Institutionalized Reason

Institutionalized Reason

Author: Matthias Klatt

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2012-02-23

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 0191624020

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This volume gathers leading figures from legal philosophy and constitutional theory to offer a critical examination of the work of Robert Alexy. The contributions explore the issues surrounding the complex relations between rights, law, and morality and reflect on Alexy's distinctive work on these issues. The focus across the contributions is on Alexy's main pre-occupations - his anti-positivist views on the nature of law, his approach to the nature of legal reasoning, and his understanding of constitutional rights as legal principles. In an extended response to the contributions in the volume, Alexy develops his views on these central issues. The volume's juxtaposition of Anglo-American and German perspectives brings into focus the differences as well as the prospect of cross-fertilization between Continental and Anglo-American work in jurisprudence.


Institutionalized Reason

Institutionalized Reason

Author: Matthias Klatt

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2012-02-23

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13: 9780199582068

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Based on a symposium held at New College, Oxford in September 2008.


Communities in Action

Communities in Action

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2017-04-27

Total Pages: 583

ISBN-13: 0309452961

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In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.


Morality Within the Limits of Reason

Morality Within the Limits of Reason

Author: Russell Hardin

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 1988

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 0226316203

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This provocative, lucidly written reconstruction of utilitarianism focuses on the practical constraints involved in ethical choice: information may be inadequate, and understanding of causes and effects may be limited. Good decision making may be especially constrained if other people are closely involved in determining an outcome. Hardin demonstrates that many of these structural issues can and should be distinguished from the thornier problems of utilitarian value theory, and he is able to show what kinds of moral conclusions we can reach within the limits of reason.


The Limits of Rationality

The Limits of Rationality

Author: Karen Schweers Cook

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2008-10-03

Total Pages: 436

ISBN-13: 0226742415

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Prevailing economic theory presumes that agents act rationally when they make decisions, striving to maximize the efficient use of their resources. Psychology has repeatedly challenged the rational choice paradigm with persuasive evidence that people do not always make the optimal choice. Yet the paradigm has proven so successful a predictor that its use continues to flourish, fueled by debate across the social sciences over why it works so well. Intended to introduce novices to rational choice theory, this accessible, interdisciplinary book collects writings by leading researchers. The Limits of Rationality illuminates the rational choice paradigm of social and political behavior itself, identifies its limitations, clarifies the nature of current controversies, and offers suggestions for improving current models. In the first section of the book, contributors consider the theoretical foundations of rational choice. Models of rational choice play an important role in providing a standard of human action and the bases for constitutional design, but do they also succeed as explanatory models of behavior? Do empirical failures of these explanatory models constitute a telling condemnation of rational choice theory or do they open new avenues of investigation and theorizing? Emphasizing analyses of norms and institutions, the second and third sections of the book investigate areas in which rational choice theory might be extended in order to provide better models. The contributors evaluate the adequacy of analyses based on neoclassical economics, the potential contributions of game theory and cognitive science, and the consequences for the basic framework when unequal bargaining power and hierarchy are introduced.


Unchurching

Unchurching

Author: Richard Jacobson

Publisher:

Published: 2016-07-12

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 9780692749951

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Millions of believers are currently leaving the organized church, without giving up their faith. Sadly, many are only defining themselves by what they don't do, as Christians who simply "don't go to church." It's time for these believers to catch a vision for genuine spiritual community, outside the walls of organized Christianity, a way of being the church without going to church. Unchurching: Christianity Without Churchianity will challenge everything you thought you knew about church. Unchurching boldly examines whether organized churches are even biblical. It thoroughly deconstructs the idea of special church buildings, paid pastors, weekly sermons, mandatory tithes and offerings, gender inequality in church leadership, and much more. Unchurching is intended to empower believers who are done with organized church but aren't ready to abandon their faith. It will give non-churchgoing Christians a vision for genuine spiritual community that simply functions like an extended spiritual family. And it will equip them with the language to finally articulate that vision to others. Here's what others are saying about Unchurching: "Lots of books that invite Christians to follow Jesus outside of the four walls of churchianity are filled with harsh judgment and criticism of how others 'do church.' But not this book! Unchurching by Richard Jacobson is full of love and grace. There is no judgment, condemnation, or guilt-casting of any kind. Beginning with the Trinity of God, Jacobson presents a grand vision of what the church can be and how we can truly have community as followers of Jesus. Read this book and be encouraged to take the next step of your journey!" Jeremy Myers, author and blogger at RedeemingGod.com "Unchurching: Christianity without Churchianity validates and empowers the rapidly growing number of people who are in the transition between traditional church and an informal community of disciples meeting outside the four walls of the church building. Richard Jacobson has been on both sides of this shift and is uniquely qualified to write about it-which he does well, with insight, humility, and scholarship. I especially valued his comments on the freedom that women have to do and be everything God is calling them to. Highly recommended." Felicity Dale: author, An Army of Ordinary People; co-author, Small is Big "Unchurching presents us with a picture of a church that is all about one person-Jesus. As I read this book I felt my pulse quicken and my heart leap for joy because everything Richard writes about is centered on, around, and in relation to the One who would rather die than live without us. Anyone who loves Jesus and who longs to take hold of Him in a gathering where He is the focal point will delight in this book. It's truly amazing what happens when we get out of the way and allow Jesus to take center stage. This book shows us what that can look like, if we are willing to let go of our traditions and embrace the living, breathing Christ who longs to share His life with us throughout eternity, starting right now!" Keith Giles, author of This Is My Body: Ekklesia As God Intended; author of Jesus Untangled


