DOCSLIB.ORG

Information to Users

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Information to Users Institutional structure and the optimal level of lying Item Type Thesis Authors Hiser, Rodney F. Download date 07/10/2021 10:06:47 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/11122/9530 INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. Bell & Howell Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA UMI*800-521-0600 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURE AND THE OPTIMAL LEVEL OF LYING A THESIS Presented to the Faculty of the University of Alaska Fairbanks in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By Rodney F. Hiser, M. S. Fairbanks, Alaska December 1999 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number 9961379 Copyright 2000 by Hiser, Rodney F. All rights reserved. __ ___ @ UMI UMI Microform9961379 Copyright 2000 by Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURE AND THE OPTIMAL LEVEL OF LYING By Rodney Fred Hiser RECOMMENDED: Advisory Committee Chair Economics .Department Head APPROVED: — Dean, School of Management Dean, Graduate School Date Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Abstract Institutional Structure and the Optimal Level of Lying Rodney Fred Hiser This study is an interdisciplinary comparative analysis of two institutional structures and their relation to lying. The author examines institutional structure through an institutional continuum with contrasting ideal-types at opposing ends. These ideal- types are the “private property order” and the “bureau.” The author models lying as a benefit-cost analysis and examines lying through a two-person model of society called the “information relation.” Using the information relation, he shows the problem of lying is an agency problem between the informer and the informee. In two separate analyses, the author evaluates the ideal-types’ tendencies to either allow or hinder lying. In the first analysis, the author identifies seven protection-from- lying strategies and compares their necessary requirements to the institutional constraints of the ideal types. In the second analysis, the author examines six social phenomena, within the institutional context of each ideal type, that affect people’s benefit-cost ratio of lying. The author concludes that there exists a positive correlation between the degree of central planning and the optimal level of lying, as seen from the point of view of each individual in society. The author argues that a movement on the continuum away from the private property order toward the bureau tends to (1) breakdown community relations, (2) provide incentive for society members to adopt value relativism, (3) change the nature of competition (4) lower society’s overall material standard of living, and (5) create a social environment of mutual self-deception. The author sees important implications in this study for the economics of information, theories of government regulation, and the sociology of science. iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table of Contents Page List of Tables..........................................................................................................................vi Chapter 1. Introduction........................................................................................................... I Theories of Truth..............................................................................................3 Institutions and Optimality..............................................................................6 Methods of Lying............................................................................................ 8 Lying as a Benefit-Cost Analysis................................................................. 12 The Information Relation and the Agency Problem....................................15 Division of Labor, Particular Knowledge, and the Agency Problem 23 Social Remedies to Lying............................................................................. 25 Comparing Markets and Bureaus.................................................................29 Justification of Methodology........................................................................ 31 The Great Debate........................................................................................ 32 The Sciences in Turmoil........................................................................... 38 Disagreement in Economics...................................................................... 39 2. Protection-From-Lying Strategies...................................................................44 The Simple Strategies....................................................................................44 Reputation...................................................................................................... 48 Community..................................................................................................... 61 Ideology...........................................................................................................75 3. Lying in the Private Property Order.................................................................96 Choosing A Market Model........................................................................... 96 The Private Property Order.........................................................................104 Protection Strategy Effectiveness in the Private Property Order 120 The Simple Strategies...............................................................................121 Reputation................................................................................................. 122 Community................................................................................................ 