According to Adam Smith, we appeal to the imagined reactions of an ‘impartial spectator’ when justifying moral judgements of others and aspire to be impartial spectators when making judgements of ourselves. However, psychological research has shown that trying to be impartial will often have the paradoxical effect of reinforcing other-directed prejudice and self-serving bias. I argue that we can get around this problem by aspiring to be ‘partially impartial spectators’ instead.
{"title":"Partially Impartial Spectator","authors":"Sveinung Sundfør Sivertsen","doi":"10.23941/ejpe.v16i2.704","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23941/ejpe.v16i2.704","url":null,"abstract":"According to Adam Smith, we appeal to the imagined reactions of an ‘impartial spectator’ when justifying moral judgements of others and aspire to be impartial spectators when making judgements of ourselves. However, psychological research has shown that trying to be impartial will often have the paradoxical effect of reinforcing other-directed prejudice and self-serving bias. I argue that we can get around this problem by aspiring to be ‘partially impartial spectators’ instead.","PeriodicalId":37914,"journal":{"name":"Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics","volume":"48 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138974730","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
With the provocative title The Greeks and the Rational: The Discovery of Practical Reason , Ober chooses two fundamental works as his reference point: E.R. Dodds’ The Greeks and the Irrational (1951) and Bruno Snell’s Die Entdeckung des Geistes (1946). Whereas Dodds famously argued against Greece presenting a ‘triumph of rationalism’ by pointing out pre-modern attitudes and modes of thinking, Bruno Snell asserted that the Ancient Greeks in Homeric times lacked a conception of the self and later gradually discovered introspection and a theory of mind. Following the line of his earlier books, Ober argues the exact opposite: the Ancient Greeks did not only behave rationally but also had a discourse about various aspects of rationality. The general claim of Ober’s book is that a so-called ‘Folk Theory’ of instrumental rationality emerged in the Greek world in the first half of the fifth century BCE. Although this Folk Theory does not resemble the form of modern rational choice theory, it made similar assumptions, such as that people employ their cognitive capacities to form ordered preferences and consistently act to obtain the best possible outcome. Ober (6) illustrates this by quoting Xenophon, Memo-rabilia 3.9.4: "that all persons deliberately choose, out of what is available to them, what they think is most advantageous to themselves, and they do this". This theory of instrumental rationality was first propagated by the Sophists and, through their education, their ideas permeated Greek public discourse, leading to numerous reflections in the late-fifth and early-fourth-century Greek philosophical and historical texts. When this popular theory was brought into practice in ancient Athens, it led to a process of
奥伯以《希腊人与理性》(The Greeks and the Rational:奥伯选择了两本基本著作作为参考:E.R. Dodds 的《希腊人与非理性》(1951 年)和 Bruno Snell 的《Die Entdeckung des Geistes》(1946 年)。多兹通过指出前现代的态度和思维模式,反对希腊呈现出 "理性主义的胜利",而布鲁诺-斯内尔则断言荷马时代的古希腊人缺乏自我概念,后来逐渐发现了内省和心智理论。奥伯沿袭其早期著作的思路,提出了完全相反的论点:古希腊人不仅行为理性,而且对理性的各个方面都有论述。奥伯在书中的总体主张是,公元前五世纪上半叶,希腊世界出现了所谓的工具理性 "民间理论"。尽管这一民间理论与现代理性选择理论的形式并不相似,但它提出了类似的假设,如人们利用自己的认知能力形成有序的偏好,并始终如一地采取行动以获得可能的最佳结果。奥伯(6)引用色诺芬在《备忘录-rabilia》3.9.4 中的一段话来说明这一点:"所有人都有意从他们所能得到的东西中选择他们认为对自己最有利的东西,而且他们也是这样做的"。这种工具理性理论最早由诡辩家传播,通过他们的教育,他们的思想渗透到希腊的公共话语中,导致五世纪末和四世纪初的希腊哲学和历史文本中出现了大量的反思。当这一流行理论在古代雅典付诸实践时,它导致了一个
{"title":"Review of Josiah Ober’s The Greeks and the Rational: The Discovery of Practical Reason. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2021, xxv + 425 pp","authors":"Bob Van Velthoven","doi":"10.23941/ejpe.v16i2.805","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23941/ejpe.v16i2.805","url":null,"abstract":"With the provocative title The Greeks and the Rational: The Discovery of Practical Reason , Ober chooses two fundamental works as his reference point: E.R. Dodds’ The Greeks and the Irrational (1951) and Bruno Snell’s Die Entdeckung des Geistes (1946). Whereas Dodds famously argued against Greece presenting a ‘triumph of rationalism’ by pointing out pre-modern attitudes and modes of thinking, Bruno Snell asserted that the Ancient Greeks in Homeric times lacked a conception of the self and later gradually discovered introspection and a theory of mind. Following the line of his earlier books, Ober argues the exact opposite: the Ancient Greeks did not only behave rationally but also had a discourse about various aspects of rationality. The general claim of Ober’s book is that a so-called ‘Folk Theory’ of instrumental rationality emerged in the Greek world in the first half of the fifth century BCE. Although this Folk Theory does not resemble the form of modern rational choice theory, it made similar assumptions, such as that people employ their cognitive capacities to form ordered preferences and consistently act to obtain the best possible outcome. Ober (6) illustrates this by quoting Xenophon, Memo-rabilia 3.9.4: \"that all persons deliberately choose, out of what is available to them, what they think is most advantageous to themselves, and they do this\". This theory of instrumental rationality was first propagated by the Sophists and, through their education, their ideas permeated Greek public discourse, leading to numerous reflections in the late-fifth and early-fourth-century Greek philosophical and historical texts. When this popular theory was brought into practice in ancient Athens, it led to a process of","PeriodicalId":37914,"journal":{"name":"Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics","volume":"56 7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138975049","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ethics from the Outside Looking In","authors":"Roger Crisp, Benjamin Mullins","doi":"10.23941/ejpe.v16i2.802","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23941/ejpe.v16i2.802","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37914,"journal":{"name":"Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics","volume":"243 1‐2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139002238","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Review of Olúfemi O Táíwò’s Reconsidering Reparations. