So-called Paradox Research Articles

Geoff Brennan on the Ethics and Rationality of Voting

Geoff Brennan made a wide range of important contributions to the literature on the ethics and rationality of voting. This article begins by situating these contributions in the broader debate over rational choice theory and the so-called paradox of voting. It then introduces Geoff’s expressive theory of voter behaviour, as developed in conjunction with Loren Lomasky, and considers its significance for the justification of democracy and the ethics of voting. The final section engages critically with Geoff’s view that citizens do not have moral duties to vote, developing a novel argument in defence of such duties that appeals to the importance of the social norms that undergird the processes of representative democracy.

Temporary Trust: Legal Cynicism, Protection, and the Paradox of Victim Participation in Justice

Victims in China, including sexual victims, often distrust legal institutions yet continue to seek protection from them. However, few studies have examined why and how this so-called paradox has emerged in the Chinese context. Drawing on including in-depth interviews with victims of sexual harassment, this study illuminates how sex victims persist in calling on the police and relying on legal authorities despite the widespread cynicism toward them. The analysis suggests that victims ultimately turn to legal agencies because they have fairly limited options for seeking justice in China, where the provision of victim services through non-state channels is severely inadequate. By temporarily turning to legal authorities, victims are at least made visible and heard by the state. Despite stigmatizing and burdensome experiences with the law, they participate in the justice system merely for recognition and tangible protection, leaving them with no “way out” and exacerbating their disadvantages in society.

Concepts of Knowability

Many philosophical discussions hinge on the concept of knowability. For example, there is a blooming literature on the so-called paradox of knowability. How to understand this notion, however? In this paper, we examine several approaches to the notion: the naive approach to take knowability as the possibility to know, the counterfactual approach endorsed by Edgington (1985) and Schlöder (2019) , approaches based on the notion of a capacity or ability to know (Fara 2010, Humphreys 2011), and finally, approaches that make use of the resources of dynamic epistemic logic (van Benthem 2004, Holliday 2017).

The Paradox Paradox Non-Paradox and Conjunction Fallacy Non-Fallacy

Brock and Glasgow recently introduced a new definition of paradox and argue that this conception of paradox itself leads to paradox, the so-called Paradox Paradox. I show that they beg the questions during the course of their argument, but, more importantly, do so in a philosophically interesting way: it reveals a counterexample to the equivalence between being a logical truth and having a probability of one. This has consequences regarding norms of rationality, undermining the grounds for the Conjunction Fallacy.

Aggregated Distribution as an Explanation for the Paradox of Plankton and Collective Animal Behavior.

Simple SummaryECA is similar to a cellular automaton that mimics the evolutionary dynamics of species in metapopulations, simulating the underlying mechanisms of natural selection. In this work, we carry out an in-silico study of the effects of different dispersal strategies on the evolutionary balance of interactions between digital organisms. In ECA we see how a specific type of distribution can significantly influence the dynamics, persistence, distribution, and abundance of populations of different species within a particular habitat. In the first place, we show that an aggregate distribution is more inefficient than a uniform distribution. Still, we verify that this aggregate distribution is essential in predator–prey type interactions so that the species involved do not become extinct. We also show that the aggregate distribution does not comply with the competitive exclusion principle and, for this reason, it results in a general and straightforward explanation for the paradox of plankton and the grouping of animals. Many animals and especially some planktonic species group together in specific spaces, although some travel adrift, leaving other areas or patches free where competitors or their prey can prosper, preventing them from becoming extinct.This work analyzes the evolutionary consequences of different aggregation levels of species distribution with an Evolutionary Cellular Automaton (ECA). We have found that in habitats with the same carrying capacity, aggregated distributions preserve smaller populations than do uniform distributions, i.e., they are less efficient. Nonetheless, we have also found that aggregated distributions, among other factors, can help the evolutionary stability of some biological interactions, such as predator–prey interactions, despite their granting less individual fitness. Besides, the competitive exclusion principle does not usually stand in populations with aggregated distribution. We have applied ECA to study the effects of aggregated distribution in two notorious cases: in the so-called paradox of the plankton and in gregarious animals. In doing so, we intend to ratify long-established ecological knowledge explaining these phenomena from a new perspective. In the first case, due to aggregate distribution, large aggregations of digital organisms mimicking very abundant planktonic species, leave large patches or oceanic areas free for other less competitive organisms, which mimic rare species, to prosper. In this case, we can see how effects, such as ecological drift and the small portion, act simultaneously. In the second case of aggregation, the aggregate distribution of gregarious animals could be explained under specialized predator–prey interactions and interdemic competition. Thus, digital organisms that imitate predators reduce the competitive capacity of their prey, destabilizing their competitiveness against other species. The specialized predator also goes extinct if the prey goes extinct by natural selection. Predators that have an aggregate distribution compensate the prey and thus avoid exclusion. This way there are more predator-free patches in which the prey can prosper. However, by granting greater colonization capacity to its prey, the predator loses competitiveness. Therefore, it is a multilevel selection event in which group adaptation grows to the detriment of the predator as an individual.