128 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Ideology.....................................................................................................138 The Benefit-Cost Ratio of Lying in the Private Property Order 147 Particular Knowledge.............................................................................. 148 Organizations........................................................................................... 149 The Free-Rider Problem.......................................................................... 155 Institutional Restrictions of Communication............... 164 Time Preference.......................................................................................172 Ethical Codes of Conduct Engendered by the Private Property Order 174 4. Lying in the Bureau......................................................................................... 180 Weber’s Model of Bureaucracy..................................................................180 Qualifying Weber’s Model of Bureaucracy..............................................185 Protection Strategy Effectiveness in the Bureau......................................201 The Simple Strategies..............................................................................202 Reputation ...................................................................................... 206 Community...............................................................................................210 Ideology.................................................................................................... 222 The Benefit-Cost Ratio of Lying in the Bureau.........................................231 Particular Knowledge..............................................................................232 Organizations...........................................................................................234 The Free-Rider
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Processing Information, Biases, and Beliefs for Improved Management of Natural Resources and Environment
    Earth’s Future REVIEW From data to decisions: Processing information, biases, 10.1002/2016EF000487 and beliefs for improved management of natural resources and environments Pierre D. Glynn1 ,AlexeyA.Voinov2,CarlD.Shapiro1, and Paul A. White3 Key Points: • Biases, beliefs, heuristics, and values 1Department of Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia, USA, 2Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth permeate the progression from 3 sensory inputs to data to knowledge Observation, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands, GNS Science (Institute of Geological and Nuclear to decisions Sciences), Wairakei Research Centre, Taupo, New Zealand • An adaptive framework is presented for the science and policy governance of complex systems Our different kinds of minds and types of thinking affect the ways we decide, take action, • The framework is discussed in the Abstract context of different types of systems and cooperate (or not). Derived from these types of minds, innate biases, beliefs, heuristics, and values or issues of interest in the natural (BBHV) influence behaviors, often beneficially, when individuals or small groups face immediate, local, sciences acute situations that they and their ancestors faced repeatedly in the past. BBHV, though, need to be rec- ognized and possibly countered or used when facing new, complex issues or situations especially if they Supporting Information: need to be managed for the benefit of a wider community, for the longer-term and the larger-scale. Tak- • Supporting Information S1 ing BBHV into account, we explain and provide a cyclic science-infused adaptive framework for (1) gaining knowledge of complex systems and (2) improving their management. We explore how this process and Corresponding author: framework could improve the governance of science and policy for different types of systems and issues, P.
    [Show full text]
  • People-Focused Knowledge Management
    PR.qxd 5/3/04 2:31 PM Page i Further Praise for People-Focused Knowledge Management “Drucker may point the way of a knowledge economy, a knowledge business, a knowledge worker, but Karl Wiig instructs us precisely how to take advantage of a dynamic knowledge strategy. In People-Focused Knowledge Management, he sim- plifies the complex, makes the concepts relevant and actionable and leaves the (inevitable) results to us. Finally, we have a resource for creating a compelling knowl- edge value proposition linking economics, behavior and technology. For decades, his remarkable graphics and penetrating analysis has been a cornerstone for manager- ial excellence in all corners of the globe and all sectors of the economy. Few can match his roots and vision in this field; and no one will be disappointed with this newest triumph.” — Debra Amidon, Founder and CEO, Entovation International, Ltd., and Author of The Innovation Superhighway “Melding theory with application, Wiig has created an invaluable ready reference for everyone who works in the knowledge management arena. He is uniquely qual- ified to provide such a thorough and thought-provoking analysis of the role of knowledge and knowledge management in meeting the business challenges that we all face.” — Alex Bennet; Mountain Quest Institute; Co-Author of Organizational Survival in the New World: The Intelligent Complex Adaptive System; former Chief Knowledge Officer of the U.S. Department of the Navy “This book distills the practical and theoretical wisdom of one of the true pioneers in the field of Knowledge Management. The constant interplay of case analysis and fundamental propositions signals the coming of age of the discipline.
