Artificial Intelligence -powered products have started to permeate various spheres of our lives. One of the most controversial of such products is the sex robot, an application of the AI-integrated robotic technology in the domain of human sexual gratification. The aim of this research is to understand the general public’s receptiveness towards this controversial new invention. Drawing upon the social intuitionist model, we find that the fear of AI, emblematic of the broader anxiety of technology’s encroachment on the human sphere, (...) shapes the public’s receptiveness to sex robots. Perceived substitutability of sex robots for human-to-human sexual interactions mediates this relationship. Religiosity is found to moderate this mediated relationship. Our findings are first established with a cross-sectional study. A “big data” field study further validates them. The present research is one of the first empirical studies to examine the underlying psychology of the public’s receptiveness to sex robots. By doing so, we aim to provide relevant government and industry bodies with a better understanding of this important topic for more informed policy making, and to raise awareness of the significant social and ethical implications should sex robots become widely accepted and adopted. (shrink)

Offers the first focused study of the shifei debates of the Warring States period in ancient China and challenges the imposition of Western conceptual categories onto these debates. In recent decades, a growing concern in studies in Chinese intellectual history is that Chinese classics have been forced into systems of classification prevalent in Western philosophy and thus imperceptibly transformed into examples that echo Western philosophy. Lin Ma and Jaap van Brakel offer a methodology to counter this approach, and illustrate their (...) method by carrying out a transcultural inquiry into the complexities involved in understanding shi and fei and their cognate phrases in the Warring States texts, the Zhuangzi in particular. The authors discuss important features of Zhuangzi’s stance with regard to language-meaning, knowledge-doubt, questioning, equalizing, and his well-known deconstruction of the discourse in ancient China on shifei. Ma and van Brakel suggest that shi and fei apply to both descriptive and prescriptive languages and do not presuppose any fact/value dichotomy, and thus cannot be translated as either true/false or right/wrong. Instead, shi and feican be grasped in terms of a pre-philosophical notion of fitting. Ma and van Brakel also highlight Zhuangzi’s idea of “walking-two-roads” as the most significant component of his stance. In addition, they argue that all of Zhuangzi’s positive recommendations are presented in a language whose meaning is not fixed and that every stance he is committed to remains subject to fundamental questioning as a way of life. (shrink)

This book traces a most obscure and yet most intriguing theme concealed in Heidegger’s thinking and work, which has hitherto not yet been made the focus of a thorough and sustained investigation: that is, the emergence and course of Heidegger’s interest in East Asian thought and of his reflection on East-West dialogue. Lin Ma covers such complex issues as Heidegger’s thoughts on language, Being, technology, the other beginning, and the journey abroad, with a view to their implications for East-West dialogue. (...) It reveals the significance of his remarks on the early Greek’s confrontation with the Asiatic, and presents contextualized interpretations of his fleeting references to the topic of East-West dialogue and of his encounter with the Daodejing. Finally, it delves into "A dialogue on language" and exposes the strains and tensions that accompany Heidegger’s extension of dialogue and the Same, the two notions central to his thought, to the question of East-West dialogue. In the end, Lin Ma concludes that Heidegger’s fundamental concerns and philosophical orientations as articulated in terms of the history of Being and the other beginning have restricted him from engaging more seriously with the irresolvable and yet enduring issue of East-West dialogue. (shrink)

A deterministic weakening \ of the Belnap–Dunn four-valued logic \ is introduced to formalize the acceptance and rejection of a proposition at a state in a linearly ordered informational frame with persistent valuations. The logic \ is formalized as a sequent calculus. The completeness and decidability of \ with respect to relational semantics are shown in terms of normal forms. From an algebraic perspective, the class of all algebras for \ is described, and found to be a subvariety of Berman’s (...) variety \. Every linearly ordered frame is logically equivalent to its dual algebra. It is proved that \ is the logic of a nine-element distributive lattice with a negation. Moreover, \ is embedded into \ by Glivenko’s double-negation translation. (shrink)

In this paper I have two main aims. My first aim is to introduce the notion of bounded emotionality. This notion is the analogue of that of bounded rationality in behavioural economics. Bounded rationality says, roughly, that human beings are cognitively limited with respect to their processing and memory capacities. Bounded emotionality says that we are limited in our emotional capabilities, notably in the intensity, duration, and possible combinations of our emotional states. Bounded rationality is a foundational notion in behavioural (...) economics and has played an important role in various fields of philosophy as well. In particular, in epistemology bounded rationality has been thought to have implications with respect to our doxastic norms. My second aim in this paper is to suggest that bounded emotionality also has an important role to play in philosophy. As a case in point, I discuss the implications that bounded emotionality has for our doxastic norms. In particular, I argue that one is not obligated to believe something or to stop holding a belief if one could not believe/fail to believe it without having an emotional response that exceeds one's bounded emotional capacities. (shrink)

