Victor Peterson

Bio: Victor Peterson is an academic researcher from University of Chicago. The author has contributed to research in topics: Physics & Common good. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 1 publications receiving 1084 citations.

The Law of Peoples

Abstract: The Law of Peoples John Rawls Harvard 1999 John Rawls, the great political philosopher, has turned his reflections to questions of international justice, much as his philosophical ancestor Kant did toward the end of his career. Indeed, Kant's conception of a "pacific federation" of states in Perpetual Peace is Rawls's acknowledged model for the "realistic utopia" sketched in The Law of Peoples, which expands upon his 1993 essay by the same title (without, however, revising its basic argument). Despite differing philosophical constraints and geopolitical conditions, both Kant and Rawls aim to develop an ideal normative framework for international law that accommodates a measure of realism and rejects the idea of a world-state. Unfortunately, in its uncritical acceptance of so-called "decent hierarchical societies" even at the level of ideal theory, the normative claim of Rawls's Law of Peoples is undermined. This philosophical appeasement, meant to secure perpetual peace in our time through a moderately demanding Law of Peoples that liberal and "decent" hierarchical societies alike can endorse, departs fundamentally from Kant's cosmopolitanism. For Kant, the "First Definitive Article of a Perpetual Peace-as opposed to a temporary interruption of hostilities-is that each member state of the foedus pacif cum must have a republican form of government, which is partly founded upon "the principle of legal equality for everyone (as citizens)." By contrast, Rawls weakens his ideal of international justice to buy the assent of hierarchical societies, which by definition lack equality among citizens, at the price of sacrificing a theoretical basis for justifying reforms of the practices and institutions of these hierarchical societies above a minimal level of decency. Rawls's complex argument begins by extending the original position, in which principles of justice for the basic structure of society are chosen under epistemic constraints that ensure fairness, from a single liberal society to what he calls the Society of Liberal Peoples. In a second step, though still within ideal theory, he argues that the substantive principles comprising the Law of Peoples are also acceptable to decent hierarchical societies, which possess decent consultation hierarchies and common good conceptions of justice. Despite being inegalitarian, decent hierarchical societies do respect basic human rights, allow some dissent, and at least consult with representatives of groups whose members are denied full citizenship rights. …

Pessimism and Cynicism as Physical Entities

Abstract: Choosing pessimism makes one cynical to and necessitates their destruction of information. A debate between pessimism and optimism has taken hold and structured the analytic landscape of cultural studies. Below, we treat this debate as a physical system. There’s always been the question of how to formalize an account for the physical, material, connection between a model and the cultural phenomenon it explains. Lately, the concept of pessimism has garnered more attention than optimism. A connection between information and knowledge allows us to treat pessimism as a physical entity through the mathematical theory of information. Information theory utilizes the concept of entropy to discuss the reduction of alternatives with each signal received, allowing us to treat this transfer in physical terms. We consider the capacity to convert information to knowledge by way of an encoding/decoding process. (Hall 1973) A relation between features of phenomenal experience is encoded, indexing a concept. That frame is projected into subsequent contexts, organizing future experience so that the output received from using that frame can be decoded (=explained) with respect to that previously encoded concept. Analog experience, amplitudes of sensation registering over thresholds calibrated by past experience, is converted into decidable (=digital) categories (=encoded concepts). These categories are continually updated as prior cognitive output organizes what is of interest later on. Deciding on a category forgoes extraneous information. What we gain from that loss of information is the capacity to manipulate our environment. This capacity, then, is a part of the world although not a thing in it, for no object can be raised from the world to deny this capacity as it is the way we gain access to the world, fashioning world-views from that material. Our primary concepts adapt and are associated and combined to form more complex systems as our cognitive output organizes what future phenomenal input comes available relative to output from prior actions.

Misery Loves Companies: Rethinking Social Initiatives by Business:

Abstract: Companies are increasingly asked to provide innovative solutions to deep-seated problems of human misery, even as economic theory instructs managers to focus on maximizing their shareholders' wealt

Human Rights and Capabilities

Abstract: The two concepts — human rights and capabilities — go well with each other, so long as we do not try to subsume either concept entirely within the territory of the other. There are many human rights that can be seen as rights to particular capabilities. However, human rights to important process freedoms cannot be adequately analysed within the capability framework. Furthermore, both human rights and capabilities have to depend on the process of public reasoning. The methodology of public scrutiny draws on Rawlsian understanding of 'objectivity' in ethics, but the impartiality that is needed cannot be confined within the borders of a nation. Public reasoning without territorial confinement is important for both.

Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood Before Marriage

Abstract: Preface to the 2011 Edition Introduction 1. "Before We Had a Baby ..." 2. "When I Got Pregnant ..." 3. How Does the Dream Die? 4. What Marriage Means 5. Labor of Love 6. How Motherhood Changed My Life Conclusion: Making Sense of Single Motherhood Acknowledgements Appendix A: City, Neighborhood, and Family Characteristics and Research Methods Appendix B: Interview Guide Notes References Index

Why a World State is Inevitable

Abstract: Long dismissed as unscientific, teleological explanation has been undergoing something of a revival as a result of the emergence of self-organization theory, which combines micro-level dynamics with macro-level boundary conditions to explain the tendency of systems to develop toward stable end-states. On that methodological basis this article argues that a global monopoly on the legitimate use of organized violence — a world state — is inevitable. At the micro-level world state formation is driven by the struggle of individuals and groups for recognition of their subjectivity. At the macro-level this struggle is channeled toward a world state by the logic of anarchy, which generates a tendency for military technology and war to become increasingly destructive. The process moves through five stages, each responding to the instabilities of the one before — a system of states, a society of states, world society, collective security, and the world state. Human agency matters all along the way, but is increasi...