    [Show full text]
  • Czech-American Protestants: a Minority Within a Minority
    Nebraska History posts materials online for your personal use. Please remember that the contents of Nebraska History are copyrighted by the Nebraska State Historical Society (except for materials credited to other institutions). The NSHS retains its copyrights even to materials it posts on the web. For permission to re-use materials or for photo ordering information, please see: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/magazine/permission.htm Nebraska State Historical Society members receive four issues of Nebraska History and four issues of Nebraska History News annually. For membership information, see: http://nebraskahistory.org/admin/members/index.htm Article Title: Czech-American Protestants: A Minority within a Minority Full Citation: Bruce M Garver, “Czech-American Protestants: A Minority within a Minority,” Nebraska History 74 (1993): 150-167 URL of article: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/publicat/history/full-text/NH1993CAProtestants.pdf Date: 3/23/2015 Article Summary: There were few Czech-American Protestants, but they received the assistance of mainline American Protestant denominations in establishing congregations and building meeting houses. They perpetuated the use of the Czech language and did important charitable work. Cataloging Information: Names: František Kún, Jan Pípal, E A Adams, David S Schaff, Will Monroe, Gustav Alexy, Albert Schauffler, Vincenc Písek, A W Clark, Jaroslav Dobiáš, František B Zdrůbek, Bohdan A Filipi, Tomáš G Masaryk, J L Hromádka Place Names: Bohemia; Moravia; Saunders and Colfax Counties, Nebraska;
    [Show full text]
  • The Catholic Church in the Czech Lands During the Nazi
    STUDIA HUMANITATIS JOURNAL, 2021, 1 (1), pp. 192-208 ISSN: 2792-3967 DOI: https://doi.org/10.53701/shj.v1i1.22 Artículo / Article THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE CZECH LANDS DURING THE NAZI OCCUPATION IN 1939–1945 AND AFTER1 LA IGLESIA CATÓLICA EN LOS TERRITORIOS CHECOS DURANTE LA OCUPACIÓN NAZI ENTRE LOS AÑOS 1939–1945 Y DESPUÉS Marek Smid Charles University, Czech Republic ORCID: 0000-0001-8613-8673 [email protected] | Abstract | This study addresses the religious persecution in the Czech lands (Bohemia, Moravia and Czech Silesia) during World War II, when these territories were part of the Bohemian and Moravian Protectorate being occupied by Nazi Germany. Its aim is to demonstrate how the Catholic Church, its hierarchy and its priests acted as relevant patriots who did not hesitate to stand up to the occupying forces and express their rejection of their procedures. Both the domestic Catholic camp and the ties abroad towards the Holy See and its representation will be analysed. There will also be presented the personalities of priests, who became the victims of the Nazi rampage in the Czech lands at the end of the study. The basic method consists of a descriptive analysis that takes into account the comparative approach of the spiritual life before and after the occupation. Furthermore, the analytical-synthetic method will be used, combined with the subsequent interpretation of the findings. An additional method, not always easy to apply, is hermeneutics, i.e., the interpretation of socio-historical phenomena in an effort to reveal the uniqueness of the analysed texts and sources and emphasize their singularity in the cultural and spiritual development of Czech Church history in the first half of the 20th century.
    [Show full text]
  • The Environmental Optimism of Elinor Ostrom Edited By: Megan E
    The Environmental Optimism of Elinor Ostrom Edited by: Megan E. Jenkins, Randy T Simmons, and Camille H. Wardle The Environmental Optimism of Elinor Ostrom Edited by: Megan E. Jenkins, Randy T Simmons, and Camille H. Wardle Copyright © 2020 the Center for Growth and Opportunity at Utah State University All rights reserved Paperback ISBN 978-1-7348561-0-1 eISBN 978-1-7348561-1-8 Cover design and typesetting by Brooke Jacques The Center for Growth and Opportunity at Utah State University 3525 Old Main Hill Logan, UT 84322 www. thecgo.org “As an institutionalist studying empirical phenomena, I presume that individuals try to solve problems as effectively as they can. It is my responsibility as a scientist to ascertain what problem individuals are trying to solve and what factors help or hinder them in these efforts.” –Elinor Ostrom, 2009 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences Contents Introduction ................................................................................... vii Megan E. Jenkins and Randy T Simmons Chapter 1 Resource Governance in the American West: Institutions, Information, and Incentives ............................................ 1 Peter J. Hill and Shawn Regan Chapter 2 Self-Governance, Polycentricity, and Environmental Policy................... 31 Jordan K. Lofthouse Chapter 3 Pacific Salmon Fisheries Management: An (Unusual) Example of Polycentric Governance Involving Indigenous Participation at Multiple Scales .......................... 61 Shane Day Chapter 4 Population Growth and the Governance of Complex Institutions: People Are More Than Mouths to Feed ............... 91 Pierre Desrochers and Joanna Szurmak Chapter 5 Contracting and the Commons: Linking the Insights of Gary Libecap and Elinor Ostrom ....................... 149 Eric C. Edwards and Bryan Leonard Chapter 6 The Environmental Benefits of Long-Distance Trade: Insights from the History of By-Product Development .........................
