In Reply to the Learned

Liberal education may be highly valued for its humanizing effect, its social value, and its place as a school for wisdom. Each of these reasons for prizing liberal education are discussed in light of distinctions between education as a task and education as an achievement, epistemically slight thought and epistemically robust thought, inherent value and instrumental value as types of extrinsic value, and the historical notion and commencement speaker's notion of liberal education. Consideration is given to the roles of the arts and sciences in liberal education and the limits of philosophy in a school for wisdom.     

Inductive Risk,Science, and Values: A Reply to MacGillivray

The argument from inductive risk (AIR) is perhaps the most common argument against the value-free ideal of science. Brian MacGillivray rejects the AIR (at least as it would apply to risk assessment) and embraces the value-free ideal. We clarify the issues at stake and argue that MacGillivray's criticisms, although effective against some formulations of the AIR, fail to overcome the essential concerns that motivate the AIR. There are inevitable trade-offs in scientific enquiry that cannot be resolved with any formal methods or general rules. Choices must be made, and values will be involved. It is best to recognize this explicitly. Even so, there is more work to be done developing methods and institutional support for these choices.     

The Merit and Mischief of Metaphor: A Reply to Gioia, Schultz and Corley

Gioia, Schultz and Corley have vigorously, yet falsely, attacked the method of metaphor use that I outlined on paradigmatic, ideological and political grounds. Responding to their chief accusations, this reply to their article reiterates the merit of the suggested method for using metaphors and reflects upon its application to the 'organizational identity' metaphor.     

经济学:睁开眼睛,把脉现实!——敬答黄有光教授

经济学必须睁开眼睛,观察现实世界。理论经济学的"假定"尽可能地接近现实,具有真实性,这应该成为经济学范式变革的方向。经济学何去何从涉及一个最根本的问题:现实经济在向何处去?因为,现实经济态势归根到底是经济学何去何从的决定性因素。所以,问题的核心在于:现实世界正在发生巨大变化,经济学就不能停留于传统状态而不思进取和变革。也许继续沿着传统范式走下去,以求更精致地表达抽象符号世界的"最大化"或"最优"图景和努力探讨新的范式结构,以增强经济学的解释力,都是值得经济学家们努力的方向。不过,依我之见,年轻一代的经济学者,值得把更多的精力投入到上述第二个方向上。切准现实世界跳动的脉搏,才能构建更具科学性和解释力的经济学体系。     

应对风险构建危机管理机制

一度肆虐的SARS疫情已被控制下来,中国走出了SARS的阴影,又迎来了阳光。SARS考验了各级政府的领导能力和管理水平,但也提出了警示:我们已进入一个充满危机的风险社会,各种类型的风险随时都可能降临。面对突如其来的灾难,如何高效应对并战而胜之,笔者认为,只有加强危机管理研究,探索危机控制的基本规律,构建危机管理机制,才能化解风险,完成应对各种突发事件的任务,确保以经济建设为中心的工作不动摇。危机构成及表现危机,即意外事件引起的危机和危急的状态。从性质上看,它是指对一个社会系统的基本价值和行为准则架构产生的严重威胁,并…     

The Precautionary Principle Has Not Been Shown to Be Incoherent: A Reply to Peterson

In this journal, I have objected to Peterson's 2006 claim that the precautionary principle is an incoherent decision rule. I defend my objections to Peterson's recent replies, and I still claim that the precautionary principle has not been shown to be incoherent.     

A Reply to Williamson's “Outsourcing …”

A recent article by Oliver Williamson essentially comprises a critique of supply chain management (SCM) from the perspective of his own field, transaction‐cost economics. Here is one reader's response. SCM can indeed be faulted for inflated rhetoric, among other sins. I believe, however, that the two fields have much to learn from each other.     

Reciprocal Upper Semicontinuity and Better Reply Secure Games: A Comment

A convex, compact, and possibly discontinuous better reply secure game has a Nash equilibrium. We introduce a very weak notion of continuity that can be used to establish that a game is better reply secure and we show that this notion of continuity is satisfied by a large class of games.