Portfolio Value Management
Portfolio value management deals with the problem of how to determine a portfolio such that the associated portfolio value moves in some desired direction. Two models of portfolio management are presented. The first (second) model considers the case where the portfolio value moves exactly (at least) according to given growth rates. A solution of both models is found by using a fixed-point argument.
Portfolio selection under the condition of value preservation
Besides risk and return, investors often are interested in choosing a portfolio such that the portfolio value is preserved. However, the traditional utility-maximizing approach generally fails to provide such a solution. As a different approach value preservation is formulated as an equilibrium problem. Following this approach it is shown that under reasonable assumptions a value preserving solution exists. The solution only depends on the set of feasable portfolio decisions. Contrary to this, the Bernoulli principle in addition requires a utility function that is independent from this set.
Between identity and difference: Three ways of reading Nishida's non-dualism
The philosophy of Nishida KitarŌ offers the reader today not only a paradigm for a comparative philosophy, but also a methodological framework to construct a Buddhist philosophy. The key and, at the same time, the obstacle to his philosophy is the concept of the "self-identity of the absolute contradiction." This conceptual cornerstone of Nishida's philosophy is as controversial among scholars today as it is central to his philosophy. Critics, such as Tanabe Hajime and Takahashi Satomi, argue that Nishida's philosophy privileges the principle of identity over that of difference and falls into a monism; his supporters, most of all Nishitani Keiji and Ueda Shizuteru, to the contrary, claim that it comprises the key to philosophical non-dualism. In general, I am convinced that even his "self-identity of the absolute contradiction," if it is read carefully within the context of Nishida's philosophy, will render a paradigm that falls neither into a logical contradiction nor into a monism but that provides the foundation for a non-dualist philosophy. To this end, I will reread it first in the context of Nishida's overall project and, then, on the background of Nishida's debates with his critics.