Studies on the Abuse and Decline of Reason is a series of fascinating essays on the study of social phenomena. How to best and most accurately study social interactions has long been debated intensely, and there are two main approaches: the positivists, who ignore intent and belief and draw on methods based in the sciences; and the nonpositivists, who argue that opinions and ideas drive action and are central to understanding social behavior. F. A. Hayek’s opposition to the positivists and their claims to scientific rigor and certainty in the study of human behavior is a running theme of this important book.

Hayek argues that the vast number of elements whose interactions create social structures and institutions make it unlikely that social science can predict precise outcomes. Instead, he contends, we should strive to simply understand the principles by which phenomena are produced. For Hayek this modesty of aspirations went hand in hand with his concern over widespread enthusiasm for economic planning. As a result, these essays are relevant to ongoing debates within the social sciences and to discussion about the role government can and should play in the economy.

In the present doctoral thesis the evidence-based fundament for the shift from tubal reconstructive surgery to ART for treating tubal infertility is investigated. There is no randomised comparison between ART and reconstructive tubal surgery. Doing a laparoscopy in all cases of subfertility is not sensible given the availability of alternative and reliable diagnostic procedures to study tubal patency. The effectiveness of hysteroscopy for treating female subfertility is limited to some specific indications. There are many knowledge gaps in our current understanding of the effectiveness of hysteroscopic interventions in the treatment of subfertile women. These should be studied preferably by pragmatic randomized studies. The use of anti-adhesion barrier gels may decrease the incidence and the extent or severity of intrauterine adhesions following hysteroscopic surgery in subfertile women, but data on pregnancy and live birth rates are missing. Recent years have witnessed an increase in the number and the methodological quality of published reports of randomized studies on reproductive surgery. This may be linked to the CONSORT statement. The pros and cons of evidence-based practice in reproductive surgery are discussed at the end of this doctoral thesis.

Although ethnicity is a modern concept and would not have been recognized by the Byzantines, throughout its history the Byzantine Empire was a multi-ethnic state. The papers in this volume examine questions of the uniformity and separateness of the various Byzantine populations and the degree and mechanisms of acculturation. The cultural uniformity that the Byzantine church and state pursued through Orthodoxy and the Greek language did not erase all distinct traits of different groups--nor was that their intention. This volume provides examples of the multiple forms of integration and resistance to integration in a society that for a long time functioned as an integral state and an articulated society that accepted diversity.

Studies on the Piriform Lobe presents the findings of neuroanatomical research on the complex arrangements of nerve cells, and on the intricate interconnections of their fibrous processes, in the mammalian forebrain. Descriptions of the double- and triple-impregnation variants of the Golgi method, developed by the author in order to improve the staining of nerve cells, are given in full detail. A major contribution in the study of connections, this book may well be the definitive work on the basal surface of the cerebral hemisphere for years to come and will be an invaluable reference aid to anatomists and physiologists concerned with this region.

It is everywhere recognized that China's mid-century population is a world problem, and not merely a national one. In spite of numerous studies on China's population by occidental and Chinese scholars, many aspects of the subject remain obscure because of the problems of interpretation. Ping-ti Ho makes a thorough examination of the machineries with which population data were collected in different periods. This has led him to redefine, among other things, the key term ting, which has served as almost the sole basis of reconstruction of China's historical population by many well-known authorities.

The second part of the book deals with factors which have affected the growth of China's population during the last six centuries: the approximate extents of cultivated conditions, institutional factors like fiscal burden and land tenure, and major deterrents to population growth such as floods, famines, and female infanticide. In his conclusion Ho correlates population data with economic and institutional factors of various periods and he suggests ways for a reconstruction of China's population history. While it is primarily an historical study, the book also correlates the past with the present.