The Barbarism of Reason

The Barbarism of Reason

Author: Asher Horowitz

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 1994-12-16

Total Pages: 497

ISBN-13: 1442638575

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The recent renewal of interest in Max Weber evidences an attempt to enlist his thought in the service of a renewed dream of Enlightenment individualism. Yet he was the first twentieth-century thinker to fully appreciate the pervasiveness and ambiguity of rationalization which threatened to undermine the hopes of the Enlightenment. Asher Horowitz and Terry Maley present a collection of essays tracing the contemporary significance of Weber's work for the tradition of Enlightenment political thought and its critiques. In its critical inquiry into Weber's thought, The Barbarism of Reason continues the exploration of the limits and prospects of politics in a rationalizing society. The first section comprises a set of both historical and philosophical reflections on the political implications of Weber's central concepts such as disenchantment, rationality, and affectivity, the historical understanding, meaning, and domination. The second section examines the institutional and historical context that framed Weber's inquiries into structures of the modern mode of domination, as well as his understanding of the nature of the modern state. Among the topics broached are Weber's strategic intervention into the development of the liberal theory of the state as well as a critical examination of the theoretical and pre-theoretical roots of his construction of the subject. Another of the essays reveals the schizophrenic structure of modern subjectivity. The third and last section attempts to trace the vicissitudes of Weber's seminal problems concerning rationalization, power, and disenchantment through some of the most important responses to his work in the twentieth century.


Reason's Neglect

Reason's Neglect

Author: Barbara Townley

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2008-07-24

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 0191559423

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Reason, and the need to Be Rational, are essential dimensions of society and the organizations we live and work in. Yet the 'rationalization' of working and administrative processes, or the 'rationality' studied in social sciences, is all too often, used, understood, and interpreted in an extremely narrow sense. Reason's Neglect does three things. Firstly, it argues that rationality is a leitmotif of organization studies, but one that has often been neglected. Secondly, it deploys Foucault's work to recover the neglected dimensions of rationality. In doing this, it allows for a revisionary exploration of key subjects in organization studies: organization theory, bureaucracy, technology, culture, practice, etc. Finally, the book presents the case of new rational management techniques being introduced in an organization, allowing individuals to 'speak for themselves', and examining how they respond to these innovations, and how they make sense of them. Arguing that rationality should be seen as disembedded, embedded, or embodied, each chapter goes on to explore a different aspect of reason, such as economic, bureaucratic, technocratic, institutional, or contextual. Clearly written and structured, yet an engaged and challenging approach to the study of organizations in society, Reason's Neglect is an iconoclastic book.


Human Rights in Emergencies

Human Rights in Emergencies

Author: Evan J. Criddle

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2016-07-21

Total Pages: 303

ISBN-13: 1316688178

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Public emergencies such as civil wars, natural disasters, and economic crises test the theoretical and practical commitments of international human rights law. During national crises, international law permits states to suspend many human rights protections in order to safeguard national security. States frequently overstep the limits of this authority, violating even peremptory human rights such as the prohibitions against torture and prolonged arbitrary detention. In this volume, leading scholars from law, philosophy and political science grapple with challenging questions concerning the character, scope, and salience of international human rights, and they explain how the law seeks to protect human rights during emergencies. The contributors also evaluate the law's successes and failures, and offer new proposals for strengthening respect for human rights.