The compatibility between Western democracy and other cultures, and the desirability of democracy, are two important problems in democratic theory. Following an insight from John Rawls’s later philosophy, and using some key passages in Mencius, I will show the compatibility between a ‘thin’ version of liberal democracy and Confucianism. Moreover, elaborating on Mencius’s ideas of the responsibility of government for the physical and moral well-being of the people, the respectability of the government and the ruling elite, and the competence-based limited (...) political participation, I shall explore the Mencian criticisms of some ‘thick’ democratic ideas. Through the discussion in this paper, I hope to show the relevance of Confucianism to contemporary political philosophy and society. (shrink)

How a hybrid Confucian-engendered form of governance might solve today’s political problems What might a viable political alternative to liberal democracy look like? In Against Political Equality, Tongdong Bai offers a possibility inspired by Confucian ideas. Bai argues that domestic governance influenced by Confucianism can embrace the liberal aspects of democracy along with the democratic ideas of equal opportunities and governmental accountability to the people. But Confucianism would give more political decision-making power to those with the moral, practical, and intellectual (...) capabilities of caring for the people. While most democratic thinkers still focus on strengthening equality to cure the ills of democracy, the proposed hybrid regime—made up of Confucian-inspired meritocratic characteristics combined with democratic elements and a quasi-liberal system of laws and rights—recognizes that egalitarian qualities sometimes conflict with good governance and the protection of liberties, and defends liberal aspects by restricting democratic ones. Bai applies his views to the international realm by supporting a hierarchical order based on how humane each state is toward its own and other peoples, and on the principle of international interventions whereby humane responsibilities override sovereignty. Exploring the deficiencies posed by many liberal democracies, Against Political Equality presents a novel Confucian-engendered alternative for solving today’s political problems. (shrink)

Radical personal and systemic social transformation is urgently needed to address world-wide violence and inequality, pervasive moral confusion and corruption, and the rapid, unprecedented global destruction of our environment. Recent years have seen an embrace of intersubjectivity within discourse on educational transformation within academia and the public sphere. As well, there has been a turn toward contemplative education initiatives within North American schools, colleges and universities. This article contends that these turns might benefit from openness to the ontologies, epistemologies, and (...) ethics of the ‘wisdom traditions’ from which many contemplative practices are drawn. To illustrate this point, we discuss the value of intercultural philosophy of education, and introduce Eastern philosophical ideas, specifically, the Shambhala Buddhist notion of the nondual ground and wisdom of basic goodness and related teachings. We detail how awareness of basic goodness and its holistic expression in the ground, path, and fruition of Shambhala teachings can open vital questions regarding intersubjectivity, challenge and reinvigorate aspects of current engagements with contemplative practices, and provide significant insights and educational paths for transformational endeavours in neoliberal times. Informed by our learning from Shambhala, we conclude with a deepened understanding of intercultural philosophy of education. (shrink)

The apparent conflict between some fundamental ideas of Confucianism and of rights seems to render Confucianism incompatible with rights. I will illustrate the general strategies, based upon an insight of the later Rawls, to solve the incompatibility problem. I will then show how these strategies can help us to develop a Confucian account of animal rights, which, by way of example, demonstrates how Confucianism can endorse and develop unique and constructive accounts of most rights that are commonly recognized today.

During the Warring States period of Chinese history, both Confucian and Legalist (as well as Mohist) thinkers proposed meritocracy as an ideal way of governance. Despite this apparent agreement, they differed from each other on what should be counted as merits. In this paper, I will reconstruct Han Fei Zi (a so-called Legalist thinker)’s critique of Confucian virtue-based meritocracy. In this reconstruction, we can imagine a dialogue between Han Fei Zi and a Confucian, and there are actually a few rounds (...) of ever-deepening debates in which Han Fei Zi eventually won. Although, as it will be revealed, the Confucian that is under serious attack is of a Mencian kind (whose ideas are akin to Mencius’s), Han Fei Zi’s critique can be applied to virtue-based meritocracy in general. An adequate defence of this kind of meritocracy, then, will need to address challenges from Han Fei Zi. (shrink)

