The Farcical Samaritan's Dilemma

The Farcical Samaritan's Dilemma
Author :
Publisher :
Total Pages : 0
Release :
ISBN-10 : OCLC:1375346874
ISBN-13 :
Rating : 4/5 (74 Downloads)

Synopsis The Farcical Samaritan's Dilemma by : andré douglas pond cummings

“[T]he hypothesis is that modern man has become incapable of making the choices that are required to prevent his exploitation by predators of his own species[.]”This article explores one of the foundational pillar theories of Law and Economics and specifically Public Choice Theory as espoused by Nobel Laureate James M. Buchanan: the “Samaritan's Dilemma.” Using the Biblical parable of the Good Samaritan, Buchanan imagines a “dilemma” faced by the Good Samaritan when encountering a beaten and bloodied man left to die on the road to Jericho. Using Game Theory, Buchanan constructs a moral quandary that the man from Samaria must necessarily resolve within himself in deciding ultimately whether to lend aid to the beaten man left to die. Law and Economics, born in the twentieth century, theoretically establishes “efficiency” as its baseline. In evaluating the law from this efficiency perspective, neoclassical Law and Economics economists' primary hypothesis is that individuals are rational and respond to incentives in a rational fashion. Law and Economics is built on the fundamental belief that markets, particularly free markets, are “more efficient than courts.” Undergirding this theorizing is the presumption that incentives are the primary motivators of individual behavior; how individuals respond to incentives provides a laser-like focus for Law and Economics. If human actors are “rational and respond to incentives” in a rational manner, then how rationality is defined becomes important for Law and Economics hypothesizing. Bottom line rationality for the Law and Economics economist is that individuals are motivated by self interest and that the rational reaction to an incentive will be to act in a self-interested, wealth-maximizing way. Put simply, a Law and Economics economist would consider a legal situation efficient where rights are allocated “to the party who is willing to pay the most for [them].” Conversely, when an incentive generates an action that results in a penalty, individuals will perform that action less to avoid the penalty. Law and Economics employs Game Theory to mathematically predict how individuals will react in given scenarios based on incentives provided and rationalities defined. In determining mathematically and logically actions that “players” should take to secure the best outcomes for themselves in a wide array of “games,” Game Theory considers itself the “science of strategy.” Perhaps the greatest overriding consideration when employing Game Theory is the interdependence of all choices employed by all players/participants. Or, stated another way, the ultimate outcome for each participant is dependent on the choices or strategies of all participants, requiring players to think about their own strategies while considering the strategies of all other players in coming to their own conclusions. Working through strategies to likely predicted outcomes, based on rational reaction to incentives, is the game or puzzle in Game Theory. With that brief introduction to Law and Economics and Game Theory, this article begins by reconstructing the Biblical parable of the Good Samaritan. Next, the article will provide a fundamental description of the Samaritan's Dilemma, as espoused by Public Choice economist James Buchanan, explaining how Buchanan's theory turns the Christian parable upon its head. Next, the article will describe the reasons that the Samaritan's Dilemma is a farce - a theory best left conceptualized rather than instrumentalized. In describing the farcical Samaritan's Dilemma, the article will focus on racial capitalism and its historical evolution as a means of understanding the hollow siren's call of this concocted “Dilemma.” Finally, the article will introduce the reasons that the Samaritan's Dilemma together with much of law and economics theorizing is intellectually bankrupt. Thereafter, the article will call for a deeper intellectual critique of Law and Economics than has been marshaled to date.

AN Accidental Man

AN Accidental Man
Author :
Publisher : Penguin
Total Pages : 421
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781101495858
ISBN-13 : 1101495855
Rating : 4/5 (58 Downloads)

Synopsis AN Accidental Man by : Iris Murdoch

A scintillating novel of fate, accidents, and moral dilemmas Set in the time of the Vietnam War, this story concerns the plight of a young American, happily installed in a perfect job in England, engaged to a wonderful girl, who is suddenly drafted to a war he disapproves of. What is duty here, what is self-interest, what is cowardice? Austin Gibson Grey, the accidental man of the title, is accident-prone, also prone to bring disaster to his friend sand relations. He blames fate. But are we not all accidental, one of his victims asks. Fate and accidents make deep moral dilemmas for the characters in the long and complex tale.