    [Show full text]
  • Why Conservatives Should Support the Free Market
    WHY CONSERVATIVES SHOULD SUPPORT THE FREE MARKET HANNES H. GISSURARSON www.europeanreform.org @europeanreform Established by Margaret Thatcher, New Direction is Europe’s leading free market political foundation & publisher with offices in Brussels, London, Rome & Warsaw. New Direction is registered in Belgium as a not-for-profit organisation and is partly funded by the European Parliament. REGISTERED OFFICE: Rue du Trône, 4, 1000 Brussels, Belgium. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Naweed Khan. www.europeanreform.org @europeanreform The European Parliament and New Direction assume no responsibility for the opinions expressed in this publication. Sole liability rests with the author. AUTHOR TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION 6 2 THE CONSERVATIVE-LIBERAL TRADITION FROM BURKE TO MENGER 9 3 HAYEK AS A CONSERVATIVE LIBERAL 16 4 THE CONSERVATIVE CRITICS: OAKESHOTT AND SCRUTON 20 5 IS THE FREE MARKET UNINSPIRING? 26 6 DOES THE FREE MARKET ERODE MORAL VALUES? 31 Hannes Holmsteinn Gissurarson 7 DOES THE FREE MARKET CREATE EXCESSIVE EXPECTATIONS? 36 8 IS DISTRIBUTION BY CHOICE MORALLY UNACCEPTABLE? 44 Born in 1953, he holds a D.Phil. in Politics from Oxford University and is Professor of Politics at the University 9 IS THE FREE MARKET SELF-DEFEATING? 50 of Iceland. The author of more than a dozen books on 10 DOES THE FREE MARKET ENCOURAGE VULGARITY? 57 political philosophy, history and current affairs, he is the research director of RNH, the Icelandic Research Centre for 11 CONCLUSIONS 62 Innovation and Economic Growth. New Direction - The Foundation for European Reform www.europeanreform.org @europeanreform Why Conservatives Should Support the Free Market Hannes H. Gissurarson 1 INTRODUCTION here are many ways of classifying political which in the nineteenth century solidified into a positions, ideologies and parties.
    [Show full text]
  • New Perspectives on Political Economy a Bilingual Interdisciplinary Journal Vol
    NEW PERSPECTIVES ON POLITICAL ECONOMY A bilingual interdisciplinary journal Vol. 7, No. 1, 2011 NEW PERSPECTIVES ON POLITICAL ECONOMY A bilingual interdisciplinary journal / Vol. 7, No. 1, 2011 New Perspectives on Political Economy is a peer-reviewed semi-annual bilingual interdisci- plinary journal, published since 2005 in Prague. The journal aims at contributing to scholar- ship at the intersection of political science, political philosophy, political economy and law. The main objective of the journal is to enhance our understanding of private property-, market- and individual liberty-based perspectives in the respected sciences. We also belive that only via exchange among social scientists from different fields and cross-disciplinary -re search can we critically analyze and fully understand forces that drive policy-making and be able to spell out policy implications and consequences. The journal welcomes submissions of unpublished research papers, book reviews, and educational notes. PUBLISHED BY CEVRO INSTITUTE AcaDEMIC PRESS IN co-OPERATION WITH WoLTERS-KLUWER CZECH REPUBLIC EDITORIAL ADDRESS: New Perspectives on Political Economy CEVRO Institute, Jungmannova 17, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic Manuscripts should be submitted electronically. All manuscripts and correspondence should be addressed to [email protected]. Full text available via DOAJ Directory of Open Access Journals and also via EBSCO Publishing databases. INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS Authors submitting manuscripts should include abstracts of not more than 250 words and JEL classification codes. New Perspectives on Political Economy edits for clarity, brevity, and in accordance with the Chicago Manual of Style. Authors should use footnotes rather than endnotes or in-text references, and must include complete bibliographical information.
