A comment on ‘the extraordinary claim of praxeology’ by Professor Gutiérrez

Ludvig von Mises and the Austrian School of Praxeological Economics do make a claim that can only be considered extraordinary, considering the type of methodology that now pervades our social science Establishment. And the claim is that there is economic knowledge that can be both known with apodictic certainty, and be of great usefulness in understanding the world in which we live. Prof. Gutiérrez, defending the accepted view that knowledge can either be known with apodictic certainty, or have usefulness for understanding the real world, but not both, attacks praxeological allegations to the contrary, and is in turn, criticized by the author. Under contention are the status of the a priori nature of the category of human action, the basic premise of praxeology, as well as several other claims:

1. Human action can only be undertaken by individual actors
2. Action necessarily requires a desired end and a technological plan
3. Human action necessarily aims at improving the future
4. Human action necessarily involves a choice among competing ends
5. All means are necessarily scarce
6. The actor must rank his alternative ends
7. Choices continually change, both because of changed ends as well as means
8. Labor power and nature logically predate, and were used to form, capital
9. Technological knowledge is a factor of production

This exchange involves not so much specific disagreements between Gutiérrez and the author as it does the different world views of two competing philosophies of social science. To put it in its historical perspective, what we have here can be characterized as evolving from the debates concerning the possibility of synthetic a priori statements, first raised by Immanuel Kant and David Hume, but applied to the conceptual foundations of modern economics.     

Covering the birth of a nation: The rise of Saudi Arabia in The London Times, 1927–1937

Saudi Arabia is considered as one of the most conservative countries in the world with regards to the role of religion in shaping national politics. We use a history of Saudi Arabia and British imperialist policy to contextualize the framing of religion in news coverage of Saudi Arabia in The London Times between 1927 and 1937 to uncover themes that were available to British readers before and after recognizing Saudi Arabia as a nation on September 23, 1932. We found that religious fundamentalism was part of this coverage, providing one potential media framework for understanding Saudi Arabia that is consistent with current coverage and discussions. We also found instances of favorable framing of events and individuals, which seemed to intensify after Saudi Arabia's recognition as a nation.     

Social work, social networks and network knowledge

Summary The claim that there is something distinctive about the kindof knowledge associated with social work research is investigated.When three tests of distinctiveness are applied it emerges thatthe only way in which this claim can be upheld is by referenceto a prior claim to ontological distinctiveness. The natureof this distinctive ontology is explored using an image of linksand interdependencies. It is argued that complexity is integralto both the world of social work practice and the process ofdoing social work research. Alternative conceptions of complexityin the physical and social sciences are discussed but it issuggested that social work research needs its own concept of'network knowledge' if it is to deliver understandings of complexityrelevant to the world in which it exists. Finally, the extentto which network knowledge is networked knowledge, collectivelyowned and produced is examined. The article concludes that bylinking the concept of knowledge to the process of knowledgecreation, what emerges is not only a distinctive research paradigmbut also a way of rebuilding a concept of professional unityand purpose in social work education.     

SPECIAL ISSUE： THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE The Third Sense of Enlightenment as Seen in the Critique of the Power of Judgment

对现代启蒙批判思潮的反批判,康德哲学固然能够在基本原则和方法方面提供富有成效的支持,但这应是现代人所面临的任务和解决的问题。理性在今天依然占据首要的地位,但相比于启蒙时代人们对它的展望和憧憬,理性非但没有形成内在一致的统一体系,反而更趋多样化,呈现更多的内在矛盾。康德《判断力批判》诠证了理性诸多领域与不同原理之间关联的可能性和途径,揭明了启蒙的第三要义：理性不仅展现为不同的能力、原理和层面,而且这些领域及其现象可以分别予以探讨;不同的理性原理之间和不同领域之间的关联在理论上或是不清楚的,但它们在现象之中却确实地建立了起来;关于现象的表述原本可以分为不同层次,除了构造自然对象知识和人类行为法则的能力和形式,理性亦有构造情绪现象与审美现象的能力和形式。因此,理性批判并不限于通过对现有各种形式的知识的分析,揭示既有的理性形式及其构造活动,而且还在于发现理性的新形式和构造的可能性,从而揭示具有新的形式和性质的知识的可能性条件,直至这种知识本身。     

论全球化时代价值冲突的统合

对全球化价值冲突进行统合的渠道和机制可概括为四个方面因特网、知识经济、全球市场和全球组织.因特网文化是全球价值冲突的文化统一场;知识经济是后发现代化国家价值选择的路径依赖;全球市场是构建价值统合的经济平台;全球组织则是全球价值冲突的中心协调机制.     

