Proper Object Research Articles

Classifying Economics: A History of the JEL Codes

In this paper, I suggest that the history of the classification used by the American Economic Association to list economic literature and scholars is a relevant proxy to understand the transformation of economics science throughout the 20th century. Successive classifications were fashioned through heated discussions on the status of theoretical and empirical work, data and measurement, and proper objects of analysis. They also reflected the contradictory demands of users, including economists but also civil servants, journalists, publishers, librarians and military, and rapidly changing institutional and technological constraints. Until the late 1940s, disagreements on the general structure of the classification dominated AEA discussions. As the subject matters, methods and definition of economics rapidly evolved after the war, methodological debates raged on the status of theoretical and empirical work and on the degree of unification of the discipline. It was therefore the ordering and content of major categories that was closely discussed during the 1956 revision. The 1966 revision, in contrast, was fueled by institutional and technical transformations rather than intellectual ones. Classifiers essentially reacted to changes in the way economists' work was evaluated, in the nature and size of the literature they produced, in the publishing industry, and in the use of computer facilities. The final 1988-1990 revision was an attempt by the Journal of Literature editors to translate the mature core fields structure of their science into a set of codes and to accommodate the new types of applied work economists identified themselves with. The 1990 classification system was only incrementally transformed in the next 20 years, but that the AEA is currently considering a new revision may signal more profound changes in the structure of economics.

Andrei Cușco, Între „orientalism” şi obiectivitate: etnografia rusă şi Basarabia în a doua jumătate a secolului al XIX-lea / Between “Orientalism” and Objectivity: Russian Ethnography and Bessarabia during the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century

This paper discusses the interaction between the discourses of empire and nation as it emerged in the debates about the proper object of research and the criteria for legitimacy of the newly founded discipline of ethnography in the Russian Empire in the last decades of the 18th and throughout the 19th century. A special emphasis will be laid upon the particular features of the appearance and evolution of ethnographic preoccupations in the Russian Empire starting with the second half of the 18th century, when the first attempts at the synthesis and classification of ethnographic enquiries can be discerned, and spanning the first half of the 19th century. In this context, the case of Bessarabia represents an illustrative example of the uneasy interaction between the specialized and supposedly “objective” knowledge of learned experts and the agendas of the central and local authorities and officials. My basic goal has been to uncover the relationship between the “imperial” and the “universalistic” dimensions of Russian ethnography.

UNA FENOMENOLOGIA DELLA VITA: RENAUD BARBARAS

It is evident, and even trivial, that philosophy is always philosophy of life, since there is no philosophy without life; however, from its origin philosophy has placed itself outside life, aiming to go beyond life. Thanks to phenomenology, life comes to be the proper object of thought; life is considered in its dual meaning of living being and individual life, of being alive and of the experience of life. Renaud Barbaras is the thinker who has recently given a decisive contribution to this issue and has elaborated an extremely inspiring phenomenology of life. Normal 0 14 false false false IT X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:Tabella normale; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times New Roman,serif;}

史学 Shigaku /History

史学 /Shigaku / History Thomas Keirstead Introduction: shigaku as discipline Histories of the historical discipline in Japan regularly refer back to a pair of inaugural moments. One is the imperial edict of 1869 that named history a national priority and established an office for the compilation of national history. 1 The other is the arrival in 1887 of one Ludwig Riess to take up a position in the department of history at the newly established Tokyo Imperial University. The first moment, throwing the state behind the production of history, seemed to fulfill Hegel‟s dictum that the state was the proper subject and object of history, while the second is seen as marking the beginning of the fully academic study of history (shigaku) in Japan. The embarrassing denouement of the first opening—the project was aborted when instead of producing a modern history of the nation, the compilers opted for a national history in Chinese on the archaic model of the Six National Histories (Rikkokushi)—sets the stage for the second, successful instantiation of shigaku. Though a remarkably undistinguished historian, Riess brought with him a connection to the godfather of modern academic history, Leopold von Ranke. Variously described as secretary, acolyte, or member of Ranke‟s seminar (in fact, Riess was too young to have been any of these things in any serious way; he could only have encountered a very elderly and long-retired Ranke), he provides a link in a genealogy 1. Edict quoted in Ōkubo Toshiaki, Nihon kindai shigaku no seiritsu, in Ōkubo Toshiaki Rekishi Chosakushū, vol. 7, Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 1988, 42.

