Epistemic systems are social processes generating judgments of truth and falsity. I outline a mathematical theory of epistemic systems that applies widely. Areas of application include pure science, torture, police forensics, espionage, auditing, clinical medical testing, democratic procedure, and the market economy. I examine torture and police forensics in relative detail. This paper is an exercise in comparative institutional epistemics, which considers how the institutions of an epistemic system influence its performance as measured by such things as error rates and (...) the volume of judgments generated. (shrink)

The American criminal justice system creates incentives for false conviction. For example, many public crime labs are funded in part per conviction. We show that the number of false convictions per year in the American criminal justice system should be considered ?high.? We examine the incentives of police, forensic scientists, prosecutors, and public defenders in the U.S. Police, prosecutors, and forensic scientists often have an incentive to garner convictions with little incentive to convict the right person. These incentives create what (...) economists call a ?multitask problem? that seems to be resulting in a needlessly high rate of false convictions. Public defenders lack the resources and incentives needed to provide a vigorous defense for their clients. Corrective measures are discussed, along with a call for more research. (shrink)

Forensic science error rates are needlessly high. Applying the perspective of veritistic social epistemology to forensic science could produce new institutional designs that would lower forensic error rates. We make such an application through experiments in the laboratory with human subjects. Redundancy is the key to error prevention, discovery, and elimination. In the “monopoly epistemics” characterizing forensics today, one privileged actor is asked to identify the truth. In “democratic epistemics,” several independent parties are asked. In an experiment contrasting them, democratic (...) epistemics reduced the rate at which biased observers obscured the truth by two-thirds. These results highlight, first, the potential of “epistemic systems design,” which employs the techniques of economic systems design to address issues of veracity rather than efficiency, and second, the value of “experimental epistemology,” which employs experimental techniques in the study of science. (shrink)

L’activité entrepreneuriale génère l’activité entrepreneuriale. Cet article développe cette idée dans une perspective autrichienne. Nous envisageons les entrepreneurs kirznériens sous l’angle de l’apprentissage hayékien. L’activité entrepreneuriale développe l’activité entrepreneuriale de deux manières. Premièrement, la mise en oeuvre d’une nouvelle tentative crée de nouvelles opportunités pour d’autres nouvelles tentatives. Deuxièmement, chaque acte entrepreneurial kirznérien est un exemple incitant les autres à faire de même. Nous mettons l’accent sur le second point. Chaque nouvelle tentative entrepreneuriale modifie les perceptions des autres quant à (...) l’émergence des opportunités, aux gens qui peuvent les saisir, etc. Elle rend les gens plus vigilants. Ainsi, l’action entrepreneuriale crée des externalités positives. Ces externalités expliquent que des communautés, par ailleurs identiques, donnent lieu à des niveaux différents de tentatives entrepreneuriales.Entrepreneurship breeds entrepreneurship. This insight is developed within the context of Austrian economics. We view Kirznerian entrepreneurs as Hayekian learners. Entrepreneurship breeds entrepreneurship two ways. First, the founding of a new venture creates new opportunities for other new ventures. Second, each act of Kirznerian entrepreneurship is a favorable example for others to follow. We concentrate on the second point. Each act of newventure entrepreneurship changes the perceptions of others about how new ventures are founded, what sort of person might do it, and so on. It makes people more alert. Thus, entrepreneurship creates a network externality. This externality explains the fact that otherwise similar communities produce dissimilar levels of new-venture entrepreneurship. (shrink)

