Number is a major object in mathematics. Mathematics is a discipline which studies the properties of a number. The object is expressible by mathematical language, which has been devised more rigorously than natural language. However, the language is not thoroughly free from natural language. Countability of natural number is also originated from natural language. It is necessary to understand how language leads a number into mathematics, its’ main playground.

A history of the construction of number has been in line with the process of recognition about the properties of geometry. Natural number representing countability is exhibited on a straight line and the completeness of real number is also originated from the continuous property of the number line. Complex number on a plane off the number line is established and thereafter, the whole number system is completed. When the process of constructing a number with geometric features is investigated from different (...) perspectives, it provides a new insight into the fundamental principle of number, which leads to a novel methodology in mathematics. (shrink)

Special relativity has changed the fundamental view on space and time since Einstein introduced it in 1905. It substitutes four dimensional spacetime for the absolute space and time of Newtonian mechanics. It is believed that the validities of Lorentz invariants are fully confirmed empirically for the last one hundred years and therefore its status are canonical underlying all physical principles. However, spacetime metric is a geometric approach on nature when we interpret the natural phenomenon. A geometric flaw on this will (...) be exhibited and the alternative is suggested. The reasonable geometric model of space and time is a three dimensional space which is translating along the time direction. This model legitimately represents the true characteristic of nature. (shrink)

Humans interpret others. We are able to anticipate both the actions and intentional states of other agents. We do not do so perfectly, but since we are complex and flexible creatures even limited success needs explanation. For some years now Steve Stich (frequently in collaboration with Shaun Nichols) has been both participant in, and observer of, debates about the foundation of these capacities (Stich and Nichols 1992; Stich and Nichols 1995). As a commentator on this debate, Stich (with Nichols) gave (...) explicit and fair-minded sketches of the cognitive architectures presupposed by the various theories of mindreading. As a participant, Stich has mostly been a defender of the theory-theory, the view that normal human agents have an internally represented theory of other agents and they use that theory in interpreting other agents. The main recent rival to this position, simulationism, claims that agents use their own decision-making mechanisms as a model of those of other agents, and derive their predictions by modelling others in something like the way aeronautical engineers derive predictions from the use of scale models in wind-tunnels. Stich has been sceptical about this alternative, for on his view simulation theory makes mistaken predictions about both the development of interpretive competence and about the pattern of interpretive success and failure. (shrink)

A collection of photographs document the changing landscape of the manmade Salton Sea, from its beginnings formed by broken levees of the Colorado River, its heyday as a desert paradise, its overdevelopment and home to migrating birds, and its current state as an environmental battleground.

To ensure their survival in natural habitats, plants must recognize and respond to a wide variety of insect herbivores. Aphids and other Hemiptera pose a particular challenge, because they cause relatively little direct tissue damage when inserting their slender stylets intercellularly to feed from the phloem sieve elements. Plant responses to this unusual feeding strategy almost certainly include recognition of aphid salivary components and the induction of phloem‐specific defenses. Due to the excellent genetic and genomic resources that are available for (...) Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis), this plant was chosen as a model system to study the metabolic and transcriptional responses to infestation by two aphids, Myzus persicae (green peach aphid, a broad generalist) and Brevicoryne brassicae (cabbage aphid, a crucifer‐feeding specialist). Future research on Arabidopsis–aphid interactions will lead to the identification of aphid‐specific elicitors, components of the defense‐signaling pathway, and additional metabolic responses that are induced by aphid infestation. BioEssays 29:871–883, 2007. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Attention makes a phenomenal difference to visual experience, but the nature of this difference is controversial. There are three possibilities. The first is that the phenomenology of visual attention has deflationary content, which is to say that attention makes a phenomenal difference only by modulating the appearance of an attended object's visible features. Secondly, it has novel content—attention contributes unique representational content to visual experience. Thirdly, it has no content—the phenomenal contribution of attention to visual experience is not representational at (...) all. I argue that problems for deflationary content and no content accounts motivate a novel content account of visual attentional phenomenology. I develop a novel content account which avoids challenges that have hitherto been presumed devastating for such views. The resulting theory vindicates representationalism about visual experience and is poised to do the same for experiences in other perceptual modalities. (shrink)

Stibbard-Hawkes shows that cultures using material symbols might well not leave traces of that practice in the archaeological record. The paper thus poses an important challenge: When is absence of evidence evidence of absence? This commentary uses behavioural ecology to make modest progress on this problem.

