bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Ethics of Algorithmic Outsourcing in Everyday Life
Authors: Danaher John
Published: October 2019

This chapter focuses on one specific application of algorithmic regulation: the use of AI-based personal digital assistants. Rather than being employed as a tool for shaping the behaviour of others, these algorithmic tools are employed by individuals to assist them in their own self-regarding decision-making and goal achievement. The chapter argues that autonomy is under threat in new and interesting ways. It evaluates and disputes the claim that these new threats should not be overestimated because the technology is just an old wolf in a new sheep’s clothing. Finally, it looks at responses to these threats at both the individual and societal level, and argues that although an attitude of ‘helplessness’ should not be encouraged among users of algorithmic tools, there is an important role for legal and regulatory responses to these threats that go beyond what are currently on offer.
The Practical Challenges of Implementing Algorithmic Regulation for Public Services
Authors: Griffiths Alex
Published: October 2019

This chapter focuses on one particularly salient application of algorithmic regulation in the public sector—for the purposes of risk assessment to inform decisions about the allocation of enforcement resources, focusing on their accuracy and effectiveness in risk prediction. Drawing on two UK case studies in health care and higher education, it highlights the limited effectiveness of algorithmic regulation in these contexts, drawing attention to the pre-requisites for algorithmic regulation to fully play to its predictive strengths. In so doing, it warns against any premature application of algorithmic regulation to ever-more regulatory domains, serving as a sober reminder that delivering on the claimed promises of algorithmic regulation is anything but simple, straightforward or ‘seamless’.
Reflecting on Public Service Regulation by Algorithm
Authors: Lodge Martin , Mennicken Andrea
Published: October 2019

This chapter focuses on the potentials and challenges posed by the utilization of machine learning algorithms in the regulation of public services, that is services supplied by or on behalf of government to a particular jurisdiction’s community, including healthcare, education, or correctional services. It argues that the widespread enthusiasm for algorithmic regulation hides much deeper differences in worldviews about regulatory approaches, and that advancing the utilization of algorithmic regulation potentially transforms existing mixes of regulatory approaches in non-anticipated ways. It also argues that regulating through algorithmic regulation presents distinct administrative problems in terms of knowledge creation, coordination, and integration, as well as ambiguity over objectives. These challenges for the use of machine learning algorithms in public service algorithmic regulation require renewed attention to questions of the ‘regulation of regulators’.
Legal Practitioners’ Approach to Regulating AI Risks
Authors: Lohr Jason D , Maxwell Winston J , Watts Peter
Published: October 2019

Many firms, including those that do not regard of themselves as traditional ‘tech’ firms, consider the prospect of artificial intelligence (AI) both an intriguing possibility and a potential new area of risk for their businesses. The application of existing AI technologies raises significant new issues in some of the most fundamental areas of law, including: ownership and property rights; the creation, allocation and sharing of value; misuse, errors, and responsibility for resulting harm; individual liberty and personal privacy; and economic collusion and monopolies. This chapter first examines how businesses are already managing some of these risks through contract. It then examines some of the considerations involved in public regulation of AI-related risks. It concludes by proposing a four-layer model for thinking about AI regulation in the broad sense.
The Definition of Effective Altruism
Authors: MacAskill William
Published: October 2019

The term “effective altruism” has no official definition, meaning that different authors will inevitably understand the term in different ways. Since this harbours the potential for considerable confusion, William MacAskill, one of the leaders of the effective altruism movement, has contributed a chapter aimed at forestalling some of these potential confusions. In this chapter, MacAskill first outlines a brief history of the effective altruism movement. He then proposes his preferred definition of “effective altruism”, aiming to capture the central activities and concerns of those most deeply involved in the movement. Finally, he replies to various common misconceptions about the movement. These include the views that effective altruism is just utilitarianism, that it is purely about poverty alleviation, that it is purely about donations, and that it in principle ignores possibilities for systemic change.
Effective Altruism and Transformative Experience
Authors: Sebo Jeff , Paul Laurie
Published: October 2019

In this chapter, Jeff Sebo and L.A. Paul investigate the phenomenon of experiences that transform the experiencer, either epistemically, personally, or both. The possibility of such experiences, Sebo and Paul argue, frequently complicates the practice of rational decision-making. First, in transformative cases in which your own experience is a relevant part of the outcome to be evaluated, one cannot make well-evidenced predictions of the value of the outcome at the time of decision. Second, in cases in which one foresees that one’s preferences would change following the decision, there are issues about whether rational decision-making should be based only on one’s ex ante preferences, or should also incorporate some element of deference to foreseen future preferences. While these issues arise quite generally, Paul and Sebo suggest that they are especially pressing in the context of effective altruism.
Should We Give to More Than One Charity?
Authors: Snowden James
Published: October 2019