Recent studies have demonstrated neural overlap between resting state activity and self-referential processing. This “rest-self” overlap occurs especially in anterior cortical midline structures like the perigenual anterior cingulate cortex (PACC). However, the exact neurotemporal and biochemical mechanisms remain to be identified. Therefore, we conducted a combined electroencephalography (EEG)-magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) study. EEG focused on pre-stimulus (e.g., prior to stimulus presentation or perception) power changes to assess the degree to which those changes can predict subjects’ perception (and judgment) of subsequent (...) stimuli as high or low self-related. MRS measured resting state concentration of glutamate, focusing on PACC. High pre-stimulus (e.g., prior to stimulus presentation or perception) alpha power significantly correlated with both perception of stimuli judged to be highly self-related and with resting state glutamate concentrations in the PACC. In sum, our results show (i) pre-stimulus (e.g., prior to stimulus presentation or perception) alpha power and resting state glutamate concentration to mediate rest-self overlap that (ii) dispose or incline subjects to assign high degrees of self-relatedness to perceptual stimuli. (shrink)

This paper explores the contribution of Zen storytelling to moral education. First, an understanding of Zen practice, what it is and how it is achieved, is established. Second, the connection between Zen practice and ethics is shown in terms of the former’s ability to cultivate moral emotions and actions. It is shown that Zen practice works at the roots of consciousness where, according to the fundamental tenets of Buddhism, the possibility of human goodness, known as bodhicitta , lies. Third, it (...) is suggested that storytelling is a viable and desirable means of moral education. Two examples of Zen stories are introduced, and interpretive commentaries are offered in the service of illustrating the major points made in this article. (shrink)

In this essay, the understanding of naturalness and of ruling without taking unnatural actions in the "Laozi" will be clarified and elaborated on, and it will be argued that the "Laozi" offers a theoretically adequate and realistic proposal to address both the problems of its times and some of the problems of modernity.

Journal of Chinese Philosophy, EarlyView.

A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-021-04793-5.

With the rapid growth of information technology and sports, analyzing sports information has become an increasingly challenging issue. Sports big data come from the Internet and show a rapid growth trend. Sports big data contain rich information such as athletes, coaches, athletics, and swimming. Nowadays, various sports data can be easily accessed, and amazing data analysis technologies have been developed, which enable us to further explore the value behind these data. In this paper, we first introduce the background of sports (...) big data. Secondly, we review sports big data management such as sports big data acquisition, sports big data labeling, and improvement of existing data. Thirdly, we show sports data analysis methods, including statistical analysis, sports social network analysis, and sports big data analysis service platform. Furthermore, we describe the sports big data applications such as evaluation and prediction. Finally, we investigate representative research issues in sports big data areas, including predicting the athletes’ performance in the knowledge graph, finding a rising star of sports, unified sports big data platform, open sports big data, and privacy protections. This paper should help the researchers obtaining a broader understanding of sports big data and provide some potential research directions. (shrink)

The sudden outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 has caused a huge impact on the Chinese residents' health and economic level. In the pandemic background, the country and its institutions have introduced pandemic-related insurance to stabilize the national situation. At this stage, insurance has played an increasingly important role in social life. With the popularization of insurance, the idea of buying insurance to avoid risk has gradually become popular among people. Among them, the New Rural Cooperative Medical System has been farmers' (...) common choice. The NRCMS, a mutual aid system created by farmers spontaneously in the country, plays a great role in guaranteeing farmers access to basic health services, alleviating poverty caused by disease and returning to poverty due to disease, and promoting poverty alleviation and rural revitalization. Given this backdrop, we study the efficiency of the NRCMS that can effectively promote poverty alleviation and rural revitalization and ensure the people's happy life. Implementing the Data Envelopment Analysis, we find that technological progress is one of the main factors influencing the efficiency of the NRCMS. Therefore, it is important to improve the technology for providing the efficiency of the NRCMS and promoting the happiness of the society. (shrink)