Grief’s Badness and the Paradox of Grief

In this paper, I focus on the points of disagreement between Cholbi and myself about the nature of grief. More precisely, I am first going to provide reasons to reject Cholbi’s positive account of grief, specifically the condition that grief necessarily brings about a change in our practical identity. Then I am going to discuss the so-called Paradox of Grief, raising a few concerns I have about Cholbi’s solution and suggesting there is more to be said in favour of an existing solution (i.e., Pain as a Cost) he dismissed. My main goal is to raise these issues for discussion, rather than to prove my favoured view is true. I’m not quite sure what the correct account of grief is, though I am sure that Cholbi gets at least much of it right.

Italiano Neo-Standard in the Light of E. Coseriu’s Theory of Language Variations

The study discusses the impact of E. Coseriu (1921-2002), a prominent 20th century linguist, an expert in language theory and philosophy, on the development of language restandardization theory in modern Italy. E. Coseriu proposed a model of living language that accounts for its basic property - variability, which allows to solve the so-called paradox of language change widely discussed in post-saussurean linguistics and to produce a complex description of language system, norm, and speech in their mutual correlation. The analysis presented in the paper shows how the system of language variation parameters (diachrony, diatopy, diastraty, and diaphasy) constituted the theoretical basis for describing the process of restandardization typical of Modern Italian since the last decades of the 20th century. Modern Italian, also known as Italiano neo-standard, fulfils all the communicative functions, is used both in speech and in writing in all speech genres and registers, and is L1 for more than a half of Italy’s population. This language situation, however, is relatively new: up to mid-20th century the majority of Italians were bilingual, and the dialects of Italy functioned as their L1 and as means of informal communication. The widening of use of Standard Italian proceeded alongside with its stylistic diversification and the adaptation of its pragmatic and stylistic potential for informal, colloquial use, which called in question the status of certain structures, previously regarded as substandard ones. The analysis of E. Coseriu’s language variation theory as applied to the Italian language allows to classify modern Italian sociolinguistics and historical language studies as developing the functional trend typical of European linguistics.

THE INJUSTICE OF UNDER-POLICING IN AMERICA

THE INJUSTICE OF UNDER-POLICING IN AMERICA

“Dogmatism” and Dogmatism

AbstractThe so-called paradox of dogmatism has it that it seems that one is both entitled and not entitled to ignore evidence against what one knows. By knowing something, one knows it to be true, and one also knows that there can be no non-misleading evidence against what is true. But to ignore evidence against what one believes – and, surely, one believes what one knows – is to be dogmatic, something one should not be. I argue that there is no genuine paradox here. One's attitude to evidence is governed not by what one knows but by what one thinks one knows. Thinking that one knows something does not entail that it is true. Knowing this, one knows that there may be non-misleading evidence against what one thinks one knows and should be open to examining what purports to be evidence against it.

