Incommensurable Values Research Articles

Phase transitions and critical behavior in quasi-one-dimensional two-channel systems with quasiperiodic disorder

Abstract We investigate the localization properties of a quasi-one-dimensional two-channel system with symmetric and asymmetric onsite energies using the Aubry-Andr'{e} model. By analyzing the Lyapunov exponent and localization length, we characterize the phase transitions and critical behavior of the system. For the symmetric model, we obtain the phase diagram for the entire spectrum, revealing mobility edges between delocalized and localized states. In contrast, for the asymmetric model, we identify a critical line $\lambda_1^c + \lambda_2^c \approx 0.5$ marking the phase transition between delocalized and localized states. We also study the effects of the inter-channel coupling $\tilde{t}$ and observe that increasing $\tilde{t}$ reduces the delocalized phase space, shifting the transition from $\lambda_1 = \lambda_2 = 1$ at $\tilde{t} = 0$ to $\lambda_1^c + \lambda_2^c \approx 0.5$ at larger $\tilde{t}$. Additionally, we explore the influence of energy levels and the incommensurate modulation parameter, demonstrating that while the general phase transition behavior is preserved, subtle differences arise for different incommensurate modulation parameter values. Using the cost function approach, we calculate the critical potential strength $\lambda_c$ and the critical exponent $\nu$, with $\nu \approx 0.5$ for the middle of the spectrum in both symmetric and asymmetric models.

Surrogate Wars: The "Best Interest Values" Hierarchy & End-of-Life Conflicts with Surrogate Decision-Makers.

Conflicts involving end-of-life care between healthcare providers (HCPs) and surrogate decision-makers (SDMs) have received sustained attention for more than a quarter of a century, with early studies demonstrating a frequency of HCP-SDM conflict in ICUs ranging from 32-78% of all admissions (Abbott et al. 2001; Breen et al. 2001; Studdert et al. 2003; Azoulay et al. 2009). More recent studies not only acknowledge the persistence of clinical conflict in end-of-life care (Leland et al. 2017), but they have begun to focus on the ways in which these conflicts escalate to verbal or physical violence in the ICU (Slack et al. 2023; Bass et al. 2024; Berger et al. 2024; Sjöberg et al. 2024). I will argue that part of the explanation for the persistence-and even escalation-of ICU disputes is the incommensurable value systems held by many conflicting HCPs and SDMs. I will argue that a common value system among HCPs can be understood as a "Best Interest Values" (BIV) hierarchy, which I will argue is irreconcilable with the set of "Life-Continuation Values" (LCV) held by a sizable minority of families in the United States. I argue this values-conflict undergirds many ICU disputes. If I am correct that an incommensurable value system underlies many ICU conflicts, then it is not just ineffectual for HCPs to impose their BIV system on LCV families, but also wrong given the American commitment to values pluralism. I conclude that the way to navigate continuous ICU surrogate wars is for BIV-focused healthcare institutions to engage more constructively with LCV stakeholders.

Industry professionals speak: It's all about messages – Except when it isn’t

Engaging and guiding the public to accept new, green fuels carries manifold challenges for communication. This article employs interview data to explore how communications professionals in the Australian energy sector speak about communicative aspects of their jobs. One key finding is that research participants initially describe work to be about making and sending telemediated messages. When prompted for further detail, however, professionals acknowledge the weakness of this approach and stress the need – and incommensurable value of – direct person-to-person engagement. Implications for both communication practice and communication theory are connected to this finding and are discussed via a reformed process model of communication. In so doing, potential opportunities for closing the gap between what communications professionals do and what they would prefer to do in the future are illuminated.

Seeing Santurbán through ISDS: A sociolegal case study of Eco Oro v. Colombia

AbstractThis article aims to enrich the emerging, multi-coloured tapestry of ‘international law in context’ through a study of how international economic law operates in complex investment-related disputes. Focusing on the Eco Oro v. Colombia investor-state arbitration, and drawing on both doctrinal analysis and sociolegal research, the study investigates how different actors make sense of the issues, of the dispute, and of the law. Besides shedding light on the neglected multi-actor, multi-layered dimensions of investment disputes, and on tensions between often incommensurable values, juxtaposing arbitral proceedings and underlying social realities highlights how investor-state arbitration involves a socio-political process of re-presenting actors, territory, the environment, and livelihoods through the prism of international arrangements that are primarily designed to protect foreign investment. The findings provide policy pointers on the need for systemic reform of international investment law, moving away from the predominant emphasis on investment protection and investor-state dispute settlement, towards a governance model that effectively considers the social, political, and environmental dimensions of foreign investment projects.