But what is the message of China's rise as an economic and political power? Tongdong Bai addresses this pressing question by examining the history of political theories and practices from China's past, and showing how it impacts upon the present. Chinese political traditions are often viewed as "authoritarian" (in contrast with "Western" democratic traditions), but the historical reality is much more complex and there is a need to understand the political values shaping China. Bai argues that the debates between China's (...) two main political theories - Confucianism and Legalism - anticipate themes in modern political thought and offer resources for thinking about contemporary political problems. This groundbreaking work offers a insight into the political history and thought of a nation. (shrink)

A growing body of research explores emoji, which are visual symbols in computer mediated communication (CMC). In the 20 years since the first set of emoji was released, research on it has been on the increase, albeit in a variety of directions. We reviewed the extant body of research on emoji and noted the development, usage, function and application of emoji. In this review article, we provide a systematic review of the extant body of work on emoji, reviewing how they (...) have developed, how they are used differently, what functions they have and what research has been conducted on them in different domains. Furthermore, we summarize directions for future research on this topic. (shrink)

AbstractWe show that social capital has a strong mitigating effect on financial adviser misconduct in the United States. Moreover, advisers who have committed misconduct are also more likely to relocate to counties with a relatively lower level of social capital than that of his previously residing county. These findings provide support for both the deterrence and displacement effects of social capital on financial adviser misconduct, and are robust to tests that address potential endogeneity concerns. Our results shed new light on (...) social capital as an informal governing and monitoring mechanism against individual unethical behavior. (shrink)

Journal of Philosophy of Education, EarlyView.

An accumulating amount of research has documented the harmful effects of abusive supervision on either its victims or third parties (peer abusive supervision). The abusive supervision literature, however, neglects to investigate the spillover effects of abusive supervision through third-party employees’ (i.e., peers’) mistreatment actions toward victims. Drawing on social learning theory, we argue that third parties learn mistreatment behaviors from abusive leaders and then themselves impose peer harassment and peer ostracism on victims, thereby negatively affecting victims’ performance. Further, we posit (...) that, if a victim has a proactive personality, this will weaken these indirect, negative effects. We conducted two studies, both with three-wave longitudinal data, to verify the hypotheses. The results of Study 1 evidence the significant indirect effects of abusive supervision on employee creative performance via both peer harassment and peer ostracism. Contrary to our moderation hypothesis, the analysis shows that victims’ proactive personality strengthens rather than weakens the negative indirect effects of peer harassment. Study 2 generally replicated the results of Study 1 with employee’s objective job performance as outcome. Our research contributes to the abusive supervision literature by highlighting a social learning process of third-party peer mistreatment, suggesting a spillover channel of abusive supervision on the victim’s performance. (shrink)

This essay explores the history of studies in analytical philosophy in China since the beginning of the last century, by dividing into three phases. It shows that, in these phases, analytic philosophy was always at a disadvantage in confronting serious challenges coming from both Chinese traditional philosophy and modern philosophical trends. The authors argue that Chinese philosophers have both done preliminary studies and offered their own analyses of various problems as well as some new applications of analytic philosophy especially in (...) the latest period. Meanwhile, Chinese traditional philosophy was always trying to adjust its cultural mentality in the struggle with analytic philosophy, and accommodated in its own way the rationalistic spirit and scientific method represented in analytic philosophy. (shrink)