The Strong Normative Constitutivity reading of logical laws in Frege argues that although he regards logical laws as purely descriptive, he in fact accepts that they are normatively constitutive of the act of judgement. There are passages in which Frege seems to commit himself to such an idea. However, we can understand what Frege argues in those passages based only on his conception of logical laws as the most general descriptive laws and his objectivism about truth. If my suggested interpretation (...) is correct, there is a reason to think that logical laws are merely descriptive for Frege. Further, my interpretation shows that the central issue between Frege and psychological logicians is the nature of truth. (shrink)

Mengzi 孟子 and Zhuangzi 莊子 lived around the same time in the mid–Warring States period of ancient China. The historical relation between them is unclear. There is no mention of each other in the texts named after them. But some authors have claimed that characterizations of deformed bodies, the heart-mind, and qi 氣 in the Inner Chapters of the Zhuangzi are directly critical of Mengzi. I argue that there is no good reason for this claim. Although their philosophies are conceptually (...) opposed, this does not mean that there is a directly critical relation between them. (shrink)

I dispute the claim that the disclosure of the life-world by phenomenology is an accomplishment of 'permanent' significance. By briefly reviewing the meaning of the "world" and "life-world" in the writings of Husserl, Gurwitsch, Schutz-Luckmann, Ortega, Heidegger, Jonas, Straus, Sartre and Merleau-Ponty, I show that they all treat the world, or rather the affairs which comprise it, as passively present whether viewed as a mental acquisition or as the "Other." But the meaning of the world-as that wherein are met physical (...) demands upon us which must be satisfied if we are to continue living-cannot be considered either as a mental acquisition or as something that is "other" and over against us. A living being as living cannot fail to attend to the agency of the affairs of which the life-world consists, as well as one's own exploring and coping actions. If we are to really speak of life, then we must acknowledge the mutual and reciprocal activities of living beings and world. (shrink)

BackgroundIt is increasingly recognised that the success of artificial intelligence-based clinical decision support (AI/CDS) tools will depend on physician and patient trust, but factors impacting patients’ views on clinical care reliant on AI have been less explored.ObjectiveThis pilot study explores whether, and in what contexts, detail of explanation provided about AI/CDS tools impacts patients’ attitudes toward the tools and their clinical care.MethodsWe designed a Sequential Multiple Assignment Randomized Trial vignette web-based survey. Participants recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk were presented with (...) hypothetical vignettes describing health concerns and were sequentially randomised along three factors: (1) the level of detail of explanation regarding an AI/CDS tool; (2) the AI/CDS result; and (3) the physician’s level of agreement with the AI/CDS result. We compared mean ratings of comfort and confidence by the level of detail of explanation using t-tests. Regression models were fit to confirm conditional effects of detail of explanation.ResultsThe detail of explanation provided regarding the AI/CDS tools was positively related to respondents’ comfort and confidence in the usage of the tools and their perception of the physician’s final decision. The effects of detail of explanation on their perception of the physician’s final decision were different given the AI/CDS result and the physician’s agreement or disagreement with the result.ConclusionsMore information provided by physicians regarding the use of AI/CDS tools may improve patient attitudes toward healthcare involving AI/CDS tools in general and in certain contexts of the AI/CDS result and physician agreement. (shrink)

This study aimed to explore the enabling context of the HIV care continuum as perceived by people living with HIV and healthcare professionals. This qualitative study involved in‐depth individual interviews with eight people living with HIV and group interviews with seven nurses and physicians. These interviews took place between March 5, 2021, and July 13, 2022. Thematic analysis was conducted. The main themes that emerged included “network of support and systems,” “personal gains from the care continuum,” “continuity and practicality of (...) healthcare services,” “presence of significant other(s),” and “social belonging.” These themes were structured within the five levels of the socio‐ecological model (system, individual, organizational, interpersonal, and community levels), and 10 subthemes were identified. With the integration of themes, the enabling context was compared to a “care orbit,” indicating that people diagnosed with HIV start treatment at the system level and continue HIV care at other levels. In addition to primary support at the system level, the enabling context also includes individual commitment to care and regular health habits, hospital services, support from significant others, and community culture. Together, the context helps guide people living with HIV into the “orbit” of the care system. (shrink)