Pontius Pilate

Pontius Pilate
Author :
Publisher : Random House
Total Pages : 576
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780375505201
ISBN-13 : 0375505202
Rating : 4/5 (01 Downloads)

Synopsis Pontius Pilate by : Ann Wroe

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • “Sublime . . . The definitive study of Pilate.”—The Washington Post Book World “A masterwork . . . one of the most interesting and creative books I’ve read in a very long time.”—Ryan Holiday, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Obstacle Is the Way “Compelling, eloquent and vivid . . . In a superb blend of scholarship and creativity, Wroe brings this elusive yet pivotal figure to life.”—The Boston Globe One of Esquire’s Best Biographies of All Time • Finalist for the Samuel Johnson Prize The foil to Jesus, the defiant antihero of the Easter story, mocking, skeptical Pilate is a historical figure who haunts our imagination. For some he is a saint, for others the embodiment of human weakness, an archetypal politician willing to sacrifice one man for the sake of stability. In this dazzlingly conceived biography, Ann Wroe brings man and myth to life. Working from classical sources, she reconstructs his origins and upbringing, his career in the military and life in Rome, his confrontation with Christ, and his long journey home. We catch glimpses of him pacing the marble floors in Caesarea, sharpening his stylus, getting dressed shortly before sunrise on the day that would seal his place in history. What were the pressures on Pilate that day? What did he really think of Jesus? Pontius Pilate lets us see Christ's trial for the first time, in all its confusion, from the point of view of his executioner.

The Political Economy of Rent-Seeking

The Political Economy of Rent-Seeking
Author :
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages : 520
Release :
ISBN-10 : 0898382416
ISBN-13 : 9780898382419
Rating : 4/5 (16 Downloads)

Synopsis The Political Economy of Rent-Seeking by : Charles Rowley

It is now twenty years since the concept of rent-seeking was first devised by Gordon Tullock, though he was not responsible for coining the phrase itself. His initial insight has burgeoned over two decades into a major research program which has had an impact not only on public choice, but also on the related disciplines of economics, political science, and law and economics. The reach of the insight has proved to be universal, with relevance not just for the democracies, but also, and arguably more important, for all forms of autocracy, irrespective of ideological com plexion. It is not surprising, therefore, that this volume is the third edited publication dedicated specifically to scholarship into rent-seeking behavior. The theory of rent-seeking bridges normative and positive analyses of state action. In its normative dimension, rent-seeking scholarship has expanded, enlivened, in some respects turned on its head, the traditional welfare analyses of such features of modern economics as monopoly, externalities, public goods, and trade protection devices. In its positive dimension, rent-seeking contributions have provided an important analy tical perspective from which to understand and to predict the behavior of politicians, interest groups and bureaucrats, the media and the academy within the political market place. This bridge between normative and positive elements of analysis is invaluable in facilitating an understanding of and evaluating the costs of state activity within a consistent paradigm.

Hunting and Fishing in the New South

Hunting and Fishing in the New South
Author :
Publisher : JHU Press
Total Pages : 241
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781421402376
ISBN-13 : 1421402378
Rating : 4/5 (76 Downloads)

Synopsis Hunting and Fishing in the New South by : Scott E. Giltner

This innovative study re-examines the dynamics of race relations in the post–Civil War South from an altogether fresh perspective: field sports. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, wealthy white men from Southern cities and the industrial North traveled to the hunting and fishing lodges of the old Confederacy—escaping from the office to socialize among like-minded peers. These sportsmen depended on local black guides who knew the land and fishing holes and could ensure a successful outing. For whites, the ability to hunt and fish freely and employ black laborers became a conspicuous display of their wealth and social standing. But hunting and fishing had been a way of life for all Southerners—blacks included—since colonial times. After the war, African Americans used their mastery of these sports to enter into market activities normally denied people of color, thereby becoming more economically independent from their white employers. Whites came to view black participation in hunting and fishing as a serious threat to the South’s labor system. Scott E. Giltner shows how African-American freedom developed in this racially tense environment—how blacks' sense of competence and authority flourished in a Jim Crow setting. Giltner’s thorough research using slave narratives, sportsmen’s recollections, records of fish and game clubs, and sporting periodicals offers a unique perspective on the African-American struggle for independence from the end of the Civil War to the 1920s.