Bodies of Knowledge: Beyond Cartesian Views of Persons, Selves and Mind

In this piece, I argue against the Cartesian trend of seeing persons, selves and mind as something distinct from the body. It is claimed that Descartes realized the importance of the link between body and mind, but never pursued this connection, and this then becomes the aim of the paper. Another effect of Cartesian modes of thinking is to divorce human knowledge from its material contexts, driving a wedge between mind and matter. Some forms of social constructionism appear to fall into this latter trap and instead I argue for a view of persons as embodied beings whose selves are intimately connected to the body. Using the work of Bourdieu, Elias, Merleau-Ponty, and Ilyenkov, I also suggest that thought cannot be disengaged from a human body active in its world and that knowledge not only partly separates us from the materiality of existence, but connects us to it in deeper ways, as another dimension of human existence. Human beings can then be regarded as bodies of knowledge – active thinkers and persons engaged with the multi-dimensional world around them and capable of producing change.     

Arms races in the developing world: some policy implications

An arms race exists when a country’s propensity to acquire arms is influenced by a potential adversary’s military spending. When evaluating the impact of economic policies towards the developing world, e.g., foreign assistance programs, it is important to identify if an arms race exist between dyads of recipient nations. The reason is that if the impact of the policy is favorable to the country deemed to be “causing” an arms race, then the policy will not only increase the amount of weapons of the recipient country, but of the other as well. This will increase the probability of war if it is positively related to the stock of weapons of these adversaries.Consequently, this paper investigates the direction of prima facie casual relationship between the military expenditures of potential adversaries in the developing world by using parametric causality tests. We conclude that some of these country’s expenditures seem to reflect an arms race while other proposed dyads seem not to be adversaries, i.e., their expenditures are independent and therefore seem to be governed by other than an external threat.     

贾平凹小说的“卖点”分析

在文化消费强势启动的当下社会,贾平凹小说的“卖点”是一个非常值得探讨的话题。他为当代文学呈现了一个具有鲜活日常生活观感的文本世界,成为全球化、城镇化时代的一种稀缺资源;他作品中神秘的超现实生活,对于喜爱追新逐奇的文化大众来说,可谓是投其所好;赤裸裸的性与精美的文化包装,也为贾平凹的小说文本制造了大量“卖点”。     

A new challenge to economic science: Global model simulation

The FUGI (Futures of Global Interdependence) global modeling system has been developed as a scientific policy modeling and future simulation tool of providing global information to the human society and finding out possibilities of policy co-ordination among countries in order to achieve sustainable development of the global economy co-existing on the planet Earth in the ever changing universe. The FUGI global model M200 classifies the world into 200 countries/regions where each national/regional model is globally interdependent. Each national/regional model has nine subsystems as population, foods, energy, environment, economic development, peace and security, human right, healthcare and quality of life (IT revolution). This is a super complex dynamic system model using integrated multidisciplinary systems analysis where number of structural equations is over 170,000. Economic model as a core includes major economic variables such as production of GDP, employment, expenditures of GDP, income distribution, prices, money, interest rates and financial assets, government finance, international balance of payments, international finance, foreign exchange rates and development indicators.The purpose of this article is twofold, namely to provide information on a new frontier science of economics: global model simulation as well as appropriate policy exercise for sustainable development of the interdependent global economy. The world economy is facing “green” energy revolution to change from fossil to create alternative energy and energy saving technology against sky rocketing higher oil prices. Japan takes a lead in this field of technology innovation. Under such circumstances, Japan should take an initiative to create a new peaceful world through not only harmonized adjustments of Japanese economic policy but also wise cosmic mind to promote human solidarity with the ever changing nature will be desirable to adjust orbit of the fluctuated global economy. Japan should challenge for a new strategy to accelerate economic growth rates by “CO₂ reducing environment investment” based on technology innovations.     

Professional Values and Ethics in Social Work: Reconsidering Postmodernism?

Correspondence to Professor Richard Hugman, School of Social Work, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia. E-mail: r.hugman{at}unsw.edu.au Summary The ‘postmodern turn’ in social theory has raisedquestions for understanding the social world. The implicationsof these debates for social work values and ethics are the centralfocus of this article. The implications of a postmodern viewof social work are examined and compared with criticisms ofpostmodern theory. It is argued that a critical considerationof postmodern insights may assist social work to examine thediverse, provisional and uncertain nature of all aspects ofour world, including knowledge and skills, values and ethics.Such an approach strengthens the case for a discursive modelof ethics.     

The effects of centralising electoral management board design*

The public administration of elections frequently fails. Variation in the performance of electoral management bodies around the world has been demonstrated, illustrated by delays in the count, inaccurate or incomplete voter registers, or severe queues at polling stations. Centralising the management of the electoral process has often been proposed as a solution. There has been little theorisation and no empirical investigations into the effects that centralising an already decentralised system would have, however. This article addresses this lacuna by conceptualising centralisation through the literature on bureaucratic control and discretion. It then empirically investigates the effects through a case study of centralisation in two UK referendums. Semi-structured interviews were used with those who devised the policy instrument and those who were subject to it. The introduction of central directions had some of the desired effects such as producing more consistent services and eliminating errors. It also had side effects, however, such as reducing economic efficiency in some areas and overlooking local knowledge. Furthermore, the reforms caused a decline of staff morale, job satisfaction and souring of relations amongst stakeholder organisations. The process of making organisational change therefore warrants closer attention by policy-makers and future scholarship on electoral integrity.     