To systematically understand and study Herbart's educational reform, and at the same time scientifically and reasonably design the intervention strategy of educational practice, are two core issues facing the current educational reform and development. The purpose of this study is to clarify Herbart's educational thought, overcome the deviation and error in understanding it, and provide theoretical guidance and support for educational practice. From the perspectives of history, sociology and pedagogy, the paper explores the historical background of educational practice and its (...) theoretical development, and combines three stages of the formation and evolution of educational social experiments from the perspective of epistemology. Firstly, the theory of children's morality is regarded as the interactive bridge between practical philosophy and moral education practice. Secondly, the dynamic relationship between philosophy of knowledge and practice of intellectual education is explored through empirical theory. Finally, the paper analyzes the interaction between aesthetic philosophy and aesthetic education practice based on children's interests. The study of the dynamic construction process of Herbart pedagogy is conducive to clarifying Herbart's educational thought and provide a new perspective to the current generation. Due to the complexity and diversity of educational practice, research may have certain limitations and challenges in applying Herbart's theory to specific educational practice. Future research needs to strengthen the exploration of educational practices, especially in the era of intelligence, to adapt to changing educational needs and technological advances. (shrink)

In this article, I address the intricacies of Heidegger's existential notion of Mitsein, and expound a different way of understanding the relevant issue in light of a reinterpretation of Zhuangzi's fish story. I show that Heidegger's account of Mitsein is ultimately situated within the limit of Dasein's structural components. What is more problematic is his conception of the connection between Dasein and others as disengaged. Then I explicate a Zhuangzian idea of what I call Mitzutun, literally meaning doing something with. (...) I argue that the “with” of the Zhuangzian Mitzutun is lived out by human beings and non-human beings in the variegated forms of life. (shrink)

It was meaningful to predict the customers' decision-making behavior in the field of market. However, due to individual differences and complex, non-linear natures of the electroencephalogram signals, it was hard to classify the EEG signals and to predict customers' decisions by using traditional classification methods. To solve the aforementioned problems, a recurrent t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding neural network was proposed in current study to classify the EEG signals in the designed brand extension paradigm and to predict the participants' decisions. The (...) recurrent t-SNE neural network contained two steps. In the first step, t-SNE algorithm was performed to extract features from EEG signals. Second, a recurrent neural network with long short-term memory layer, fully connected layer, and SoftMax layer was established to train the features, classify the EEG signals, as well as predict the cognitive performance. The proposed network could give a good prediction with accuracy around 87%. Its superior in prediction accuracy as compared to a recurrent principal component analysis network, a recurrent independent component correlation algorithm [independent component analysis ] network, a t-SNE support vector machine network, a t-SNE back propagation neural network, a deep LSTM neural network, and a convolutional neural network were also demonstrated. Moreover, the performance of the proposed network with different activated channels were also investigated and compared. The results showed that the proposed network could make a relatively good prediction with only 16 channels. The proposed network would become a potentially useful tool to help a company in making marketing decisions and to help uncover the neural mechanisms behind individuals' decision-making behavior with low cost and high efficiency. (shrink)