Vrednosni pluralizam u romanima Crni psi i Subota Ijana Makjuana

Ian McEwan, an influential and provocative British novelist and short-story writer, has addressed a variety of issues, distinguishing himself as a socially and politically engaged author. This paper explores contemporary liberalism as depicted in two of McEwan's novels, Black Dogs and Saturday, both charged with moral complexity. The analysis is approached from the perspective of value pluralism, which recognises the plurality of morally correct yet incompatible and incommensu-rable principles or values. These values may conflict with each other, but since all are correct, the conflicts remain unresolved. It is the author's belief that the novels highlight value pluralism through characters who, while navigating a pluralist environment, disclose the challenges and limitations of liberal democracies. The theoretical context this paper relies on is based on ideas of Isaiah Berlin and his notion of value pluralism.

Enhancing medical ultrasound imaging through fractional mathematical modeling of ultrasound bubble dynamics

The classical mathematical modeling of ultrasound acoustic bubble is so far using to improve the medical imaging quality. A clear and visible medical ultrasound image relies on bubble’s diameter, wavelength and intensity of the scattered sound. A bubble with diameter much smaller than the sound wavelength is regarded as highly efficient source of sound scattering. The dynamical equation for a medical ultrasound bubble is primarily modeled in classical integer-order differential equation. Then a reduction of order technique is used to convert the modeled dynamic equation for the bubble surface into a system of incommensurate fractional-orders. The incommensurate fractional-order values are calculated directly, by using Riemann stability region. On the basis of stability the convergence and accuracy of the numerical scheme is also discussed in detail. It has been found that the system will remain stable and chaotic for the incommensurate values α1<0.737 and α2<2.80, respectively.

Incomparability and Incommensurability in Choice: No Common Currency of Value?

Models of decision-making typically assume the existence of some common currency of value, such as utility, happiness, or inclusive fitness. This common currency is taken to allow comparison of options and to underpin everyday choice. Here we suggest instead that there is no universal value scale, that incommensurable values pervade everyday choice, and hence that most existing models of decision-making in both economics and psychology are fundamentally limited. We propose that choice objects can be compared only with reference to specific but nonuniversal “covering values.” These covering values may reflect decision-makers’ goals, motivations, or current states. A complete model of choice must accommodate the range of possible covering values. We show that abandoning the common-currency assumption in models of judgment and decision-making necessitates rank-based and “simple heuristics” models that contrast radically with conventional utility-based approaches. We note that if there is no universal value scale, then Arrow’s impossibility theorem places severe bounds on the rationality of individual decision-making and hence that there is a deep link between the incommensurability of value, inconsistencies in human decision-making, and rank-based coding of value. More generally, incommensurability raises the question of whether it will ever be possible to develop single-quantity-maximizing models of decision-making.

Life is a gift: Value cosmologies in Hollywood cinema

AbstractIs life “priceless,” or can life be bought and sold like a commodity? Anthropological theory has not yet been able to integrate incommensurable value with commensurable value. But such an integrated theory of value exists—not explicitly in theory but implicitly in everyday ethics and fictional narratives. I analyze how the movie Titanic, one of the most commercially valuable artefacts of all time, reveals a comprehensive ideology of how life and material wealth should be valued. Titanic works through key themes in economic anthropology: social inequality, class struggle, gift/commodity distinctions, the meaning of money, and inalienable possessions. Titanic demonstrates that the tension between ethical values and economic value can be resolved when short‐term individual gains are transcended by a mutuality of being that reaches beyond death. Titanic proposes that American capitalism can integrate core cultural values with economic freedom and self‐realization.

Freedom of Religion Under the Australian Constitution: Is Proportionality the Answer?

