Background The use of lengthy, detailed, and complex informed consent forms is of paramount concern in biomedical research as it may not truly promote the rights and interests of research participants. The extent of information in ICFs has been the subject of debates for decades; however, no clear guidance is given. Thus, the objective of this study was to determine the perspectives of research participants about the type and extent of information they need when they are invited to participate in (...) biomedical research. Methods This multi-center, cross-sectional, descriptive survey was conducted at 54 study sites in seven Asia-Pacific countries. A modified Likert-scale questionnaire was used to determine the importance of each element in the ICF among research participants of a biomedical study, with an anchored rating scale from 1 to 5. Results Of the 2484 questionnaires distributed, 2113 were returned. The majority of respondents considered most elements required in the ICF to be ‘moderately important’ to ‘very important’ for their decision making. Major foreseeable risk, direct benefit, and common adverse effects of the intervention were considered to be of most concerned elements in the ICF. Conclusions Research participants would like to be informed of the ICF elements required by ethical guidelines and regulations; however, the importance of each element varied, e.g., risk and benefit associated with research participants were considered to be more important than the general nature or technical details of research. Using a participant-oriented approach by providing more details of the participant-interested elements while avoiding unnecessarily lengthy details of other less important elements would enhance the quality of the ICF. (shrink)

Attending cram school has long been a trend in ethnic Chinese culture areas, including Taiwan. Despite the fact that school reform policies have been implemented in Taiwan, cram schools have continued to prosper. Therefore, in this educational culture, how to achieve a good educational effect is also a topic worthy of discussion. However, whether students really engage in those tutoring programs provided by cram schools has seldom been studied. To address this gap, this study explored how parents’ hovering attitude toward (...) life and coursework influences their children’s engagement in cram schools. This study targeted those students who attend English cram schools to test the correlates between two types of helicopter parenting, tutoring engagement and continued attendance at cram schools. A total of 320 questionnaires were sent out, and 300 were returned, giving an overall response rate of 93.75%. Excluding seven incomplete or invalid questionnaires, 293 valid questionnaires were received. The results of this study show that hovering behavior awareness is negatively related to cram school engagement, whereas cram school engagement is positively related to the intention to continue attending cram school. Moreover, the results imply that parents should alleviate their helicoptering behavior to enhance their children’s engagement in cram school tutoring programs. (shrink)

This paper discusses operationalization of open educational practices (OEP) using innovative, Internet-influenced pedagogies to expose dangers of post-truth narratives. The first part reviews interpretations of OEP (associated with open-access and tools, collaboration, problem-centered learning, and democratic pedagogy) and explores possibilities for creating educational initiatives where students learn to create problem-solving communities mirroring an informationally healthy society. The second part suggests our society has reached a post-truth crossroads. Post-truth was initially discussed in the 1990s—a reification of critical theorists’ pessimism of social (...) structures, controlling narratives and ways members react to critical events, whether through obedience to institutional authority or support for destructive adventurism, creating situations producing cybernetic double binds. The third part contextualizes OEP as ecologically grounded pedagogies through an open source educational processes framework focusing on productive many-to-many online communication and community formation, offering practical examples of open source educational processes curricula implemented in a higher education setting. (shrink)

As an important view in the epistemology of perception, dogmatism proposes that for any experience, if it has a distinctive kind of phenomenal character, then it thereby provides us with immediate justification for beliefs about the external world. This paper rejects dogmatism by looking into the epistemology of imagining. In particular, this paper first appeals to some empirical studies on perceptual experiences and imaginings to show that it is possible for imaginings to have the distinctive phenomenal character dogmatists have in (...) mind. Then this paper argues that some of these imaginings fail to provide us with immediate justification for beliefs about the external world at least partly due to their inappropriate etiology. Such imaginings constitute counterexamples to dogmatism. (shrink)

