Search results for "rationality"

Intenzionalità collettiva, ontologia sociale e mindreading

2014

In his Collective Intentions and Actions John Searle argued that having a preintentional sense of others as at least potentially cooperative agents “like me” is a necessary condition of collective intentionality. He also argued, in Rationality in Action, that understanding others qua intentional agents necessarily presupposes rationality because rational constraints are built into the logical structure of intentional phenomena. In this paper we will try to specify further these claims in the light of current debate on mindreading, where other-understanding is spelled out either in terms of automatic, subpersonal simulative mechanisms, or in terms of normative, rational principles. We will a…

Existence and Communication: Challenge of the Times

2005

How Terrorism Changed the Ways of Interpreting Hospitality

2017

The consolidation of Thana-Capitalism doubtless affected the tourism industry, but also changed the ways in which the Other is conceived. Needless to say, anthropology should play a leading role in providing new theories to understand ‘cosmopolitanism’, and the position of this global dangerous Other in Europe. Discussing and engaging directly with Derrida as well as other scholars, this chapter focuses on how hospitality is dying. The end of hospitality represents a serious challenge of Europe simply because it was ‘the alma matter’ of its rationality and social trust. At times, terrorism targets ‘the exemplary centre of consumption’ to extortionate the developed nation-states, the surveil…

Political Extremism and Rationality

2002

Political extremism is widely considered to be the product of irrational behavior. Originally published in 2002, the distinguishing feature of this collection by well-known economists and political scientists from North America, Europe and Australia is to propose a variety of explanations which all insist on the rationality of extremism. Contributors use variants of this approach to shed light on subjects such as the conditions under which democratic parties take extremist positions, the relationship between extremism and conformism, the strategies adopted by revolutionary movements, and the reasons why extremism often leads to violence. The authors identify four core issues in the study of…

The importance of policy orientation and environment on physical activity participation--a comparative analysis between Eastern Germany, Western Germ…

2002

SUMMARY Environmental and policy interventions are seen as boosting physical activity because they are designed to influence large groups. However, they have not been much researched and the evidence on their role is still quite limited. The purpose of this study was to investigate differences in and relationships between policy orientation, the objective and perceived physical environment, and physical activity between Finland, Eastern Germany and Western Germany. The data are taken from a public telephone survey carried out as part of the international MAREPS project (Methodology for the Analysis of Rationality and Effectiveness of Prevention and Health Promotion Strategies; Eastern Germa…

Economic reasoning and creative industries progress

2017

ABSTRACTThis article offers a theoretical discussion on how major neoclassical economic theory assumptions blur the understanding of creative industries. By distinguishing between creative-rational and creative-intuitive industries, with different compositions of commercial and cultural attributes, we particularly show how the latter sector has characteristics and dynamics that are incompatible with a theory based on preference rationality, profit maximisation and equal access to information among actors. When customer utility is composed of economic, as well as aesthetic, spiritual, social, historical, symbolic and authenticity values, then all these will affect customers' willingness to p…

Limits and Criticalities of Predictions and Forecasting in Complex Social and Economic Scenarios: A Cybernetics Key

2014

Predictions play a key role in assuring the status of “rationality” in decisions. Nevertheless, in the field of social sciences and economics, predictions fail to correctly depict the oncoming scenarios. Why is it so difficult to achieve quantitative prediction of social and economic systems? Can science provide reliable predictions of social and economic paths that can be used to implement effective interventions? As in the notorious “El Farol bar problem” depicted by Brian Arthur (Am Econ Rev 84:406–411, 1994), the validity of predictive models is more a social issue than a matter of good mathematics. Predictability in social systems is due to limited knowledge of society and human behavi…

Untangling knowledge fields and knowledge dynamics within the decision-making process

2020

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyse the influences of different types of knowledge and their inherent dynamics on the effectiveness of the decision-making (DM) process. Knowledge dynamics (KD) is envisioned through the lens of the knowledge fields theory while effective DM process is objectivised via organisational appreciation and reward, higher business performance, sustainable partnerships and managerial satisfaction with previous achievements.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire-based survey was conducted with 275 middle managers from companies operating in the business consulting field. The conceptual and structural model was tested using the partial least squares stru…

Conceptual and Paradigmatic Foundations of ISD

1995

Exploring theoretical frameworks for the analysis of fertility fluctuations

1988

The Easterlin theory, popular during the 1970s, explained population fluctuations in terms of maximization of choice, based on the evaluation of previously acquired information. Fluctuations in procreational patterns were seen as responses to conflict between 2 consecutive generations in which the propensity to procreate is inversely related to cohort size. However, the number of demographic trends not directly explainable by the hypothesis imply that either the model must be extended over a longer time frame or that there has been a drastic change of regime, i.e., a basic change in popular attitudes which determine decision making behavior. 4 strategic principles underlie reproductive deci…