Norms Of Rationality Research Articles

Taking the Shortcut: Simplifying Heuristics in Discrete Choice Experiments.

Health-related discrete choice experiments (DCEs) information can be used to inform decision-making on the development, authorisation, reimbursement and marketing of drugs and devices as well as treatments in clinical practice. Discrete choice experiment is a stated preference method based on random utility theory (RUT), which imposes strong assumptions on respondent choice behaviour. However, respondents may use choice processes that do not adhere to the normative rationality assumptions implied by RUT, applying simplifying decision rules that are more selective in the amount and type of processed information (i.e., simplifying heuristics). An overview of commonly detected simplifying heuristics in health-related DCEs is lacking, making it unclear how to identify and deal with these heuristics; more specifically, how researchers might alter DCE design and modelling strategies to accommodate for the effects of heuristics. Therefore, the aim of this paper is three-fold: (1) provide an overview of common simplifying heuristics in health-related DCEs, (2) describe how choice task design and context as well as target population selection might impact the use of heuristics, (3) outline DCE design strategies that recognise the use of simplifying heuristics and develop modelling strategies to demonstrate the detection and impact of simplifying heuristics in DCE study outcomes.

Dewey, Implementation, and Creating a Democratic Civic University

Dewey, Implementation, and Creating a Democratic Civic University

Partial fraction decomposition for rational Pythagorean hodograph curves

All rational parametric curves with prescribed polynomial tangent direction form a vector space. Via tangent directions with rational norm, this includes the important case of rational Pythagorean hodograph curves. We study vector subspaces defined by fixing the denominator polynomial and describe the construction of canonical bases for them. We also show (as an analogy to the fraction decomposition of rational functions) that any element of the vector space can be obtained as a finite sum of curves with single roots at the denominator. Our results give insight into the structure of these spaces, clarify the role of their polynomial and truly rational (non-polynomial) curves, and suggest applications to interpolation problems.

Capacity and saturation of the food market in Ukraine

In a market economy, the optimal supply of food to the population depends entirely on the development of the food market. To establish indicators of rational consumption, it is important to determine the capacity and saturation of the food market. The purpose of this study was to highlight the current proportions of supply and demand in the Ukrainian food market, establish the correspondence of the capacity and saturation of the food market to rational consumption parameters. The study used dialectical method of cognition of market processes and a systematic approach, analytical generalizations, statistical comparison, constructive-calculation, tabular, and abstract-logical method. The food market is recognized as aggregative, as it includes several interconnected markets for crop production, livestock production, and industrial processing. The study investigated the specific features of the formation of demand for food with low purchasing power of the population. The market capacity was established – standard with minimum and rational consumption standards and real. The latter was almost 30% lower than the calculated one based on rational norms, which indicates additional opportunities to replenish the income of the agricultural sector. It was found that even with an increase in effective demand of the population, the improvement in consumption is levelled due to rising food prices. A prominent level of self-sufficiency of the country in food products (excluding fish and fish products) was established, and a considerable saturation of the market with essential products – potatoes, vegetables, eggs, butter, and bread. The study results should be used in the formation of a target program for the development of the food market for a long-term period aimed primarily at rational provision of food products to the population of Ukraine

Can Bayesian Models of Cognition Show That We Are (Epistemically) Rational?

Abstract“According to [Bayesian] models” in cognitive neuroscience, says a recent textbook, “the human mind behaves like a capable data scientist.” Do they? That is, do such models show we are rational? I argue that Bayesian models of cognition, perhaps surprisingly, don’t and indeed can’t show that we are Bayes-rational. The key reason is that they appeal to approximations, a fact that carries significant implications. After outlining the argument, I critique two responses, seen in recent cognitive neuroscience. One says that the mind can be seen as approximately Bayes-rational, while the other reconceives norms of rationality.

That Does Not Compute: David Lewis on Credence and Chance

AbstractLike Lewis, many philosophers hold reductionist accounts of chance (on which claims about chance are to be understood as claims that certain patterns of events are instantiated) and maintain that rationality requires that credence should defer to chance (in the sense that under certain circumstances one’s credence in an event must coincide with the chance of that event). It is a shortcoming of an account of chance if it implies that this norm of rationality is unsatisfiable by computable agents. This shortcoming is more common than one might have hoped.

Lord Byron’s Manfred: The Revival of the Irrational Gothic over the Death of the Rational Norm

Lord Byron is considered one of the most rebellious poets of all time. He successfully employed his revolutionary identity in his works through specific Gothic characteristics, chiefly of quest and dissatisfaction with his surroundings. His invention of the Byronic hero is also a site of interest. His revolt was against the current impositions of his society. This refusal in Byron’s works needs a better understanding, which I suggested to be carried out in the light of Hegel’s theory of bondsman and Lacan’s theory of the Symbolic and the Real. This paper has also depended dramatically on Albert Camus’ elaboration on the nature of the rebellion. Finally, these theories are applied to Byron’s work, Manfred.

