This paper affords a Lotmanian cultural semiotic analysis of the inner workings of ritual embodying the mechanism of cultural memory. In this intersectional study, we propose treating ritual as an integral semiotic system in which the community follows a prescribed collective process to create religious or social meanings and to regulate the mechanism of cultural memory through concrete symbols in the forms of behavior, speech, gestures, objects, spatial structures, and so on. Three semiotic properties of ritual in relation to cultural (...) memory are identified, namely, continuity, concreteness, and integrity, which are jointly responsible for the efficacy of ritual in cultural memory making, or to be specific, in the preservation, retrieval, and even reproduction of cultural memory. With these properties, ritual helps construct and maintain socio-cultural order and group identity in the community, by repeating itself and thus creating a sense of continuity through the preservation and retrieval of cultural memory. The key components in ritual are its diverse and polysemous symbols, which are seldom confined to a specific context, although they are indeed subject to the dominant symbol and the dominant meaning in a ritual when necessary. With an extraordinary degree of autonomy and not bound to any fixed context, ritual symbols can enter a ritual situation as its components but retain the freedom of leaving the ritual context at any time, like an unchained “spectator,” and permeating multiple contexts as self-contained units. It is precisely through these transferrable ritual symbols that the fragments of cultural memory are randomly dispersed in the semiosphere and carried to unexpected socio-cultural contexts, bridging the past, the present, and the future and creating new cultural memory. (shrink)

Corruption involves greed, money, and risky decision-making. We explore the love of money, pay satisfaction, probability of risk, and dishonesty across cultures. Avaricious monetary aspiration breeds unethicality. Prospect theory frames decisions in the gains-losses domain and high-low probability. Pay dissatisfaction (in the losses domain) incites dishonesty in the name of justice at the individual level. The Corruption Perceptions Index, CPI, signals a high-low probability of getting caught for dishonesty at the country level. We theorize that decision-makers adopt avaricious love-of-money aspiration (...) as a lens and frame dishonesty in the gains-losses domain (pay satisfaction-dissatisfaction, Level 1) and high-low probability (CPI, Level 2) to maximize expected utility and ultimate serenity. We challenge the myth: Pay satisfaction mitigates dishonesty across nations consistently. Based on 6500 managers in 32 countries, our cross-level three-dimensional visualization offers the following discoveries. Under high aspiration conditions, pay dissatisfaction excites the highest- (third-highest) avaricious justice-seeking dishonesty in high (medium) CPI nations, supporting the certainty effect. However, pay satisfaction provokes the second-highest avaricious opportunity-seizing dishonesty in low CPI entities, sustaining the possibility effect—maximizing expected utility. Under low aspiration conditions, high pay satisfaction consistently leads to low dishonesty, demonstrating risk aversion—achieving ultimate serenity. We expand prospect theory from a micro and individual-level theory to a cross-level theory of monetary wisdom across 32 nations. We enhance the S-shaped Curve to three 3-D corruption surfaces across three levels of the global economic pyramid, providing novel insights into behavioral economics, business ethics, the environment, and responsibility. (shrink)

Monetary intelligence theory asserts that individuals apply their money attitude to frame critical concerns in the context and strategically select certain options to achieve financial goals and ultimate happiness. This study explores the dark side of monetary Intelligence and behavioral economics—dishonesty. Dishonesty, a risky prospect, involves cost–benefit analysis of self-interest. We frame good or bad barrels in the environmental context as a proxy of high or low probability of getting caught for dishonesty, respectively. We theorize: The magnitude and intensity of (...) the relationship between love of money and dishonest prospect may reveal how individuals frame dishonesty in the context of two levels of subjective norm—perceived corporate ethical values at the micro-level and Corruption Perceptions Index at the macro-level, collected from multiple sources. Based on 6382 managers in 31 geopolitical entities across six continents, our cross-level three-way interaction effect illustrates: As expected, managers in good barrels, mixed barrels, and bad barrels display low, medium, and high magnitude of dishonesty, respectively. With high CEV, the intensity is the same across cultures. With low CEV, the intensity of dishonesty is the highest in high CPI entities —the Enron Effect, but the lowest in low CPI entities. CPI has a strong impact on the magnitude of dishonesty, whereas CEV has a strong impact on the intensity of dishonesty. We demonstrate dishonesty in light of monetary values and two frames of social norm, revealing critical implications to the field of behavioral economics and business ethics. (shrink)