In research on Augustine, Peter Brown’s paradigm of ‘two Augustines’ has been widely used. According to Brown, Augustine experienced a shift from optimism to pessimism. In his earlier works, Augustine held that humans could achieve happiness in this life by reason. In contrast, in his later works, Augustine emphasised grace, original sin and the imperfection of life. Against Brown’s framework, this paper argues that Augustine does not experience a pessimistic turn. Augustine holds that humans can achieve happiness through faith, hope (...) and love.Contribution: This article explores Augustine’s theory of happiness and revises the ‘two Augustines’ paradigm. On the one hand, Augustine does not deny the freedom of will. On the other hand, Augustine is confident in happiness through faith, hope and love. (shrink)

Cognitive enhancement has an increasingly wider influence on our life. The main issue that concerns epistemologists is what its epistemological implications are. Adam Carter and Duncan Pritchard argue that cognitive enhancement improves cognitive achievement, but this view faces axiological objections. A worry exists that cognitive enhancement undermines achievements and erodes intellectual character. Crucially, two parties seem to talk past each other because the nature of cognitive enhancement and the value of cognitive enhancement are not clearly distinguished. To end the stand‐off (...) between the two parties, I take insight from Gwen Bradford’s work and argue that, other things being equal, cognitive enhancement either decreases the value of cognitive achievement or undermines cognitive achievement. In the face of this threat, I further submit that we could learn to live with cognitive enhancement in an integrated way so that the lost value can be restored. (shrink)

Does phenomenal force, the distinctive phenomenology attributed to perceptual experience, really form an integral part of the latter? If not, what implications does it have for perceptual justification? In this paper, I first argue for a metacognitive account, according to which phenomenal force constitutes a separate, metacognitive state. This account opens up a previously unexplored path for challenging phenomenal conservatism or dogmatism, which has been a prominent theory of perceptual justification over the past two decades. Moreover, I investigate several alternative (...) possibilities in which phenomenal force might still be deemed as significant, but ultimately demonstrate that its epistemic role remains marginal at best. (shrink)

According to phenomenal conservatism or dogmatism, perceptual experiences can give us immediate justification for beliefs about the external world in virtue of having a distinctive kind of phenomenal character—namely phenomenal force. I present three cases to show that phenomenal force is neither pervasive among nor exclusive to perceptual experiences. The plausibility of such cases calls out for explanation. I argue that contrary to a long-held assumption, phenomenal force is a separate, non-perceptual state generated by some metacognitive mechanisms that monitor one’s (...) first-order mental processes and states. This new account advances our understanding of the nature of phenomenal force. (shrink)

Background Ethical dilemmas that arise in the clinical setting often require the collaboration of multiple disciplines to be resolved. However, medical and nursing curricula do not prioritize communication among disciplines regarding this issue. A common teaching strategy, problem-based learning, could be used to enhance communication among disciplines. Therefore, a university in southern Taiwan developed an interprofessional ethics education program based on problem-based learning strategies. This study described tutors’ experience teaching in this program. Aim To explore the phenomenon of teaching and (...) learning in interprofessional ethics education for medical and nursing students from the perspectives of tutors. Design Phenomenological qualitative research. Methods Medical and nursing students completed a 6-week interprofessional ethics education program moderated by either physician or nurse tutors. At the conclusion of the ethics education program, all 14 tutors were invited to participate in focus group interviews. Among them, six tutors (three nursing tutors and three physician tutors) participated in additional individual interviews. All of the contents from the focus group interviews and individual interviews were recorded and transcribed. Using the phenomenological approach, the phenomenon of teaching and learning in interprofessional ethics education were generated. Ethical consideration The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board. Findings Three themes emerged from the tutors' teaching perspectives, including the instructor’s motivation to teach, the use of narrative case scenarios, and the emphasis on improving interprofessional ethics communication. Discussion Problem-based learning creates an interprofessional communication platform in interprofessional ethics education. The phenomenon of value convergence between tutors and students, between different students’ professions, and between different students’ professional maturities is observed. Conclusion Problem-based learning is an effective teaching strategy for creating a communication platform for interprofessional ethics education. Ethic curriculum should emphasize motivating instructor, use narrative case scenarios, and focus on interprofessional communication. (shrink)