Aptness and means-end coherence: a dominance argument for causal decision theory

Why should we be means-end rational? Why care whether someone’s mental states exhibit certain formal patterns, like the ones formalized in causal decision theory? This paper establishes a dominance argument for these constraints in a finite setting. If you violate the norms of causal decision theory, then your desires will be aptness dominated. That is, there will be some alternative set of desires that you could have had, which would be more apt (closer to the actual values fixed by your sensibility/ what you intrinsically care about) no matter which world is actual. If we care about having apt desires, then, we should never let ourselves violate these norms of means-end rationality. This argument shares a form with now-standard accuracy arguments for probabilism, opening up a new terrain for that discussion. I show that the foundational assumptions about the shape of accuracy and of aptness required to run the arguments for means-end rationality and for probabilism run closely parallel. I show the argument is robust under different theories of subjective actual value, including nonclassical treatments of indeterminacy in actual value; I show the argument may (but need not!) be generalized to objective theories of value. The upshot is that aptness-domination arguments for decision theories should be added to the philosophical playbook.

Neurorights as Hohfeldian Privileges

This paper argues that calls for neurorights propose an overcomplicated approach. It does this through analysis of ‘rights’ using the influential framework provided by Wesley Hohfeld, whose analytic jurisprudence is still well regarded in its clarificatory approach to discussions of rights. Having disentangled some unclarities in talk about rights, the paper proposes the idea of ‘novel human rights’ is not appropriate for what is deemed worth protecting in terms of mental integrity and cognitive liberty. That is best thought of in terms of Hohfeld’s account of ‘right’ as privilege. It goes on to argue that as privileges, legal protections are not well suited to these cases. As such, they cannot be ‘novel human rights’. Instead, protections for mental integrity and cognitive liberty are best accounted for in terms of familiar and established rational and discursive norms. Mental integrity is best thought of as evaluable in terms of familiar rational norms, and cognitive freedom is constrained by appraisals of sense-making. Concerns about how neurotechnologies might pose particular challenges to mental integrity and cognitive liberty are best protected through careful use of existing legislation on data protection, not novel rights, as it is via data that risks to integrity and liberty are manifested.

Обеспечение продовольствием населения северных территорий России

In recent years, negative processes have been developing in the overwhelming majority of the northern regions of Russia: the population is declining (with the threat of depopulation of rural areas). Acreage is also decreasing; livestock of cattle and reindeer is decreasing. And as a result, the level of self-sufficiency in meat and dairy products, especially necessary for residents of these territories, is decreasing. The full-fledged food supply of the population is limited by its low incomes, significant property stratification, as well as low availability of arable land and low transport accessibility of territories. The share of the northern regions in the Far Eastern regions accounts for more than 70% of the district’s territory, despite the fact that no more than one third of its population lives there. Regions differ significantly in natural and climatic, economic and geographical, demographic conditions, resource potential, which causes significant differences in the level of food production and consumption. There is extremely low self-sufficiency in all types of food, which reduces the level of its availability. The population of all these regions consumes dairy products, vegetables and melons below the rational norm, and residents of Chukotka also experience a significant shortage of meat products, eggs, potatoes and bread. This requires taking appropriate measures to comprehensively address the food problem in the northern territories.

Ought We to Believe the Truth and Nothing But the Truth?

According to the so-called truth norm, we ought to believe that A if and only if A is true. There are many possible interpretations of this norm. What does 'ought‘ in this norm mean? Does 'ought‘ have a wide or a narrow scope, etc.? In this paper, I will investigate one version of this norm and I will discuss two arguments for it. The 'ought‘ in the paper will be interpreted as a kind of 'rational‘ ought that takes wide scope. I will call the first argument for the truth norm 'the extrapolation argument‘ and the second argument 'the abductive argument.‘ According to the extrapolation argument, we 'derive‘ the truth norm from a reflection on what it means to be a perfect believer. According to the abductive argument, the truth norm is supported by the fact that it can be used to deduce many other plausible doxastic norms. If this argument is successful, the truth norm can be conceived as the fundamental norm of (theoretical) rationality (or wisdom).