Co dává a nabízí křesťanská teologie ostatním vědám

In the beginning of his paper, the author presents the basic contributions of the document Theology Today (published by the ITC) to the method of systematic theology. The most important contribution is twofold: a clear distinction between the Apostolic tradition and other traditions and a clarification of the object of interest of theology. The author comes to the conclusion that the proper object of theological interest is man's relation to God the Father and God the Father's relation to people. The author subsequently comments on article 84 of Theology Today, in which inspirations from theology for other sciences are discussed. Theology primarily offers other sciences the courage to carry out self-deabsolutization and de-ideologization, which is a condition for meeting others and transcending the borders of their own competence concerning the wisdom of life. The modern natural sciences are unimaginable without the idea of an intelligible Creator since otherwise the quest for intelligible laws of nature in the material world lacks meaning. Moreover, the Biblical linear concept of time provides the background for the idea of evolution in biology. This coincides with the nature of the natural sciences, which are, concerning their world view, strictly neutral. This should be respected by believers in order to avoid danger methodologically similar to the materialistic scientific world view.

Aristotelian Necessities

Aristotelian Necessities

Special Resolution Regimes for Banking Institutions: Objectives and Limitations

In the present environment of weak banks and shaky state finances, the introduction of so-called Special Resolution Regimes (SRRs) for failed banking institutions has developed into a global and European policy priority. This paper responds to certain claims made in relation to the proper objectives and mode of operation of SRRs, with particular reference to a recent paper by Gustav Sjoberg. SRRs are supposed to set out effective tools for handling the failure of systemically important banks in a manner that preserves systemic stability and secures the continuous provision of the key functions of the financial system; at the same time, they incorporate elements of strict enforcement, in order to preserve market discipline and curtail moral hazard. Many policy-makers and scholars assume that an SRR with appropriate legislative objectives and strong intervention tools can of itself reconcile the aforementioned purposes. However, any SRR which enables the continuation and restructuring of insolvent banks’ operations with outside financial support, if this appears justified for systemic reasons, and/or provides protection to certain stakeholders (typically, depositors), entails by definition a relaxation of market discipline. Due to the inclusion in the statutory framework of strong elements of discretion, such a system will always be amenable ex post to negotiated enforcement and strategic behaviour on the part of bank stakeholders, who demand forbearance. Thus, a well-designed SRR can at most establish a structured and robust decisional framework, reducing the ability of the latter to game the system. But it cannot act as an effective ex ante governance tool.

Evolutionary Competition in a Mixed Market with Socially Concerned Firms

In this paper we study an oligopoly market where profit-maximizing firms and socially concerned firms compete in quantities. Confronting remarks by Milton Friedman and Gary Becker, we are using an evolutionary setting to investigate the endogenous choice of the proper objective of business firms and the influence of product differentiation on the long run survival of firms which pursue non-profit motives. We find that firms which consider a combination of profit and consumer welfare can indeed have larger market shares and profits than their profit-maximizing rivals. One insight is that it might pay off for shareholders to consider stakeholder welfare, but that the level of social concern should not be too high. Based on a strategy’s profitability, we consider asynchronous evolutionary updating with firms selecting Nash quantities or choosing best replies to the expected market quantity. Here we observe that the consumers’ willingness to pay a price premium for products is crucial for the long run survival of socially concerned firms. Depending on the degrees of product differentiation and social concern, long run outcomes consist either of both types of firms or only one type of firm. If the firms’ propensity to switch between a social or a profit-maximizing strategy is sufficiently large, steady states are unstable and even complicated dynamics can occur.