The paradox of deterministic probabilities

ABSTRACT This paper aims to investigate the so-called paradox of deterministic probabilities: in a deterministic world, all probabilities should be subjective; however, they also seem to play important explanatory and predictive roles which suggest they are objective. The problem is then to understand what these deterministic probabilities are. Recent proposed solutions of this paradox are the Mentaculus vision, the range account of probability and a version of frequentism based on typicality. All these approaches aim at defining deterministic objective probabilities as to make them compatible with determinism. In this paper, I argue that one can think of the equivalent of subjective and objective deterministic probabilities in terms of typicality. Also, I show that only what I identify with objective probabilities plays the necessary explanatory and predictive roles, while the subjective components essentially guide beliefs. In this way, the paradox is solved.

The evolution of altruism and the units of selection problem

In this paper, I will address one of the main issues in the philosophy of biology: the evolution of altruism and cooperation and the related problem of the units of selection. Starting from the so-called paradox of altruism, I will critically examine standard evolutionary models for the resolution of that paradox, and the explanation of altruism. I review and assess the following models of selection: the traditional model of group selection, gene?s eye view, kin selection, direct reciprocity (reciprocal altruism), indirect reciprocity, and the updated version of group selection, namely Sober and Wilson?s model of multilevel selection. In the final section, I will try to explain why is the dismissal of multilevel selection based on its explanatory complexity so common, and why inclusive fitness theory and direct reciprocity are generally sufficient to explain a good part of biological phenomena related to altruism and cooperation.

THOMAS HOBBES ON BETRAYAL OF THE FATHERLAND (IN WAR)

My intention is to demonstrate how Hobbes’ attempts to adapt two ancient institutions from Roman Law to his own time and knowledge of theology and philosophy. Treason (and the figure of the traitor) could be quite significant within the context of Hobbes’ (but not only his) understanding of the figure of the sovereign and sovereignty. The central part of the text is an endeavor to ascertain the source and unconditional condition for treason as such, within the framework of Hobbes’ theory of representation (representatio) which he writes about in Chapter 16 of the Leviathan. The act or performance in which we could perhaps recognize a traitorous gesture (or the dynamic of treason) could be found in the so-called paradox of representation. The “traitor” breaks the chain of the transfer of power and empowerment, thus stops representation, and puts an end to speaking in the name of the other. If it is possible to discover whether this is possible and whether speaking and acting in one’s own name always carries elements of treason, then we can conclude that differing forms of “direct” speech and action (“in one’s own name”) are “acts of treason.” In that case, what interests me is whether “treason” is found within the heart of representative democracy, and thus if it is de facto an integral part of a democratic order and society.

Analysis of the Meaning of the Word ‘Coincidence’ in the Context of the Problem of Moral Luck

The aim of the article is to show which meanings of the word ‘coincidence’ can be used in the problem of moral luck. The first part of the article briefly discusses the essence of the problem of moral luck, the types of this luck and the consequences of recognizing the role of luck for morality. The second presents definitions of coincidence. This part also presents the arguments which of the presented meanings of coincidence can be used in the analysis of the problem of moral luck. In conclusion, there is a suggestion to limit the meaning and role of the so-called paradox of moral luck.

Dynamic transcriptome analysis reveals signatures of paradoxical effect of vemurafenib on human dermal fibroblasts

BackgroundVemurafenib (PLX4032) is one of the most frequently used treatments for late-stage melanoma patients with the BRAFV600E mutation; however, acquired resistance to the drug poses as a major challenge. It remains to be determined whether off-target effects of vemurafenib on normal stroma components could reshape the tumor microenvironment in a way that contributes to cancer progression and drug resistance.MethodsBy using temporally-resolved RNA- and ATAC-seq, we studied the early molecular changes induced by vemurafenib in human dermal fibroblast (HDF), a main stromal component in melanoma and other tumors with high prevalence of BRAFV600 mutations.ResultsTranscriptomics analyses revealed a stepwise up-regulation of proliferation signatures, together with a down-regulation of autophagy and proteolytic processes. The gene expression changes in HDF strongly correlated in an inverse way with those in BRAFV600E mutant malignant melanoma (MaMel) cell lines, consistent with the observation of a paradoxical effect of vemurafenib, leading to hyperphosphorylation of MEK1/2 and ERK1/2. The transcriptional changes in HDF were not strongly determined by alterations in chromatin accessibility; rather, an already permissive chromatin landscape seemed to facilitate the early accessibility to MAPK/ERK-regulated transcription factor binding sites. Combinatorial treatment with the MEK inhibitor trametinib did not preclude the paradoxical activation of MAPK/ERK signaling in HDF. When administered together, vemurafenib partially compensated for the reduction of cell viability and proliferation induced by trametinib. These paradoxical changes were restrained by using the third generation BRAF inhibitor PLX8394, a so-called paradox breaker compound. However, the advantageous effects on HDF during combination therapies were also lost.ConclusionsVemurafenib induces paradoxical changes in HDF, enabled by a permissive chromatin landscape. These changes might provide an advantage during combination therapies, by compensating for the toxicity induced in stromal cells by less specific MAPK/ERK inhibitors. Our results highlight the relevance of evaluating the effects of the drugs on non-transformed stromal components, carefully considering the implications of their administration either as mono- or combination therapies.AvTAQshbXYn1EX7N3vKt_-Video