    [Show full text]
  • Black Conservative Intellectuals in Modern America Michael L. Ondaatje
    NEITHER COUNTERFEIT HEROES NOR COLOUR-BLIND VISIONARIES: BLACK CONSERVATIVE INTELLECTUALS IN MODERN AMERICA MICHAEL L. ONDAATJE This thesis is presented for a doctorate of philosophy in the discipline of History, School of Humanities, University of Western Australia. 2007 CONTENTS Abstract...............................................................................................................................i Acknowledgements............................................................................................................ii Introduction........................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: Historiography of Contemporary Black Conservatism............................10 Chapter 2: Contemporary Black Conservative Profiles..............................................38 Chapter 3: Black Conservatives and Affirmative Action.............................................83 Chapter 4: Black Conservatives and Black Poverty...................................................138 Chapter 5: Black Conservatives and Education ........................................................184 Conclusion......................................................................................................................225 Bibliography...................................................................................................................228 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS No person is an island. Our debts to others stretch far back into the mists of time. And so it is not
    [Show full text]
  • Accepting the Invisible Hand: Market-Based Approaches to Social-Economic Problems Edited by Mark D
    ACCEPTING THE INVISIBLE HAND Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to ETH Zuerich - PalgraveConnect - 2011-04-15 - PalgraveConnect - licensed to ETH Zuerich www.palgraveconnect.com material from Copyright 10.1057/9780230114319 - Accepting the Invisible Hand, Edited by Mark D. White 9780230102491_01_prexvi.indd i 9/6/2010 1:17:11 PM PERSPECTIVES FROM SOCIAL ECONOMICS Series Editor: Mark D. White, Professor in the Department of Political Science, Econom- ics, and Philosophy at the College of Staten Island/CUNY. The Perspectives from Social Economics series incorporates an explicit ethical component into contemporary economic discussion of important policy and social issues, drawing on the approaches used by social economists around the world. It also allows social economists to develop their own frameworks and paradigms by exploring the philosophy and methodology of social eco- nomics in relation to orthodox and other heterodox approaches to econom- ics. By furthering these goals, this series will expose a wider readership to the scholarship produced by social economists, and thereby promote the more inclusive viewpoints, especially as they concern ethical analyses of economic issues and methods. Accepting the Invisible Hand: Market-Based Approaches to Social-Economic Problems Edited by Mark D. White Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to ETH Zuerich - PalgraveConnect - 2011-04-15 - PalgraveConnect - licensed to ETH Zuerich www.palgraveconnect.com material from Copyright 10.1057/9780230114319 - Accepting the Invisible Hand, Edited by Mark D. White 9780230102491_01_prexvi.indd ii 9/6/2010 1:17:11 PM Accepting the Invisible Hand Market-Based Approaches to Social-Economic Problems Edited by Mark D. White Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to ETH Zuerich - PalgraveConnect - 2011-04-15 - PalgraveConnect - licensed to ETH Zuerich www.palgraveconnect.com material from Copyright 10.1057/9780230114319 - Accepting the Invisible Hand, Edited by Mark D.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction Part I Socialism and Central Planning 1 Planning And
    Notes Introduction 1 . Summers (2014). 2 . Einstein (1949). Part I Socialism and Central Planning 1 . Auerbach (1992), p.10; footnote omitted. 1 Planning and Spontaneous Order 1 . Marx (1867), pp. 283–4. 2 . Descartes (1637), pp.7–8. 3 . See Israel (2011), part II. 4 . Kula (1986), chapters 21–3. 5 . Acemoglu et al. (2011). 6 . Carlisle (1974), p. 451. 7 . Gide and Rist (1948), p. 232. 8 . Such banks represented ‘the realization of Saint-Simonian plans’ Hayek (1952), p. 316, footnote omitted. 9 . Gerschenkron (1962a), pp. 11–14. 10 . The terms ‘liberal’ and ‘liberalism’ will be used throughout this book in their British, free-market sense, as when Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman referred to themselves as liberals. When the term is used, as in American English, to denote a mild form of social democracy, it will be qualified – ‘American liberal’. 11 . Gerschenkron (1962a), pp. 22–3; Gide and Rist (1948), pp. 236–8. 12 . Carlisle (1968), p. 434. 13 . Kunstler (2001), p. X. 14 . Kunstler (2001) p. 32; Shapiro (1982), p. 486; Gandy (1999), pp. 23–4, 27. 15 . Porter (1999), p. 416. 16 . Simon, as quoted in Halliday (2007), p. 119; Halliday’s insertions. 17 . Spencer (1843), pp. 244–5, 247. 18 . Porter (1999), p. 412; Halliday (2007), pp. 26–7. 19 . Spencer (1857), p. 290; Spencer (1853), pp. 279–80, 304. 20 . See Evans (2005). 21 . Fogel (2004), p. 37. 22 . Bauman (1976), pp. 13, 15; see as well Hayek (1982), volume 1, pp. 64–5. 23 . Hayek (1944). 24 . Hayek (1982), volume 1, p. 118.