Changes in the world income distribution

Drawing on new international comparison estimates for 127 nations, this study examines in some detail for the decinnial years 1950–1980 the world size distribution of income. Different income concepts—national output valued in different ways, and also consumption alone; and income per-equivalent adult as well as per capita—have been considered in judging how world inequality has changed. The principal findings are: (i) at a point in time, the intercountry differences in income—differences among nations—are greater than the usually observed intracountry differences in income—differences within nations; and (ii) over time systematic differences in national economic growth rates of countries led on balance to very slightly increased intercountry inequality (quite possible not beyond the margin of measurement error) but that (and this judgment is quite tentative) the changes in intracountry inequality over time have left inequality in the overall distribution unchanged.     

简谈越南汉文赋对中国赋的借鉴与发展

在题材与内容上，越南汉文赋借鉴了中国赋原有的咏物、纪行、抒情等题材及歌颂、讽谏等特点，以及中国各种历史与文化知识。与之同时，越南赋也创出了自己有民族特色的表现方式，体现出历代越南士大夫的思维、思想、志向与感情。     

Where the Sidewalk Ends: The Limits of Social Constructionism

The sociology of knowledge is a heterogeneous set of theories which generally focuses on the social origins of meaning. Strong arguments, epitomized by Durkheim's late work, have hypothesized that the very concepts our minds use to structure experience are constructed through social processes. This view has come under attack from theorists influenced by recent work in developmental psychology that has demonstrated some awareness of these categories in pre‐socialized infants. However, further studies have shown that the innate abilities infants display differ in systematic and theoretically significant ways from adults' explicit knowledge. This paper moves beyond the constructionist/nativist dichotomy by outlining the complex relationships between innate intelligence and explicit knowledge. I end by suggesting that there are four, distinct ways the social world influences thought‐ facilitation, division, specification, and construction.     

《天演论》阐译研究

“释”是严译《天演论》达旨术最重要的变通策略“增”之一种。“释”的单位有字、词、小句、复句，以词语为多。“释”的方式有释正以俗、释以中例、释略以详、释以背景、释以内涵等。严译的“释”具有释疑解惑、解释原因、具化内容、提供相关知识等功能。     

The logic of preference reconsidered

Preferences are an important object of study in economic theory. Their logico-mathematical study has become prominent with the raise of modern decision theory and with the new conceptions of utility-functions and personalistic probabilities. The ‘basic logic’ at the foundation of the more advanced theories of preference, however, has been relatively little investigated. The pioneer work is Hallden's The Logic of ‘Better’ of the year 1957, followed by von Wright's The Logic of Preference in 1963. The topic has turned out unexpectedly problematic and there is as yet little consensus among logicians about the basic laws of preferring. A reason for this is apparently that there exist several concepts of preference which must be disentangled and kept apart in a logical theory. How this is to be done is discussed in the introductory sections (1–5) of the present paper. In Section 8 is sketched a logic for an asymmetric and connected preference-relation which holds between ‘possible worlds’ within a subject's ‘preference-horizon’ (Section 7). Preferences between states of affairs generally are called holistic when they hold ceteris paribus, i.e., when there is a corresponding preference-relation between any pairs of possible worlds which differ only in those two states and in no others. (Section 6.) Holistic preferences between states are asymmetrical and transitive but they do not form a linear preference order. (Section 9.) Failure to notice this, the author maintains, is responsible for much confusion in the traditional treatment of the subject. In the concluding sections (10–12) the author discusses the mutual relations of the value-absolutes, the good and the bad. Can they be defined in the terms of the relative notion of betterness or preference (and logical constants) alone? The definition which says that the goodness of a state is the holistic preference of it over its contradictory, answers the question affirmatively but conflicts with several deep-rooted axiological intuitions of ours. A more satisfying definition of the value-absolutes requires the additional notion of a value-less state (world) with which all the other states may be compared. In this connection some ideas of G. E. Moore about the notion of an ‘empty’ world can be interestingly exploited.     

论当代大学生的网络责任感

网络的迅速发展与普及,一方面有利于大学生开阔视野,学习新知识,思考新问题,更为全面地认识世界;另一方面,由于大学生正处于人生观、价值观、世界观形成时期,缺乏足够的辨别力与抵御力,很容易沉溺其中,对自身良好网络道德意识、网络责任感的养成构成了极大的挑战。为此有必要加强网络德育工作,健全各种规章制度,做到自律与他律相结合,增强大学生的网络责任感,使其更好地适应网络社会的发展需要。