Classical Ideas Research Articles

Design-Unbiased Statistical Learning in Survey Sampling

Design-consistent model-assisted estimation has become the standard practice in survey sampling. However, design consistency remains to be established for many machine-learning techniques that can potentially be very powerful assisting models. We propose a subsampling Rao-Blackwell method, and develop a statistical learning theory for exactly design-unbiased estimation with the help of linear or non-linear prediction models. Our approach makes use of classic ideas from Statistical Science as well as the rapidly growing field of Machine Learning. Provided rich auxiliary information, it can yield considerable efficiency gains over standard linear model-assisted methods, while ensuring valid estimation for the given target population, which is robust against potential mis-specifications of the assisting model, even if the design consistency of following the standard recipe for plug-in model-assisted estimator cannot be established.

Thomas Hobbes’s Theological and Political Anthropology and the Essential Mutations of the Perception of the Laws of Nature and Natural Rights in Seventeenth-Century England

The overall goal of the article is to reexamine Hobbes’s concern to respond to the challenges of the republican perspective on the relationship between the liberty of subjects and the political power. If, according to Skinner, republican theorists appealed to sources of classical antiquity, I argue that Hobbes chooses to offer a blend of classical and theological ideas in order to generate a “science” of the political life within the confines of a postlapsarian world dominated by passion and the fear of death. If the image of God is maintained in the Hobbesian politics, it is because Hobbes needed a model of imitation of a stability that the individuals dominated by passions failed too often to have. Hobbes also needed a model of omnipotence and providence to be imitated by the sovereign. This complex relationship between the theological heritage of the past and the novelties inaugurated in political thought by Hobbes’s accent on human passions triggers a series of changes in Hobbes’s understanding of the law of nature and natural right. The article brings to discussion Hobbes’s indebtedness to Lactantius in reading Lucretius’s materialism, Augustine’s model of God as a Creator and the theological controversy between intellectualism and voluntarism when formulating his own anthropological perspective on “natural” and “civil” law and right.

The Theology of Avatāra in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa

The idea of avatāra no doubt presents a philosophical challenge, as it appears to stand in contrast to the Vedāntic principle of non-duality; the Bhāgavata purāṇa (BhP) offers an opportunity to look into this question due to its unique structure, which combines the Vedānta and Rasa traditions. As such, this paper looks into the theology of Avatāra in the Bhāgavata purāṇa; it argues that reading the purāṇic genre in light of Śaṅkara’s Advaita Vedānta is not as conducive to the understanding of the avatāra as reading it in light of Rāmānuja’s Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta, which indeed is compatible with the purāṇic genre. Moreover, uncovering the underlying assumptions of Western notions of personhood, it seems that classical ideas of “the person” have to be looked into, and offering an alternative idea of personhood may be necessary in order to better understand the theology of avatāra.

NOMA With Zero-Forcing V-BLAST

In this study, power-domain non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is combined with zero-forcing (ZF) vertical Bell Labs layered space-time (V-BLAST) technique. Motivated by the fact that the successive interference cancellation (SIC) is a pivotal element in either technique, we thoroughly investigate the impact of SIC on inter-user and inter-layer interference. A two-user downlink scenario is investigated where a multi-antenna base station with no instantaneous channel state information simultaneously communicates with two users each with multiple antennas. The average sum rate of the considered system is analytically derived in an exact form. Correspondingly, the power allocation value on each substream is optimized such that the average sum rate is maximized. We show that when the classical power-domain NOMA idea is incorporated into the ZF V-BLAST algorithm, the far user cannot completely cancel inter-layer interference. Nonetheless, the proposed approach turns out to yield an average sum rate performance near to that of a higher-complexity method based on maximum likelihood detection.

Framing the role of the school leader in OECD documents: A critical analysis

ABSTRACT This paper explores the OECD framing of the role of the school leader in a series of its publications, drawing on role theory, using critical analysis of how school leaders’ roles are represented in a body of OECD texts. The research findings provide insight into the multi-faceted portrayal of the ‘ideal’ role of school leadership as framed by the OECD. The findings also show the dominance of classic scientific management ideas in the framing of the role of school leadership by the OECD. The study demonstrates how adopting role theory can provide a deeper understanding of how OECD discursive actions redraw new roles for those working in education.