Israel Kirzner’s concept of “alertness” is recast in the language of phenomenological psychology. Our ideas about things are either openended ideas posing no particular problem of choice, “open possibilities”, or alternatives to choose between, “problematic possibilities”. Choice is the process of formulating problematic possibilities; it is the process of reinterpreting one’s situation. The fully formed reinterpretation generates the chosen outcome as a necessary consequence of preferences and perceived constraints. Reinterpretation precedes choice, both logically and temporally. This understanding of alertness helps (...) to clarify Austrian ideas such as the idea that preferences do not exist apart from action.Le concept de “vigilance” d’Israel Kirzner est reformulé dans le langage de la psychologie phéno- ménologique. Nos idées à propos des choses sont souvent des idées à finalité ouverte ne soulevant pas de problème particulier de choix, “des possibilités ouvertes”, ou des alternatives de choix entre des “possibilités problématiques”. Le choix est un processus de formulation de possibilités problématiques ; c’est le processus consistant à réinterpréter nos propres situations. Dans sa formulation ultime, la réinterprétation génère le résultat choisi comme conséquence nécessaire des préférences et des contraintes perçues. La réinterprétation précède le choix, et logiquement et temporellement. Cette compréhension de la vigilance aide à clarifier les idées Autrichiennes telle que l’idée selon laquelle les préférences n’existent pas indépendamment de l’action. (shrink)

L’activité entrepreneuriale génère l’activité entrepreneuriale. Cet article développe cette idée dans une perspective autrichienne. Nous envisageons les entrepreneurs kirznériens sous l’angle de l’apprentissage hayékien. L’activité entrepreneuriale développe l’activité entrepreneuriale de deux manières. Premièrement, la mise en oeuvre d’une nouvelle tentative crée de nouvelles opportunités pour d’autres nouvelles tentatives. Deuxièmement, chaque acte entrepreneurial kirznérien est un exemple incitant les autres à faire de même. Nous mettons l’accent sur le second point. Chaque nouvelle tentative entrepreneuriale modifie les perceptions des autres quant à (...) l’émergence des opportunités, aux gens qui peuvent les saisir, etc. Elle rend les gens plus vigilants. Ainsi, l’action entrepreneuriale crée des externalités positives. Ces externalités expliquent que des communautés, par ailleurs identiques, donnent lieu à des niveaux différents de tentatives entrepreneuriales.Entrepreneurship breeds entrepreneurship. This insight is developed within the context of Austrian economics. We view Kirznerian entrepreneurs as Hayekian learners. Entrepreneurship breeds entrepreneurship two ways. First, the founding of a new venture creates new opportunities for other new ventures. Second, each act of Kirznerian entrepreneurship is a favorable example for others to follow. We concentrate on the second point. Each act of newventure entrepreneurship changes the perceptions of others about how new ventures are founded, what sort of person might do it, and so on. It makes people more alert. Thus, entrepreneurship creates a network externality. This externality explains the fact that otherwise similar communities produce dissimilar levels of new-venture entrepreneurship. (shrink)

Roger Koppl (2009, p. 1) argues that “Austrian economics is a school of thought within the broader complexity movement in economics.” Is he correct? While there are many who have argued for some overlapping between the two, I shall argue that this is probably an overly strong statement. The main reason is that there are substantial elements and strands within Austrian economics that do not fit in with any of the multiple varieties of complexity theory, even though there (...) are some that clearly do. While I have some disagreements with Koppl’s argument, I think that he does a good job of identifying some of the main strands of Austrian economics that are consistent with complexity thought. The most important of these are associated with the work of Friedrich A. Hayek, who.. (shrink)

Glenn Andrew Peoples has criticized my mind-body theory, emergentism or emergent dualism, on the grounds that it does not, as claimed, allow for the possibility of disembodied survival. I show that his criticisms are misplaced. His objections to my scientific analogies for mind-body emergence misstate what was said by the scientific authorities (Roger Penrose and Kip Thorne) on which I rely. And his philosophical argument relies on a definition of emergentism to which I do not subscribe.

Winner of the Wolf Prize for his contribution to our understanding of the universe, Penrose takes on the question of whether artificial intelligence will ever ...