With the advancement of human microbiome research, it is inevitable that a growing number of biobanks will include a collection of microbiota specimens to characterize the microbial communities that inhabit the human body and explore the relationships between the microbiota and their human hosts. Biobanks of human microbiota and their associated genetic information may become a valuable health resource. But, this area of research also presents ethical and social problems, some of which are distinct from those faced by biobanks that (...) store human tissue samples. This paper examines four core issues which are considered highly relevant to microbiome biobanking: the nature of human microbiome samples and how different understandings have an impact on benefit/risk evaluation, privacy, informed consent, and returning the result to participants. We argue that these issues should be addressed early on in microbiome research projects and also call for adjusting or developing new governance mechanism to better accommodate these changes. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:"Call me Dr. XXX!"Yilu MaDisclaimers. Names have been changed to protect the privacy of those mentioned.Scheduled to interpret for a Mandarin-speaking woman, I entered the examination room and introduced myself to the neurologist and the patient, who was accompanied by her husband, brimming with smiles and sitting on the edge of the chair."How are you, Katie?" the husband greeted the doctor, using his accented English."Call me Doctor XXX!", the (...) physician returned, her eyebrows knotted with gravity. Immediately, the friendly and light-hearted air in the room froze.This occurred many years ago at a small clinic where I usually went to interpret as a per-diem interpreter. It happened so quickly that I was totally unprepared, and honestly, shocked at the way the physician reacted to the husband. I felt bad for the patient who sat next to her husband without saying anything, being quiet throughout the interactions. She suffered from dementia and was so dependent on her husband. I also felt slightly angry at the doctor's insensitive response to a mere friendly gesture, though seemingly improper, given the conventional power dynamics between the patient and the physician and the way doctors are esteemed in the American medical culture. But the doctor could have reacted to this perceived slight and disrespect with a mere laugh or simply pretended not to have heard it.Even more distinct was the fact the doctor showed her irritation in front of a third party—me, the medical interpreter. I felt she almost directed that to me and right in my face, and yet I felt powerless, helpless, and even embarrassed. I wondered if the doctor would do the same in front of her other colleagues—physicians and nurses. She might have been more diplomatic. Was her rebuke an impulsive reaction or a deliberate projection of her power, putting the husband back into his place? Should I intervene to ameliorate the impact and explain it? What if the doctor became angry with me if I ventured, and would it worsen things despite my good intentions? All these questions were stirring around in my head. Eventually, I decided to mind my own business and stayed in my role. But this episode of her open reprimand and implicit power projection stuck in my mind then and many years after.Over the years, I moved up from a medical interpreter to the Director of the Interpreter Services Department of a major teaching hospital in Boston and worked deliberately to elevate the status of [End Page 151] medical interpreters by educating clinicians about who we are, what we do, what qualifications and trainings we have and the unique roles we play in cross-cultural communication and care delivery. We demythologized medical interpreters' traditionally reductive role of mouthpiece and advocated their full-fledged member role on the care team. Through our regular conversations and dialogues (instead of top-down teaching sessions by clinicians), medical interpreters partner and team up with physicians, nurses, social workers, chaplains, ethicists, residents, and fellows. We learn from one another to foster a culture of collaboration and mutual respect, gradually bringing about a transformation of power dynamics; medical interpreters are valued for their unique roles of language conduit, clarifier, cultural broker and patient advocate. Interpreters now are empowered to ask questions, seek clarification, and advise on care approaches before, during, and after medical encounters with confidence and teamwork spirit.One of the tangible changes that we collectively implemented is that for each patient appointment, we will allocate time for a short meeting between the interpreter and the provider in what we call a "pre-huddle"; the purpose of the quick meeting is for the provider to brief the interpreter about the patient's medical condition and the goal of treatment. The provider will use the opportunity to solicit any input from the interpreter around language and cultural challenges.The interpreter, possibly having worked with the patient before, will provide some background and context if proper and necessary. This simple process change has boosted the interpreter's morale and engagement. Both parties feel comfortable and familiar with each other's roles and moves. By working in such an environment of... (shrink)

The income gap in Chinese society has increased significantly in recent years. This disparity can be confirmed by the critical level of China’s current Gini coefficient. In response, que­stions concerning social stratification and mobility in China, and how to improve China’s income distribution have become key discussions among Chinese sociologists.The income gap, a result of economic development, can be examined via discussions of income disparity between different regions, occupational groups and ethnic groups. Previous analyses based on official government and academic (...) statistical data have tended to focus primarily on regional and occupational differences in relation to income disparity. However, the income gap exhibited between different ethnic groups is in effect directly linked to inconsistencies in income acquisition and employment opportunities. Furthermore, this link is intimately related to China’s national policies in ethnic affairs. (shrink)

This study of internal auditors and auditees, who engage in both financial and operational internal audits in Israel, extends theory and research on internal audits in organizational units. It develops and tests a model that examines the role of top management and internal auditors in facilitating learning from internal audits and driving perceived performance improvement. We argue that support from the top management for the internal audit as well as the auditor’s capacity facilitate learning from audits and help audited units (...) to improve ethicality, efficiency, and effectiveness in organizations. The results of time-lagged survey data provide general support for the hypothesized indirect relationships between auditor capacity, auditor–auditee relational exchanges, learning from audits, and three different perceived performance measures: ethical behavior, efficiency, and effectiveness. We discuss the implications for research on internal audits, proactive learning, ethics, and performance improvement of organizational units in the public sector. (shrink)

Why should interpretation of conceptual schemes and practices across traditions work at all? In this paper we present the following necessary conditions of possibility for interpretation in comparative and Chinese philosophy: the interpreter must presuppose that there are mutually recognizable human practices; the interpreter must presuppose that “the other” is, on the whole, sincere, consistent, and right; the interpreter must be committed to certain epistemic virtues. Some of these necessary conditions are consistent with the fact that interpretation is not thwarted (...) by the “danger” of relativism or of incommensurability. Some other conditions are suggestive of reorientations of methodologies of comparative and Chinese philosophy. (shrink)

Study of Advaitabrahmasiddhi, work on Advaita by Sadānandayati, 17th cent.

Only the pratīkas of Śrutaprakāśikā are given.

