61st Session of Philosophical Foundations of Law and Finance

Dear All,

The 61st Session of Philosophical Foundations of Law and Finance (Friday, 5 Nov, 6-8pm, room 5.17, 309 Regent Street) will be devoted to:

Overcoming Information Asymmetry in Law and Finance

with simple illustrations from entrepreneurial business plans to more complex examples from securities prospectuses.  

A very sophisticated use of information asymmetry theory can be found in http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/ifdp/2010/1010/ifdp1010.pdf (Nov. 2010) where Beltram & Thomas argue that information asymmetry alone is sufficient to explain the credit crisis and to provide a criterion for judging the potential success or failure of proposed regulatory solutions to the credit crisis. Joe recommends all Corporate Finance Law and International Banking Law students read the article since it provides a particularly good review of the recent scholarly literature and shows how information asymmetry may be used in arguendo to reach surprisingly general results.  The article was spotted by Edmond Curtin. Many thanks, Edmond.

As part of our philosophical investigation we shall ask, "What are the assumptions underlying information asymmetry?"  One possible answer comes from the concept of "mutuality of information" based on the symmetric correlation of probabilities between information-communication systems. [See, Seth Lloyd (1996) “Causal Asymmetry from Statistics” in Physical Origins of Time Asymmetry edited by J.J. Halliwell, J. Perez-Mercader, and W.H. Zurek, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.] We will try to elucidate mutuality of information in relation to social phenomena and legal systems.  For example, the goal of Plato’s Laws was to attain “social amity" which could not be had unless there was a mutuality of information at every level of society.  [See, Plato's Laws, Book I.]

In class readings of Aristotle's Art of Rhetoric will continue on the forensic, epidetic and deliberate forms of enthymemes (available a http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/rhetoric.html).

Afterwards if we feel for pan-Asian food and good company please join us for a nice dinner at Wagamama at 101a Wigmore Street.  Please RSPV so that we can arrange for reservations.

Regards,

Rezi & Joe

61st Session of Philosophical Foundations of Law and Finance

59th session of the Philosophical Foundations of Law and Finance

Dear All,

 

You are welcomed to join us for the 59^th session of the Philosophical Foundations of Law and Finance, this Friday, 22 October 2010, from 6.00 to 8.00pm, in room 5.16, 309 Regent Street (University of Westminster).

 

We will continue with a close reading of Aristotle's Art of Rhetoric (available at http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/rhetoric.html). Last week, we asked how could Aristotle believe that forensic arguments are such that the "true and approximately true are apprehended by the same faculty"? Here we will link our investigation to the indeterminability of the law (Dr. Laura Niada's favourite transform) which in turn shall be aligned to Knopf's convergent, definitely divergent and indefinitely divergent infinities.  Our goal is to understand the use of the potential infinitudes (the truth) behind Aristotle's Art of Rhetoric.  More shall be said about Aristotle's long lost invention, the "enthymeme" and the schema of unconsciously powerful arguments.

These types of rhetoric arguments find their way in the current discourse, (e.g. yesterday’s New York Times opinion by Judith Lichtenberg “Is Pure Altruism Possible?” accessible at http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/19/is-pure-altruism-possible/?ref=opinion).

At about 8 o’clock, depending on whether we feel for local, mediterranean, oriental or other exotic food we will explore the area for a nice place to enjoy each other’s company.

 

Regards,

Rezi and Joe

59th session of the Philosophical Foundations of Law and Finance

58th Session of the Philosophical Foundations of Law and Finance

Dear All,

We would like to invite you for another engaging session of the Philosophical Foundations of Law and Finance, this Friday, 15 October 2010, from 6.00 to 8.00pm, in room 5.16, 309 Regent Street (University of Westminster).

 

We will read Aristotle's Art of Rhetoric (available at http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/rhetoric.html) and consider the art of persuasion from a hypno-unconscious communication system perspective. Consider why is it that certain individuals are able to control situations with their voice, their posture and gestures.  Aristotle's genius was to establish whole fields of knowledge.  Rhetoric is a technical art, skill, useful and dangerous in the wrong hands.  In this work, Aristotle publishes a scientific account of rhetoric with little warning of its potential for abuse.

 The Art of Rhetoric was a required element in the classical tradition for over 2,300 years. It fell out of the compulsory curriculum in England in the early 20th century.  That was a mistake.  If you read Aristotle, you will get smarter and maybe even wiser.

Thereafter, at 8 o’clock we will head towards Vapiano (19-21 Great Portland Street, W1W 8QB) where we can test our skills of rhetoric into finding a good table and have a nice Friday evening.

Regards,

Rezi and Joe 

58th Session of the Philosophical Foundations of Law and Finance

Philosophical Foundations of Law and Finance - 21sth Weekly Meeting

At the 21st meeting of the Philosophical Foundations of Law and Finance (Friday 26th June, from 6.00-8.00pm, in room 501, 309 Regent St) we shall read Aristotle discussing rhetoric and persuasion.

Joe will also present a framework for a corporate-centric finance view of epistemology-ontology. He will show how Aristotle's method could be applied to the knowledge of the world through the lens of finance; and use, yet again, concepts of risk symmetries for the clarification and understanding of the implications of stem cell technology on humanity (see Clive Cookson, "An Industry to Grow", FT, 25 June 2009 at http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2fe059ae-60ed-11de-aa12-00144feabdc0.html). As Edmond Curtin says, "this is about harvesting humans and individual sovereignty". We can also imagine what "stem cell financial derivatives" might be. We need to get ahead of the curve on this because the curve is going to be a tsunami.

We shall seek more bubbles and rations at Vapiano thereafter

See you tomorrow

Joe and Laura

Philosophical Foundations of Law and Finance - 21sth Weekly Meeting

Philosophical Foundations of Law and Finance - 19th Weekly Meeting

At Friday's seminar on the Philosophical Foundations of Law and Finance (12th June, 6.00-8.00pm, Room 501, 309 Regent St) we shall turn to Aristotle's classic, The Art of Rhetoric.

If you have ever wanted to convince yourself of something or persuade others to do something, and ever wondered how is this to be done then Aristotle's work is the bees knees. Much of what we call common sense in the Western world comes from this incomparable book.

Book I: http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/rhetoric.1.i.html

This is a big shift from Plato's approach. We are reaching into the dark arts of persuasive technology, verbal manipulation, white lies and getting what you want even if it is not exactly the Good.

We may test the theory straight afterwards at Vapiano.

Sincerely,

Joe and Laura

Philosophical Foundations of Law and Finance - 19th Weekly Meeting