1. Kō to shi no shisōshi -- 2. Kō to shi no shakai kagaku -- 3. Nihon ni okeru kō to shi -- 4. Ō-Bei ni okeru kō to shi -- 5. Kokka to ningen to kōkyōsei -- 6. Keizai kara mita kōshi mondai -- 7. Chūkan shūdan ga hiraku kōkyōsei -- 8. Kagaku gijutsu to kōkyōsei -- 9. chikyū kankyō to kōkyōsei -- 10. 21-seiki kōkyō tetsugaku no chihei -- 14. Rīdāshippu kara kangaeru kōkyōsei.

This Is The Way is a podcast on Chinese philosophy, exploring philosophical themes by reflecting on significant Chinese texts and through interviews with scholars of Chinese thought. We aim to offer discussions that are informative and accessible to a broad audience. -/- Episodes: (1) Detachment, (2) Shame, (3) Oneness, (4) Persuasion, (5) Cultivation and the Autobiography of Confucius, (6) Partiality and Justice, (7) The Butcher, (8) The Golden Rule, (9) Moral Sprouts, (10) Mencius on Moral Development, (11) Nonaction, (12) Play, (...) (13) Family Before State, (14) Women in the Analects, (15) Ritual in the Analects, (16) Zhuangzi on Uselessness, (17) The Mohist State of Nature Argument, (18) Neo-Confucian Metaphysics. (shrink)

Mengzi 孟子 and Zhuangzi 莊子 lived around the same time in the mid–Warring States period of ancient China. The historical relation between them is unclear. There is no mention of each other in the texts named after them. But some authors have claimed that characterizations of deformed bodies, the heart-mind, and _qi_ 氣 in the Inner Chapters of the _Zhuangzi_ are directly critical of Mengzi. I argue that there is no good reason for this claim. Although their philosophies are conceptually (...) opposed, this does not mean that there is a directly critical relation between them. (shrink)

Although some regulatory frameworks for the occupational health and safety of nanotechnology workers have been developed, worker safety and health issues in these laboratory environments have received less attention than many other areas of nanotechnology regulation. In addition, workers in nanotechnology labs are likely to face unknown risks and hazards because few of the guidelines and rules for worker safety are mandatory. In this article, we provide an overview of the current health and safety guidelines for nanotechnology laboratory workers by (...) exploring guidelines from different organizations, including the Department of Energy Nanoscale Science Research Centers, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Texas A&M University, and University of Massachusetts-Lowell. After discussing these current guidelines, we apply an ethical framework to each set of guidelines to explore any gaps that might exist in them. By conducting this gap analysis, we are able to highlight some of the weaknesses that might be important for future policy development in this area. We conclude by outlining how future guidelines might address some of these gaps, specifically the issue of workers’ participation in the process of establishing safety measures and the development and enforcement of more unified guidelines. (shrink)

This essay examines Zhuangzi's idea, in his dialogue with Hui Shi in the De Chong Fu, of being without human qing. This idea is situated within the contrast that Zhuangzi constantly makes between heaven and human beings. Some contexts for this contrast are described. The essay concludes that qing should be read as basically referring to “facts" in the Zhuangzi, including certain factual beliefs about (false or mistaken) emotions.

