Drawing on current debates at the frontiers of economics, psychology, and political philosophy, this book explores the challenges that arise for liberal democracies from a confrontation between modern technologies and the bounds of human rationality.With the ongoing transition of democracy’s underlying information economy into the digital space, threats of disinformation and runaway political polarization have been gaining prominence. Employing the economic approach informed by behavioral sciences’ findings, the book’s chief concern is how these challenges can be addressed while preserving a commitment to democratic values and maximizing the epistemic benefits of democratic decision-making. The book has two key strands: it provides a systematic argument for building a behaviorally informed theory of democracy; and it examines how scientific knowledge on quirks and bounds of human rationality can inform the design of resilient democratic institutions. Drawing these together, the book explores the centrality of the rationality assumption in the methodological debates surrounding behavioral sciences as exemplified by the dispute between neoclassical and behavioral economics; the role of (ir)rationality in democratic social choice; behaviorally informed paternalism as a response to the challenge of irrationality; and non-paternalistic avenues to increase the resilience of the democratic institutions toward political irrationality.This book is invaluable reading for anyone interested in behavioral economics and sciences, political philosophy, and the future of democracy.
Drawing on current debates at the frontiers of economics, psychology, and political philosophy, this book explores the challenges that arise for liberal democracies from a confrontation between modern technologies and the bounds of human rationality.With the ongoing transition of democracy’s underlying information economy into the digital space, threats of disinformation and runaway political polarization have been gaining prominence. Employing the economic approach informed by behavioral sciences’ findings, the book’s chief concern is how these challenges can be addressed while preserving a commitment to democratic values and maximizing the epistemic benefits of democratic decision-making. The book has two key strands: it provides a systematic argument for building a behaviorally informed theory of democracy; and it examines how scientific knowledge on quirks and bounds of human rationality can inform the design of resilient democratic institutions. Drawing these together, the book explores the centrality of the rationality assumption in the methodological debates surrounding behavioral sciences as exemplified by the dispute between neoclassical and behavioral economics; the role of (ir)rationality in democratic social choice; behaviorally informed paternalism as a response to the challenge of irrationality; and non-paternalistic avenues to increase the resilience of the democratic institutions toward political irrationality.This book is invaluable reading for anyone interested in behavioral economics and sciences, political philosophy, and the future of democracy.
Geopolitics of Global Catholicism uncovers the key trends in today’s Catholicism, providing an incisive analysis of its deep entanglement with national, regional, as well as global politics.This book offers an exciting exploration of five versions of local Catholicism(s) and sheds light on the various theo-political constellations that not only differ widely across these national contexts but also have global geopolitical consequences. It is built around a novel theoretical argument showing that Catholic geopolitics contains not only a spatial dimension (as classic geopolitical studies would have it) but also a temporal one. As a consequence, the Catholic role in the world cannot be simply understood as a result of the spatial expansion of the Church but rather as a result of the complex relationships between Catholicism and colonization, inculturation, backwardness, and modernization(s). To counter the lingering Eurocentrism of most studies of the Catholic Church, this book’s case studies explore Catholic geopolitics in five non-European contexts, focusing mainly on the Global South (plus the United States): Latin America (Brazil), North America (the United States), Asia (India and China), and Africa (the Democratic Republic of the Congo). These case studies also show that the successes and failures of Catholicism cannot be explained by a recourse to a single, top-down interpretation of Catholic geopolitics, but rather by exploring the various Catholic spatio-temporal constellations on the global, regional, and local levels. With the accelerating diversification of the Church and the growing role of the Global South, these local and regional influences gain further importance as they are likely to increasingly define the future of Catholicism.This book will be of utmost interest to scholars of International Relations, Religious Studies, Political Science, and Theology, as well as Geopolitics, especially to those studying the global rise of religion. Its accessible language will also appeal to the wider public beyond academia, especially those interested in global Christianity, as well as church leaders, and members of Catholic organizations.
Geopolitics of Global Catholicism uncovers the key trends in today’s Catholicism, providing an incisive analysis of its deep entanglement with national, regional, as well as global politics.This book offers an exciting exploration of five versions of local Catholicism(s) and sheds light on the various theo-political constellations that not only differ widely across these national contexts but also have global geopolitical consequences. It is built around a novel theoretical argument showing that Catholic geopolitics contains not only a spatial dimension (as classic geopolitical studies would have it) but also a temporal one. As a consequence, the Catholic role in the world cannot be simply understood as a result of the spatial expansion of the Church but rather as a result of the complex relationships between Catholicism and colonization, inculturation, backwardness, and modernization(s). To counter the lingering Eurocentrism of most studies of the Catholic Church, this book’s case studies explore Catholic geopolitics in five non-European contexts, focusing mainly on the Global South (plus the United States): Latin America (Brazil), North America (the United States), Asia (India and China), and Africa (the Democratic Republic of the Congo). These case studies also show that the successes and failures of Catholicism cannot be explained by a recourse to a single, top-down interpretation of Catholic geopolitics, but rather by exploring the various Catholic spatio-temporal constellations on the global, regional, and local levels. With the accelerating diversification of the Church and the growing role of the Global South, these local and regional influences gain further importance as they are likely to increasingly define the future of Catholicism.This book will be of utmost interest to scholars of International Relations, Religious Studies, Political Science, and Theology, as well as Geopolitics, especially to those studying the global rise of religion. Its accessible language will also appeal to the wider public beyond academia, especially those interested in global Christianity, as well as church leaders, and members of Catholic organizations.