What are thought experiments? How and why do they work? What do they reveal about the nature of rationality? These are the problems that I attempt to solve in my inquiry. ;Regarding the first problem, my preliminary answer can be stated as follows: Thought experiments are our imaginative explorations of new ways to experience and understand our world. It is my conviction that the ability to try out new ways of experiencing and understanding various phenomena is essential to the growth (...) of our knowledge and is constitutive of our sense of meaningfulness in our world. This conviction is the guiding idea of my study. ;This conviction is debatable. It cannot be the starting point of my argument. My tactic, rather, is to select and examine certain kinds of thought experiments, to show how and why they work, and to uncover the rationality that supports their implementation. I will show that the rationality is not specific to thought experimentation but is constitutive of all sorts of human organizing activities. The importance of a proper analysis of thought experiment is that it can give us an insight into human rationality in general. ;Thought experiments have played a central role in scientific development in human history. Yet almost nobody has any insight into how and why they work. But now recent research on cognition, especially research on meaning, imagination, concepts, reasoning, and cognitive development has begun to shed light on the imaginative structure of thought experiments. Therefore, we now have a means to begin to analyze the central mechanism of thought experimentation. My inquiry suggests what such an analysis would look like. (shrink)

It is known that in an infinite very weakly cancellative semigroup with size $\kappa $, any central set can be partitioned into $\kappa $ central sets. Furthermore, if $\kappa $ contains $\lambda $ almost disjoint sets, then any central set contains $\lambda $ almost disjoint central sets. Similar results hold for thick sets, very thick sets and piecewise syndetic sets. In this article, we investigate three other notions of largeness: quasi-central sets, C-sets, and J-sets. We obtain that the statement applies (...) for quasi-central sets. If the semigroup is commutative, then the statement holds for C-sets. Moreover, if $\kappa ^\omega = \kappa $, then the statement holds for J-sets. (shrink)

Coping with uncertainty is a necessary part of ordinary life and is crucial to an understanding of how the mind works. For example, it is a vital element in developing artificial intelligence that will not be undermined by its own rigidities. There have been many approaches to the problem of uncertain inference, ranging from probability to inductive logic to nonmonotonic logic. Thisbook seeks to provide a clear exposition of these approaches within a unified framework. The principal market for the book (...) will be students and professionals in philosophy, computer science, and AI. Among the special features of the book are a chapter on evidential probability, which has not received a basic exposition before; chapters on nonmonotonic reasoning and theory replacement, matters rarely addressed in standard philosophical texts; and chapters on Mill's methods and statistical inference that cover material sorely lacking in the usual treatments of AI and computer science. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Cognitive penetrability refers to the possibility that perceptual experiences are influenced by our beliefs, expectations, emotions, or other personal-level mental states. In this paper, I focus on the epistemological implication of cognitive penetration, and examine how, exactly, aetiologies matter to the justificatory power of perceptual experiences. I examine a prominent theory, according to which some cognitively penetrated perceptual experiences are like conclusions of bad inferences. Whereas one version of this theory is psychologically implausible, the other version has sceptical consequences. (...) In the second half of the paper, I suggest an alternative theory, drawing on recent empirical research on imagining-perception interaction and the epistemology of imagining. (shrink)

Based on the 2017 China General Social Survey data, with 5,439 observations as research objects, this paper empirically tests the impact of flexible employment on workers’ wellbeing and introduces labor income as mediator and social security as moderator to explore the mechanism of action. The empirical results show that: flexible employment has an inverted U-shaped relationship with workers’ wellbeing, which indicates that increasing employments’ flexibility will first rise and then reduce their perceived subjective wellbeing after reaching the peak; labor income (...) plays a mediating role in the relationship of flexible employment and wellbeing of workers; social security moderates the mediating effect of labor income whereas the moderating role in the relationship between flexible employment and workers’ wellbeing is not observed. Implications and future development of flexible employment are discussed. (shrink)