This is the first comprehensive biography of John Locke to be published in nearly a half century. Setting Locke's life within exciting historical and intellectual contexts, which included the English Civil War, religious persecution, and the Glorious Revolution of 1688, Roger Woolhouse interweaves an account of Locke's life with a summary and development of his ideas in theory of knowledge, philosophy of science, medicine, economics, philosophy of religion, and political philosophy. Systematic and encyclopedic in its coverage, Woolhouse's biography offers (...) both an account and explanation of Locke's ideas, while treating seriously his emotional relationship with Elinor Parry. Based on broad research and many years of study of Locke's philosophy, this volume is an authoritative biography on one of the most significant early modern philosophers. (shrink)

For many decades, the proponents of `artificial intelligence' have maintained that computers will soon be able to do everything that a human can do. In his bestselling work of popular science, Sir Roger Penrose takes us on a fascinating roller-coaster ride through the basic principles of physics, cosmology, mathematics, and philosophy to show that human thinking can never be emulated by a machine.

Natural beauty has often been viewed as a somewhat vague and subjective matter. Even theorists who view disputes concerning the aesthetic value of artworks as involving correct and incorrect judgements have argued that, in many disputes concerning natural beauty, there are no correct or incorrect judgements. In this essay, I consider recent attempts to develop a more objectivist view of nature appreciation based on the role of scientific knowledge in such appreciation. In response to recent criticisms of this approach, I (...) argue that, when developed, it does provide a viable conception of objectivity for nature aesthetics. (shrink)

Roger Montague; VI—Happiness, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 67, Issue 1, 1 June 1967, Pages 87–102, https://doi.org/10.1093/aristotelian/67.1.

The evolutionary theory of artefact proper function holds that an artefact’s proper function is that effect which explains the reproduction of past instances of the artefact type. This theory has many sources but received its clearest presentation in Beth Preston’s essay “Why Is a Wing Like a Spoon?”. More recently, Preston has raised an objection to the theory, based on the phenomenon of ‘phantom functions’: these are functions that an artefact type is unable to perform, but which nonetheless apparently constitute (...) its proper function. Deflecting qi energy, for example, is the proper function of feng shui mirrors, even though no feng shui mirror is able to do this. Preston concludes that the existence of phantom functions refutes the evolutionary theory of artefact proper function. In this paper, the evolutionary theory is defended, by arguing that it can adequately account for phantom function cases. (shrink)

Aesthetic preservation is the idea of sparing natural areas from development because of their aesthetic value. In this article I discuss a problem for aesthetic preservation that I call the ‘hidden gems problem’: in certain cases, the natural area under consideration is so remote and/or fragile that few people can actually experience it. In these cases, it becomes unclear how nature's aesthetic value can justify its preservation when development promises practical human benefits. After rejecting some potential responses to the hidden (...) gems problem, I offer a different solution. I argue that we have an aesthetic reason to preserve nature's hidden gems because they are required to produce ‘true judges’ of aesthetic value, who are capable of improving the general quality of taste for landscape. I develop this argument using the example of recent preservationist efforts to save the isolated landscape of Sable Island, Nova Scotia. (shrink)

Roger Montague; VI—Happiness, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 67, Issue 1, 1 June 1967, Pages 87–102, https://doi.org/10.1093/aristotelian/67.1.

Roger White; X*—Wittgenstein on Identity, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 78, Issue 1, 1 June 1978, Pages 157–174, https://doi.org/10.1093/arist.

While most people may initially agree that justice is fairness, as an evangelical Protestant I argue that, for many religious comprehensive doctrines, the Rawlsean model does not possess the resources necessary to sustain tolerance in moral decision making. The weakness of Rawls's model centers on the reasonable priority of convictions that arise from private comprehensive doctrines. To attain a free and pluralistic society, people need resources sufficient to provide reasons to tolerate actions that are otherwise intolerable. In addition to arguing (...) for the deficiency of the Rawlsean political model, I sketch out a preliminary model of ambassadorship that offers religious communities, and in particular Protestant evangelicals, the necessary resources to engage the broader society tolerantly while maintaining their religious convictions. As a citizen of the church and a member of another kingdom, Christians serve as ambassadors to those who are not of the heavenly kingdom. I take this model to be more ambitious than that of a sojourner who lives in the land but is isolated as much as possible from society, while more modest than that of reconstructionists who seek to implement their own sacred law on all others. (shrink)

