The divergence between theory and practice in planning and the role of the planner is widely discussed throughout the literature. The aim of the thesis is to explore planners’ experience of appraisal of the planning role in New York City. The thesis investigate the roles of the planner with the purpose of discovering attitudes, values and approaches in the planning climate. New York City’s influence as a context on the role of the planner and the main characteristics that are important to acknowledge as a planner are also recognized. The empirical data is collected through interviews with professors at Columbia University and practicing planners in New York City. Along with theory the results show that planners are affected by both external and internal influences. There are components of rationality and power that affect the planning climate. This will provide knowledge about context dependent planning. Larger implications of the findings are that the planning is never value free, and that planners have to be aware of for whom the planning is for.

<p>This dissertation investigates the economic behavior of families in developing settings. Utilizing uniquely rich, longitudinal survey data from Indonesia, it demonstrates the complexity of market environments facing rural households, as well as the importance of extended family networks in determining the health and well-being of young children. These essays serve as an illustration of advances in development economics that are possible when fundamental models are revisited and examined with new longitudinal data. The results of these exercises are important not only for updating economic models of behavior, but for what they reveal about the complexities of decision making, and for the effective design and evaluation of development policy around the world.</p> / Dissertation

Although everyone knows that rational thinking is so important, people still always make some decisions by irrational emotion. Previous studies of making decisions suggest that decision makers mainly maximize their own profit based on economical principle and also with the ability to assess every decision selection¡¦s benefit and cost. They also indicate that most management level decision makers may use analytical, rational and logical ways to analyze every problem they encounter and when it refers to decision making. In our daily life, what do we exactly conform to the suggestion of rational decision making theories? Is irrational decision making with emotional involvement consistent with our daily choice and important decision? People make all kinds of decisions no matter they are important or easy decision for himself /herself or for the others. In other word, decisions build up and make up our life, so it is important to understand what kind of factors affects our step of decision making. Through reviewing of the essays and theses, induction of the interview information, we realize rational and irrational factors intervene into the process of decision making. In terms to decision making, we choose ¡§marriage¡¨ as our research scope, discuss rational and irrational factor affect decision makers¡¦ thinking through the four step of decision making: information collection, development of programs, selection of program and implementation of program. In the step of information collection, individual will search for rational consideration and irrational element. Decision maker will make the decision and influence by irrational factors which include affection, emotion and feeling. When it comes to implementation, some ideas emerge in their mind.

This project offers an articulation of rationality in terms of normativity—that what it means to be acting rationally, in thought or in deed, can be understood via a notion of being bound or obliged to certain behaviors given a prior structure that delimits what is rational to assert in a discourse or perform in a society. In the explicit articulation of the role of norms in limning rationality, this project also emphasizes the opportunity and obligation to self-critically assess the value of the metalinguistic and metapractical standards that license rational assertions and behaviors. After an introduction, section 2 examines the role of rational constraint in Kant’s account of representation, concluding that the transcendental story his philosophy leaves us with impels us to look for an immanent socio-linguistic account of the normativity that obliges us to think and behave in certain ways, rather than lodging the force of normativity in transcendentality. Section 3 then examines Robert Brandom’s inferential semantics by addressing prominent responses to Brandom’s program, making explicit two ways in which normativity operates in inferentialism—one at the level of objectlanguage in the articulation of the propositional commitments and entitlements that specify propositional content, the other at the level of the metalinguistic appraisal of the standards that drive object-language inferentialism. Section 4 turns to the theoretical status of normativity and its role in practical behavior, where it is argued that a notion of normativity can underpin a theory of intentional states. Examining positions on naturalism, the author proposes that a causal account of intentionality, made explicit by the prescriptive nature of the theory advanced, provides a naturalist view of normativity for which norms are in explanations of social states as laws are in explanations of physical states. Hence the obligation to self-critically reflect on and revise the norms that delimit ethical behavior in social systems is understood as commensurate with the obligation to self-critically reflect on and revise the norms that delimit warranted assertions in epistemic discourse. The conclusion offers some remarks on the prospects for rational revision in both a discipline’s discourse and a society’s standards of behavior.