Using Google Earth as an educational tool in secondary school geography lessons

This article evaluates effectiveness of Google Earth (GE) as an educational tool in secondary school geography lessons and whether it contributes to students’ achievement. A GE exercise was developed regarding the types of coastal formations. It was implemented in a ninth-grade geography lesson in three high schools in Turkey. The students followed the exercise from a printed set of instructions and entered the same steps on their computers. Pre- and post-tests were used to evaluate the effects of the GE exercise on students’ achievement. A self-assessment form was also used to obtain students’ opinions regarding GE and the exercise. This study revealed that the GE exercise was followed accurately and understood by the majority of the students in all the three schools. Students’ overall achievement varied with average scores of 9.8 and 24.2 points in the pre- and post-tests, respectively. The majority of the students liked the GE exercise and found it useful and engaging. As is evident from this study, GE is an effective educational tool for secondary school geography lessons, especially when used with proper methods, materials, and objectives.

FORGIVENESS, RESENTMENT, AND INTENTIONAL AGENCY

Forgiveness is a highly personal act. Only a moral agent can forgive and the only proper object of forgiveness is a moral agent. One trait that is particularly characteristic of moral agents is selfevaluation. It is precisely this activity that is involved in a genuine act of forgiveness. According to Bishop Butler and several other contemporary philosophers, forgiveness involves foreswearing one’s resentment towards another person. Successful forgiveness, for these accounts, essentially involves overcoming oneself. An important part of this self-overcoming involves dissolving resentment. I argue that disowning resentment is a key step along the way towards successful forgiveness. In order to dissolve resentment, an individual must engage in self-reflection and selfevaluation. Frankfurt’s hierarchical theory of intentional agency provides a helpful conceptual apparatus for analyzing the act of forgiveness.

The Development, Logic, and Legacy of Reflexive Concepts in Greek Philosophy

Reflexive concepts and philosophy have a history of intimacy. From the beginning, philosophy's discourse incorporates reflexive ideas and makes these essential building-blocks in its project to think the real. I argue that concepts such as the self-moving and self-gathering soul in cosmology and anthropology, the thing-in-itself in ontology, and self-care in ethics become primordial reflexive operations which ground and animate their respective realms, and form an ecology of reflexive ideas. I provide an account of the underlying reasons for the development of these reflexive concepts, while at the same time sketching their reception and legacy in the tradition.

Double Four-Bar Crank-Slider Mechanism Dynamic Balancing by Meta-Heuristic Algorithms

In this paper, a new method for dynamic balancing of double four-bar crank slider mechanism by meta- heuristic-based optimization algorithms is proposed. For this purpose, a proper objective function which is necessary for balancing of this mechanism and corresponding constraints has been obtained by dynamic modeling of the mechanism. Then PSO, ABC, BGA and HGAPSO algorithms have been applied for minimizing the defined cost function in optimization step. The optimization results have been studied completely by extracting the cost function, fitness, convergence speed and runtime values of applied algorithms. It has been shown that PSO and ABC are more efficient than BGA and HGAPSO in terms of convergence speed and result quality. Also, a laboratory scale experimental doublefour-bar crank-slider mechanism was provided for validating the proposed balancing method practically.

MOVING OBJECTS IN THE HUBBLE ULTRA DEEP FIELD

We identify proper motion objects in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (UDF) using the optical data from the original UDF program in 2004 and the near-infrared data from the 128-orbit UDF 2012 campaign. There are 12 sources brighter than I=27 mag that display >3sigma significant proper motions. We do not find any proper motion objects fainter than this magnitude limit. Combining optical and near-infrared photometry, we model the spectral energy distribution of each point-source using stellar templates and state-of-the-art white dwarf models. For I<27 mag, we identify 23 stars with K0-M6 spectral types and two faint blue objects that are clearly old, thick disk white dwarfs. We measure a thick disk white dwarf space density of 0.1-1.7 E-3 per cubic parsec from these two objects. There are no halo white dwarfs in the UDF down to I=27 mag. Combining the Hubble Deep Field North, South, and the UDF data, we do not see any evidence for dark matter in the form of faint halo white dwarfs, and the observed population of white dwarfs can be explained with the standard Galactic models.