Monetary Intelligence theory asserts that individuals apply their money attitude to frame critical concerns in the context and strategically select certain options to achieve financial goals and ultimate happiness. This study explores the bright side of Monetary Intelligence and behavioral economics, frames money attitude in the context of pay and life satisfaction, and controls money at the macro-level and micro-level. We theorize: Managers with low love of money motive but high stewardship behavior will have high subjective well-being: pay satisfaction and (...) quality of life. Data collected from 6586 managers in 32 cultures across six continents support our theory. Interestingly, GDP per capita is related to life satisfaction, but not to pay satisfaction. Individual income is related to both life and pay satisfaction. Neither GDP nor income is related to Happiness. Our theoretical model across three GDP groups offers new discoveries: In high GDP entities, “high income” not only reduces aspirations—“Rich, Motivator, and Power,” but also promotes stewardship behavior—“Budget, Give/Donate, and Contribute” and appreciation of “Achievement.” After controlling income, we demonstrate the bright side of Monetary Intelligence: Low love of money motive but high stewardship behavior define Monetary Intelligence. “Good apples enjoy good quality of life in good barrels.” This notion adds another explanation to managers’ low magnitude of dishonesty in entities with high Corruption Perceptions Index. In low GDP entities, high income is related to poor Budgeting skills and escalated Happiness. These managers experience equal satisfaction with pay and life. We add a new vocabulary to the conversation of monetary intelligence, income, GDP, happiness, subjective well-being, good and bad apples and barrels, corruption, and behavioral ethics. (shrink)

This co-edited volume compares Chinese and Western experiences of engineering, technology, and development. In doing so, it builds a bridge between the East and West and advances a dialogue in the philosophy of engineering. Divided into three parts, the book starts with studies on epistemological and ontological issues, with a special focus on engineering design, creativity, management, feasibility, and sustainability. Part II considers relationships between the history and philosophy of engineering, and includes a general argument for the necessity of dialogue (...) between history and philosophy. It continues with a general introduction to traditional Chinese attitudes toward engineering and technology, and philosophical case studies of the Chinese steel industry, railroads, and cybernetics in the Soviet Union. Part III focuses on engineering, ethics, and society, with chapters on engineering education and practice in China and the West. The book’s analyses of the interactions of science, engineering, ethics, politics, and policy in different societal contexts are of special interest. The volume as a whole marks a new stage in the emergence of the philosophy of engineering as a new regionalization of philosophy. This carefully edited interdisciplinary volume grew out of an international conference on the philosophy of engineering hosted by the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. It includes 30 contributions by leading philosophers, social scientists, and engineers from Australia, China, Europe, and the United States. (shrink)

The interocular suppression technique termed continuous flash suppression (CFS) has become an immensely popular tool for investigating visual processing outside of awareness. The emerging picture from studies using CFS is that extensive processing of a visual stimulus, including its semantic and affective content, occurs despite suppression from awareness of that stimulus by CFS. However, the current implementation of CFS in many studies examining processing outside of awareness has several drawbacks that may be improved upon for future studies using CFS. In (...) this paper, we address some of those shortcomings, particularly ones that affect the assessment of unawareness during CFS, and ones to do with the use of ‘visible’ conditions that are often included as a comparison to a CFS condition. We also discuss potential biases in stimulus processing as a result of spatial attention and feature-selective suppression. We suggest practical guidelines that minimize the effects of those limitations in using CFS to study visual processing outside of awareness. (shrink)

It remains controversial whether touch is a truly spatial sense or not. Many philosophers suggest that, if touch is indeed spatial, it is only through its alliances with exploratory movement, and with proprioception. Here we develop the notion that a minimal yet important form of spatial perception may occur in purely passive touch. We do this by showing that the array of tactile receptive fields in the skin, and appropriately relayed to the cortex, may contain the same basic informational building (...) blocks that a creature navigating around its environment uses to build up a perception of space. We illustrate this point with preliminary evidence that perception of spatiotemporal patterns on the human skin shows some of the same features as spatial navigation in animals. We argue (a) that the receptor array defines a ‘tactile field’, (b) that this field exists in a minimal form in ‘skin space’, logically prior to any transformation into bodily or external spatial coordinates, and (c) that this field supports tactile perception without integration of concurrent proprioceptive or motor information. The basic cognitive elements of space perception may begin at lower levels of neural and perceptual organisation than previously thought. (shrink)

The present expression of radiation of an accelerated point charge is only approximately valid. The exact expression of radiation of an accelerated point charge is derived based on special relativity, and using the Larmor formulation for the radiation of an charged particle being accelerated, but instantaneously at rest. The totaled radiation power obtained by the exact expression is the same as Liénard’s generalization of the Larmor formula.