Kant’s concept of madness, psychiatry and anti-psychiatry

Critics of psychiatry (or “anti-psychiatrists”) such as philosopher Michel Foucault, sociologist Erving Goffman and physician Ronald David Laing tend to view psychiatry as a form of social control, one of the state institutions of oppression. The concept of “norm” in relation to mental health is understood as culturally conditioned. Psychiatry is used to isolate and “stigmatise” the carriers of non-normative rationality, individuals with different states of mind and patterns of behaviour. Kant has no objections to the practice of forced treatment of the insane, assuming they are declared incompetent. At the same time, Kant considers it necessary to entrust the very procedure of declaring a person incompetent not to medical professionals, but to philosophers. This is due to the fact that Kant sees mental illness as a breakdown, a weakness in cognitive abilities. Kant shares the modernist ideal of a single normative rationality, which is the basis of moral abilities and a guarantee of personal autonomy. In contrast, anti-psychiatry proceeds from the postmodern idea of the diversity of forms of rationality, or refuses entirely to evaluate reason (sanity) as an essential attribute of human nature, thereby justifying the irrational and non-rational aspects of human existence. From this perspective, insane people appear as stigmatised carriers of alternative, non-normative rationality. Accordingly, such people should be protected from any medical coercion, because doctors, when making their decisions, proceed from culturally conditioned criteria of rationality and from a very relative and changing psychiatric norm.

Структура питания населения России: проблемы и перспективы на примере Ростовской области

In recent years, great importance has been attached to the preservation and strengthening of public health, the role of disease prevention and the formation of a healthy lifestyle, including the formation of a culture of healthy nutrition of the population. The strategy of improving the quality of food products in the Russian Federation until 2030 is focused on ensuring proper nutrition, preventing diseases, increasing the duration and improving the quality of life of the population, stimulating the development of production and circulation in the food market. The analysis of the nutrition structure of the Russian population indicates significant deviations from the recommendations on rational norms of food consumption that meet modern requirements of a healthy diet. Prolonged improper, irrational nutrition is a factor of increased risk of developing diseases: oncological diseases, alimentary risk factors of which are the presence of carcinogenic additives in food products; diseases of the cardiovascular system; obesity; disorders of the gastrointestinal tract due to the low content of dietary fiber in food; osteoporosis is a change in the composition of bones due to the loss of calcium.

СТИМУЛИРОВАНИЕ СБЫТА МОЛОЧНОЙ ПРОДУКЦИИ – АНАЛИЗ СОВРЕМЕННОГО СОСТОЯНИЯ, ПОИСК ПУТЕЙ ПОВЫШЕНИЯ ЭФФЕКТИВНОСТИ

The article is devoted to the problem of improving the consumption of milk and dairy products by the population of the Russian Federation, since their actual consumption is only 70% of the rational norm recommended by the Ministry of Health. The state of the domestic dairy market is analyzed – both in terms of the dynamics of its volumes in value and in kind, and the range of products sold. The main trends of changes in consumer demand in the context of a decline in real disposable incomes of the population are revealed. The main methods of sales promotion used by grocery retail chains in relation to dairy products are investigated. The shortcomings of the practiced approach to sales promotion are revealed. It is shown that a significant increase in sales volumes can be achieved by increasing the consumer audience as a consequence of the development of collaboration of retail chains with the regional social nutrition system. Such cooperation can be especially effective when using a cluster approach, which ensures the unification of the efforts of producers, processors and retailers of dairy products with a balanced consideration of the interests of all participants in the process.

Rationality is Not Coherence

Abstract According to a popular account, rationality is a kind of coherence of an agent’s mental states and, more specifically, a matter of fulfilling norms of coherence. For example, in order to be rational, an agent is required to intend to do what they judge they ought to and can do. This norm has been called ‘Enkrasia’. Another norm requires that, ceteris paribus, an agent retain their intention over time. This has been called ‘Persistence of Intention’. This paper argues that thus understood norms of rationality may at times conflict. More specifically, Enkrasia and Persistence of Intention may place demands on the agent that are impossible to fulfil. In these cases, the framework of requirements does not provide us with norms that make us rational. A rival account, according to which rationality is a kind of responsiveness to one’s available reasons, can overcome the problem.

Two paradoxes of bounded rationality

My aim in this paper is to develop a unified solution to two paradoxes of bounded rationality. The first is the regress problem that incorporating cognitive bounds into models of rational decisionmaking generates a regress of higher-order decision problems. The second is the problem of rational irrationality: it sometimes seems rational for bounded agents to act irrationally on the basis of rational deliberation. I review two strategies which have been brought to bear on these problems: the way of weakening which responds by weakening rational norms, and the way of indirection which responds by letting the rationality of behavior be determined by the rationality of the deliberative processes which produced it. Then I propose and defend a third way to confront the paradoxes: the way of level separation.

Two challenges for ‘no-norms’ theism

AbstractA number of theistic philosophers have recently denied that God is subject to moral and rational norms. At the same time, many theists employ epistemological and inductive arguments for the existence of God. I will argue that ‘no-norms’ theists cannot make use of such arguments: if God is not subject to norms – particularlyrationalnorms – then we can say nothing substantive about what kind of worlds God would be likely to create, and as such, we cannot predict the likelihood of any particular evidence given theism. What is more, I argue that this lack of constraint on God's creative act raises a serious sceptical challenge for no-norms theism.

