Searle and Collective Intentionality

A BSTRACT . Several key elements go into Searle's construction of social reality, namely, collective intentionality, constitutive rules, and status functions. But by far the most important and arguably contentious of these is collective intentionality. Searle postulates his notion of collective intentionality as a solution to a conflict between two of his own problematic claims: the irreducibility of collective intentions to singular intentions and what he sees as the requirements of methodological individualism. According to Searle, methodological individualism seems to require that we reduce collective intentionality to individual intentionality; however, this contradicts his claim that collective intentionality is irreducible to individual intentionality plus some mutual beliefs. I will show that at least part of what is really at stake here is Searle's internalism or, as he puts it, his "brain in a vat condition." My strategy will be to examine his internalism and show that Searle's account is far more radical than other internalists in that he extends internalism beyond its usual domain of the mental to incorporate social facts. While there are no knockdown arguments in favor of either internalism or externalism as normally construed in the philosophy of mind, I will show that Searle's account of collective intentionality introduces an element of privacy to social facts that denies us the public access to the conditions on the basis of which we normally take collective facts to obtain.     

Price-Cost Margins and Profit Rates in New Zealand Electricity Distribution Networks Since 1994: the Cost of Light Handed Regulation

From 1994 to 2003, New Zealands corporatized electricity lines networks operated with no industry regulator, but under the spotlight of mandatory information disclosure. As a result there exists a large body of detailed, audited and publicly available accounting data on the financial performance of these businesses. Using that data, this paper finds that price-cost margins have widened substantially since deregulation. We estimate the extent to which light-handed regulation has allowed profits to exceed the levels which would have been acceptable under the old rate-of-return regulatory framework, and find that the answer is about $200 million per year, on an ongoing basis.We thank colleagues at Victoria University, and two anonymous referees for this journal, for constructive comments on this paper. Any remaining errors are entirely our responsibility.JEL classification: D21; K23; L11; L43; L51     

构建和谐社会应当建立完善的利益均衡框架

中共十六届六中全会通过了《中共中央关于构建社会主义和谐社会若干重大问题的决定》,其中指出保障社会公平正义,必须要加强制度建设.从十六届四中全会中央提出了构建和谐社会的理念和目标到此次强调要通过制度建设来保障社会公平,这表明,我党不仅不断提高着对构建和谐社会的重视程度,更重要的是决心通过制度来解决现行社会中所存在的不平等现象,巩固我党执政基础、维护社会稳定.     

论三个级别价格歧视间的关系

本文尝试着从联合需求曲线中裂变出三个级别的价格歧视,以此揭示出其间的内在联系。个别需求曲线的加总构成了联合需求曲线,它是就每单位的消费择优录取所有消费者的保留价格,将其从高到低依次排列的,因而它既反映了“不同的人”——高端客户与低端客户的需求强度的差异,也反映了“不同的量”——高端需求与低端需求的需求强度的差异。只要能成功地将联合需求曲线按“量”与按“人”进行拆分,就可以在不同的子市场依照不同的需求价格弹性对高端客户与高端需求定高价、对低端客户与低端需求定低价。     

Uncertain lifetimes and the welfare enhancing properties of annuity markets and social security

This paper explores the implications of social security programs and annuity markets through which agents, who are characterized by different distributions of length of lifetime, share death-related risks. When annuity markets operate, a non-discriminatory social security program affects only the intragenerational allocation of resources. In the absence of private information regarding individual survival probabilities, such a program will lead to a non-optimal intragenerational allocation of resources. However, the presence of adverse selection considerations gives rise to a Pareto improving role for a mandatory non-discriminatory social security program.     

Teaching accountants to learn and "building blocks" for accounting education

Conclusions Accounting professionals and academicians have expressed significant interest and are pursuing a variety of changes in accounting curricula. There is a broad range of opinions regarding the nature of the changes needed in accounting education, which range from dramatic redesign to little or no change. There is a need to develop a framework for accounting education that is consistent but flexible to accommodate the majority of the accounting educational needs. The "building blocks" of accounting education presented in this paper provide educators with a basic pedagogical framework for an appropriate learning process. The framework of accounting education specifically focuses on the accounting component of the educational process and identifies the nature of courses and appropriate teaching strategies based upon their goals and objectives. Most educators recognize that only "one" accounting curriculum is insufficient to meet the needs of a variety of constituents. Therefore, it is essential to adopt an appropriate general framework for coursework is adopted to address the development of many diverse accounting programs.     

The “Iron Law of Paternalism” in Employee Grievances and Arbitration? A Comparison of Disciplinary and Nondisciplinary Cases

In the criminology literature, the iron law of paternalism suggests that women receive less serious sanctions in the judicial system. This examination of three years of grievance outcomes (n= 1216) and arbitration outcomes (n= 1146) tests this iron law in the context of organizational disciplinary and dispute resolutions. These data, across several levels of outcomes (win, lose, compromise), controlling for the severity of grievances (disciplinary/nondisciplinary) and arbitrations (termination/nontermination) provide no support for the paternalistic thesis. Moreover, we find no support for the paternalistic thesis with regard to either the incidence or length of suspensions as a function of gender.     

Price leadership in a duopoly with capacity constraints and product differentiation

This paper analyzes Stackelberg price leadership in a duopoly in which firms are capacity constrained and products are imperfect substitutes. Assuming symmetric substitutes, linear demand, and efficient rationing, we characterize the equilibria with an exogenously specified leader. Using the equilibrium profits derived from these games, we argue that over certain ranges of asymmetric capacities an endogenous price leader will emerge. When endogenous leadership does arise, it is the large capacity firm which is the leader. We thus provide a game theoretic model of dominant firm price leadership.Dave Furth's research has been undertaken as a part of the project Competition and Cooperation. Dan Kovenock has benefited from financial support from Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Krannert School of Management, and the Jay N. Ross Young Faculty Research Fellowship. We are grateful to Tom Faith for valuable research assistance. We have benefited from the comments of the editor, two anonymous referees, and participants at the European meetings of the Econometric Society in September 1989 and the North American Winter Meetings of the Econometric Society in December 1989.     

论可持续发展与科技税收政策

我国要实施可持续发展战略,必须制定一整套符合可持续发展要求的税收政策--可持续发展税收.科技税收政策是可持续发展税收政策的重要内容.文章分析了我国现行的鼓励科技发展的税收措施,通过比较与借鉴国外促进可持续发展的科技措施,提出了有关建立和完善我国科技税收政策的建议.     

Pragmatism, Pedagogy and Philosophy A Model of Thought and Action in Action in Primary Technology and Science Teacher Education

This article reports on one outcome from a three-year study with pre-service primary teachers at Goldsmiths' College, University of London. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the influence of participants' prior educational experience and beliefs about the relationship between design & technology (D&T) and science on their lesson planning for these subjects during school placements. Data from the study support a three-domain model of pre-service teachers' thinking and action. When operating within the pragmatic domain, participants are primarily concerned with survival in the classroom, resulting in short-term planning which may contradict their epistemological and curricular beliefs. In the pedagogical domain, the focus shifts from the pre-service teacher themselves and their immediate survival to the learning potential of the activities they plan. There is evidence that some participants have progressed to operating within a philosophical domain, leading to clasroom practice which reflects and re-conceptualises pre-service teachers' core beliefs about the nature of, and relationship between, D&T and science. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.