In this work I investigate the role of emotion in the moral philosophies of Immanuel Kant and T.H. Green. Noting Kant's reputation as a rationalist holding a predominately negative view toward emotions, I studied the works of Kant with this two-fold question in mind: Why did Kant allegedly find emotions as hindrances to moral actions, and what exactly would such a view entail if it were indeed his perspective? Based on Kant's writings regarding duties to others in Doctrine of Virtues, I show that in his discussion on sympathetic actions there appears to be a reliance on emotions in the construction of a moral response to another's fate. I place Kant's theory in juxtaposition with T.H. Green's moral philosophy because Green, a lesser-known British Idealist, is commonly presented as a theorist within the Kantian tradition. However, working exclusively with Green's major work, Prolegomena to Ethics, there are notable differences between Kant and Green. Green does not hold a negative view of emotions as Kant did, and more fundamentally, the distinction between Kant and Green stems from their differing perspectives of human nature. Whereas Kant presented human nature as comprised of two coexisting, and conflicting, natures - the animal nature and the moral nature - Green dissolved this dualism by making reason that which unifies the human being's animal nature and moral nature. Hence, it is my purpose to study Green's moral philosophy against the backdrop of Kant's moral theory, with particular focus on the role of emotions and sympathy in human behavior. In this comparative analysis, I show how Green's theory, although heavily indebted to Kant, works to correct some problematic issues that arise from Kant's denigration of emotions inherent in his dualism. Furthermore, in this discussion that begins as an examination of two views on the relationship between emotions and morality, one is pressed to entertain a deeper question concerning how these thinkers arrived at their views of human nature. This progression is indeed appropriate, at least when considering Kant and Green, because their regard for emotions is directly dependent upon their views of human nature as distinct from animal nature. In the end, it is suggested that Green's theory not only serves to correct Kant's work, but by rectifying Kant's problematic dualistic view of human nature, Green created a philosophy all his own that may more accurately represent the true nature of humankind.

This thesis investigates the relationship between our rational capacities and the norms that govern our practice of blame. The conclusion it reaches is rather shocking: it is impossible to satisfy the conditions of blameworthiness. The argument that reaches this conclusion is what I call an internal criticism. Unlike other skeptical arguments about moral responsibility, the one advanced in this thesis does not depend on any metaphysical theses external to the theory of blame. The thesis begins by looking at a position I call rational capacity compatibilism (RCC). My interest in RCC concerns the fact that it has done more than any other theory of responsibility to set out the relationship between our rational capacities and the practice of blame. I use the most well developed RCC view—that of R. Jay Wallace—as the backdrop for the skeptical argument that follows I next defend a recent argument advanced by Gideon Rosen according to which an agent cannot be blameworthy for a given act if akrasia does not occur somewhere in the act's etiology. This serves as the first major premise in my skeptical argument. Next, I turn to the second major premise of my argument, which is comprised of two controversial claims. The first is that akrasia results from a failure in one's rational capacities. The second is that an agent cannot be blameworthy for committing any act that results from a failure in his or her rational capacities. Together, these two claims produce the following premise: when an agent acts akratically she cannot be blameworthy for that act. Now, for any given act, either akrasia occurs in that act's etiology or it does not. If it does not, then the agent in question is not blameworthy (first premise); but if akrasia does occur in the act's etiology, then the agent in question is still not blameworthy (second premise). It follows that for any given act, the agent who performs that act cannot be blameworthy for so acting. I end with a brief discussion of what I call "the moral up-shot" of my skeptical argument: what does a world without blame look like? I suggest, contra the main party line (often associated with P.F. Strawson), that blame is not a requirement for significant and meaningful interpersonal relationships, nor is it a necessary component of morality.