In this chapter, James Snowden examines whether and why a donor might have good reason to split their donations among different charities, rather than give to a single charity. Snowden argues that, in simplified decision contexts, donors maximize expected utility by giving to only one charity. He engages with recent work on risk aversion in decision theory (e.g. by Lara Buchak), arguing that there is an important difference between self-regarding and other-regarding choices. When choosing between lotteries that affect the welfare of others, we should reject risk aversion, instead maximizing expected welfare. In more complex and realistic contexts, there may be various reasons to donate to multiple charities, consistent with maximizing expected utility. However, Snowden argues that the most persuasive such reasons apply to large grant-making institutions rather than typical individual donors.
On Satisfying Duties to Assist
Authors: Barry Christian , Lawford-Smith Holly
Published: October 2019

In this chapter, Christian Barry and Holly Lawford-Smith take up the question of whether there comes a point at which one is no longer morally obliged to do further good, even at very low cost to oneself. More specifically, they ask: under precisely what conditions is it plausible to say that that “point” has been reached? A crude account might focus only on, say, the amount of good the agent has already done, but a moment’s reflection shows that this is indeed too crude. Barry and Lawford-Smith develop and defend a nuanced account according to which considerations of three types are all relevant to whether one has satisfied one’s duties to assist: “inputs” (types and quantities of sacrifice made), “characteristics” (the beliefs and intentions that informed the donor’s decisions), and “success” (the extent to which the donations in question succeeded in generating value).
Effective Altruism’s Underspecification Problem
Authors: Timmerman Travis
Published: October 2019

In attempting to do the most good, should you, at a given time, perform the act that is part of the best series of acts you can perform over the course of your life, or should you perform the act that would be best, given what you would actually do later? Possibilists say you should do the former, whereas actualists say you should do the latter. In this chapter, Travis Timmerman explores the debate between possibilism and actualism, and its implications for effective altruism. Each of these two alternatives, he argues, is implausible in its own right as well as at odds with typical effective altruist commitments. Timmerman argues that the best way out of this dilemma is to adopt a hybrid view. Timmerman’s preferred version of hybridism is possibilist at the level of criterion of right action but actualist at the level of decision procedure.
Faster-than-Light Schemes
Authors: Spence John C. H.
Published: October 2019

Developments since Einstein are summarized. Our systems of units and their relationship to the speed of light. Light propagation in vacuum—what stuff is an electric field made of? Quantum field theory ideas. The Casimir force and energy. Olbers’ paradox and the cosmic horizon. Effect of gravity on speed of light. Schemes for messaging at speeds greater than that of light. The Einstein–Rosen–Podolsky paper of 1935 and its interpretation in simple terms. The reality of the quantum world. Hidden variable theories and Bell’s theorem. Interpretation of many-body quantum wavefunctions—Bohm, Born, Schrӧdinger, Heisenberg, de Broglie, their lives and contributions to physics. The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics and others. The measurement problem and collapse of the wavefunction. Entangled states. The unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences.
A view from the North
Authors: Aikhenvald Alexandra Y.
Published: October 2019

This chapter addresses the issue of coexistence of noun categorization devices within one language. Genders and other noun categorization devices—be they numeral classifiers, or other classifiers—are generally thought of as being relatively independent from one another. Co-existing and overlapping systems of genders and classifiers are cross-linguistically uncommon. The chapter shows that this is a feature of some Arawak languages from north-west Amazonia, two genders—feminine and non-feminine—are obligatorily marked on verbs and nouns, and demonstratives and other modifiers within a noun phrase. Classifiers used on number words, and in a variety of other contexts, categorize the noun in terms of its physical properties, and distinguish gender. Gender is thus integrated within the system of classifiers. Gender markers may co-occur with classifiers in one word. The chapter concludes that gender distinctions and gender markers are uniform across the Arawak language family, and can be reconstructed for the proto-language. The chapter proposes that classifiers may have developed separately in each subgroup within the family.
Democracy in a Time of Misery
Authors: Curato Nicole
Published: October 2019

Misery rarely features in conversations about democracy. And yet, in the past decades, global audiences are increasingly confronted with spectacles of human pain. The world is more stressed, worried, and sad today than we have ever seen it, a Gallup poll finds. Does democracy stand a chance in a time of widespread suffering? Drawing on three years of field research among communities affected by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, this book offers ethnographic portraits of how collective suffering, trauma, and dispossession enlivens democratic action. It argues that emotional forms of communication create publics that assert voice and visibility at a time when attention is the scarcest resource, whilst also creating hierarchies of misery among suffering communities. Democracy in a Time of Misery investigates the ethical and political value of democracy in the most trying of times and reimagines how the virtues of deliberative practice can be valued in the context of widespread suffering.
Spectacular Publics
Authors: Curato Nicole
Published: October 2019