A spectroscopic and proper motion search of Sloan Digital Sky Survey: red subdwarfs in binary systems

Red subdwarfs in binary systems are crucial for both model calibration and spectral classification. We search for red subdwarfs in binary systems from a sample of high proper motion objects with Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectroscopy. We present here discoveries from this search, as well as highlight several additional objects of interest. We find 30 red subdwarfs in wide binary systems including: two with spectral type of esdM5.5, 6 companions to white dwarfs and 3 carbon-enhanced red subdwarfs with normal red subdwarf companions. 15 red subdwarfs in our sample are partially resolved close binary systems. With this binary sample, we estimate the low limit of the red subdwarf binary fraction of ∼10 per cent. We find that the binary fraction goes down with decreasing masses and metallicities of red subdwarfs. A spectroscopic esdK7 subdwarf + white dwarf binary candidate is also reported. 30 new M subdwarfs have spectral type of ≥M6 in our sample. We also derive relationships between spectral types and absolute magnitudes in the optical and near-infrared for M and L subdwarfs, and we present an M subdwarf sample with measured U, V, W space velocities.

Aristotle on Sounds

In this paper I consider two related issues raised by Aristotle's treatment of hearing and sounds. The first concerns the kinds of changes Aristotle takes to occur, in both perceptual medium and sense organs, when a perceiver hears a sounding object. The second issue concerns Aristotle's views on the nature and location of the proper objects of auditory perception. I argue that Aristotle's views on these topics are not what they have sometimes been taken to be, and that when rightly understood they compare favourably in many respects with leading contemporary accounts.

"The Censorial Control - Sufficient For A Non-profit Organisation "

The object of the present paper is to answer the question regarding the sufficiency ofthe censorial control for a non-profit organization. In order to answer the question, we studied thespecific literature and also the law and we tried to find the specific areas that should be the mainobjectives of a censorial control. The sufficiency of the censorial control in this case is conditionedby proper objective setting and these have to be none other than those specific for this sector. If thespecific objectives are beyond the capacity of censorial control, its sufficiency is threatened.

Shame, Blame, and the Emerging Law of Obesity Control

In using law as a tool to combat the obesity epidemic, legal scholars and policymakers are drawing heavily on the lessons of tobacco control. This Article describes the resulting emergence of “obesity control law” and argues for a radical reorientation of it from a “denormalization” strategy based on the tobacco control experience to a “destigmatization” strategy based on the HIV prevention experience. The war on obesity is nearing a political crossroads. Subsidies and food industry regulations aimed at making our environment more conducive to physical activity and healthy eating are in danger of losing out to cheaper and more politically palatable measures aimed at convincing obese individuals to lose weight without making it more feasible for them to do so. For example, recent legal reforms penalize obese employees and Medicaid recipients through higher out-of-pocket health-care costs, shame parents and kids by measuring and reporting students’ body mass index through the school system, and demoralize obese patients by promoting unsolicited and ineffective weight-loss counseling by physicians. These reforms are likely to further stigmatize obese people — and lead to worse health outcomes — by contributing to hostile work, school, and health-care environments. The tobacco control experience has provided a productive starting point for thinking about how to use labeling requirements, advertising restrictions, and taxes to make unhealthy food and beverage products less appealing. But tobacco control’s denormalization strategy for discouraging unhealthy behaviors and stigmatizing unhealthy people is not appropriate for preventing obesity-related health problems. In contrast, the destigmatization strategy proposed in this Article would emphasize that health, not thinness, is the proper objective of public health law. It would dictate that interventions targeting unhealthy products and environments must take precedence over interventions targeting obese individuals. And it would aim to revive interest in anti-discrimination, anti-bullying, and privacy laws as tools for preventing the health problems associated with obesity.

Shame and Contempt in Kant's Moral Theory

AbstractAttitudes like shame and contempt seem to be at odds with basic tenets of Kantian moral theory. I argue on the contrary that both attitudes play a central role in Kantian morality. Shame and contempt are attitudes that protect our love of honour, or the esteem we have for ourselves as moral persons. The question arises: how are these attitudes compatible with Kant's claim that all persons deserve respect? I argue that the proper object of shame and contempt is not the humanity within a person, but rather her self-conceit, or the false esteem that competes with love of honour.