Under the current approach set out in the 1997 ‘Stolen Generations’ case of Kruger v Commonwealth, the free exercise clause of s 116 of the Australian Constitution is only violated if a law has the purpose of prohibiting the free exercise of religion. In the light of the introduction of structured proportionality testing in some areas of Australian constitutional law, scholars have recently considered whether the current test under the free exercise clause might be replaced with proportionality, given its current momentum. However, proportionality is a controversial test whose introduction to Australian law has been contested. This article seeks to contribute to the debate over proportionality in Australian law by outlining a case for why proportionality should not be adopted in respect of the free exercise clause under s 116. After first considering the current interpretation given to the free exercise clause, the article assesses proportionality as a possible test. It contends that proportionality is a flawed test because its final balancing stage involves a weighing of incommensurable values that confers excessive discretion on the judiciary. Rather than proportionality, the High Court should return to earlier dicta and develop a means-end test of reasonable necessity for assessing interference with the free exercise of religion.

Ответ на вопрос: Что такое «критическая философия» Канта?

This paper answers the question, what is Kant’s ‘Critical Philosophy’? The an­swer is not provided by a bibliography of Kant’s main works, nor by his tran­scendental idealism. The answer consists in Kant’s critique of our human capa­city to judge and of those rational principles by which we can properly judge matters accurately and cogently. To show this, three key features of Kant’s cri­tique of rational judgment are examined: five constitutive characteristics of our human capacity to judge (§2), two basic theses of Kant’s Critical philosophy (§3) and a table of basic systematic questions and their Critical answers (§4). This conspectus is philosophically significant because it clearly identifies Kant’s Critical method and its key considerations, which continue to be widely neg­lected when considering philosophical method (§5). Key findings of this paper include: Kant’s comprehensive critique of rational judgment and justification suffices to justify his rejection of transcendent metaphysics and the sole innate right to freedom, without appeal to his transcendental idealism or to his account of ‘dignity’ as the incommensurable value of rational agency; Kant’s thesis of singular cognitive reference (specified herein) suffices to reject infallibilism and to justify fallibilism regarding our rational justification of both empirical and moral judgments.

Ethics in biodiversity conservation: The meaning and importance of pluralism

Addressing the global extent of the current biodiversity crisis requires engaging with the existence of multiple equally legitimate values, but also with diverse ethical perspectives underpinning conceptions of right and wrong actions. However, western monist positions have mostly explicitly or implicitly directed conservation strategies by defining the space of legitimate arguments, overlooking solutions that do not fit neatly the chosen approaches. As ignoring diverse ethical positions leads to injustices and reduces the potential of conserving biodiversity, there is a need to recognise and navigate the ethical landscape. Ethical pluralism may provide opportunities to do so. However, the ethical underpinnings of pluralism have not been fully considered in biodiversity conservation. In this article, we elaborate the meaning, importance and limits of ethical pluralism while highlighting opportunities and challenges that the position may entail in biodiversity conservation science and practice. We argue that ethical pluralism allows recognising not only the existence of incommensurable plural values, but also that moral conflicts should embrace intra and inter-cultural criticism and the legitimacy of agonism and dissent, as opposed to monistic and relativistic approaches. We conclude by discussing how grounding ethical pluralism in environmental justice and environmental pragmatism may contribute to navigating the ethical landscape in biodiversity conservation. Particularly, we highlight opportunities to: i) promote (non-anthropocentrically understood) recognition and environmental justice in biodiversity conservation and, ii) move beyond theoretical debates seeking the single best ethical theory and focus on ethical diversity as a common source of possible solutions.

The „Book of the Judge”. On the Importance of Kierkegaard’s Journals and Papers

Aim. Our main purpose is to explain the connection between the work and the intimate existence of Søren Kierkegaard, and how freedom operates in both of them. Concept. The article makes visible new writing ways that open from within Kierkegaard's work. Analytical reading of Kierkegaard's Journals and the comparative interpretation of the rest of Kierkegaard's work in terms of communicative styles and explains the genesis and location and type of communication of the Journals within the framework of the Kierkegaardian Corpus. Results. Kierkegaard’s philosophy is present and indicates the extremely personal place in which the author possessed its work. Conclusions. We conclude the unavoidable importance of the Journals for the interpretation of Kierkegaard's work. The reason why the Journals are for Kierkegaard's „The Book of the Judge” lies in the direct, personal and intimate communication of its writing. Existence as free and self-conscious action constitutes the core of the article. On it rests the personal development of the individual and the incommensurable value of his life and work.