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022, x + 261 pp.","authors":"Josep Recasens","doi":"10.23941/ejpe.v16i2.803","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23941/ejpe.v16i2.803","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37914,"journal":{"name":"Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics","volume":"45 23","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138974809","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Singular Plurality of Social Goods - Social Ontology and Collective Dilemmas","authors":"Marco Emilio","doi":"10.23941/ejpe.v16i2.804","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23941/ejpe.v16i2.804","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37914,"journal":{"name":"Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics","volume":"333 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138974104","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Privatization of state services has been a flashpoint for political conflict over the past several decades. The goal of this paper is to explain why someone who is a supporter of the welfare state might also support the privatization of certain state services, in certain cases. Recent philosophical literature has focused on the most problematic privatization initiatives, especially the introduction of private prisons and military contractors. As a counterpoint, this paper describes a set of anodyne privatizations, understood as privatizations that no reasonable person could object to. The key step in this analysis involves showing that privatization is not a unitary phenomenon. There are different types of privatization, different degrees of privatization, and also different motives for privatization. There are also important normative differences between these initiatives, which might lead a reasonable person to support some but not others.
{"title":"Anodyne Privatization","authors":"Joseph Heath","doi":"10.23941/ejpe.v16i2.800","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23941/ejpe.v16i2.800","url":null,"abstract":"Privatization of state services has been a flashpoint for political conflict over the past several decades. The goal of this paper is to explain why someone who is a supporter of the welfare state might also support the privatization of certain state services, in certain cases. Recent philosophical literature has focused on the most problematic privatization initiatives, especially the introduction of private prisons and military contractors. As a counterpoint, this paper describes a set of anodyne privatizations, understood as privatizations that no reasonable person could object to. The key step in this analysis involves showing that privatization is not a unitary phenomenon. There are different types of privatization, different degrees of privatization, and also different motives for privatization. There are also important normative differences between these initiatives, which might lead a reasonable person to support some but not others.","PeriodicalId":37914,"journal":{"name":"Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics","volume":"8 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138585837","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Responses","authors":"Nicholas Vrousalis","doi":"10.23941/ejpe.v16i1.766","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23941/ejpe.v16i1.766","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37914,"journal":{"name":"Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47195645","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Review of Anna Horodecka’s Human Nature in Modern Economics: Structure, Change and Perspectives. Abingdon and New York, NY: Routledge, 2022, viii + 264 pp.","authors":"Andrés Lazzarini","doi":"10.23941/ejpe.v16i1.770","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23941/ejpe.v16i1.770","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37914,"journal":{"name":"Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48248561","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Editorial Note","authors":"Tully Rector, Elisabetta Gobbo, Benjamin Mullins","doi":"10.23941/ejpe.v16i1.765","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23941/ejpe.v16i1.765","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37914,"journal":{"name":"Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44429986","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In his most recent books, Piketty offers a global history of inequality in its economic, social, political, and intellectual dimensions, arguing that history is moved by the struggle of ideologies. To take part in this battle of ideas, he conceives a new ideal model of society, ‘participative socialism’, as an egalitarian alternative to the dominant neoproprietarian ideology and to the dangerous resurgence of nationalism and populism. This paper provides a new interpretation of Piketty’s view of history and of his participatory socialism in light of Paul Ricoeur’s study of the dialectics of ideology and utopia. First, I present Ricoeur’s singular analysis of ideology and utopia, which he sees as two inseparable facets of social imagination. Then I show how Ricoeur’s concepts can be fruitfully applied to Piketty’s conception of history and to his conception of a new form of socialism for the 21st century, drawing lessons from history and forming a ‘good’ or ‘realist’ utopia. Finally, I demonstrate that this interpretation of Piketty’s socialism can help to better understand some of the criticisms he has received.
{"title":"Ideologies and Utopia","authors":"Benoît Walraevens","doi":"10.23941/ejpe.v16i1.673","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23941/ejpe.v16i1.673","url":null,"abstract":"In his most recent books, Piketty offers a global history of inequality in its economic, social, political, and intellectual dimensions, arguing that history is moved by the struggle of ideologies. To take part in this battle of ideas, he conceives a new ideal model of society, ‘participative socialism’, as an egalitarian alternative to the dominant neoproprietarian ideology and to the dangerous resurgence of nationalism and populism. This paper provides a new interpretation of Piketty’s view of history and of his participatory socialism in light of Paul Ricoeur’s study of the dialectics of ideology and utopia. First, I present Ricoeur’s singular analysis of ideology and utopia, which he sees as two inseparable facets of social imagination. Then I show how Ricoeur’s concepts can be fruitfully applied to Piketty’s conception of history and to his conception of a new form of socialism for the 21st century, drawing lessons from history and forming a ‘good’ or ‘realist’ utopia. Finally, I demonstrate that this interpretation of Piketty’s socialism can help to better understand some of the criticisms he has received.","PeriodicalId":37914,"journal":{"name":"Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42511537","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}