Spectacles have an ambivalent role in democratic life. They can reinforce or break inequalities in voice and visibility. They can inspire or stifle reflections on the political causes of widespread misery. This chapter examines the production, mediation, and reception of the spectacle of Typhoon Haiyan. It argues that dramatic portrayals of the typhoon constructed ‘spectacular publics’ that bestowed attention to the suffering of distant others. While there are valid reasons to criticize spectacular representations of tragedy as ‘disaster pornography’ meant to respond to the demands of audiences with fleeting attention spans, this chapter demonstrates the potential of spectacles in democratizing discourses. Spectacular publics can grow moral communities and transform audiences into publics, which in turn set in motion a series of public deliberations.
Surrogate Publics
Authors: Curato Nicole
Published: October 2019

What can global spectators do to give voice and visibility to the suffering of distant others? Chapter 4 introduces the concept of ‘surrogate publics’ to describe the ways in which witnesses to tragedies act as representatives to communities of misery by making claims about their recovery. The case of Haiyan demonstrates how surrogate representatives like celebrity humanitarians, public figures, and ordinary citizens assert the presence of disaster survivors by offering the voice of care and the voice of justice. While the voice of care was successful in sustaining global attention to the spectacle, the voice of justice sustains the political conversation beyond the immediate aftermath of the tragedy. The chapter concludes by examining the legacy of surrogate publics to deliberative politics.
Greatness of Spirit
Authors: Vasalou Sophia
Published: October 2019

The denouement of Part 1 might seem disappointing. Greatness of soul, that larger-than-life ancient virtue, enters the Islamic world only to fade away. Yet there was another concept belonging to the same broad family that led a more flourishing life in the Islamic world. This virtue, designated as ‘greatness of spirit’ (ʿiẓam al-himma), appears in philosophical treatises but also in other genres, including mirrors for princes and works of literature (adab). Unlike the first concept, which thematized the right attitude to the self and its merits, this second concept thematizes right desire or aspiration, and some of its architects parse it as a foundational virtue of aspiration to virtue. Part 2 first documents its development in works of a philosophical character, notably Yaḥyā ibn ʿAdī’s and al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī’s, before considering its presentation in mirrors for princes. There are interesting comparisons to be drawn between the way the virtue is articulated across different genres, and also suggestive comparisons with approaches familiar from broader philosophical history. These observations invite a question about the origins of the virtue. While the Greek influence cannot be excluded, a stronger argument can be made for the influence of the Persian cultural tradition and, more compellingly, pre-Islamic Arab culture. ‘Greatness of spirit’ was an epithet applied to the Arab hero of pre-Islamic times. This heroic ideal is reconfigured in the Islamic era in important ways. This genealogy allows us to place on new footing the question about the relationship of the ‘virtues of greatness’ to Islamic religious morality.
Lekta in the Stoic Ontological Framework
Authors: Bronowski Ada
Published: October 2019

This chapter examines the schematic map drawn up for the logical structure of the Stoic systēma. In it, rhetoric is distinguished from dialectic and, for the first time in the history of philosophy, signifiers are distinguished from things signified. As for lekta, they are distinguished from impressions, though both belong under the heading of things signified. The position of lekta is analysed both in the light of their being a kind of thing signified and as distinct from impressions. The latter are corporeal states of the soul, whereas lekta are incorporeal and stand in a relation to impressions which both guarantees the independence of lekta from them, and determines the nature of the impressions as rational. The literature on what makes impressions rational is discussed, including the case of the reasoning dog. The verdict is that there is no such animal on the specific Stoic understanding of reasoning. The distinction between a propositional content and a proposition is broached in the analysis of impressions, laying down the foundations for an analysis of rationality as the capacity to grasp a propositional structure, in which something is attributed to something on the basis of conceptions acquired through previous experience. This propositional structure is not invented by us but is what constitutes reality.
On the Reality of Lekta
Authors: Bronowski Ada
Published: October 2019