    [Show full text]
  • Department of Economics Working Papers
    10ISSN 1183-1057 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Department of Economics Working Papers 12-14 “Rules, Rule-Following, And Cooperation” Erik Kimbrough and Alexander Vostroknutov July, 2012 Economics * Rules, Rule-Following, and Cooperation Erik O. Kimbrougha and Alexander Vostroknutovb July 11, 2012 Abstract Rules are thought to persist to the extent that the direct benefits of having them (e.g. reduced transactions costs) exceed the costs of enforcement and of occasional misapplications. We argue that a second crucial role of rules is as screening mechanisms for identifying cooperative types. Thus we underestimate the social value of rules when we consider only their instrumental value in solving a particular problem. We demonstrate experimentally that costly rule-following can be used to screen for conditional cooperators. Subjects participate in a rule-following task in which they may incur costs to follow an arbitrary written rule in an individual choice setting. Without their knowledge, we sort them into groups according to their willingness to follow the rule. These groups then play repeated public goods or trust games. Rule-following groups sustain high public goods contributions over time, but in rule-breaking groups cooperation decays. Rule- followers also reciprocate more in trust games. However, when individuals are not sorted by type, we observe no differences in the behavior of rule-followers and rule-breakers. JEL Classifications: C91, C92, D70, D03 Keywords: experimental economics, rules, social dilemmas, cooperation Corresponding
    [Show full text]
  • The Psychological Foundations of Culture Generation -Of Culture
    From: The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary psychology The Psychological Foundations of Culture generation -of culture J. Barkow, L. Cosmides, JOHNTOOBY AND LEDA COSMIDES 1992. New York: Oxford INTRODUCTION: THE UNITY OF SCIENCE One of the strengths of scientific inquiry is that it can progress with any mixture of empiri- cism, intuition, and formal theory that suits the convenience of the investigator. Many sci- ences develop for a time as exercises in description and empirical generalization. Only later do they acquire reasoned connectionswithin themselves and with other branches of knowl- edge. Many things were scientifically known of human anatomy and the motions ofthe plan- ets before they were scientifically explained. -GEORGE WILLIAMS, Adaptation and Natural Selection Disciplines such as astronomy, chemistry, physics, geology, and biology have devel- oped a robust combination of logical coherence, causal description, explanatory power, and testability, and have become examples of how reliable and deeply satisfy- ing human knowledge can become. Their extraordinary florescence throughout this century has resulted in far more than just individual progress within each field. These disciplines are becoming integrated into an increasingly seamless system of intercon- nected knowledge and remain nominally separated more out of educational conve- nience and institutional inertia than because of any genuine ruptures in the underlying unity of the achieved knowledge. In fact, this development is only an acceleration of the process of conceptual unification that has been building in science since the Renaissance. For example, Galileo and Newton broke down the then rigid (and now forgotten) division between the celestial and the terrestrial-two domains that for- merly had been considered metaphysically separate-showing that the same processes and principles applied to both.
    [Show full text]