Is the Future more or less Human? Differing Views of Humanness in the Posthumanism Debate

A debate has emerged in the bioethics literature about the use of biotechnology to modify human nature. A failure to define humanness has produced conceptual confusion in this debate. We draw upon recent social psychological work on folk concepts of humanness and dehumanization to analyse the understandings of humanness that underpin the rival positions. We argue that advocates and opponents of human nature modification employ distinct conceptions of humanness, and that their differing evaluations of modification make sense in light of these conceptions. Advocates view modification as the enhancement of a non‐essentialist sense of humanness that takes us further from animal nature. Opponents view it as the loss of an essentialist sense of humanness that takes us closer to a robotic state. Recognition that humanness has multiple senses implies that there is no mutually exclusive choice between seeing the outcome of modification as a quantitative gain in humanness or a fundamental, qualitative loss of it.     

ON THE EVOLUTION OF TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY IN LATIN AMERICA

Because of several policy distortions, including import‐substitution industrialization, widespread government intervention, and both domestic and international competitive barriers, there has been a general presumption that Latin America has been much less productive than the leading economies in the last decades. In this paper we show, however, that until the late 1970s Latin American countries had high productivity levels relative to the United States. It is only after the late 1970s that we observe a fast decrease of relative total factor productivity (TFP) in Latin America. We also show that the inclusion of human capital in the production function makes a crucial difference in the TFP calculations for Latin America. (JEL O11, O47, O54)     

ARM-BREAKING, CONSUMER CREDIT AND PERSONAL BANKRUPTCY

The consumer credit transaction is analyzed as a contract which provides insurance as well as present consumption for the borrower. Creditors' remedies such as "arm-breaking" are shown to facilitate provision of insurance (forgiveness of debts) when lenders cannot monitor outcomes. Alternatively, if outcomes are observable but lenders do not ex ante know the risk associated with each borrower, the market may generate an excessive amount of arm-breaking and agreements to forgo discharge following bankruptcy as low risk borrowers signal their characteristics, suggesting that government limitations on such provisions might be efficient. The secured credit transaction is shown to be a complex contract which attempts to provide efficient repayment, seller incentives for performance and mitigation following default, and insurance for the borrower. Garnishment and discharge of debts following bankruptcy are also considered.     

The political mobilization of Irish farmers

L'article cherche une explication à la rébellion agraire en Irlande à la fin du dix-neuvième siècle. Bien que le niveau de mécontentement en Irlande rurale ait étéélevé lorsque la rébellion a éclate, une telle situation n'était pas sans précédent. Le mécontentement avait été tout aussi intense auparavant (surtout durant la première moitié du dix-neuvième siècle) sans de conséquences politiques semblables. Afin de comprendre pourquoi c'est à la fin du dix-neuvième siècle que les tenanciers ruraux irlandais se sont rebellés, il faut se rendre compte qu'un nouvel ensemble de conditions sociales favorables à la mobilisation politique rurale sont apparues durant les décades qui ont précédé la rébellion. Sans épuiser le sujet, l'auteur suggère que ces conditions étaient un leadership fourni par le mouvement nationaliste et une base organisationnelle fournie par un nombre de structures, en particulier la relation de coopération qui s'est développée durant la période qui a suivi la famine entre les tenanciers ruraux et une partie de la population des villes. L'étude supporte la thèse de la mobilisation plutôt que celle du mécontentement pour l'analyse des mouvements de contestations. This paper seeks to explain why an agrarian rebellion broke out in Ireland in the late nineteenth century. Although the level of discontent in rural Ireland was certainly high when the rebellion broke out, such a situation was not unprecedented. Discontent had been just as intense at earlier points in time (most notably during the first half of the nineteenth century) without similar political consequences. In order to understand why it was in the late nineteenth century that Irish rural tenants rebelled, we have to recognize that in the decades preceding the rebellion there had developed a new set of social conditions that facilitated rural political mobilization. Without exhausting the subject, the author suggests that these conditions consisted of leadership provided by the nationalist movement and an organizational base, provided by a number of structures, among which special emphasis is given to the cooperative relationship that emerged in the postfamine period between rural tenants and a segment of the town population. The study gives support to the mobilization rather than to the discontent thesis for the study of social protest.     

RENT‐SEEKING AND CAPITAL ACCUMULATION

A general model incorporating rent‐seeking activities in the standard neoclassical model of capital accumulation is presented. The welfare of the representative agent is negatively affected by the efficiency of rent‐seeking activities. Although intuitive, this result is not obvious because long‐run income can be positively affected by more efficient rent‐seeking activities. The model is used to provide explanations for some recent experiences in developing countries, including the relative poor performance of economies that experience a move to a more decentralized system and the observed path of total factor productivity (TFP) in countries like Ireland and Venezuela. (JEL D23, D74, O40, O41, O47)     

THE REHABILITATION EFFECT OF PUNISHMENT

The putatively beneficial effect of punishment on criminal offenders is examined by estimating a logistic specification of a two-period model of optimal participation in illegitimate and legitimate activities. Estimates are obtained utilizing a sample of parolees released from all adult correctional institutions in the United States during 1972. The conclusion would seem to be that incarceration is not substantially effective in rehabilitation efforts and may even have a result opposite to that intended: increased punishment may increase optimal participation in crime.