We tend to think that perceptual experiences tell us about what the external world is like without being influenced by our own mind. But recent psychological and philosophical research indicates that this might not be true. Our beliefs, expectations, knowledge, and other personal-level mental states might influence what we experience. This kind of psychological phenomena is now called “cognitive penetration.” The research of cognitive penetration not only has important consequences for psychology and the philosophy of mind, but also has interesting (...) epistemological implications. According to the Downgrade Thesis, some cognitively penetrated perceptual experiences give their subjects less justification for believing their penetrated contents than perceptual experiences that are unpenetrated to represent those contents would usually give. In this paper, I propose an innovative argument for the Downgrade Thesis. First, I develop a positive account of how some cognitive penetration works, according to which cognitive states influence perceptual experiences by triggering some imaginings. Second, I argue that imaginings do not give their subjects justification for believing their contents. I apply this epistemology of imagining to cognitive penetration, and argue that because of the role that imaginings play, some cognitively penetrated experiences also give their subjects less justification for believing their penetrated contents. (shrink)

Immanuel Kant probably counts as one of the most important European philosophers. In advance of his 300th birthday in 2024, in the context of the Kant Decade (since 2014), many activities have shed new light on several aspects of his work, but the importance of Kant's basis, Konigsberg, both town and Albertus university, has been widely neglected. This was the reason why the Historische Kommission fur ost- und westpreussische Landesforschung, the Ostpreussisches Landesmuseum, the Institut fur Kultur und Geschichte der Deutschen (...) in Nordosteuropa and the Civic Museum in Luneburg organized an interdisciplinary conference in Luneburg in 2021 which is documented in the present volume. The articles discuss the importance of Kant for the theory of humaneness, his early years, the developments at the university of Konigsberg in the second half of the 18th century, as well as the later reception of Kant. (shrink)

This study is based on the situation of Taiwan listed companies as derivative financial products from 2015 to 2017, analyzing the relationship between the hedging of derivative financial products and characteristics of enterprises and the factors that affect the hedging decision-making of companies. It is found that even after the announcement of Taiwan’s No. 34 and No. 36 bulletins, there are still some problems that are needed to improve in the disclosure of derivative financial product investment information by Taiwan’s listed (...) companies, at least in the disclosure of the reasons for this conduct which is still insufficient. In this study, two-stage regression analysis method is applied to empirical analysis, and it is found that hedging activities are related to corporate characteristics, such as expected financial crisis costs, corporate size, equity issues, growth investment opportunities, and information asymmetry. In the investment of derivative financial products, enterprises should evaluate their own financial characteristics as a reference for the risk avoidance decision. At the same time, it is necessary to investigate different natures of hedging tools used in appropriate risk categories, so as to fully achieve the hedging effect and maximize the hedging benefits. This study also found that companies with higher growth investment opportunities, larger size, and higher financial crisis costs will tend to use derivative financial products for hedging. As for the impact of other industries, it is found that the electronic and electrical machinery industries are more active than other industries in hedging behaviors of undertaking derivative financial products’ transaction. (shrink)

"Neue Potentiale einer erweiterten technischen Verfügungsgewalt machen das Mißverhältnis zwischen Ergebnissen angespanntester Rationalität und unreflektierten Zielen, erstarrten Wertsystemen, hinfälligen Ideologien offenbar." Die Ursachen und Folgen dieses Mißverhältnisses (und die Möglichkeiten seiner Aufhebung durch Reflexion) sind das Thema der vorliegenden Aufsätze von Jürgen Habermas; er untersucht, auf welche Weise die Gewalt technischer Verfügung in den "Konsensus handelnder und verhandelnder Bürger zurückgeholt werden kann", wie Technik, Wissenschaft und Demokratie unter den Bedingungen der fortgeschrittenen Industriegesellschaft zu vermitteln seien.

In the encounter between the Western and Eastern Cultures in the 20th century, the Chinese Buddhist classic Blue Cliff Record (Biyanlu 《碧巖錄》) was widely translated in Europe, especially in Germany. In the first part, this paper introduces the various German translations as well as their translators’ evaluations and discussions of the book and Chan Buddhism. In the second part, this paper argues that Blue Cliff Record represents a dynamic ontology by interpreting the Highest Meaning. In the third part, this paper (...) will present the self-understanding and freedom addressed in Blue Cliff Record. The paper shows that Chan Buddhism is characterized by its non-duality between convention and holiness and by the self-realization in this world. (shrink)