This chapter focuses on the lekton as an independent item in ontology. It analyses the role of lekta in ordinary language, questioning the claim that lekta are separated from language. Platonic separation is distinguished from the status granted to lekta against a background of polemics and wilful simplifications from ancient critics. The place in ontology of lekta is further sharpened in a comparison with modern speech act theory, to conclude that the Stoics conceive of context and content (even for actors on a stage) in terms of ontological structure, not linguistic production. This hinders an assimilation of the Stoics to the moderns, not necessarily to the detriment of the Stoics, whose position is defended as a competing rather than an underdeveloped theory. The Stoics are shown to propose a radically different ontological framework from their rivals and predecessors. The critiques of the Peripatetics are revelatory rather than damning, their efforts at straitjacketing the Stoics laying bare fundamental incompatibilities. In comparison with the Epicureans, the status of incorporeality is fine-tuned as the differences between Epicurus’ only incorporeal, the void, and the Stoics’ four incorporeals are put in focus. Lucretius’ contribution to the debate, as also the suggestion—ultimately dismissed—of adding limits to the Stoic list of incorporeals, leads to the conclusion that lekta are foundational elements of Stoic ontology.
The Syntax of Lekta
Authors: Bronowski Ada
Published: October 2019

This chapter focuses on the internal structure of the lekton. It traces the critical development of the notion of a sentence from Plato’s ‘shortest logos’ in the Sophist with minimal parts, a mainstay in the Platonic and Peripatetic tradition, to the Stoic perspective focused on the notion of completeness: complete is all that is necessary to get one lekton said, however many words or parts of speech may be required to do so. This debate was appropriated, and its different strands merged by the ancient Grammarians. The Stoic influence in the establishment of the discipline is brought out in the discussion. Completeness leads to considerations of incompleteness. The different kinds of complete lekta (questions, commands, exclamations) are tested against a standard of completeness by stripping away different elements to discover that there is a constant axiōmatic core within each kind. A final discussion of the relation of the katēgorēma to the case-ptōsis unfolds into an analysis of the ptōsis as nothing other than forever dependent on a katēgorēma, with no status in itself, but ensconced in a web of relations between concepts in our mind, the hybrid case-bearer (tunchanon), and the external object. Problem cases such as the conundrum of the perishing lekton and the parakatēgorēma are examined in the light of previous claims.
Introduction
Authors: Bronowski Ada
Published: October 2019

An introduction to the notion of a lekton, appraising the controversy in antiquity and in modern scholarship about its nature and status. The many different contexts in which lekta are discussed are put forward as a first indication of the complexity of the question, and the danger of misunderstanding the Stoics through overhasty preference given to one or the other text and context. Are they linguistic items? Are they mental items? Are they metaphysical items? Amongst our more reliable sources, one thing seems agreed upon, that the Stoics drew the distinction between signifiers and things signified for the first time in the tradition of Western philosophy; and lekta are signified things. The force of this distinction and its implications are crucial questions which only the most unprejudiced approach to the texts can begin to answer. A first suggestion, based on the plurality of different contexts in which lekta are discussed, challenges a too immediate association of lekta with linguistic meanings. In this introduction to the volume, key methodological issues are discussed alongside an overview of the main texts and sources, and a summary of the contents of the following chapters.
‘From Civil Rights to Armalites’
Authors: Scull Margaret M.
Published: October 2019

This chapter traces the Church’s involvement with peaceful civil rights protests in Northern Ireland from 1968 until the end of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) ceasefire in the summer of 1972. During this period the Irish Catholic Church hierarchy condemned violence but demonstrated understanding of civil rights concerns through pastoral letters, media interviews, community visits, and homilies. Irish priests and women religious began to mediate the conflict ‘on the ground’ but found quickly that a small minority who refused to back down from violence began questioning their authority. The English Catholic Church remained silent on the growing conflict, preferring the soft power approach of private dinners with British government officials rather than public statements condemning violence. Bloody Sunday, the killing of British Army soldier William Best, and the Derry Peace Women movement marked a change in Church power relations, as priests and bishops began to openly condemn the IRA.
Conclusion
Authors: Scull Margaret M.
Published: October 2019

The conclusion focuses on the Church’s position in mediating the conflict and ‘dealing with the past’. It examines the Church’s much altered position in Irish society after the revelations of clerical child abuse, and scandals of the Mother and Baby Homes, and the Magdalene Laundries. The conclusion interrogates the Church’s social standing today and questions its longevity as a moral arbiter in Ireland following the successful referenda on gay marriage in 2015 and repealing the eight amendment in 2018. As the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, observed: ‘The Church needs to do a reality check’. In response to some in the media who claimed the marriage equality and eight amendment votes symbolised a revolution rather than a referendum, Martin remarked: ‘It’s a social revolution that didn’t begin today, it’s a social revolution that’s been going on’. For Northern Ireland, the legacy of the conflict includes few solutions for ‘dealing with the past’.
Cutting the Wait—at Least for a While
Authors: Kay Adrian
Published: October 2019