Since their inception, the Perspectives in Logic and Lecture Notes in Logic series have published seminal works by leading logicians. Many of the original books in the series have been unavailable for years, but they are now in print once again. This volume, the third publication in the Perspectives in Logic series, is a much-needed monograph on the metamathematics of first-order arithmetic. The authors pay particular attention to subsystems (fragments) of Peano arithmetic and give the reader a deeper understanding of the role of the axiom schema of induction and of the phenomenon of incompleteness. The reader is only assumed to know the basics of mathematical logic, which are reviewed in the preliminaries. Part I develops parts of mathematics and logic in various fragments. Part II is devoted to incompleteness. Finally, Part III studies systems that have the induction schema restricted to bounded formulas (bounded arithmetic).
This revised and updated edition focuses on constrained ordination (RDA, CCA), variation partitioning and the use of permutation tests of statistical hypotheses about multivariate data. Both classification and modern regression methods (GLM, GAM, loess) are reviewed and species functional traits and spatial structures analysed. Nine case studies of varying difficulty help to illustrate the suggested analytical methods, using the latest version of Canoco 5. All studies utilise descriptive and manipulative approaches, and are supported by data sets and project files available from the book website: http://regent.prf.jcu.cz/maed2/. Written primarily for community ecologists needing to analyse data resulting from field observations and experiments, this book is a valuable resource to students and researchers dealing with both simple and complex ecological problems, such as the variation of biotic communities with environmental conditions or their response to experimental manipulation.
A combination of psychometric theory, history, philosophy and practice, with recent advances in analytical methods, metrology, and design. Psychometrics, Test Theory, and the Latent Factors Models began as a strong manuscript by Petr Blahuš. Before his death he entrusted it to three co-authors who completed the book with in-chapter explanations. accessible mathematical appendices and computational guides. It was also expanded to include important advances since 2010 in psychometric methods, metrology, and the science of domain-specific design. Comprehensive in scope, the text contains computatational guides for the use of Stata, M-plus, and SPSS in Classical Test Theory, Item-Response Theory, and Factor Analysis. The authors highlight the practicality of software integration in order to successfully produce psychometrically sound research. Written by an international and decades-spanning team of experienced psychometricians, the text sets the goal of a future psychometrics that could earn its place in international metrology. The book is filled with suggestions, tips, and practical guidance about best practices and efficient strategies for modeling and model selection. In addition, the book includes important cautions and warnings about misuse and misinterpretations of common, but limited, analytical techniques. The book is historically informed, philosophically grounded, mathematically justified, and methodologically current. This important text: Applies intuitive reasoning and common examples to aid in the understanding of advanced technical concepts.Includes the conceptual, statistical, and philosophical background of psychometrics.Features recent advances advances and opposing views in psychometric theory.Contains concrete examples from current research, including cognitive tests and MRI data.Opens he vista for a future of testing with greatly increased use of well-constructed, learner-centered performance scales using computer-adaptive testing with feedback over multiple attempts. Psychometrics, Test Theory, and the Latent Factors Model is intended for forward-looking students and teachers in the behavioral, educational, health, and social sciences.
A guide to the various models and methods to multicriteria decision-making in conditions of uncertainty presented in a systematic approach Multicriteria Decision-Making under Conditions of Uncertainty presents approaches that help to answer the fundamental questions at the center of all decision-making problems: "What to do?" and "How to do it?" The book explores methods of representing and handling diverse manifestations of the uncertainty factor and a multicriteria nature of problems that can arise in system design, planning, operation, and control. The authors—noted experts on the topic—and their book covers essential questions, including notions and fundamental concepts of fuzzy sets, models and methods of multiobjective as well as multiattribute decision-making, the classical approach to dealing with uncertainty of information and its generalization for analyzing multicriteria problems in condition of uncertainty, and more. This comprehensive book contains information on "harmonious solutions" in multiobjective problem-solving (analyzing X, F> models), construction and analysis of X, R> models, results aimed at generating robust solutions in analyzing multicriteria problems under uncertainty, and more. In addition, the book includes illustrative examples of various applications, including real-world case studies related to the authors’ various industrial projects. This important resource: Explains the design and processing aspect of fuzzy sets, including construction of membership functions, fuzzy numbers, fuzzy relations, aggregation operations, and fuzzy sets transformationsDescribes models of multiobjective decision-making (X. M> models), their analysis on the basis of using the Bellman-Zadeh approach to decision-making in a fuzzy environment, and their diverse applications, including multicriteria allocation of resourcesInvestigates models of multiattribute decision-making (X, R> models) and their analysis on the basis of the construction and processing of fuzzy preference relations as well as demonstrating their applications to solve diverse classes of multiattribute problemsExplores notions of payoff matrices and fuzzy-set-based generalization and modification of the classic approach to decision-making under conditions of uncertainty to generate robust solutions in analyzing multicriteria problems Written for students, researchers and practitioners in disciplines in which decision-making is of paramount relevance, Multicriteria Decision-Making under Conditions of Uncertainty presents a systematic and current approach that encompasses a range of models and methods as well as new applications.