Top-down attention based on object representation and incremental memory for knowledge building and inference

Humans can efficiently perceive arbitrary visual objects based on an incremental learning mechanism with selective attention. This paper proposes a new task specific top-down attention model to locate a target object based on its form and color representation along with a bottom-up saliency based on relativity of primitive visual features and some memory modules. In the proposed model top-down bias signals corresponding to the target form and color features are generated, which draw the preferential attention to the desired object by the proposed selective attention model in concomitance with the bottom-up saliency process. The object form and color representation and memory modules have an incremental learning mechanism together with a proper object feature representation scheme. The proposed model includes a Growing Fuzzy Topology Adaptive Resonance Theory (GFTART) network which plays two important roles in object color and form biased attention; one is to incrementally learn and memorize color and form features of various objects, and the other is to generate a top-down bias signal to localize a target object by focusing on the candidate local areas. Moreover, the GFTART network can be utilized for knowledge inference which enables the perception of new unknown objects on the basis of the object form and color features stored in the memory during training. Experimental results show that the proposed model is successful in focusing on the specified target objects, in addition to the incremental representation and memorization of various objects in natural scenes. In addition, the proposed model properly infers new unknown objects based on the form and color features of previously trained objects.

What Happened to Politics and Ethics?

1. Philosophy in the Library: A Healthy Debate or a State of Confusion?Lately there seems to be considerable debate-or confusion, depending on how you understand it-as to what libraries are, what the proper object of study for library science, and even whether or not library science really scientific. Enter the philosophers, and who knew there were so many among us! Although Zwadlo (1997) cited a 1934 paper by Danton in which it was reported that only 1 to 5 percent of library publications have any philosophical discussion, the debate about philosophy for libraries renewed in the 1990s, and Danton would be astonished at the number of publications appearing since the year 2000. One of the most noticeable aspects of this renewed interest a focus on epistemological and ontological issues, a focus that can be traced back to a series of papers published in Library Quarterly in the 1990s (see Radford [1992], Budd [1995], Zwadlo [1997] and Dick [1999]). That was largely an AngloAmerican academic debate (Dick writing in English from South Africa). The task I set myself in this paper was to look at the debate during the past decade, and especially to consider views from beyond the Anglo-American universe. I chose seven books to examine, looking at them in particular for the political and ethical dimensions of the discussion.2. The Library: A Radically Political InstitutionI shall begin with Serbian librarian Zeljko Vuckovic's 2003 monograph Javne biblioteke i javno znanje (which could be translated in English as Public libraries and public knowledge). Like the other authors discussed below, he focuses on epistemological issues; more than any of the others he concerned with the potential of libraries for political life. The hypothesis the author wishes to explore the following:Public libraries are the most open and most democratic form of the institutionalization and use of public knowledge. Hence their key role in designing and building a library information system and infrastructure and their strategic importance in economic and social development. Providing free, equal and unrestricted access to the achievements of culture and civilization, to knowledge, ideas and information, the public library contributes to the development of a democratic public and the quality of life in the community, and the practical realization of the concept of rational communication [Vuckovic, 2003, p. 7].Jesse Shera's social epistemology a guiding theoretical-methodological orientation in the first half of this work as the author proceeds through a discussion of terminology and chapters on the function of the library, public librarianship as a social institution, the development of the idea of public librarianship, and the legal foundations and history of public libraries in Serbia. The second half of the book looks at public librarianship in the context of international legal regimes, UNESCO declarations and IFLA, the public library as part of postmodern culture and the changes and challenges of public libraries in the information society with its digital libraries. A short chapter on the development of technical information systems for public libraries in Serbia then followed by an even shorter chapter on the philosophical and axiological principles of public librarianship. It those few final pages that are chiefly of interest to me, since the discussion within the book assumes these principles rather than argues them.The final chapter begins with the question Why philosophical considerations in an area that primarily practical and pragmatic, in a service- and client-oriented activity? (p. 174). It a question that nearly every one of the authors discussed below asks. The answer, he suggests, depends on the definition of philosophical inquiry but even more importantly on whether one thinks that librarianship needs a systematic theoretical foundation. In the author's view, systematic theory is an indication and measure of professional responsibility . …