Although health policy was not an original feature of the attempt by New Labour to break from ‘old’ Labour politics in the UK, the alignment of political priority and policy analysis in government produced a successful period in the UK National Health Service. This chapter investigates the case of the historically significant decline in waiting times for NHS services in the decade after 2000; queues which were often at least eighteen months dropped to no more than eighteen weeks by 2010. Unlike welfare state politics generally in the UK, the NHS has always enjoyed great political legitimacy. This chapter reveals how this anchored a notable process improvement in the reform of a well-entrenched, fifty-year-old NHS system in the early 2000s, where previously abandoned programmes were recombined in a strong emphasis on commissioning alongside a significant boost in public expenditure agreed by the initially reluctant Minister of Finance, Gordon Brown. The chapter investigates how this process improvement in turn resulted in significant improvements in access to NHS services over the subsequent decade and presented a sequenced pattern of governing success; from politics to process to programme.
Introduction
Authors: Macartney Huw
Published: October 2019

This chapter introduces the bank culture debate that took place in the political realm. It then explains that the political debate was based on a very narrow reading of bank culture, which focused on improving market conduct via greater market discipline and ethical reforms. The idea was to make bankers behave better. The chapter argues however, that there are compelling structural pressures—under financialization—that determine bank culture in Anglo-America, but which were conspicuously absent from the political debate. The chapter explains why policymakers avoided the more challenging debate about bank culture.
Bank Culture
Authors: Macartney Huw
Published: October 2019

This chapter expands on the two explanations for bank culture. Firstly, it explores the idea that culture is determined by financial and non-financial incentives, and values. Secondly, the chapter explores the financialization of Anglo-America. It argues that financialization stemmed from a crisis of accumulation in the post-war economy, but came to reshape a full range of financial and non-financial corporate activities. It explains though that financialization breeds instability and inequality, and that Anglo-American banks exploit and exacerbate these conditions. This is the argument that will be developed more fully in coming chapters, in order to understand the more significant determinants of ‘bad’ bank culture.
US Responses and the First Phase
Authors: Macartney Huw
Published: October 2019

This chapter covers the early 2000s in the US and explains the backdrop to the legitimacy crisis that unfolded as the culture of banking crisis hit. It explains that following a regulatory tightening after the Enron scandal and the Dot.com boom, efforts diminished by the mid-2000s. Using opinion poll data the chapter then shows how public confidence in both the banks and the political classes fell dramatically as the financial crisis hit. It then explores the initial political responses to the financial crisis, arguing that though bank culture was identified as a problem as early as 2008–9, the initial responses focused only on tightening market discipline to reform conduct.
UK Responses and the First Phase
Authors: Macartney Huw
Published: October 2019

This chapter covers the early 2000s in the UK as a backdrop to the legitimacy crisis that unfolded as the global financial crisis hit. It explains the institutional set-up and the regulatory mindset that prevailed during the 2000s. This helps to explain what changed as financial crisis hit. Using opinion poll data the chapter then explores the fall in public confidence in both banks and state managers as a means of tracking the legitimacy crisis. Then the chapter explores the austerity agenda and rising protests in the UK, before explaining the nascent populist response by UK state managers at the early stage of the financial crisis.
UK Responses and the Second Phase
Authors: Macartney Huw
Published: October 2019

This chapter focuses on the culture of banking debate that emerged following the LIBOR scandal in 2012 in the UK. It shows a range of the harder, institutional and regulatory measures and penalties that were introduced to remedy bank culture. The chapter then moves to discuss the softer, normative agenda that also focused on bank culture change. The chapter contends though, that in both cases state managers were as concerned about tackling the legitimacy crisis as they were about actually improving bank culture. The chapter also shows the glaring absence of a debate on the structural causes of banking culture.
Fines as a Mechanism for Culture Change?
Authors: Macartney Huw
Published: October 2019

This chapter begins with the claims made by state managers that financial penalties would function as an important mechanism for improving conduct and culture in the banks. The main argument of this chapter is that this claim is spurious. The chapter shows that fines bear only a vague relationship to the financial performance of the firms in question. It then explores issues such as the tax deductability of the fines, and the finer details of the penalties themselves to argue that the penalties were primarily part of the populist strategy used by state managers.
Conclusion
Authors: Macartney Huw
Published: October 2019

This concluding chapter first reviews the main arguments of the book. It then examines what has happened in the political and financial spaces since the culture of banking debate became less of a priority in 2016. The chapter focuses on fintech, shadow banking, and high cost credit providers to show that the cultural problems associated with financialization continue to abound even outside of the banking sector. Finally, it turns to Brexit and Trump as evidence of the same anti-establishment sentiment that was tracked in the legitimacy crisis chapters. The book concludes with a word of warning that the legitimacy crisis has only been delayed.
Airy Forms
Authors: Larson Katherine R.
Published: October 2019