NCNet: Neighbourhood Consensus Networks for Estimating Image Correspondences

We address the problem of finding reliable dense correspondences between a pair of images. This is a challenging task due to strong appearance differences between the corresponding scene elements and ambiguities generated by repetitive patterns. The contributions of this work are threefold. First, inspired by the classic idea of disambiguating feature matches using semi-local constraints, we develop an end-to-end trainable convolutional neural network architecture that identifies sets of spatially consistent matches by analyzing neighbourhood consensus patterns in the 4D space of all possible correspondences between a pair of images without the need for a global geometric model. Second, we demonstrate that the model can be trained effectively from weak supervision in the form of matching and non-matching image pairs without the need for costly manual annotation of point to point correspondences. Third, we show the proposed neighbourhood consensus network can be applied to a range of matching tasks including both category- and instance-level matching, obtaining the state-of-the-art results on the PF, TSS, InLoc, and HPatches benchmarks.

Degree of Rational Maps and Specialization

Abstract One considers the behavior of the degree of a rational map under specialization of the coefficients of the defining linear system. The method rests on the classical idea of Kronecker as applied to the context of projective schemes and their specializations. For the theory to work, one is led to develop the details of rational maps and their graphs when the ground ring of coefficients is a Noetherian domain.

Research and Analysis on Damage of Marine Ship Structures by Composite Materials Based on FEM Numerical Simulation

In view of the particularity of marine foam sandwich composite structure, this paper establishes an equivalent parameter conversion system based on the classical sandwich structure design idea, and forms an equivalent simulation method to determine the initial stiffness, initial failure load and ultimate failure load of the structure. The simulation discriminant method makes the SHELL91 shell unit available for the marine foam sandwich composite structure. The bending test of the basic structure of marine foam sandwich composite beams and plates is described in detail. The equivalent simulation method is verified. The initial stiffness, initial failure load and ultimate failure load of the equivalent simulation are in good agreement with the experimental results. The paper finds through the finite element numerical simulation that the research results are consistent with the reality and have strong practicability and popularization. The paper preliminarily believes that this method can be applied to the simulation calculation of large foam sandwich composite ships and marine structures. The calculation amount is greatly reduced based on ensuring the accuracy, and the calculation work such as strength criterion and stiffness check of the overall structure has Strongly convincing.

Teseo entre banderas: la reproducción de las naciones y el problema de la continuidad histórica

El lenguaje cotidiano está plagado de presupuestos sobre la continuidad histórica de los grupos. El caso de las colectividades nacionales es particularmente recurrente. La noción de proceso que maneja gran parte de la historiografía reposa en una concepción de la nación en el tiempo demasiado influida por la forma de pensar el pasado que tienen los nacionalistas. Utilizando la paradoja de Teseo, el artículo plantea que la construcción de naciones (y de otras colectividades) puede entenderse mejor como una cadena de reproducciones sin hilo conductor, y que la noción clásica de continuidad no responde a propósitos epistémicos sino a una metanarrativa historicista. La depuración final de este relato de falsa coherencia que los historiadores del nacionalismo llevan tanto tiempo combatiendo mejoraría nuestra relación epistémica con el pasado, pero plantearía consecuencias incómodas en los ámbitos político y moral.

‘Kaldor Facts’ and the decline of Wage Share: An agent based-stock flow consistent model of induced technical change along Classical and Keynesian lines

This paper introduces the classical idea about the so-called directed and induced technical change (ITC) within a Keynesian demand-side and evolutionary endogenous growth model in order to analyse the interplay between technical change, long-run economic growth and functional income distribution. The ITC process is analysed within an Agent-Based Stock-Flow Consistent (AB-SFC) model, wherein credit-constrained heterogeneous firms choose both the intensity and the direction of innovation towards a labour- or capital-saving choice of technique. In the long-run, the model reproduces the so-called ‘Kaldor stylised facts’ (i.e. a purely labour-saving technical change process), however during the transitional phase the model shows a labour-saving/capital-using innovation pattern, as the aggregate output-capital ratio decreases until it stabilises in the long-run, and the labour share persistently decline as observed during the last decades in many advanced (and developing) economies. Within the present model, we can ascribe these results mainly to the effect exerted by the interplay between directed and biased technical change, the process of wage formation and the dynamics of aggregate demand. In order to stress the effective role of the innovation bias on the model dynamics, the baseline scenario has been compared with a ‘counterfactual’ scenario wherein ‘neutral’ technical progress is at work. The main findings are also confirmed by computing a sensitivity investigation on the key parameters shaping innovation and wage formation process.

