Crises and Paradigm Shift: A Response to Critics

International financial and regulatory reform continues in 2014, building upon the burst of crisis‐induced institutional and regulatory reforms begun in 2008. In particular, the Financial Stability Board is an element and an agent of reform and this paradigm shift. The leap taken was and remains a predominantly technocratic central banking macroprudential narrative and process, controlled by this elite epistemic community. As the new regulatory normal evolves in 2014, it now does so at a slower pace, as the crisis appears to abate. Today elements of paradigm defence, maintenance and resilience are seen.     

Bugs,predations or manipulations? Incompatible epistemic regimes of high-frequency trading

Abstract

Calls for greater transparency as well as corporate and individual accountability have emerged in response to the recent turbulence in financial markets. In the field of high-frequency trading (HFT), suggested solutions have involved a call for increased market information, for example, or better access to the inner workings of algorithmic trading systems. Through a combination of fieldwork conducted in HFT firms and discourse analysis, I show that the problem may not always stem from a lack of information. Instead, my comparative analysis of different market actors (regulators, market analysts and traders) shows that the diverse and complex ways in which they access and construct knowledge out of information in fact lead to what I call different epistemic regimes. An understanding of how epistemic regimes work will enable us to explain not only why the same market event can be viewed as very different things – as market manipulation, predation or error – but also why it is so difficult to arrive at a unified theory or view of HFT. The comparative perspective introduced by the idea of epistemic regimes might also serve as a starting point for the development of a cultural approach to the study of financial markets.     

Ethics as an Enabler of Public Policy

Ethics constrains us. But ethics can also act as an ‘enabler’, helping to secure compliance with public policies. Basing policies on ethical principles helps the public know what is required of them by public policies. Framing policies in those ways also primes people to think in terms of their own ethically based reasons for action. Basing policies on ethical principles can assist in securing the cooperation of potential veto players by creating cooperative norms and a culture of trust.     

科学客观性的历史建构--科学哲学视域中的历史认识论

在尼采的视角主义和福柯的主体解释学等欧陆哲学的影响下,历史认识论结合观念史、思想史和文化史的历史语境,考察了科学客观性的概念的历史建构过程,加深了人们对科学实践的复杂性的认识,并为科学哲学在新世纪的发展提供了诸多有价值的启示。     

The Epistemic Value of Public Opinion: Theoretical and Practical Considerations

Abstract

This paper discusses the claim that citizens lack sufficient political knowledge to make sound judgements on public matters. It is contended that practical judgements raise essentially two types of claims, namely a claim to empirical truth and a claim to normative rightness, and that there are good reasons to believe that people's insufficient political knowledge undermines both of them. Yet, an examination of the dynamics of public opinion formation reveals that there is an epistemic potential in public opinion, though it is dependent upon the quality of public debate. Building on this idea and on the concept of deliberative responsiveness, two paths of political reform are proposed, which should illustrate the practical implications of the theoretical argument made in this paper by demonstrating how the quality of public debate and, thus, the epistemic value of public opinion could be enhanced.     

Barack Obama and the American island of the colour blind

ABSTRACT

Kuryla maps a metaphorical American island of the colour blind—in law, public rhetoric and culture—in the process locating the first black president of the United States on it, evaluating the claim that his presidency represents a colour-blind or post-racial politics. Barack Obama rejects colour blindness as a fact in the present yet gestures to its ‘better history’ (his modern transposing of Lincoln's ‘better angels’) while refusing any theoretical resolution of the idea. Obama, in public pronouncements and by sheer fact of his being and his biography, reveals the epistemic irony of the colour-blind idea, its persistence amid the conditions of its impossibility.     

谣言可信度的影响因素及其功能

谣言是一种据称是真实但没有确切证据证明的说法。影响谣言可信度的因素通常有个体所持的态度与谣言是否一致、谣言的来源是否可信、谣言传播的次数以及针对谣言举出的反例。从个体层次来说,谣言有吸引人们注意事件、还原最初的解释、激活知识结构以解决问题、增加人们探索世界动机的功能。从群体层次来讲,谣言的功能在于对模糊情境做出有意义的解释、应对威胁等。未来的研究除进一步探讨谣言及其可信度之间的关系外,需要从不同角度探究谣言在群体性事件中的发动机制及如何平息有害的谣言。     

民族国家与全球化

在全球化过程中,作为政治单位的民族国家的主权仍是世界政治的重心所系,尽管它不可避免地受到国际社会的影响.经济的全球化趋势推动着人类社会政治结构朝全球性方向演进,从而形成国际社会与民族国家在政治影响上的互动.各个民族国家都以积极的姿态参与到国际政治中去,全球性治理和超国家治理的组织正是由各个国家积极参与的结果.     

利用网络的《工程图学》课程互动教学模式探讨

通过总结五年网络教学经验,对如何通过利用网络平台和计算机绘图软件来有效、扎实、科学合理的实现《工程图学》的实际教学与网络教学的有机结合以达到老师与学生的有效、高质量的互动,提出了几点建设性意见,对提高《工程图学》课的教学质量将有一定的帮助。