This chapter probes the lexical slipperiness of “song” in relation to the dynamic interplay between early modern lyric production and musical practice. It also activates the resonances at play within the equally elusive notion of “form” further to animate song as an embodied genre straddling the boundary between poetic and musical expression. Larson considers the implications these taxonomical reflections hold for an analysis of the anonymous settings of Mary Sidney Herbert’s translations of Psalms 51 and 130, preserved in the British Library. These pieces offer an opportunity to bring a musical approach to lyric form to bear on psalm translations that are typically studied and taught from a visual, rather than an acoustic, perspective. Reading the psalms in terms of sung performance transforms our understanding of Pembroke’s experimental translations and of women’s broader engagement with the genre in the early modern English context.
Voicing Lyric
Authors: Larson Katherine R.
Published: October 2019

Although not every lyric produced in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England was intended to be sung, unpacking the musical facets of lyric circulation holds tremendous implications for our understanding of the performance-based facets of early modern poetics. In confronting these questions, this chapter takes as its focus the literary–musical nexus of the Sidney circle and, in particular, the writings of Mary Wroth, an accomplished musician whose writings abound with musical lyrics and allusions to song performance. Focusing on the manuscript collection of Wroth’s poems now preserved at the Folger Shakespeare Library and on the songs scattered throughout Urania, this chapter considers how reading Wroth’s songs as songs—as metrical compositions written with a tune in mind, adapted for musical setting and performance, or simply meant to be imagined as sung—sheds new light on the affective impact of the musical moments in her writings.
How To Be Trustworthy
Authors: Hawley Katherine
Published: October 2019

The book articulates and defends a core notion of trustworthiness as avoiding unfulfilled commitments. This is motivated via accounts of both trust and distrust in terms of perceived commitment. Avoiding unfufilled commitments is crucial both to practical trustworthiness, and to trustworthiness in speech; on this picture, assertion involves promising to speak truthfully, and simultaneously either keeping that promise or breaking it. Both assertion and the incurring of practical commitments are governed by competence norms, as well as norms of sincerity. So what should we do if we want to be trustworthy? Two perspectives are important: we need to act in line with our existing commitments, but in addition we need to approach potential new commitments with care. We can become untrustworthy by taking on too many—or over-challenging—commitments, no matter how well-meaning we are. Considered narrowly, trustworthiness typically directs us away from new commitments, but this creates significant costs both for ourselves and for those around us. Moreover, we cannot always avoid new commitments, and encounter uncertainty about how we become committed. We face obstacles to being trustworthy, and trustworthiness can direct us to act in ways which are ungenerous, or otherwise unlikeable. Moreover, those of us who live in challenging personal circumstances, whether through material impoverishment, poor health, social exclusion, or power imbalances, face greater obstacles to being trustworthy. This is compounded by the fact that such circumstances—and their impact on the pursuit of trustworthiness—are not always visible to other people.
Telling
Authors: Hawley Katherine
Published: October 2019

This chapter sets out an account of assertion—or telling—which is suitable for a unified account of trustworthiness in both speech and action, and which centrally involves commitment. On this picture, assertion involves simultaneously promising to speak truthfully on a given matter, and either keeping or breaking that promise. The promise is to utter the truth, not merely to be sincere or do one’s best to utter the truth. This account shows how assertion and promising are importantly similar, without implausibly identifying asserting that p with promising that p. The account is distinguished from the so-called ‘commitment account’ of assertion and also from the ‘assurance’ account of the epistemic significance of testimony, though it is compatible with such accounts. Finally, the chapter draws on chapter 2’s discussions of norms on promising, to explore possible norms of assertion; there is also discussion of the constitutive (or not) nature of such norms.
Trustworthiness
Authors: Hawley Katherine
Published: October 2019

This chapter explains the account of trustworthiness and untrustworthiness which fits the commitment account of trust and distrust. Trustworthiness is a matter of avoiding unfulfilled commitments, which requires both caution in incurring new commitments and diligence in fulfilling existing commitments. On this view, one can be trustworthy regardless of one’s motives for fulfilling one’s commitments. This is a negative account of trustworthiness, which means that one can be trustworthy whilst avoiding commitments as far as possible. In practice, through friendship, work and other social engagements we take on meta-commitments—commitments to incur future commitments. These can make it a matter of trustworthiness to take on certain new commitments. Untrustworthiness can arise from insincerity or bad intentions, but it can also arise from enthusiasm and becoming over-committed. A trustworthy person must not allow her commitments to outstrip her competence.
The Mechanisms of Insurance
Authors: Epperly Brad
Published: October 2019