BackgroundMental stress and imbalance of its two neural stress systems, the autonomic nervous system and the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis, are associated with chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome and erectile dysfunction. However, the comprehensive analyses of psychological stress and stress systems are under-investigated, particularly in CP/CPPS patients complicated by lower urinary tract symptoms and ED.Materials and methodsParticipants were 95 patients in CP/CPPS+ED group, 290 patients in CP/CPPS group, 124 patients in ED group and 52 healthy men in control group. The National Institutes (...) of Health Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index, the International Index of Erectile Function-5 and the International Prostate Symptom Score were used for assessing the disease severity of CP/CPPS, LUTS and ED. Psychometric self-report questionnaires including the Beck Anxiety Inventory, Perceived Stress Scale, Type A Personality Test and Symptom Checklist 90 were completed for distress from physical symptoms. Twenty-five subjects per group were randomly selected for further investigating the changes of the HPA axis and ANS. Saliva samples were taken on 3 consecutive days at 8 specific times with strict reference to time of morning awakening for evaluation of free cortisol. Heart rate variability as marker of the ANS was measured using 24 h electrocardiography, and time-and frequency-domain variables were analyzed.ResultsThe BAI and SCL-90 scores were significantly higher in the CP/CPPS+ED, CP/CPPS and ED groups compared with the control group. The PSS scores of both groups with ED were significantly higher than the control group. Compared with the CP/CPPS group, the differences of PSS, SCL-90 and TAPT scores were statistically significant in CP/CPPS+ED patients. The IPSS scores were shown to have significantly positive correlations with BAI, PSS and SCL-90 in the CP/CPPS patients. However, in all subjects, the IIEF-5 scores were shown to have significantly negative correlations with BAI, PSS, SCL-90 and quality of life score in NIH-CPSI. Cortisol awakening response parameters and diurnal cortisol levels did not significantly vary between the four groups. Time-dependent parameters of HRV also did not differ significantly across groups. In the frequency domain analysis, low frequency was significantly lower in ED patients when compared with CP/CPPS+ED patients and healthy controls, high frequency power was significantly higher in healthy controls compared to patients with ED, CP/CPPS and CP/CPPS+ED, and the CP/CPPS+ED group had significantly higher LF/HF ratio than the control group.ConclusionCP/CPPS and ED patients score exceedingly high on most psychosocial variables. The symptom scores of LUTS and ED positively correlate with the severity of psychological stress. Our findings also suggest that the ANS sympathovagal imbalance is associated with ED and LUTS in CP/CPPS, whereas HPA axis activity is not. (shrink)

Confucius argued for the centrality of the superior man’s political duty to his fellow human beings and to the state, while Socrates suggested that the superior man (the philosopher) may have no such political duty. However, Confucius also suggested that one not enter or stay—let alone save—a troubled state, while Socrates stayed in an unjust state, apparently fulfilling his political duty to the state by accepting an unjust verdict. In this essay, I will try to show how Confucius could solve (...) these apparent contradictions. I will then examine the reasons Socrates directly and indirectly offers to resolve his seemingly conflicting positions in light of the discussion of the Confucian case. This article is a first step toward a deeper understanding of both Confucius and Socrates (Plato) by way of comparative studies, and of the general issue of a superior man’s political duty to a bad state. (shrink)

Although the concept of the consumer–brand relationship has undergone rapid change over the past two decades, the issue of brand addiction is still generally neglected in the literature. Based on social identity theory, the research develops a conceptual model of the influence of self-expressive brands and susceptibility to interpersonal influence on brand addiction. The results of this research demonstrate both separate and joint effects of SEBs and SUSCEP on brand addiction. In addition, harmonious brand passion and obsessive brand passion positively (...) mediate the relationships among SEB, SUSCEP, and brand addiction. The research explores the formation mechanism of brand addiction from a new perspective and has important practical implications for brand marketers concerned with finding the most effective means to enhance the consumer–brand relationship. (shrink)

ObjectiveThis study took users of short-form mobile videos as research participants to explore the role of their boredom proneness in mediating the relationship between the use of mobile social media and subjective well-being.MethodsA sample of 656 users was evaluated by the Problematic Mobile Social Media Usage Assessment Questionnaire, General Well-Being Schedule, and Boredom Proneness Scale.ResultsFirstly, significant interactions were found between monthly living expenses and the UMSM of the participants, which were recognized as factors affecting SWB. Secondly, the level of living (...) expenses had little effect on the high-level and low-level groups of the UMSM but imposed a significant impact on the medium-level group. Thirdly, the UMSM showed an influence that could positively predict boredom; both the UMSM and boredom demonstrated a negative predictive effect on SWB.ConclusionThe findings indicate that the inappropriate use of mobile social media negatively affects users’ subjective well-being; boredom partially mediated the relationship between the use of mobile social media and SWB. (shrink)

