuous practical judgement plays in the application of rules to particular fact situations. Moreover, it contends that a virtue–centred theory of judging can best account for the phenomenon of lawful judicial disagreement. Finally, a virtue–centred approach best accounts for the practice of equity, departure from the rules based on the judge's appreciation of the particular characteristics of individual fact situations.     

The Post-National Constellation: Habermas and ``the Second Modernity'

For some years now, Jürgen Habermas, possibly the most influential European philosopher of today, has been producing a growing number of publications on world politics. In the historical context of the collapse of bipolarity and the advent of the triad, along with the punitive wars in the Gulf and Yugoslavia, he is very far from being alone: Jacques Derrida and Noberto Bobbio,Michael Walzer and John Rawls, to name only the most forceful, have also been thinking out loud about the new political configurations beyond the nation-state. The characteristic feature of Habermas’s thought is to perceive a radically new historical configuration, which he calls a‘post-national constellation’ and which would justify the development of a new political project, as a transition to a new cosmopolitan law. In what follows, I examine the precise modalities that are supposed to transform his philosophical design into political and legal arrangements, attempting to dissect the Habermasian vision of a post-Cold War politics better adapted to the challenges of the new century, and to throw light on the ideology behind it, as a prolegomenon to the larger project Habermas invites us to undertake. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

理解个人主义要正本清源——兼与黄显中同志商榷

个人主义作为资本主义社会的主流意识形态 ,有其深刻的现实根源 ,并不是理性发展的结果。市民社会与个人主义之间并没有必然联系。个人主义与集体主义存在根本的冲突。为了巩固集体主义在公民道德建设的主导地位 ,我们必须全面地认识个人主义。     

为什么说法家的“法治”是人治的一种表现形式

由于儒家德治思想与德政方略 ,使得人们通常将德治与人治相提并论 ,简单地把法治视为人治的天然对立物。然而 ,历史上的情况却没有这样简单 ,法家主张的“法治” ,就不是人治的天然对立物 ,而是人治的一种表现形式。法家的法治本意 ,是有“法治”而无“法制” ,是君王一人的“法治” ,而不是全社会的“法制”。