This chapter assesses the descriptive accuracy of two key mechanisms fundamental to the insurance framework, which previous research treated as assumptions rather than mechanisms requiring analysis. First, for the insurance logic to hold, new leaders must not run roughshod over the judiciary: if new leaders violate judicial independence, then the insurance function it offers fails to hold, and therefore we should not expect competition to incentivize judicial independence since its costs would outweigh its benefits. This chapter shows that, all else equal, new leaders across regime type do not systematically violate judicial independence. This established, it addresses the second key mechanism: whether independent courts do in fact provide insurance to former leaders. Using data on post-tenure punishment, the chapter shows that independence is strongly associated with security after power across regime type, and that further empirical implications of the argument corroborate this important mechanism of the insurance model of judicial independence in both democracy and dictatorship.
The Intentionality of Actions
Authors: Persson Ingmar
Published: October 2019

According to the definition proposed by this chapter you intentionally perform the basic bodily action of causing p now if you now have an occurrent decisive desire to cause p directly—that is, without causing anything as a means to it—and this desire now causes something because you correctly and justifiably think that it is p. Since it has been claimed that conscious occurrences are not causally related, this account has to be modified to suit mental acts such as visualizing something. In this connection some rival theories of intentional action which refer to acts of will or volitions are critically examined. Finally, building on the definition of an intentional basic action, the notion of an intentional non-basic action is defined.
Refraining
Authors: Persson Ingmar
Published: October 2019

You let it be the case that q by refraining from causing p just in case: (a) you correctly believe that if you cause p, q will not be the case, (b) you correctly believe that you have an all-in dual power concerning causing p, (c) you do not decisively desire to cause p because you do not find sufficient reasons for forming such a desire, and (d) q becomes the case because you do not cause p due to (c). Since refraining is intentional, it importantly follows from this that characterizing something as intentional does not involve causality. Moreover, when we can refrain from causing something, we must have the all-in dual power of causing it and avoiding to do so. Thus, the concept of refraining raises questions about free will and responsibility which are briefly discussed.
Theism, Pro-Theism, Hasker, and Gratuitous Evil
Authors: Kraay Klaas J.
Published: October 2019

In contemporary analytic philosophy of religion, it is widely held that if God exists, no gratuitous evil occurs. In an important series of papers, however, William Hasker has resisted this view. If Hasker’s argument were to succeed, this would have significant consequences for certain arguments from evil, and for the debate about the axiological effects of God’s existence. Chapter 3 sets out and evaluates Hasker’s argument—three objections to it are considered and rejected, but a fourth objection is developed in a way that places considerable pressure on his view.
A Naturalistic Intrinsic Value Theodicy
Authors: Davison Scott A.
Published: October 2019

The theodicy explored in Chapter 13 is naturalistic in the sense that it does not appeal to the existence of good things or events or processes that cannot be studied using the natural sciences. More specifically, unlike most of the theodicies that are typically discussed in the literature, this one does not involve any claims about human survival of death, the existence of a soul, libertarian human freedom, or divine intervention, miraculous or otherwise. The theodicy explored here involves the following claims: Everything that exists is intrinsically valuable to some degree; the universe as a whole is a thing of immense intrinsic value; the immense intrinsic value of the universe as a whole provides God with a justifying reason for creating it; the evil in the world is offset by the intrinsic values of the creatures affected together with the intrinsic value of the world that comes from its regularity.
Walter Chatton’s Rejection of Final Causality
Authors: Majcherek Kamil
Published: October 2019

The paper examines Walter Chatton’s rejection of final causality. At the core of Chatton’s theory lies the claim that there are four kinds of cause (material, formal, efficient, and final), but only three kinds of causality, because final causality should in a sense be reduced to efficient causality. The author begins by situating Chatton’s theory in the context of the fourteenth-century discussions concerning the problematic status of ends as causes. After that, the paper reconstructs Chatton’s rejection of the opinio communis of his time, according to which both final causes and final causality must be posited. The author claims that Chatton’s objections employ three main arguments, based on (1) ontological parsimony, (2) possible non-existence of ends, and (3) the efficient character of love and desire. Then, Chatton’s own theory is presented. The author’s exposition is focused on Chatton’s thesis that final causes are said to be causes only in a metaphorical sense. The final part of the article examines William of Ockham’s reaction to Chatton’s theory. Arguing against Chatton’s teleology, Ockham wants to prove that we have good reasons to retain both final causes (as real causes) and final causality.
FinTech Disruption
Authors: Callaway Julianne
Published: October 2019

Technological advances have enabled enhancements in the financial services industry such as improved digital sales opportunities, enhanced communication with consumers, expanded accessibility of services, and improved tools for financial planning. These advances are democratizing services once available only to wealthy, extending older peoples’ ability to live independently, and improving their quality of life. This chapter presents a series of case studies explaining how the life insurance industry can use technology and new data to streamline the life insurance underwriting process and improve trust and transparency between insurers and customers. It also discusses how new content can enable on-demand education and simplify end of life planning, as well as the difficulties people face when saving for the types of purchases that can lead to credit card debt and challenge retirement savings. We also touch on the potential for wearable technology to improve wellness and manage chronic diseases.
Nature of Financial Risk
Authors: Shin Hyun Song
Published: October 2019