The thesis puts more emphasis on Scientific methodology,discuss Philosopher of Science--Paul Feyerabend's thinking. It discusses if science is a rational statement or not and has some reflections on how we think of Scientific methodology. In this reserch we can make a conclusion that Paul Feyerabend think Science doesn't have a so-called position.What we called "Science" today also follow a normal methodology.He suggest that we should get rid of the normal methodology and support the scientists do their reserch freely by using suitalbe methodology so human beings can devolop more knowledge probability

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mso 10]> <mce:style><! /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} --> <!--[endif]--></p><p>In <em>The Myth of the Rational Voter, </em>Bryan Caplan concludes that irrational public opinion leads to bad policies, that are overall bad for the country and the citizens. By irrational public opinion, he essentially means that people have opinions that are plain wrong. By taking a stand against the government based on these faulty opinions, the government is forced to adopt bad policies, in order to stay in power.</p><p>By looking at four different cases, I attempt to see if the situation can be deemed to be similar in Sweden, albeit with a different approach to what is rational, than the one used by Caplan. The question I ask is if irrational public opinion forces the government to adopt bad policies? I expand the view of rationality from the economic view to be more considerate of other factors and priorities that are very much part of everyday life. The emphazis is on the gathering of information, which is facilitated by widespread access to the Internet and relatively high levels of education. The aspect of leadership, or the possible lack thereof, is also considered.</p><p>The examined issues are; The new law about communication surveillance (FRA-lagen), the lowered limit on health insurance, the changes in unemployment compensation and the vote to enter the European Monetary Union. While it can be seen that there were likely arguments antagonistic to the viewpoint of the government, they are unlikely to have had any major effect. Instead, the protests that were possibly of any consequence, were typically well-informed, from sources that we would expect to be familiar with the issue at heart. As for leadership, it is more often than not the case that the intentions are good, but the “sales-effort” is lacking. In some aspects, we might even claim that the government failed at its job.</p><p>Ultimately, the conclusion we reach is more optimistic than the one Bryan Caplan reached. While it is true that this might be mainly because we use different definitions of rationality and different sources of evidence (and examine different countries), it does not serve to undermine the result. Despite the fact that the cases were chosen on the basis that they were likely to prove the existence of irrationality, they did not.</p><p> </p>

Many of us take for granted that rationality requires that we have our attitudes combined only in certain ways. For example, we are required not to hold inconsistent beliefs or intentions and we are required to intend any means we see as crucial to our ends. But attempts to justify claims like these face two problems. First, it is unclear what unifies the rational domain and determines what is (and is not) rationally required of us. This is the content problem. Second, as philosophers have been unable to find any general reason for us to have our attitudes combined only in certain ways, it is unclear why, or in what sense, we are required to comply with these putative requirements in the first place. This is the normativity problem. My dissertation offers an account of rationality which solves these problems. I argue that the entire domain of rational requirements can be derived from a single ultimate requirement demanding that we not have sets of intentions and beliefs which cause their own failure. This General Requirement of Structural Rationality explains the unity of the rational domain and directly solves the content problem. But it also solves the normativity problem. I argue that whenever we violate the General Requirement we are engaged in a form of criticizable self-undermining. I propose that this is enough to ground the claim that we ought to comply with the General Requirement's demands. This conclusion can be secured as long as we accept the thesis of normative pluralism, according to which there is more than one fundamentally distinct form of normative 'ought.' / Philosophy

Decisions among alternatives that do not fit rigorous numerical frameworks are common. Such decisions, in which the various aspects of the alternatives are considered simultaneously, are called a tradeoff studies. Tradeoff studies may be more common than optimization problems, but are not generally formalized in written form.Tradeoff studies are broadly recognized and mandated as the method for considering many criteria simultaneously. They are the primary method for making a decision among alternatives listed in the Software Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) Decision Analysis and Resolution (DAR) process.The field of Decision Making can explain why the mechanics of tradeoff studies are approached with underconfidence, and can also help eliminate biases from the tradeoff process. Many conclusions obtained from Judgment and Decision Making (JDM), Cognitive Science and Experimental Economics can be used to shed light on various aspects of the tradeoff process. Of course, since many experiments were designed to reveal truths about choice at a basic level, they do not exactly model the processes of tradeoff studies. The technique used to compare the basic experiments and tradeoff studies will be abstraction.Abstraction noun 1. a general concept formed by extracting common features from specific examples, 2. the process of extracting the underlying essence.What follows is a union of the fields of tradeoff studies and cognitive decision making. Because these two areas have never before been explicitly unified, I have produced some unfinished areas in which specific research needs to be done. At this stage, the work of unification must necessarily be conducted at an abstract level.