Pedro Montengon’s Travel History (1745-1824)

This article demonstrates the place of the poet, novelist-cum-philosopher and playwright, Pedro Montengón (1745-1824), in travel literature through his bestseller Eusebio (1786), a didactic novel that updates the classical ideas of shipwreck as a symbol of human destiny in the image of Quevedo’s poetry (1580-1645) via navigation. The latter shows the life of man in the world whose only salvation lies in modesty, moderation and humility, and this is reflected in the lives of the peaceful, quiet and heavenly rescuers of Henrique Myden’s coastal barn in Montengón’s novel. Victims of ambition and greed, the parents of the young Eusebio took the risk of crossing the dangerous sea to go to America to increase their fortune before being shipwrecked off the coast of Maryland. Saved and deprived of all the family wealth on board the boat, the Spanish Emile is destined to learn the natural virtue that is at the base of the Christian faith embodied in a new man (Eusebio). Trained in manual trades and steeped in virtue, the latter emerged unharmed from the sea during his sea voyages.

Non-real poles and irregularity of distribution

We study the general theory of weighted Dirichlet series and associated summatory functions of their coefficients. We show that any non-real pole leads to oscillatory error terms. This applies even if there are infinitely many non-real poles with the same real part. Further, we consider the case when the non-real poles lie near, but not on, a line. The method of proof is a generalization of classical ideas applied to study the oscillatory behavior of the error term in the prime number theorem. We include several applications.

Social effectiveness of the market economy: measuring and management

PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to develop the scientific and methodological provision for measuring and managing the social effectiveness of the market economy and its approbation.Design/methodology/approachWith foundation on the classical idea of effectiveness as a ratio of results to costs, and with acknowledgment of incompatibility and inequality of the elements of social effectiveness and the necessity of their ranking, the authors' formula for its evaluation is presented, and the methodology of its application is offered.FindingsIt is substantiated that the economic component of effectiveness of the market economy might have no connection with its social component, moreover, these two components could enter a vivid contradiction. This contradiction is especially vivid in countries with developed market economy. As the example of the USA shows despite the high global economy its market economy shows average statistical social effectiveness. While the experience of Russia shows that even with moderate global competitiveness of the market economy, it is possible to achieve its high social effectiveness. Advantages are achieved due to other social effects – active development of human potential and using the opportunities of the digital economy for social purposes. Social effectiveness of the Russian economy is assessed at 1.602.Originality/valueThe determined differences in the level of social effectiveness of developed and developing market economy predetermined the necessity for applying different measures to manage this effectiveness. A cyclic algorithm for managing the social effectiveness of developed and developing markets has been developed from the examples of the USA and Russia in 2019. It shows that perspectives of increasing the social effectiveness of certain market economies and leveling the disproportions of social effectiveness in the modern global economic system are connected to change of the measures of management with results and costs and for avoiding their mutual neutralization, the authors offer scientific and practical recommendations.

Alternative views of biological species: reproductively isolated units or genotypic clusters?

Wang et al. in this journal argue that it may be time to abandon a classic idea about species, the biological species concept (BSC), given recent findings with genomic data on closely related taxa. Furthermore, they propose a set of tests on genetic or genomic data that might lead to acceptance or rejection of the biological species concept. Wang et al. are not the first to critique the biological species concept (BSC), which has survived an onslaught of attacks from many fronts. What is the biological species concept? And what is the new critique about? In this commentary, I briefly cover the history of ideas about biological species, then discuss current work that depends on rich, genome-scale sequence data, before attempting to resolve issues.

I would Prefer not not-to: Critical Theory after Bartleby

The politics of critical theory after ’68 revolves around the question of the new revolutionary subjectivity and its conditions of possibility. The so-called post-theories attempt to criticize the classic Marxist idea of resistant subjectivity and to pay a closer attention to the complex mechanism of power. As Foucault insisted, the analysis of power leads to a realm that traditionally remains outside political analysis. This was the result of serious critical reflections on the failure of the resistant politics of May ’68. The failure of May forced critical theorists to rethink the political itself at least in terms of subjectivity and power, and the main question became how to leave the old framework of Marxist political analysis. Since then, the politics of critical theory have included the various turns that alternatively dominated the intellectual atmosphere in the western world. As Gilles Deleuze summed up, the urgent task of critical theory after ’68 was to answer the question why people voluntarily fight for their own servitude. Focusing on how various critical theorists address the figure of Bartleby and his famous formula “I would prefer not to” in terms of a new political subjectivity, this essay reassesses the significance of the so-called politics of Bartleby and his gesture of inaction as a new possibility of political resistance in a micro-fascist system of capitalism, criticizing at the same time critical theory's unconscious desire to separate Bartleby's passive resistance from the character's textual and cultural context. In the era of a global civil war, the most radical form of political subjectivity is arguably to be found in the realm of culture, where various Bartlebys struggle to cope with the system of micro-fascism in the network and in the street.