Risk is endogenous. The brief opening and then the closing of the Millennium Bridge in London in 2000 illustrates how market prices play a dual role: they are simultaneously a reflection of market participants’ actions as well as an imperative for their actions.
Value-at-Risk and Capital
Authors: Shin Hyun Song
Published: October 2019

Value-at-Risk rule keeps the probability of insolvency constant by adjusting leverage. When asset prices change, this rule implies that the demand curve is upward sloping, and can set off margin spirals
Financial System
Authors: Shin Hyun Song
Published: October 2019

In a financial system of interlocking balance sheets, the assets of creditors are the liabilities of debtors. A change in the value of underlying assets can ripple through the financial system through valuation changes on balance sheets. Tarski’s fixed point theorem guarantees the existence of consistent valuations. Under mild regularity conditions, there is a unique fixed point. Comparative statics analysis can be used to show how systemic risk propagates.
A Fresh Start
Authors: Shin Hyun Song
Published: October 2019

Monetary policy that aims only at real variables may neglect important financial stability considerations. A joined-up approach that takes together real activity and financial stability considerations will need to be employed in order not to repeat the experience of the Great Financial Crisis.
Debating Education
Authors: Brighouse Harry , Schmidtz David
Published: October 2019

Debating Education puts two leading scholars in conversation with each other on the subject of education—specifically, what role, if any, markets should play in policy reform. Each advances nuanced arguments and responds to the other, presenting contrasting views on education as a public good. One author argues on behalf of a market-driven approach, making the case that educational opportunities do not need to be equal in order to be good. The ideal of education is not equally preparing students to win a race but maximally preparing each student to make a contribution. The other focuses on inequality, particularly the unequal distribution of rewards. The argument is that justice requires prioritizing the prospects of the bottom 30 percent of the population, whose life prospects are much worse than justice would demand, given the current wealth of society. The moral imperative of education should be to improve this group’s range of opportunities. This part of the book expresses serious skepticism that market mechanisms are capable of this task, due to imperfections in educational markets, a lack of appropriate regulations, political influence, and other systemic obstacles.
Surface Energy and Capillary Pressure
Authors: Mate C. Mathew , Carpick Robert W.
Published: October 2019

The energies associated with surfaces—surface energy, interfacial energy, surface tension, and work of adhesion—drive many surface and interfacial phenomena including tribological ones such as adhesion and friction. This chapter discusses the physical origins of surface energies for liquids and solids, and how the concepts of capillary pressure, capillary condensation, wetting, and work of adhesion are derived from surface energy. Further, this chapter covers the different methods for measuring surface energies, including the most common method for solid surfaces: contact angle measurements of liquid droplets on surfaces. This chapter also introduces how surface energies and surface tensions lead to adhesion and adhesion hysteresis between contacting surfaces, which is followed up in the subsequent chapters on surface forces.
The Problem of Old Evidence
Authors: Sprenger Jan , Hartmann Stephan
Published: October 2019

In science, phenomena are often unexplained by the available scientific theories. At some point, it may be discovered that a novel theory accounts for this phenomenon—and this seems to confirm the theory because a persistent anomaly is resolved. However, Bayesian confirmation theory—primarily a theory for updating beliefs in the light of learning new information—struggles to describe confirmation by such cases of “old evidence”. We discuss the two main varieties of the Problem of Old Evidence (POE)—the static and the dynamic POE—, criticize existing solutions and develop two novel Bayesian models. They show how the discovery of explanatory and deductive relationships, or the absence of alternative explanations for the phenomenon in question, can confirm a theory. Finally, we assess the overall prospects of Bayesian Confirmation Theory in the light of the POE.
Hypothesis Tests and Corroboration
Authors: Sprenger Jan , Hartmann Stephan
Published: October 2019

According to Popper and other influential philosophers and scientists, scientific knowledge grows by repeatedly testing our best hypotheses. However, the interpretation of non-significant results—those that do not lead to a “rejection” of the tested hypothesis—poses a major philosophical challenge. To what extent do they corroborate the tested hypothesis or provide a reason to accept it? In this chapter, we prove two impossibility results for measures of corroboration that follow Popper’s criterion of measuring both predictive success and the testability of a hypothesis. Then we provide an axiomatic characterization of a more promising and scientifically useful concept of corroboration and discuss implications for the practice of hypothesis testing and the concept of statistical significance.