Hip Hop and the Law

Hip Hop and the Law
Author :
Publisher :
Total Pages : 0
Release :
ISBN-10 : 1611635942
ISBN-13 : 9781611635942
Rating : 4/5 (42 Downloads)

Synopsis Hip Hop and the Law by : Pamela D. Bridgewater

What is important to understanding American law? What is important to understanding hip hop? Wide swaths of renowned academics, practitioners, commentators, and performance artists have answered these two questions independently. And although understanding both depends upon the same intellectual enterprise, textual analysis of narrative storytelling, somehow their intersection has escaped critical reflection. Hip Hop and the Law merges the two cultural giants of law and rap music and demonstrates their relationship at the convergence of Legal Consciousness, Politics, Hip Hop Studies, and American Law. No matter what your role or level of experience with law or hip hop, this book is a sound resource for learning, discussing, and teaching the nuances of their relationship. Topics include Critical Race Theory, Crime and Justice, Mass Incarceration, Gender, and American Law: including Corporate Law, Intellectual Property, Constitutional Law, and Real Property Law.

Arabism and Islam

Arabism and Islam
Author :
Publisher : DIANE Publishing
Total Pages : 50
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781428981928
ISBN-13 : 1428981926
Rating : 4/5 (28 Downloads)

Synopsis Arabism and Islam by : Christine M. Helms

During the 1980s, Islamic activists in the Arab Middle East have challenged the definition of "legitimate authority" and provided the means and rationale for revolutionary change, hoping to pressure established governments to alter domestic and foreign policies. No nation-state has been immune. Fearful Arab nationalist leaders, unwilling or unable to abandon decades of ideological baggage, have begun a gradual, if erratic, process of melding the spirit and letter of Islamic precepts into existing national laws and political rhetoric. Whether it is adequate to the challenge, the state nevertheless bears the onus of accommodation, because Islam and Arabism will not soon disappear. They will assume new form and substance in the changing realities of the region. Dilemmas inherent to this century and the gauntlet delivered to hitherto unquestioned political caveats will continue to exacerbate the competition between Islam and Arabism, their quest for political platforms and supporters, and the credibility of all other claimants, including the state. Visions of the future, especially when they are sacred and apocalyptic, can never be entirely freed of historical, emotive baggage. Even if Islamic political activism and pan-Arabism diminish in their intensity, they will endure as subtle, formative forces in all aspects of life. Indigenous inhabitants are fully aware that these influences have profound resonance in their lives. At the same time, these forces act like invisible sentinels in the mind, standing ready to cast a long shadow as unconscious motivators of political behavior. Sections are as follows: Declaration of Crisis; Pluralism: Minorities in the Arab World; Stateless Nations and Nationless States: Twentieth Century Disunity; Search for Unity: An Arab Sunni Core; Arabs and Non-Arabs: The Myth of Equality; Fatal Wounds: Universal Islam Takes the Offensive; and The State: Visionary Futures.

Trump: The Art of the Deal

Trump: The Art of the Deal
Author :
Publisher : Ballantine Books
Total Pages : 401
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780307575333
ISBN-13 : 0307575330
Rating : 4/5 (33 Downloads)

Synopsis Trump: The Art of the Deal by : Donald J. Trump

President Donald J. Trump lays out his professional and personal worldview in this classic work—a firsthand account of the rise of America’s foremost deal-maker. “I like thinking big. I always have. To me it’s very simple: If you’re going to be thinking anyway, you might as well think big.”—Donald J. Trump Here is Trump in action—how he runs his organization and how he runs his life—as he meets the people he needs to meet, chats with family and friends, clashes with enemies, and challenges conventional thinking. But even a maverick plays by rules, and Trump has formulated time-tested guidelines for success. He isolates the common elements in his greatest accomplishments; he shatters myths; he names names, spells out the zeros, and fully reveals the deal-maker’s art. And throughout, Trump talks—really talks—about how he does it. Trump: The Art of the Deal is an unguarded look at the mind of a brilliant entrepreneur—the ultimate read for anyone interested in the man behind the spotlight. Praise for Trump: The Art of the Deal “Trump makes one believe for a moment in the American dream again.”—The New York Times “Donald Trump is a deal maker. He is a deal maker the way lions are carnivores and water is wet.”—Chicago Tribune “Fascinating . . . wholly absorbing . . . conveys Trump’s larger-than-life demeanor so vibrantly that the reader’s attention is instantly and fully claimed.”—Boston Herald “A chatty, generous, chutzpa-filled autobiography.”—New York Post

Walk with the Devil

Walk with the Devil
Author :
Publisher : Xlibris Corporation
Total Pages : 389
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781465388377
ISBN-13 : 1465388370
Rating : 4/5 (77 Downloads)