We investigate whether female board representation and firms’ financial performance are related and whether the relationship differs for firms located in more prejudicial environments. As a proxy for prejudicial environment, we use two geographical indicators: whether a firm is headquartered in a conservative “red” state or in a liberal “blue” state and whether the firm is located in regions where residents possess more stereotypical attitudes about gender equality. We find that both financial performance and female board representation are lower for (...) firms headquartered in red states when compared to those in blue states, and we find similar results for firms located in regions where residents hold more gender-stereotypical views. However, financial performance improves when female directors are present regardless of the firm’s location. Evidence also shows that the incremental improvement in performance measured by Tobin’s q is greater in red-state than in blue-state companies and in regions where residents hold more gender-stereotypical views. The overall results imply that gender stereotyping holds back financial performance and that female directors help improve financial performance. (shrink)

The aim of this study is to examine the current profile of bioethics education in the nursing curriculum as perceived by nursing students and faculty in Korea. A convenience sampling method was used for recruiting 1223 undergraduate nursing students and 140 nursing faculty in Korea. Experience of Bioethics Education, Quality of Bioethics Education, and Demand for Bioethics Education Scales were developed. The Experience of Bioethics Education Scale showed that the nursing curriculum in Korea does not provide adequate bioethics education. The (...) Quality of Bioethics Education Scale revealed that the topics of human nature and human rights were relatively well taught compared to other topics. The Demand for Bioethics Education Scale determined that the majority of the participants believed that bioethics education should be a major requirement in the nursing curriculum. The findings of this study suggest that bioethics should be systemically incorporated into nursing courses, clinical practice during the program, and during continuing education. (shrink)

The role of nursing faculty members in charge of ethics education is important. Although all nursing students receive the same bioethics education, their experiences differ, related to ethical qualification, which depends on the personal socialization process. This Korean study aimed to provide nursing faculty members with the basic data to help them develop as bioethics experts and provide nursing students with knowledge to improve their ethical decision-making abilities. We used a survey design to assess recognition of bioethical issues and ethical (...) qualification in nursing students and faculty members. A total of 1225 undergraduate students and 140 faculty members participated in this study. The results revealed that nursing students and nursing faculty members generally understood the seriousness of various bioethical issues and both considered the most serious issue to concern abortion. Ethical behavior can be improved by education, and accordingly, nursing ethics should be a mandatory subject, rather than an elective one. (shrink)

This essay explores numerous and complicated naturalized epistemology against the background of pragmatism. We distinguish three programmes of naturalized epistemology: strong, moderate, and weak. By considering commitments of pragmatism on which different programmes depend, we point out the close-knit relationship between pragmatism and naturalized epistemology. We also illustrate the essential origin of today's controversy over naturalized epistemology and predict the uptrend of naturalized epistemology.

¿This splendid volume is a fitting tribute to the remarkable range of rich and revealing contributions Professor Cheng Chung-ying has made to our understanding of Chinese and comparative philosophy and constructive philosophy from a global perspective.¿ ¿Philip J. Ivanhoe, City University of Hong Kong.

Many studies have discussed the neural basis of asset bubbles. They found that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) played an important role in bubble formation, but whether a causal relationship exists and the mechanism of the effect of the DLPFC on bubbles remains unsettled. Using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), we modulated the activity of the DLPFC and investigated the causal relationship between the DLPFC and the asset bubble in the classical learning-to-forecast experiment. 126 subjects were randomly divided into three (...) groups and received different stimulations (left anodal/right cathodal, right anodal/left cathodal or sham stimulation) respectively. We also conducted a 2-back task before and after stimulation to measure changes in subjects’ cognitive abilities and explore in detail the cognitive mechanism of the effect of DLPFC stimulation on asset bubbles. Based on our results, we found that the bubble of the left anodal/right cathodal stimulation group was significantly smaller than that of the sham stimulation group. In the meantime, subjects performed significantly better in the 2-back task after left anodal/right cathodal stimulation but not right anodal/left cathodal or sham stimulation, which is consistent with their performance in the learning-to-forecast experiment, supporting the cognitive mechanism to some extent. Furthermore, we examined different forecasting rules across individuals and discovered that the left anodal/right cathodal stimulation group preferred the adaptive learning rule, while the sham and right anodal/left cathodal stimulation groups adopted a pure trend-following rule that tended to intensify market volatility aggressively. (shrink)

