Tradition, Authority and Dialogue: Arendt and Alexander on Education

In this paper I discuss two attempts to challenge mainstream liberal education, by Hannah Arendt and by contemporary Israeli philosopher Hanan Alexander. Arendt and Alexander both identify problems in liberal-secular modern politics and present alternatives based on reconnecting politics and education to tradition. I analyze their positions and bring them into a dialogue that suggests a complex conception of education that avoids many of the pitfalls of modern liberal thought. First, I outline Arendt and Alexander’s educational views and discuss their similarities, arguing that both may be understood as opposed to the modern attempt to adopt a «view from nowhere» at the world. Next, I suggest that Alexander’s view may benefit from adopting Arendt’s conceptions of tradition and authority. In the consecutive section, I argue that Alexander sheds light on significant problems in Arendt’s approach to education, problems his understanding of critical dialogue can help solve. The succeeding section joins the two views together to form an approach I call «critical traditionalism», and examines it against prevailing approaches to political education. I conclude by pointing to an important point overlooked by both Arendt and Alexander, namely the need for internal political struggle within each tradition

On the Theory of Spatial and Temporal Locality

This paper studies the theory of caching and temporal and spatial locality. We show the following results: (1) hashing can be used to guarantee that caches with limited associativity behave as well as fully associative cache; (2) temporal locality cannot be characterized using one, or few parameters; (3) temporal locality and spatial locality cannot be studied separately; and (4) unlike temporal locality, spatial locality cannot be managed efficiently online

SP Betting as a Self-Enforcing Implicit Cartel

A large share of the UK off-course horse racing betting market involves winning payouts determined at Starting Prices (SP). This implies that gamblers can bet with off-course bookies on any horse before a race at the final pre-race odds as set by on-course bookies for that horse. Given the oligopolistic structure of the off-course gambling market in the UK, a market that is dominated by a small number of large bookmaking firms, we study the phenomenon of SP as a type of self-enforcing implicit collusion. We show that given the uncertainty about a race outcome, and their ability to influence the prices set by on-course bookies, agreeing to lay bets at SP is superior for off-course bookies as compared with offering fixed odds. We thus extend the results of Rotemberg and Saloner (1990) to markets with uncertainty about both demand and outcomes, We test our model by studying the predicted effects of SP betting on the behavior of on-course bookies. Using data drawn from both the UK and Australian on-course betting markets, we show that the differences between these markets are consistent with the predicted effects of SP betting in the UK off-course market and its absence from the Australian market.

Minima Pedagogica: Education, Thinking and Experience in Adorno

This article attempts to think of thinking as the essence of critical education. While contemporary education tends to stress the conveying of knowledge and skills needed to succeed in present-day information society, the present article turns to the work of Theodor W. Adorno to develop alternative thinking about education, thinking, and the political significance of education for thinking. Adorno touched upon educational questions throughout his writings, with growing interest in the last ten years of his life. Education, he argues following Kant, must enable students to think for themselves and to break free of the authority of teachers, parents and other adults. Nevertheless, in his discussions of education Adorno says little about the nature of thinking, and the secondary literature on his educational theory addresses this question only cursorily. Important claims on the nature of thinking do appear elsewhere in Adorno's work. From his early writings up to Negative Dialectics, Adorno is preoccupied with thinking, sketching the outlines of critical-dialectical thought. Still, these reflections rarely touch upon educational questions, and the Adorno scholarship has yet to establish this link. Unlike studies which read Adorno's educational thought against the backdrop of the history of education and the German Bildung tradition, or in relation to art and aesthetics, the present article brings together Adorno's ideas on education and thinking in an attempt to contribute both to the Adorno scholarship and to the growing field of education for thinking

Shrinking Goods and Sticky Prices: Theory and Evidence

If producers have more information than consumers about goods’ attributes, then they may use non-price (rather than price) adjustment mechanisms and, consequently, the market may reach a new equilibrium even if prices remain sticky. We study a situation where producers adjust the quantity (per package) rather than the price in response to changes in market conditions. Although consumers should be indifferent between equivalent changes in goods' prices and quantities, empirical evidence suggests that consumers often respond differently to price changes and equivalent quantity changes. We offer a possible explanation for this puzzle by constructing and empirically testing a model in which consumers incur cognitive costs when processing goods’ price and quantity information. The model is based on evidence from cognitive psychology and explains consumers’ decision whether or not to process goods’ price and quantity information. Our findings explain why producers sometimes adjust goods’ prices and sometimes goods’ quantities. In addition, they predict variability in price adjustment costs over time and across economic conditions.Sticky Prices; Rigid Prices; Cognitive Costs of Attention; Information Processing Cost; Rational Inattention; Price Adjustment; Quantity Adjustment; Downsizing;

Shrinking Goods and Sticky Prices: Theory and Evidence

If producers have more information than consumers about goods’ attributes, then they may use non-price (rather than price) adjustment mechanisms and, consequently, the market may reach a new equilibrium even if prices remain sticky. We study a situation where producers adjust the quantity (per package) rather than the price in response to changes in market conditions. Although consumers should be indifferent between equivalent changes in goods' prices and quantities, empirical evidence suggests that consumers often respond differently to price changes and equivalent quantity changes. We offer a possible explanation for this puzzle by constructing and empirically testing a model in which consumers incur cognitive costs when processing goods’ price and quantity information. The model is based on evidence from cognitive psychology and explains consumers’ decision whether or not to process goods’ price and quantity information. Our findings explain why producers sometimes adjust goods’ prices and sometimes goods’ quantities. In addition, they predict variability in price adjustment costs over time and across economic conditions.Sticky Prices, Rigid Prices, Cognitive Costs of Attention, Information Processing Cost, Price Adjustment, Quantity

Interplay between sheet resistance increase and magnetotransport properties in LaAlO3/SrTiO3{\rm LaAlO_3}/{\rm SrTiO_3}

We find that the sheet resistance ($R_s$) of patterned samples of ${\rm LaAlO_3}/{\rm SrTiO_3}$ with a length scale of several microns may increase significantly at low temperatures in connection with driving electrical currents and applying in-plane magnetic fields. As the samples are warmed up, $R_s$ recovers to its original value with accelerated recovery near ${\rm 70 \ K}$and${\rm 160 \ K}$. Concomitantly with the increase in$R_s$, the carrier density and the mobility decrease and magnetotransport properties which may be linked to magnetism are suppressed.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure

Antisymmetric magnetoresistance of the SrTiO3/LaAlO3 interface

The longitudinal resistance $R_{xx}$ of the SrTiO3/LaAlO3 interface with magnetic fields applied perpendicular to the interface has an antisymmetric term (namely, $R_{xx}(H)\neq R_{xx}(-H)$) which increases with decreasing temperature and increasing field. We argue that the origin of this phenomenon is a non-homogeneous Hall effect with clear contribution of an extraordinary Hall effect, suggesting the presence of non-uniform field-induced magnetization