Synopsis Walk with the Devil by : Zakariah Ali

I was profoundly touched by evil at the dawn of my life and have been haunted by the experience throughout most of my life. My mother was poisoned before my eyes at about age four; I grew up on that that fateful day and became aware of myself. I was touched by evil and the wickedness of man against man at the dawn of my life. She died an agonizing and horrible death. The room I shared with her smelled like rotten fl esh or putrefi ed meat before her death. But the last time I saw her on earth she looked radiant and was miraculously transformed when I saw her seated in the village square for public viewing. She was at peace, the lines and marks of pain and anguish etched on her face as she lay dying were smoothed out. Her countenance was peaceful devoid of the expressions of agony and pains the hallmark of the last three to four months of her life. She was beautiful in death than during the last months of her life; death gave her peace. I did not know it but I was affected or infl uenced by the events of my mother s last days on earth. I do not fear death and whenever I came close to death I was more concerned about the inconvenience my death would have imposed on others than fear for my life. Death is not a bogey man. About a year after her death I encountered malicious spirits in the bush. I did not know the spirits were not human but I was apprehensive and fearful at the sight of little people under the fruit tree on which I sat. The spirits chased me from the bush to the village; during the chase the earth opened up and swallowed me for my protection. And not to be outdone the spirits followed me into the bowels of the earth. That was the second time in my young life that I was touched by evil of a different kind; I nearly died from the encounter with the malicious spirits. I was reunited with a father I did not know I had before my mother s death. But about three years after I was reunited with him he walked out on my new family; my stepmother and her children. Thus by age seven or eight I had gone through two broken homes. First, my mother walked out on my father when I was a baby and second my father walked out on my new mother and half siblings. For most of my life I was haunted by forces of darkness, malevolent spirits and scary nightmares from time to time. Scary and haunting nightmares led me to discover the power of prayer very early in life. I started praying before going to bed when I was in class three and the nightly nightmares ceased until I was a young adult and went to St. John Bosco s College. I discovered alcohol and began ignoring and skipping my nightly prayers or prayed haphazardly without heart and the nightmares came back. I was hospitalized about fi ve times in one year from the effects of a nightmare and vision when I was a student at the University of Science & Technology, Kumasi... Divided by Faith United by Love My father was a tolerant Muslim; he did not foist his faith on the rest of the family. My stepmother followed no particular faith or organized religion until the last days of her life. She was animist; she worshipped our ancestral spirits and deities. I became a Catholic or Christian by virtue of education, my father made no attempt to convert me to Islam. The family while together was united by love not by faith; each member followed his/her own faith. I could not reconcile my new faith with my parents and realized that but for love we would not have known peace in our family. We are divided by faith but united by love that was the experience from my upbringing. My lack of blind faith is infl uenced by my upbringing. Man as God and Satan. I understand the meaning of some popular bible passages different from most because of my experience of the forces of darkness, my struggle in life against evil, witchcraft and malicious spirits. I understand the true meaning of the passage in Luke 17-20-21 ------For indeed the kingdom of God is within you . And the adm

The Conflict Paradox

The Conflict Paradox
Author :
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages : 341
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781118852910
ISBN-13 : 1118852915
Rating : 4/5 (10 Downloads)

Synopsis The Conflict Paradox by : Bernard S. Mayer

Find the roadmap to the heart of the conflict The Conflict Paradox is a guide to taking conflict to a more productive place. Written by one of the founders of the professional conflict management field and co-published with the American Bar Association, this book outlines seven major dilemmas that conflict practitioners face every day. Readers will find expert guidance toward getting to the heart of the conflict and will be challenged to adopt a new way to think about the choices disputants face,. They will also be offered practical tools and techniques for more successful intervention. Using stories, experiences, and reflective exercises to bring these concepts to life, the author provides actionable advice for overcoming roadblocks to effective conflict work. Disputants and interveners alike are often stymied by what appear to be unacceptable alternatives,. The Conflict Paradox offers a new way of understanding and working with these so that they become not obstacles but opportunities for helping people move through conflict successfully.. Examine the contradictions at the center of almost all conflicts Learn how to bring competition and cooperation, avoidance and engagement, optimism and realism together to make for more power conflict intervention Deal effectively with the tensions between emotions, and logic, principles and compromise, neutrality and advocacy, community and autonomy Discover the tools and techniques that make conflicts less of a hurdle to overcome and more of an opportunity to pursue Conflict is everywhere, and conflict intervention skills are valuable far beyond the professional and legal realms. With insight and creativity, solutions are almost always possible. For conflict interveners and disputants looking for an effective and creative approach to understanding and working with conflict , The Conflict Paradox provides a powerful and important roadmap for conflict intervention.