Retrenching or renovating the Australian welfare state: the paradox of the Howard government's neo-liberalism

Most conventional studies of the former Australian Liberal–National Coalition government refer to its neo-liberal ideological agenda: its concern to reduce government interference with free market outcomes by restricting access to social security payments. That analysis suggests a substantial retrenchment of the Australian welfare state based on redirecting responsibility for the disadvantaged from government to corporations, private individuals and families. Yet there is increasing evidence from reliable sources that the government has not reduced social expenditure, and that increasing resources have been directed, particularly via the family payments system, towards some disadvantaged groups such as low-income families and the aged. Utilising the theory of the US political scientist Paul Pierson, this article explores the joint paradox of Australian neo-liberalism: the punitive treatment of some disadvantaged groups such as the disabled and lone parents versus the generosity towards other groups and, more generally, the growth rather than decline in social expenditure. The author asks what this paradox tells us about the likely future of the welfare state in Australia and elsewhere.     

弱势群体保护的人本主义诠释

当下中国的人本主义发展理念的生成与弱势群体问题有着内在而深刻的关联,人本主义是弱势群体保护的根本性哲学基础与现实出路.人本主义蕴涵了弱势群体保护的价值追求:人是目的;廓清了弱势群体保护的道义基础:社会平等;明晰了弱势群体保护的发力源泉:国家责任;标示了弱势群体保护的有效路径:共享发展.人本主义语境下弱势群体保护的实质是对现代性危机的破解,其理念是对科学发展观的诉求.     

社会成本规避中的政策选择悖论——以济南市前屯居“旧村改造”为个案

旧村改造是城市化土地扩张的政策推进过程。由于土地、产权等相关制度建构的先天缺陷,开发主体行为能力的不足,地方政府与企业常常对改造的社会成本采取规避的态度。社会成本规避与转嫁带来了一系列的不良后果,从而形成了政策选择上的悖论。     

再谈线性规划的悖论

利用线性规划的模型，讨论了目标函数增量，影子价格，常数项增量的特征区间之间的关系，从而给出了线性规划中出现“反多而少”悖论现象的充要条件．并将参考文献[1]中情况进行了推广．     

A simplified taxonomy of 2 × 2 games

All 2 × 2 games are classified into eight configurations, following three natural criteria, and prototypes given for each, especially as concerns the Newcomb and chain-store paradoxes. Two pseudo-dynamic properties, move priority and dynamic inconsistency, are examined in that framework, as well as more specifically, the problem of the origin of social institutions.     

A Smooth Model of Decision Making under Ambiguity

We propose and characterize a model of preferences over acts such that the decision maker prefers act f to act g if and only if 𝔼_μφ(𝔼_πu○f) 𝔼_μφ(𝔼_πu○g), where 𝔼 is the expectation operator, u is a von Neumann–Morgenstern utility function, φis an increasing transformation, and μis a subjective probability over the set Πof probability measures πthat the decision maker thinks are relevant given his subjective information. A key feature of our model is that it achieves a separation between ambiguity, identified as a characteristic of the decision maker's subjective beliefs, and ambiguity attitude, a characteristic of the decision maker's tastes. We show that attitudes toward pure risk are characterized by the shape of u, as usual, while attitudes toward ambiguity are characterized by the shape of φ. Ambiguity itself is defined behaviorally and is shown to be characterized by properties of the subjective set of measures Π. One advantage of this model is that the well‐developed machinery for dealing with risk attitudes can be applied as well to ambiguity attitudes. The model is also distinct from many in the literature on ambiguity in that it allows smooth, rather than kinked, indifference curves. This leads to different behavior and improved tractability, while still sharing the main features (e.g., Ellsberg's paradox). The maxmin expected utility model (e.g., Gilboa and Schmeidler (1989)) with a given set of measures may be seen as a limiting case of our model with infinite ambiguity aversion. Two illustrative portfolio choice examples are offered.     

翻译：归化与异化的悖论

古今中外,翻译中归化与异化的论争源远流长;从崇尚归化到提倡异化,并把异化翻译当作激进地抵抗归化翻译的手段,当代译者(学者)们似乎走向了文化诗学与意识形态上的觉醒。但必须认识到的是,翻译从其本身概念内涵上看是归化与异化的悖论;归化与异化对立统一于翻译过程,它们矛盾对立但并不对抗,在实际的翻译中它们是共生互补关系。     

论翻译的两难境地

翻译源自语族间交流的愿望,而交流的复杂性在于,各民族都有其个性化的生存式样。民族生态的地域性,民族心理的别致性,民族文化的承传性,民族语言生成的历史性,民族语言结构的复杂与独特性等都限制着译者对原文信息的解读与重现,甚至非本族语言形式不能透彻地、淋漓尽致地表达原文。因此,如何达到两种语言与文化间的有效沟通,始终是翻译者与研究者思考的问题。文章运用综合文献分析法,从历时性视域,以语言的自然性特点与多样化生态为分析层面,探视翻译的开放性与"忠实"的相对性。     

传统伦理精神的矛盾和悖论

中西方传统伦理精神,无论是中国文化中以家庭为基础的"伦"的价值建构,还是西方社会发展过程中以城邦、宗教(上帝)或民族国家为基础的道德责任建设,它们都产生于"以人的依赖关系"为基础的群体生活阶段,其产生的特殊文化背景决定了其内在的局限性,这种局限性主要表现为其形态本身内在地蕴含着一定的矛盾和悖论,即人之存在的目的-工具悖论,个体与群体的矛盾,伦理-道德悖论,这些悖论的存在预示着传统伦理精神需要在更高的发展阶段上经过辩证否定来不断发展和完善自身。     

弗罗斯特诗歌的悖论诗学

美国诗人弗罗斯特有着比较复杂的世界观。他认为,世界是一个丑与美的复合体,人类是一个善与恶的组合体。这种悖论诗学在其诗歌中主要表现为四个方面:(1)热爱自然,憎恨自然;(2)热爱生活,厌倦生活;(3)热爱人类,憎恶人类;(4)始于欢乐,终于忧伤。从新批评的视野出发,在精神分析与文化批评视阀下,解读弗罗斯特"乡村哲学家"的悖论诗学,有助于真正地感悟其诗歌中的智慧与真谛。