Erotikon brings together leading contemporary intellectuals from a variety of fields for an expansive debate on the full meaning of eros . Renowned scholars of philosophy, literature, classics, psychoanalysis, theology, and art history join poets and a novelist to offer fresh insights into a topic that is at once ancient and forever young. Restricted neither by historical period nor by genre, these contributions explore manifestations of eros throughout Western culture, in subjects ranging from ancient philosophy and baroque architecture to modern (...) literature and Hollywood cinema. An idea charged with paradox, eros has always defied categorization, and yet it cannot--it will not--be ignored. Erotikon aims to raise the difficult question of what, if anything, unifies the erotic manifold. How is eros in a sculpture like eros in a poem? Does the ancient story of Cupid and Psyche still speak meaningfully to modern readers, and if so, why? Is Plato's eros the same as Freud's? Or Proust's? And what is the erotic dimension in Nietzsche's thought? While each essay takes on a specific issue, together they constitute a wide-ranging conversation in which these broader questions are at play. A compilation of the latest, best efforts to reckon with eros , Erotikon will appeal not just to scholars and educators, but also to artists and critics, to the curious and the disillusioned, to the prurient and the prudent. Contributors: Shadi Bartsch Peter Brooks J. M. Coetzee Catharine Edwards Anthony Grafton Tom Gunning David M. Halperin Valentina Izmirlieva Jonathan Lear Eric Marty Susan Mitchell Glenn W. Most Martha C. Nussbaum Robert B. Pippin James I. Porter Philippe Roger Ingrid D. Rowland Eric L. Santner Mark Strand David Tracy Richard Wollheim Slavoj Zizek. (shrink)

Roger White; X*—Wittgenstein on Identity, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 78, Issue 1, 1 June 1978, Pages 157–174, https://doi.org/10.1093/arist.

Roger Marples; Is Religious Education Possible?, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 12, Issue 1, 30 May 2006, Pages 81–91, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.146.

In this wide-ranging study of subjectivity and intersubjectivity, Roger Frie develops a critical account of recent conceptions of the subject in philosophy and pdychoanalytic theory. Using a line of analysis strongly grounded in the European tradition, Frie examines the complex relationship between the theories of subjectivity, intersubjectivity, language and love in the work of a diverse body of philosophers and psychoanalyists. He provides lucid interpretations of the work of Sartre, Binswanger, Lacan, Habermas, Heidegger, Freud and others. Because it integrates (...) perspectives from continental philosophy, analytical philosophy, and psychoanalytic theory, this book will appeal to a wide audience in the areas of philosophy, history of philosophy, psychoanalysis, and social theory. (shrink)

The human dimension of nosocomial wound infection: a study in liminalityNosocomial wound infection is a disease that has to date been primarily understood through the language of science and biomedicine. This paper reports on findings from a sociological, interpretive study that focused on the experiential dimension of this phenomenon. The illness experience of a nosocomial wound infection is examined within a cultural milieu that values the smooth, untroubled body and alternatively ascribes cultural meaning to a body that has a definable (...) illness. Within this context the person with a chronic wound from nosocomial infection defies normative categorisation and is thus situated outside the patterning of society. The human dimension of nosocomial wound infection includes the private, existential and embodied aspects of living with a chronic, infected wound. This report indicates that the experiential dimension is characterised by an embodied state of liminality. People with this illness live an indeterminate existence that is in‐between health and illness, cure and disease. As such they have no recognised place in the medical or social world. (shrink)

Nurse researchers are increasingly adopting qualitative methodologies for research practice and theory development. These approaches to research are, in many cases, more appropriate for die field of nursing inquiry than the previously dominant techno‐rational methods. However, there remains the issue of adapting methodologies developed in other academic disciplines to the nursing research context. This paper draws upon my own experience with interpretive research to raise questions about the issue of nursing research within a social science research framework. The paper argues (...) that by integrating the characteristics of nursing practice with the characteristics of research practice, the researcher can develop a ‘nursing lens’, an approach to qualitative research that brings an added dimension to social science methodologies in the nursing research context. Attention is drawn to the unique nature of the nurse‐patient relationship, and the ways in which this aspect of nursing practice can enhance nursing research. Examples are given from interview transcripts to support this position. (shrink)