This study provides an in-depth examination of the relationship between environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance and the idiosyncratic volatility of Korean companies. In line with the risk-mitigation view, the study finds that strong ESG performance is associated with a reduction in a firm's idiosyncratic volatility. The impact of ESG performance on reducing firm volatility was particularly evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the role of ESG performance in risk mitigation during crisis periods. The study also shows that companies with (...) strong ESG performance in industries that are highly sensitive to ESG factors are particularly adept at reducing idiosyncratic volatility. These findings underscore the importance of ESG enhancement for both firm managers and policymakers, particularly within ESG-sensitive industries. (shrink)

We propose a two-step guessing game to measure the depth of thinking. We apply this method to the P beauty contest game. Using our method, we find that 81% of subjects do not make choice following best response reasoning while the classical method would suggest only 12%. The result suggests that the classical method has the fundamental problem that it cannot distinguish if a submitted number is due to best response reasoning or not. It also suggests that traditional level k (...) analysis falsely attributes some sophistication to random players, and that the degree of false attribution is large. Our procedure provides an alternative way to identify whether the individual has best response reasoning which is essential for any positive level of depth of thinking and differentiates between the depth of thinking and random choice, and hence provides a very different conclusion, which is suggestive of limitations of the classical method. (shrink)

The phase space realizations of quantum groups are discussed using *-products. We show that on phase space, quantum groups appear necessarily as two-parameter deformation structures, one parameter (v) being concerned with the quantization in phase space, the other (η) expressing the quantum groups as “deformation” of their Lie counterparts. Introducing a strong invariance condition, we show the uniqueness of the η-deformation. This suggests that the strong invariance condition is a possible origin of the quantum groups.

The purpose is to solve the problem of college students’ employment difficulties. It is the development trend of the times to master the basic psychological pressure state of students and analyze students’ problems by using modern technology and science. First, based on Marxist theory, the theory of entrepreneurship education and the characteristics of teachers and students in colleges are expounded, and the principle and algorithms of Backpropagation Neural Network are introduced. Second, from the perspective of entrepreneurship education and mental health (...) factors of college students, the sample set of the BPNN model is collected using a Questionnaire Survey. Then, the sample set is normalized to analyze the current college entrepreneurship education and the health and stress of college students. The results show that the comprehensive BPNN output of entrepreneurship education is 0.726, indicating that entrepreneurship education in colleges is at a moderate level. The proposed BPNN model can perform better than the traditional prediction methods in predicting college students’ mental health, and the data fitting results are satisfactory. Overall, college students’ entrepreneurship education should be improved, and schools should take more incentives to help adjust college students’ mentality. (shrink)

The purpose of this study was to apply deep learning to music perception education. Music perception therapy for autistic children using gesture interactive robots based on the concept of educational psychology and deep learning technology is proposed. First, the experimental problems are defined and explained based on the relevant theories of pedagogy. Next, gesture interactive robots and music perception education classrooms are studied based on recurrent neural networks. Then, autistic children are treated by music perception, and an electroencephalogram is used (...) to collect the music perception effect and disease diagnosis results of children. Due to significant advantages of signal feature extraction and classification, RNN is used to analyze the EEG of autistic children receiving different music perception treatments to improve classification accuracy. The experimental results are as follows. The analysis of EEG signals proves that different people have different perceptions of music, but this difference fluctuates in a certain range. The classification accuracy of the designed model is about 72–94%, and the average classification accuracy is about 85%. The average accuracy of the model for EEG classification of autistic children is 85%, and that of healthy children is 84%. The test results with similar models also prove the excellent performance of the design model. This exploration provides a reference for applying the artificial intelligence technology in music perception education to diagnose and treat autistic children. (shrink)