Time Travel, Audiovisual Narratives and TV Fiction: The Bootstrap Paradox in BBC’s Doctor Who

The purpose of this work is to explore the narrative mechanisms that operate in audiovisual stories about time travel, and more specifically in those that address the so-called onthological paradox (also known as bootstrap paradox or causal loop), taking as a case study the British BBC TV series Doctor Who (1963-2020), and especially its modern era, which began in 2005.Onthological paradoxes (those where an infinite cause-effect loop is created, and therefore it is impossible to establish a point of origin of certain events) break, by their own conception, the classical structure of the story by denying the classical notion of ‘ first plot point’. Thus, many of these narratives are forced to seek alternative formulas of temporal architecture based on simultaneity, order distortion or circularity. All these solutions can be traced in many chapters of Doctor Who, particularly in those that fall under the creative direction of Steven Moffat, who in his period as screenwriter (2005-2010) and showrunner (2010-2017) used the concept of ‘time ‘as the main driving force behind his narratives.

Driving forces behind open acreage resource allocation systems for petroleum upstream activities: a comparative assessment between Brazil, Colombia, India and Uruguay

ABSTRACT Facing flattening international oil prices in the next years (due to a combination of changing industry fundamentals, pandemics effects and the challenges of the global low-carbon energy transition), oil frontier countries are reviewing their petroleum exploration and production fiscal systems to increase their attractiveness to private investment. This article analyses certain open resource allocation systems by comparing the recently launched Brazilian offering to similar systems already existing in Colombia, India and Uruguay. The comparison focuses on four driving forces behind the adoption of open resource allocation systems: energy security, local economic development, government take and the so-called green paradox (reflecting the race to monetize petroleum reserves ahead of stricter climate change international regulations). Findings show that each of the analysed countries has its own target for designing a permanent offering, although the same driving forces can be found in more than one of the countries.

Dynamic Quantum Games

Quantum games represent the really twenty-first century branch of game theory, tightly linked to the modern development of quantum computing and quantum technologies. The main accent in these developments so far was made on stationary or repeated games. In this paper, we aim at initiating the truly dynamic theory with strategies chosen by players in real time. Since direct continuous observations are known to destroy quantum evolutions (so-called quantum Zeno paradox), the necessary new ingredient for quantum dynamic games must be the theory of non-direct observations and the corresponding quantum filtering. Apart from the technical problems in organizing feedback quantum control in real time, the difficulty in applying this theory for obtaining mathematically amenable control systems is due partially to the fact that it leads usually to rather non-trivial jump-type Markov processes and/or degenerate diffusions on manifolds, for which the corresponding control is very difficult to handle. The starting point for the present research is the remarkable discovery (quite unexpected, at least to the author) that there exists a very natural class of homodyne detections such that the diffusion processes on projective spaces resulting by filtering under such arrangements coincide exactly with the standard Brownian motions (BM) on these spaces. In some cases, one can even reduce the process to the plain BM on Euclidean spaces or tori. The theory of such motions is well studied making it possible to develop a tractable theory of related control and games, which can be at the same time practically implemented on quantum optical devices.

