1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910779838003321

Autore

Frank Robert

Titolo

Falling Behind : How Rising Inequality Harms the Middle Class / / Robert Frank

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley, CA : , : University of California Press, , [2013]

©2013

ISBN

0-520-95743-1

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (177 p.)

Collana

Wildavsky Forum Series ; ; 4

Disciplina

305.5/50973

Soggetti

Consumption (Economics) -- United States

Equality -- Economic aspects -- United States

Income distribution -- United States

Middle class -- United States -- Economic conditions

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Preface to the 2013 Edition -- Preface to the 2007 Edition -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Recent Changes in Income and Wealth Inequality -- 3. Inequality, Happiness, and Health -- 4. Envy or Context? -- 5. The Rising Cost of Adequate -- 6. Why Do We Care about Rank? -- 7. What Types of Consumption Are Most Sensitive to Context? -- 8. How Can Middle-Class Families Afford to Keep Up? -- 9. Smart for One, Dumb for All -- 10. Looking Ahead -- 11. Lessons for Public Policy -- 12. Reflections -- Notes -- References -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

With a timely new foreword by Robert Frank, this groundbreaking book explores the very meaning of happiness and prosperity in America today. Although middle-income families don't earn much more than they did several decades ago, they are buying bigger cars, houses, and appliances. To pay for them, they spend more than they earn and carry record levels of debt. Robert Frank explains how increased concentrations of income and wealth at the top of the economic pyramid have set off "expenditure cascades" that raise the cost of achieving many basic goals for the middle class. Writing in lively prose for a general audience, Frank employs up-to-date economic data and examples drawn from everyday life to shed light on reigning models of



consumer behavior. He also suggests reforms that could mitigate the costs of inequality. Falling Behind compels us to rethink how and why we live our economic lives the way we do.

2.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910438234403321

Titolo

Functions: selection and mechanisms / / edited by Philippe Huneman

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Dordrecht : , : Springer Netherlands : , : Imprint : Springer, , 2013

ISBN

1-299-40848-6

94-007-5304-7

Edizione

[1st ed. 2013.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (240 p.)

Collana

Synthese Library, Studies in Epistemology, Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science, , 2542-8292 ; ; 363

Altri autori (Persone)

HunemanPhilippe

Disciplina

124

Soggetti

Metaphysics

Science - Philosophy

Evolution (Biology)

Neurosciences

Anthropology

Philosophy of Science

Evolutionary Biology

Neuroscience

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction -- Section I. Biological functions and functional explanations: genes, cells, organisms and ecosystems -- Part 1.A. Functions, organization and development in life sciences -- Chapter 1. William C. Wimsatt. Evolution and the Stability of Functional Architectures -- Chapter 2. Denis M. Walsh. Teleological Emergence: The Autonomy of Evo-Devo -- Chapter 3. Jean Gayon. Does oxygen have a function, or: where should the regress of biological functions stop? -- Part 1.B. Functional pluralism for biologists? Chapter 4. Frédéric Bouchard. How ecosystem evolution strengthens the case for functional pluralism -- Chapter 5. Robert N. Brandon. A general case



for functional pluralism -- Chapter 6. Philippe Huneman. Weak realism in the etiological theory of functions -- Section 2. Section II. Psychology, philosophy of mind and technology: Functions in a man’s world -- Part 2.A. 2A. Metaphysics, function and philosophy of mind -- Chapter 7. Carl Craver. Functions and Mechanisms in Contemporary Neuroscience -- Chapter 8. Carl Gillett. Understanding the sciences through the fog of ‘functionalism(s).’ -- 2.B. Philosophy of technology , design and functions -- Chapter 9. Françoise Longy. Artifacts and Organisms: A Case for a New Etiological Theory of Functions -- Chapter 10. Pieter Vermaas and Wybo Houkes. Functions as Epistemic Highlighters: An Engineering Account of Technical, Biological and Other Functions -- Epilogue -- Larry Wright. Revising teleological explanations: reflections three decades on.    .

Sommario/riassunto

This  volume handles in various perspectives the concept of function and the nature of functional explanations, topics much discussed since two major and conflicting accounts have been raised by Larry Wright and Robert Cummins’s papers in the 1970s. Here, both Wright’s ‘etiological theory of functions’ and Cummins’s ‘systemic’ conception of functions are refined and elaborated in the light of current scientific practice, with papers showing how the ‘etiological’ theory faces several objections and may in reply be revisited, while its counterpart became ever more sophisticated, as researchers discovered fresh applications for it.   Relying on a firm knowledge of the original positions and debates, this volume presents cutting-edge research evincing the complexities that today pertain in function theory in various sciences. Alongside original papers from authors central to the controversy, work by emerging researchers taking novel perspectives will add to the potential avenuesto be followed in the future. Not only does the book adopt no a priori assumptions about the scope of functional explanations, it also incorporates material from several very different scientific domains, e.g. neurosciences, ecology, or technology.   In general, functions are implemented in mechanisms; and functional explanations in biology have often an essential relation with natural selection. These two basic claims set the stage for this book’s coverage of investigations concerning both ‘functional’ explanations, and the ‘metaphysics’ of functions. It casts new light on these claims, by testing them through their confrontation with scientific developments in biology, psychology, and recent developments concerning the metaphysics of realization. Rather than debating a single theory of functions, this book presents the richness of philosophical issues raised by functional discourse throughout the various sciences.