Service process optimization is conducive to the innovation of enterprise services, but the poor logic design of multiple touchpoints can easily lead to problems in the service process, such as scattered layouts and repeated paths. Aiming at the promotion of service innovation and user experience, this paper takes the optimization of a single service touchpoint as the prerequisite and proposes a service process optimization method based on service touchpoint association and the design structure matrix. The association of service touchpoints is (...) categorized into two types, namely, noncoupled and coupled association. The DSM is used to describe the two types of association between service touchpoints, and the matrix operation is used for modular identification and layering of the two kinds of association. Finally, through the above steps, the problematic service process was replanned. By using the service process optimization of a new retail convenience store as an example, the service process is divided into 6 relatively independent modules, and the order of module execution is arranged. Moreover, the optimal service process of the convenience store system is determined, and the method is verified to be feasible. Through optimization both from single service touchpoint and service process modularization, the study provides a reference for process optimization of the complex service system. (shrink)

An incline S is a commutative semiring where r+1=1 for any r \in S . We note that the ideal lattice of an S-semimodule is naturally an S-semimodule and so is its congruence lattice when S is transitive. We prove that the categories of complete S-semimodules, together with dual functor, internal hom and tensor product, is a ⋆-autonomous category. We define the locally and globally maximal congruences which are related to Birkhoff subdirect product decomposition. We show that the categories of (...) S-semimodules, algebraic S-semimodules and topological S-semimodules are equivalent. Finally, we get a sheaf representation of any S-semimodule. (shrink)

The -19 pandemic highlights the following problems: the balance between the private and the public within a liberal framework; the merits and the limits of a liberal democracy in governance; and the inadequacy of a nation-states-led global order. In light of these problems, I will offer some Confucian alternatives.

This study investigates how board size and occupational background of directors differentially influence social performance in for-profit and non-profit organizations. Using data from California hospitals, we develop a quantitative measure of social performance and provide the following empirical evidence. First, board size is negatively (positively) associated with social performance in for-profit (non-profit) hospitals. Second, the presence of government officials on the board is negatively (positively) related to social performance in for-profit (non-profit) hospitals. Third, representation of physicians on the board is (...) positively associated with social performance in for-profit hospitals, whereas their presence is not significantly related to social performance in non-profit hospitals. Our findings highlight the different effects of governance mechanisms on social performance in for-profit and non-profit organizations. (shrink)

With the rapid growth of various complex networks, link prediction has become increasingly important because it can discover the missing information and predict future interactions between nodes in a network. Recently, the CAR and CCLP indexes have been presented for link prediction by means of different triangle structure information. However, both indexes may lose the contributions of some shared neighbors. We propose in this work a new index to make up the weakness and then improve the accuracy of link prediction. (...) The proposed index focuses on a new triangle structure, i.e., the triangle formed by one seed node, one common neighbor, and one other node. It emphasizes the importance of these triangles but does not ignore the contribution of any common neighbor. In addition, the proposed index adopts the theory of resource allocation by penalizing large-degree neighbors. The results of comparison with CN, AA, RA, ADP, CAR, CAA, CRA, and CCLP on 12 real-world networks show that the proposed index outperforms the compared methods in terms of AUC and ranking score. (shrink)

Mencius’s account of the yi-li (righteousness-benefit) distinction is important in his moral philosophy, and is often compared with consequentialism or deontology in Western moral philosophy. After showing the problems with a naïve deontological reading and a sophisticated consequentialist reading of Mencius, I will argue that both a really sophisticated consequentialist reading and a non-Kantian deontological reading are more defensible. But they couldn’t address the inequality hidden in Mencius’s moral philosophy, making a Nietzschean reading possible. However, Mencius embraced compassion as a (...) key virtue, which Nietzsche would reject. Mencius’s moral philosophy is doubly bifurcated and different from consequentialism, deontology, and also Nietzsche’s philosophy. (shrink)