One of the most serious theoretical obstacles to contemporary spacetime substantivalism is Earman and Norton's hole argument. We argue that applying the bundle theory of substance to spacetime points allows spacetime substantivalists to escape the conclusion of this argument. Some philosophers have claimed that the bundle theory cannot be applied to substantival spacetime in this way due to problems in individuating spacetime points in symmetrical spacetimes. We demonstrate that it is possible to overcome these difficulties if spatiotemporal properties are viewed (...) as tropes rather than universals. (shrink)

Examines the aims and tools of science for creating theories and explanations of phenomena, with an eye to answering the question of whether or not science ...

In Natural Beauty, Ronald Moore presents a novel account of our aesthetic encounters with the natural world. In this essay, I consider the relation between Moore's 'syncretic aesthetic' and rival views of the aesthetics of nature, particularly the view sometimes called 'scientific cognitivism'. After discussing Moore's characterization of rival views in general, and scientific cognitivism in particular, I rehearse his reasons for rejecting the latter view. I critique these arguments, but also suggest that scientific cognitivism and the syncretic aesthetic need (...) not, after all, be viewed as incompatible notions. (shrink)

Suppose we are able to transplant Jones's pain centres into Smith's brain. Half way through the operation we test the pain centres by stimulating them electrically in vitro. Would there be pain? Roland Puccetti argues that there would not be. Because pains must have owners and the only available candidate for that role — the excised tissue — is logically unfit to play it. He concludes that the firing of such centres in a normally functioning brain cannot be pain either (...) and that, therefore, materialism is false.So far as I can see, Puccetti's “refutation” is a series of nonsequiturs from start to finish, and that is what I mainly want to show. It will not follow, of course, that materialism is true. Indeed, I think the view which Puccetti attacks under that name is too naive to be taken seriously by anyone. (shrink)

Roger Squires; Discussions: Dream Time, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 95, Issue 1, 1 June 1995, Pages 83–92, https://doi.org/10.1093/aristotel.

This paper argues that jurisprudential inquiries can be profitably analysed as oriented towards either the explanatory paradigm of discourse or the explanatory paradigm of tradition. The first part of the paper offers a map of the discipline of jurisprudence in accordance with the above two different explanatory orientations. It does so at two levels: 1) ontological ; and 2) epistemological. In the second part the paper, the tension and interaction between the explanatory paradigms of discourse and tradition in the work (...) of five different theorists is considered: 1) Elizabeth Mertz's anthropological linguistics; 2) Nicola Lacey's revision of the relationship between analytical jurisprudence and descriptive sociology; 3) Roger Cotterrell's call for a sociology of legal ideas; 4) Neil MacCormick's concept of law as institutionalised normative order; and 5) Patrick Glenn's notion of a legal tradition. Finally, in the third part, the paper addresses certain implications of the analysis of jurisprudential inquiries by reference to the above two explanatory orientations for comparative and international legal scholarship. The two explanatory orientations are offered as one of many paradigms thanks to which one can recognise the limitations of any one picture of law or legal work. At the metaphilosophical level, the analysis of the paper indicates that there are three options available to jurisprudence, i.e., 1) seek to provide a picture of law or legal work on the basis of one explanatory orientation; 2) maintain pluralism about concepts of law or legal work given their limitations in light of their explanatory orientations; or 3) attempt to combine the elements of both explanatory paradigms in a unified account. The paper argues that insofar as jurisprudence seeks to provide normative resources for responses to certain challenges in the public sphere, it ought to go for option two, namely, for maintaining pluralism about concepts of law and legal work. (shrink)

Roger Gibson; Logic as a Core Curriculum Subject: its case as an alternative to mathematics, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 20, Issue 1, 30 May 2006.

Roger Gibson; Logic as a Core Curriculum Subject: its case as an alternative to mathematics, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 20, Issue 1, 30 May 2006.

Roger Gibson; On the Use of the Name ‘Logic’, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 18, Issue 2, 30 May 2006, Pages 199–211, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467.