Suchergebnisse

IN THE GLOOM OF PRESENT-DAY POLITICS, SOCIALISTS MAY WELL LOSE THEMSELVES IN NOSTALGIC DREAMS OF FRATERNITY. WE FEEL HEMMED IN BY A WORLD OF SELF-INTEREST, AND WE EXPERIENCE THE DAILY WEAKENING OF THOSE BONDS OF CLASS AND COMMUNITY THAT GAVE THE SOCIALIST MOVEMENTS SO MUCH OF ITS STRENGTH. THE WORLD WE NOW INHABIT SEEMS MARKEDLY INDIVIDUALISTIC; WE CAST AROUND IN TREPIDATION FOR SOME SURVIVING SIGNS OF COLLECTIVE FEELING.

AbstractEpistemic states of uncertainty play important roles in ethical and political theorizing. Theories that appeal to a "veil of ignorance," for example, analyzefairnessorimpartialityin terms of certain states of ignorance. It is important, then, to scrutinize proposed conceptions of ignorance and explore promising alternatives in such contexts. Here, I study Lerner's probabilistic egalitarian theorem in the setting of imprecise probabilities. Lerner's theorem assumes that a social planner tasked with distributing income to individuals in a population is "completely ignorant" about which utility functions belong to which individuals. Lerner models this ignorance with a certain uniform probability distribution, and shows that, under certain further assumptions, income should be equally distributed. Much of the criticism of the relevance of Lerner's result centers on the representation of ignorance involved. Imprecise probabilities provide a general framework for reasoning about various forms of uncertainty including, in particular, ignorance. To what extent can Lerner's conclusion be maintained in this setting?

SOCIALISM HAS ALWAYS INVOKED SOME VISION OF COMMUNITY AND USUALLY FROWNED ON UNRESTAINED INDIVIDUALISM. THE IDEAL HAS BEEN SOLIDARITY RATHER THAN DIVISION, WORKING TOGETHER RATHER THAN ALONE, COLLECTIVE RATHER THAN INDIVIDUAL ACTION. PARTLY THIS IS NO MORE THAN EFFICIENCY: TO CHANGE THE WORLD THEY NEED THE WEIGHT OF NUMBERS; TO END POVERTY THEY NEED THE POWER OF SOCIALIZED PRODUCTION. BUT FOR MOST OF THEM THERE IS A POSITIVE AS WELL AS A PRAGMATIC SIDE. THE "SOCIAL" IN SOCIALISM HAS ALWAYS HAD AT LEAST TWO SENSES. SOCIALISTS BELIEVE IN COORDINATION, ARGUING THAT CONSCIOUS PLANNING WILL SERVE BETTER THAN UNREGULATED COMPETITION. BUT THEY ALSO VALUE THE VERY PROCESS OF WORKING TOGETHER, TENDING TO THE VIEW THAT THIS IS A GOOD IN ITSELF.

This study was designed to look at differences between Greek and non-Greek college students' perceptions of a hazing incident that had taken place in a fraternity setting. Subjects were 231 students (112 Greeks, 119 independents) at a moderate size state university in the eastern United States with a moderate Greek presence. Subjects read one of four conditions of a hazing scenario involving an overdose of alcohol consumed voluntarily or involuntarily administered by a fraternity president or fraternity brother. Dependent measures included attributions of responsibility as well as causal attributions. Authoritarianism was explored as well. Responsibility attributions and causal attributions varied with the voluntary versus involuntary nature of the overdose and with membership in Greek organizations. Finally, Greek students were found to score higher on authoritarianism than were non-Greek students.

In this article in the special symposium On Wilson Carey McWilliams (1933 - 2005), the demanding & discomforting conclusions about modern society and American politics held by the political theorist are asserted to be reflected in his views of human nature. The endemic need for fraternity is an essentialist project for a deliberative expression of fraternity, politics, & democracy. The specific political, cultural & economic conditions necessary for the cultivation & growth of fraternity are asserted to be at odds with the impositions that modern society places on individuals. The inhospitability of modern society to the practice of fraternity were acknowledged by the philosopher to make the prospects of achieving that virtue slim. The author concludes by delineating three imperatives for the development of fraternity in modern times, all of which include the obligation to set an example. References. J. Harwell