Communication and interaction today happen in simply one mouse click away. Language and self-expression do not only develop as a recognized tool for oneself but is an avenue for others’ re-expression and identification. Through using Twitter, the elaboration of social interaction becomes easier and accessible. It becomes the primary method of doing things together and establishes a shared meaning that becomes the common ground of understanding by individuals and groups alike. The study aims to analyze the tweets of Kris Aquino, (...) known as the Philippines’ Queen of Multimedia using speech act categories of Searle and predict the meaning based on the speech acts committed. The study used content analysis for it represents systematic and objective means of describing and quantifying phenomena. The results showed that most tweets contained the ‘assertive’ label which refers to ‘those kinds of speech acts that state what the speaker believes to be the case or not’. Further, her influence as a public figure contributed to the forceful implication of realizing the speech act reflected by her readers. Since impression is reality and intention cannot be quantified, what the general audience perceives on a certain person serves to be the truth. Thus, misinterpretation develops due to poor judgment on the elucidation in the tweets of the posters, readers and vice-versa. Keywords - Sociolinguistics, speech act theory, Twitter, micro-blogging, SNS, qualitative, content analysis, Philippines. (shrink)

A finitely alternative normal tense logic \ is a normal tense logic characterized by frames in which every point has at most n future alternatives and m past alternatives. The structure of the lattice \\) is described. There are \ logics in \\) without the finite model property, and only one pretabular logic in \\). There are \ logics in \\) which are not finitely axiomatizable. For \, there are \ logics in \\) without the FMP, and infinitely many pretabular (...) extensions of \. (shrink)

Objective: To investigate the relationship between psychological empowerment, psychological capital, job involvement, and the retention intention of kindergarten teachers in mainland China and the internal mechanism of action.Methods: A total of 554 kindergarten teachers were investigated by scales for psychological empowerment, psychological capital, job involvement, and retention intention.Results: Psychological empowerment was positively correlated with psychological capital and job involvement. Psychological capital was positively correlated with job involvement. Psychological empowerment, psychological capital, and job involvement were significantly and positively correlated with retention (...) intention. Psychological empowerment influences kindergarten teachers' retention intention mainly through three indirect effects: the single intermediary effects of psychological capital and job involvement and the chain intermediary effect of psychological capital → job involvement.Conclusion: Psychological empowerment can not only indirectly predict the retention intention of kindergarten teachers through the single intermediary effects of psychological capital and job involvement, but also indirectly predict the retention intention of kindergarten teachers through the chain intermediary effect of psychological capital and job involvement. (shrink)

This paper proposes an adaptive neural network control approach for a direct-current system with full state constraints. To guarantee that state constraints always remain in the asymmetric time-varying constraint regions, the asymmetric time-varying Barrier Lyapunov Function is employed to structure an adaptive NN controller. As we all know that the constant constraint is only a special case of the time-varying constraint, hence, the proposed control method is more general for dealing with constraint problem as compared with the existing works on (...) DC systems. As far as we know, this system is the first studied situations with time-varying constraints. Using Lyapunov analysis, all signals in the closed-loop system are proved to be bounded and the constraints are not violated. In this paper, the effectiveness of the control method is demonstrated by simulation results. (shrink)

本书是山东著名画家马骥先生根据长篇历史小说《孔子传》绘制的一套系列作品, 共计一百幅, 配以精炼的文字, 以一种类似彩色连环画的形式, 展现了孔子曲折, 坎坷的一生. 在全书的 "地脚", 附有《论语》警句, 以便读者了解孔子思想之精髓.

Résumé La migration chinoise s’est accélérée depuis une quinzaine d’années, égrenant des établissements sur tous les continents. Pour tous il s’agit d’une promotion sociale éventuelle, à produire sur un marché du travail parallèle tenu par des compatriotes. Les perspectives d’emploi ont été réduites par la crise. Les migrants chinois se reportent alors sur des marchés précaires ou au contraire sur les marchés internationaux de construction. Nombre d’entre eux se font aussi les commerçants des nouveaux objets chinois fabriqués pour l’export.

本书探讨了西方自由主义普遍主义产生的社会历史根源,考察了它的三种主要论证形式及其某些变种,分析了每种论证形式的认识论根源和误区。.

The paper will revolve around Shulamith Firestone’s claims that women’s biology is the root cause of prejudices against women and at the same time the basis for solutions that seek to end such prejudices. In the rational attack to these claims, it is argued that Firestone does not really debunk the patriarchal view but actually agrees with it. The attack focused on her avowed solution to the women problem that turns out to be defeatist in nature. In the attempt to (...) prevent, if not end discrimination against women, the paper carefully offers possible solutions to consider. (shrink)

本书主要内容为:伦理学的对象、方法与任务,道德的起源与本质,道德的结构、功能和运行机制,道德的历史发展及其规律性,道德原则,道德规范等.