Nonlocal elasticity and boundary condition paradoxes: a review

Nonclassical continuum mechanics theories have seen a rise in implementation over the past several years due to the increased research into micro-/nanoelectromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS), micro-/nanoresonators, carbon nanotubes (CNTs), etc. Typically, these systems exist in the range of several nanometers to the micro-scale. There are several available theories that can capture phenomena inherent to nanoscale structures. Of the available theories, researchers utilize Eringen’s nonlocal theory most frequently because of its ease of implementation and seemingly accurate results for specific loading conditions and boundary conditions. Eringen’s integral nonlocal theory, which leads to a set of integro-partial differential equations, is difficult to solve; therefore, the integral form was reduced to a set of singular partial differential equations using a Green-type attenuation function. However, a so-called paradox has arisen between the integral and differential formulations of Eringen’s nonlocal elasticity. For certain boundary and loading conditions, instead of the expected softening effect inherent in nonlocal particle interactions, some researchers have found a stiffening effect. Still, others have found no variation from those results found using classical theories. As such, the discrepancies between the integral and differential forms have been the subject of debate for nearly two decades, with several proposed resolutions published in recent years. This paper serves to review and consolidate existing theories in nonlocal elasticity along with selected theories in nonclassical continuum mechanics, the utilization of Eringen’s nonlocal elasticity in beams, shells, and plates, the existing discrepancies and proposed solutions, and recommendations for future work.

Measuring the Value of Data and Their Treatment in Macroeconomic Statistics

The paper studies the role of data as an economic asset in the digital economy. The research is focused on the development of an approach to comprehensive data valuation and their adequate treatment in macroeconomic statistics. The first part of the paper reviews the major publications on the so-called Solow productivity paradox: the impact of digital technologies on the productivity growth slowdown. Considering points of view of various researchers, the author takes an opinion that the existing statistical methodology does not permit comprehensive measuring of the digital economy contribution to the productivity dynamics. At the same time, the author does not support the proposal to include the value of data generated by unpaid household activities in macroeconomic accounting and expand the scope of key macroeconomic indicators such as GDP. In the second and the third parts the methods of data valuation used by companies as assets in production, as well as major discussed proposals on methods for measuring the value of data in macroeconomic statistics, are considered. These two aspects of data valuation are closely related, both informationally and methodologically. The author concludes that an increase in the need for the valuation of data at the micro level will inevitably lead to corresponding changes in the methodology of macroeconomic statistics. The last part of the paper explores more elaborately the issues of data valuation as a non-produced asset. The need for such an approach is caused by the existing gap between the marketed assessment of the contribution of data to production and the existing possibilities for accounting for them at the costs of their production. In the author’s opinion, this is a promising direction, allowing to overcome the indicated gap. In support of this, the article provides examples of experimental calculations based on IFRS reports of four Russian companies involved in the production of digital services. Experimental valuation of non-produced assets using the net present value method shows that the value of the non-produced assets involved in the production of data-driven companies differs from the values recorded in their financial statements. This, in particular, occurs due to the underestimation or overestimation of the value of the data used in production, which, according to the author, constitutes the bulk of the unidentified unproduced assets of digital companies. The author concludes that the development of methods for accounting for the value of data as a non-produced asset used in the production of digital products is one of the priority tasks of developing the methodology of the system of national accounts.

The gender-job satisfaction paradox through time and countries

ABSTRACT Much has been written about the so-called gender-job satisfaction paradox, derived from the fact that a significant number of empirical studies found that women reported higher levels of job satisfaction than their male counterparts, although they had what were considered ‘worse’ jobs in terms of pay and other nonmonetary working conditions. In this article, we use a procedure to compare the relative performance of groups when their achievements are described by distributions of outcomes over an ordered set of categories, the Balanced Worth Vector (BWV), to analyse whether women consistently report to be more satisfied at work than men in different periods of time and countries. The BWV offers a cardinal, complete and transitive evaluation that is based in the likelihood of getting better results. In our setting, the BWV methodology provides a complete ranking of the countries covered by the European Working Conditions Survey according to the relative levels of job satisfaction with working conditions that women and men in each country report. Our results indicate a decreasing gender differential over time and substantial differences across countries, proving that the gender-gap paradox cannot be considered a widespread phenomenon.