In this article, I explore an alternative model of Confucian distributive justice, namely the ‘family model’, by challenging the central claim of recent sufficientarian justifications of Confucian justice offered by Confucian political theorists – roughly, that inequalities of wealth and income beyond the threshold of sufficiency do not matter if they reflect different merits. I argue (1) that the telos of Confucian virtue politics – moral self-cultivation and fiduciary society – puts significant moral and institutional constraints on inequality even if (...) it meets the threshold of sufficiency and largely results from differing individual merits; (2) that the Confucian moral ideal of the family state establishes and gives justification to the ‘family model’ of distributive justice that shifts the focus from desert to vulnerability and from causal responsibility to remedial responsibility. The article concludes by presenting Confucian democracy as the socio-political institution and practice that can best realize the Confucian intuition of the family model of justice. (shrink)

Confucian meritocrats argue that moral education should not aim to make people politically active because doing so is not only inconsistent with the underlying assumptions of Confucian virtue ethics, but it is likely to make people more adversary and uncivil. According to Confucian meritocrats, moral education should aim at inculcating a particular set of virtues that are directly conducive to political meritocracy such as deference, dependence and paternalistic gratitude, or what I call ‘passive virtues’. This paper argues that unless public (...) purposes are set clearly by the people themselves, it is impossible to know ex ante what sorts of character traits are to be considered good. The virtuous circle between active and virtuous citizenship and effective and virtuous political leadership is possible only when the regime is democratic, facilitating the extension of the self to the wider political world predicated on public purposes that bind all to one political community. (shrink)

The majority of workplace incivility research has focused on implications of such acts for victims and observers. We extend this work in meaningful ways by proposing that, due to its norm-violating nature, incivility may have important implications for perpetrators as well. Integrating social norms theory and research on guilt with the behavioral concordance model, we take an actor-centric approach to argue that enacted incivility will lead to feelings of guilt, particularly for prosocially-motivated employees. In addition, given the interpersonally burdensome as (...) well as the reparative nature of guilt, we submit that incivility-induced guilt will be associated with complex behavioral outcomes for the actor across both home and work domains. Through an experience sampling study (Study 1) and two experiments (Studies 2a and 2b), we found that enacting incivility led to increased feelings of guilt, especially for those higher in prosocial motivation (Studies 1 and 2a). In addition, supporting our expectations, Study 1 revealed that enacted incivility—via guilt—led to increased venting to one’s spouse that evening at home, increased performance the next day at work, as well as decreased enacted incivility the next day at work. Our findings demonstrate that enacted incivility has complex effects for actors that span the home and work domains. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our results. (shrink)

Core moral concepts in Confucianism, such as benevolence, righteousness, and faithfulness, are often so vague that in moral teachings one must rely on intuitive understanding aided by metaphor and etymology that illustrate them. In addition, case stories play a crucial role in clarifying these abstract moral concepts. Confucian ethics heavily depends on stories of wise men and exemplary figures who have been revered throughout Confucian history. In this paper, I will explore the role of examples in Confucian ethics, particularly within (...) the context of moral education. (shrink)

Since the turn of the 21st century, developing teachers' assessment literacy has been recognized as one of the key levers for improving instructional practice and student learning in light of the education reforms worldwide. A substantial body of literature is focused on teachers' assessment literacy or teachers' capacity in assessment, and teachers' continuing professional development in assessment. As we approach the third decade of the 21st century, developing teachers' assessment literacy needs to be more responsive to the need of both (...) preservice and inservice teachers who come from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds. The authors concur that both preservice and inservice teachers in today's complex educational contexts require a deeper level of understanding of assessment. Additionally, teachers are highly encouraged to appreciate the history of educational assessment in different sociocultural and political contexts, as well as to know how to determine the merits of a range of assessment practices best suited for their lesson planning and classroom teaching. In this book, the authors discuss significant aspects of developing teachers' assessment literacy in different sociocultural and political contexts. Based on their respective educational backgrounds, academic experiences, and applied fields of study, each of the authors presents a critical response to the topic of assessment. Their accounts represent the complexity of the subject through a breadth and range of content and perspectives. By expanding the terms of reference regarding assessment, the authors have developed a book with a far richer panorama on assessment as a springboard for inquiry. (shrink)

Amsterdam University Press is a leading publisher of academic books, journals and textbooks in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Our aim is to make current research available to scholars, students, innovators, and the general public. AUP stands for scholarly excellence, global presence, and engagement with the international academic community.

Amsterdam University Press is a leading publisher of academic books, journals and textbooks in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Our aim is to make current research available to scholars, students, innovators, and the general public. AUP stands for scholarly excellence, global presence, and engagement with the international academic community.