ТРАНФОРМАЦИЯ ИЕРАРХИЧЕСКОЙ СТРУКТУРЫ КОМПОЗИЦИОННЫХ СРЕДСТВ В АРХИТЕКТУРНОМ ФОРМООБРАЗОВАНИИ НА РУБЕЖЕ ХХ–ХХI ВЕКОВ

ТРАНФОРМАЦИЯ ИЕРАРХИЧЕСКОЙ СТРУКТУРЫ КОМПОЗИЦИОННЫХ СРЕДСТВ В АРХИТЕКТУРНОМ ФОРМООБРАЗОВАНИИ НА РУБЕЖЕ ХХ–ХХI ВЕКОВ

Which competences for sub-national jurisdictions and how to finance them? The economic theory of fiscal federalism from the foundations to nowadays

This paper describes the evolution of the recommendations resulting from the theory of fiscal federalism concerning material and fiscal competences. More precisely, this article will develop the theoretical arguments that will make it possible to judge which competences are best managed at which level of power and how best to finance them. I shall firstly describe the content of the major State functions, as well as classic and new recommendations for the distribution of competences between levels of power. I will then develop classic and new ideas about different ways, for a decentralized state, of organizing the financing of federated and/or decentralized jurisdictions. The balance between equity and efficiency considerations will often lead to acceptable solutions. The growing importance of “global” public goods such as environmental protection must also be considered. Finally, responses to regionalist aspirations have opened original ways of decentralizing material and fiscal powers.

Gardens of happiness:

ABSTRACT Sir William Temple, an English statesman and humanist, wrote “Upon the Gardens of Epicurus” in 1685, taking a neo-Epicurean approach to happiness and temperance. In accord with Pierre Gassendi’s Epicureanism, “happiness” is characterised as freedom from disturbance and pain in mind and body, whereas “temperance” means following nature (Providence and one’s physio-psychological constitution). For Temple, cultivating fruit trees in his garden was analogous to the threefold cultivation of temperance as a virtue in the humoral body (as food), the mind (as freedom from the passions), and the body-economic (as circulating goods) in order to attain happiness. A regimen that was supposed to cure the malaise of the Restoration amidst a crisis of unbridled passions, this threefold cultivation of temperance underlines Temple’s reception of China and Confucianism wherein happiness and temperance are highlighted. Thus Temple’s “gardens of happiness” represent not only a reinterpretation of classical ideas, but also his dialogue with China.

Antropocentrismo, antropoceno, evolución


 
 
 En este trabajo relevo algunos conceptos particulares que se desarrollaron en distintos campos disciplinares desde fines del siglo XX y principios del siglo XXI, y los coloco en diálogo con la epistemología, para sostener que se puede tematizar una “epistemología del riesgo” con elementos actuales. Así, una serie de nuevos términos fueron generados en diversas áreas científicas y filosóficas desde la década de 1970 hasta el presente para dar cuenta conceptualmente de algunas de las problemáticas propias de nuestra época. Entre ellas podemos encontrar: antropoceno, ecocidio, biocidio, geocidio, defaunación, americanización del mundo, sexta extinción masiva de especies, polución espacial, catástrofes de lesa ambientalidad e impacto antrópico. Estos a su vez, pueden vincularse con la clásica idea de sociedad del miedo. Es posible afirmar que tales términos configuran un panorama epistemológico relativamente reciente y problemático, que se complejiza aún más incorporando el nivel de análisis macro que proporciona la teoría de la (co)evolución biológica. Propongo, entonces, que este panorama puede ser entendido como una nueva epistemología del riesgo antrópico.
 
 

Towards a dynamic interactive model of resilience (DIMoR) for education and learning contexts

ABSTRACT This paper explores a range of theoretical models of resilience and human development to understand the concept of resilience as it has developed over time and how it is understood today. These include both classic and contemporary ideas such as those of Bronfenbrenner, Masten, Rutter and, more recently, Downes and Ungar. Building on this analysis, the paper proposes a new model, taking key elements of established theories to offer a dynamic and interactive model of resilience (DIMoR). This model recognises individual agency and its complex reciprocal interactions both with other individuals but also with the wider system within which the individual is situated. This paper positions the DIMoR as a means of understanding resilience in a range of educational contexts.