Past efforts in determining suitable normalization methods for multi-criteria decision-making: A short survey.

The use of a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) technique mostly begins with normalizing the incommensurable data values in the decision matrix. Numerous normalization methods are available in the literature and applying different normalization methods to an MCDM technique is proven to deliver varying results. As such, selecting suitable normalization methods for an MCDM technique has emerged as an intriguing research topic, especially with the advent of big data. Several efforts have been made to compare the suitability of various normalization methods, but regrettably, no paper provides an updated review of these crucial efforts. This study, therefore, aimed to trace articles reporting such efforts and review them based on the following three perspectives: (1) the normalization methods considered, (2) the MCDM methods considered, and (3) the comparison metrics used to determine the suitable normalization methods. The relevant articles were extracted with the aid of Google Scholar using the keywords of “normalization” and “MCDM,” and Tableau software was used to analyze further the data gathered through the articles. A total of five limitations were uncovered based on the current state of literature, and potential future works to address those limitations were offered. This paper is the first to compile and review the previous investigations that compared and determined the ideal normalization methods for an MCDM technique.

The Press coverage of the 2008 presidential election campaign in Cyprus

This article examines the tension created by the existence of differentiated interpretations of the freedom of the press as an institutional right and considers the regulatory potential or the constraint of self-regulation to address the implications of this tension. Qualitative content analysis of press reporting of the 2008 presidential election campaign in Cyprus and document analysis of the Cyprus Journalists’ Code of Practice and of a Guidance Note issued by the self-regulatory agency are used to analyse the data. This article demonstrates that the most fundamental challenge the press self-regulation should address is the complexity in evaluating among different but equally important liberal rights, whose conjunction creates conflict. The findings demonstrate that defining the boundaries of press freedom in order to safeguard balanced and non-discriminatory reporting is a complex process. Emphasising the public’s right to information may jeopardize the journalistic autonomy and the editorial independence as there is no straightforward way to make judgments about incommensurable values such as free speech. This article exemplifies that political reporting is a challenging context as far as the regulability of press freedom is concerned.

Capital Sequestration: Degrowth through Investing in Community-Led Transformations of Provisioning Systems

Investing in different futures is an existential challenge that much research within and adjacent to Ecological Economics engages with , yet organizations that recognize this social ecological imperative have few options for funding and implementing radical transformations to the needs and well - being provisioning systems that currently exist . Ecological macroeconomic ideas and EE principles of long term well being and justice on a livable planet will be explored in the context of the housing crisis in Canada, and a rural Ontario community organization attempting to find transformative solutions to the lived , local experience of this crisis . Provisioning systems for housing , when tied to real estate markets , debt money creation , land enclosures , and financialized supply chains , contribute to capital accumulation cycles ; it is hardly possible to meet our housing needs , in aggregate , without also perpetuating the form of this provisioning system. The idea presented here , that of Capital Sequestration , proposes to remove capital from markets and ` invests ' this capital in land trusts as an intentional transformation of financial capital into social and ecological values . Through land and housing trusts as well as non - market funding pathways , Capital Sequestration is a method of investing in the transformation of provisioning systems through the sustained and collective boundary management of financial markets and incommensurable values . This practice offers significant promise as it applies ecological macroeconomic theory work , is grounded in the normative goals of and emerges from empirical research of EE , and meets a pressing need within society for imagining alternative economies .

Fragment-orbital-dependent spin fluctuations in the single-component molecular conductor [Ni(dmdt)2]

Motivated by recent nuclear magnetic resonance experiments, we calculated the spin susceptibility, Knight shift, and spin-lattice relaxation rate ($1/T_{1}T$) of the single-component molecular conductor [Ni(dmdt)$_2$] using the random phase approximation in a multi-orbital Hubbard model describing the Dirac nodal line electronic system in this compound. This Hubbard model is composed of three fragment orbitals and on-site repulsive interactions obtained using ab initio many-body perturbation theory calculations. We found fragment-orbital-dependent spin fluctuations with the momentum $\textbf{q}$=$\textbf{0}$ and an incommensurate value of the wavenumber $\textbf{q}$=$\textbf{Q}$ at which a diagonal element of the spin susceptibility is maximum. The $\textbf{q}$=$\textbf{0}$ and $\textbf{Q}$ responses become dominant at low and high temperatures, respectively, with the Fermi-pocket energy scale as the boundary. We show that $1/T_{1}T$ decreases with decreasing temperature but starts to increase at low temperature owing to the $\textbf{q}$=$\textbf{0}$ spin fluctuations, while the Knight shift keeps monotonically decreasing. These properties are due to the intra-molecular antiferromagnetic fluctuations caused by the characteristic wave functions of this Dirac nodal line system, which is described by an $n$-band ($n\geq 3$) model. We show that the fragment orbitals play important roles in the magnetic properties of [Ni(dmdt)$_2$].