Statistical analysis of food consumption in Ukraine

The article substantiates the modern interpretation of food security and existing approaches to its definition. Each of the existing approaches is briefly described. It has been established that food security includes both consumer and production aspects. It was established that the assessment of the level of food security is carried out on the basis of indicators recommended by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization, as well as in accordance with the Methodology approved by the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. It has been clarified that an important condition of food security is compliance with rational food standards, the main determinants of which are the volume of food consumption and the indicator of the sufficiency of food consumption. Such an indicator of food security as food consumption per capita deserves special attention. This indicator simultaneously characterizes the presence of food on the domestic market and its availability. A stable high level of food consumption, other things being equal, gives grounds for drawing conclusions about the stability of food supply, and analyzing the structure of food consumption, it is possible to characterize the adequacy of nutrition. Dynamic changes in the consumption of basic food products per capita in 2000-2020 in Ukraine were analyzed. It was found that during this period, the population of Ukraine reduced the consumption of some types of basic types of food, namely sugar, bread and bread products, and potatoes. On the contrary, the consumption of fruits, berries and grapes, eggs, meat and meat products, vegetables and melon crops, fish and fish products, oil, milk and dairy products increased. On the basis of the analysis, it was established that according to a number of indicators, the level of food security of Ukraine is sufficient, but according to certain indicators in the section of certain food groups, it is threatening. Differences in the level of consumption among the regions of Ukraine were assessed based on the analysis of the average per capita consumption of bread and bakery products; oils; sugar; potato; vegetables and melon crops; fruits, berries and grapes; fish and fish products; meat and meat products; milk and dairy products; eggs. The consumption of food products by the population of Ukraine was determined in accordance with the norms of the physiological minimum and rational consumption norms. It was established that for most basic food products there are significant discrepancies between rational norms and actual consumption, which also differ depending on the region. It has been clarified that the worst situation is observed in such food groups as milk, meat, fish, fruits, berries and grapes. In 2020, none of the administrative regions of Ukraine provided rational norms for the consumption of the corresponding product. In particular, Ukrainians consume dairy products less than the norm by almost 47%, fish products by 38%, fruits, berries and grapes by 37.2%, meat products by almost 33%. For each region, the indicator of food consumption sufficiency was calculated as the ratio of the actual consumption of food products and rational consumption norms per 1 person. If the indicator of consumption of a certain type of product of a country (region) is greater than 1, then it can be stated that rational consumption standards of the corresponding product are provided on its territory. Regions with the best and worst indicators have been determined for all outlined types of products. In particular, the value for vegetables and melon crops is higher than 1 in 20 oblasts of Ukraine, potatoes – in 16 oblasts, bread and bread products – in 10 oblasts, oil – in 7 oblasts, eggs – in 5 oblasts, sugar – in one oblast. The regions of Ukraine were ranked according to the value of this indicator. Administrative regions with the best and worst indicators have been determined. The given indicators of the sufficiency of the consumption of certain types of food products are evidence of the imbalance in the diet of the population, which is trying to ensure its own energy needs at the expense of more economically available products (potatoes, vegetables, bread products). It has been determined that the strategic task of increasing the level of food security in accordance with the specified evaluation criterion should be the achievement of high and stable growth rates in the consumption of products of animal origin, fish and fruit while simultaneously reducing the consumption of potatoes. Keywords: food safety, rational food standards, indicator of sufficient consumption of food products.

Reductive Evidentialism and the Normativity of Logic

Abstract‘Reductive Evidentialism’ seeks to explain away all ‘structural’ requirements of rationality—including norms of logical coherence—in terms of ‘substantive’ norms of rationality, i.e., responsiveness to evidence. While this view constitutes a novel take on the source of the normativity of logic, I argue that it faces serious difficulties. My argument, in a nutshell, is that on the assumption that individuals with the same evidence can have different rational responses (interpersonal permissivism), the view lacks the resources to maintain its central tenet that an individual’s body of evidence cannot make it rationally permissible for the individual to believe logical inconsistencies (intrapersonal nonpermissivism).

Time-slice epistemology for Bayesians

ABSTRACT Recently, some have challenged the idea that there are genuine norms of diachronic rationality. Part of this challenge has involved offering replacements for diachronic principles. Skeptics about diachronic rationality believe that we can provide an error theory for it by appealing to synchronic updating rules that, over time, mimic the behavior of diachronic norms. In this paper, I argue that the most promising attempts to develop this position within the Bayesian framework are unsuccessful. I sketch a new synchronic surrogate that draws upon some of the features of each of these earlier attempts. At the heart of this discussion is the question of what exactly it means to say that one norm is a surrogate for another. I argue that surrogacy, in the given context, can be taken as a proxy for the degree to which formal and traditional epistemology can be made compatible.