Guiding Covid policy: cost-benefit analysis and beyond

Abstract Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is inappropriate as an aid to Covid policy-making because the plural, incommensurable values at stake are not all amenable to monetary measurement. CBA for Covid policy is also undermined by pervasive uncertainty and ignorance, and has some troubling distributional implications. However, non-consequentialist alternatives to CBA tend towards implausibly absolutist prohibitions on risk imposition. Arguments for setting aside consequentialism for special circumstances (the precautionary principle, or a medical rule of rescue) are also problematic when applied to Covid policy. A broad consequentialist approach to policy guidance is defended, one which does not demand commensuration on a common monetary scale. Despite the absence of commensuration, policy guidance is still possible.

Finite contact duration modeling of a Vibro-Impact Nonlinear Energy Sink to protect a civil engineering frame structure against seismic events

This paper reassesses carefully the effects and consequences of instantaneous contact mechanics versus finite contact duration modeling of Vibro-Impact Nonlinear Energy Sinks (VI NES). The device is composed of a container enclosing an inelastic sphere, interacting via a nonlinear viscoelastic dissipative force with the inner walls of the container. The VI NES is considered in a practical context, the control of the vibrations of a civil engineering frame structure under seismic input. It is connected by a rigid link to the structure: the particle bounces within the container when it vibrates, exploring dynamical regimes ranging from periodic collisions to chaos while dissipating energy. Our VI NES is designed in order to mitigate vibrations of a ten-story frame structure under two historic earthquake signals, in order to rule out specific effects. The dynamics of the system, obtained from both finite and instantaneous contact models, are compared and discussed. The main result reveals a significant effect of the contact duration on the estimation of the dissipated energy, even for very brief collisions. Instantaneous contact model indeed provides incommensurate values in terms of acceleration during the impacts, leading to a higher sensitivity to Initial Conditions (IC) revealed by large fluctuations of the mechanical response. In turn, any finite duration contact models is proved to be less sensitive to IC, and thus more precise. Our findings demonstrate that both finite and instantaneous models converge in fact to the same value, in average, but the finite duration models require much less realizations to converge to the mean value. In practice, the finite contact duration low pass filters the mechanical responses of the VI NES, avoiding the system to fall into nonphysical chaotic states experienced by the instantaneous model.

Foxes who want to be hedgehogs: Is ethical pluralism possible in psychology's replication crisis?

AbstractIn this article, we draw attention to public‐private dilemmas among psychologists that make sense of the debates around the replication crisis, citation practices and networking practices. We argue that the values of justice and caring map onto the public sphere and private sphere respectively and create the horns of a dilemma for academics. While bureaucratic justice is a publicly revered value of modernity in psychological research that underpins ethics, validity, reliability and equality of opportunity, ‘caring’ is a more subtle value of traditionalism that runs in parallel and is detected only by our psychological practices. In particular, we argue that it is detected by practices such as disputes between the replicated and their replicators in replication studies (understood as a dramatic counter reality) as to who is more ‘careless’ with procedure; citation (including the self‐care of self‐citation) as thanksgiving and incantation of powerful others in enchantment rituals, and the system of professional indebtedness that accrues in ‘kinship’ networks – where kinship is understood broadly as adoption into a research group and its network. The clashes between these values can lead to a sense of hypocrisy and irony in academic life, as incommensurate values split between private and public expression. From this position, we delve into Isaiah Berlin's work on incommensurate values to suggest that ethical pluralism, involving more public recognition of the equal but different ethical demands of these values can help overcome these everyday dilemmas in the public sphere.

Behaving Badly in Early and Medieval China

Behaving Badly in Early and Medieval China