According to success semantics, a belief’s content is that which guarantees the success of the actions that the belief, in combination with the relevant desires, would cause. One worry with the view is that it seems to apply only to full beliefs and fares poorly in dealing with partial beliefs. For example, if Ida’s partial belief that p is of strength 0.5, she may act in a way that would fulfill her desires if p were in fact false—assuming that she (...) desires money, she may well accept a bet that pays her $500 if not-p and costs her nothing otherwise. In response to the worry, defenders of success semantics hold that the content of a partial belief is simply that which guarantees the success of the actions it would cause were it a full belief. But, as I’ll argue in this paper, such a response is unsatisfactory. (shrink)

Teacher behaviors are one of the most significant factors influencing student learning. Students from different cultures may have different interpretations of their teachers’ behaviors. This study compared the associations between teacher strictness, teacher feedback, and students’ motivational beliefs using data from six Western countries (the United States, the United Kingdom, Finland, Norway, Australia, and New Zealand) and six East Asian regions (Japan, Korea, mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan) in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2015. A (...) total of 89,869 15-year-old students were included in data analysis. The findings indicate that (i) teacher strictness was negatively associated with Western students’ motivation, but positively related to that of East Asian students; (ii) teacher feedback had significant positive associations with the motivational beliefs of both Western and East Asian students; and (iii) there was a positive relationship between teacher strictness and teacher feedback in East Asian context. These results highlight the need to consider cultural factors when interpreting students’ reactions to teacher behaviors. (shrink)

Suppose we wish to provide a naturalistic account of intentionality. Like several other philosophers, we focus on the intentionality of belief, hoping that we may later supplement our account to accommodate other intentional states like desires and fears. Now suppose that we also take partial beliefs or credences seriously. In cashing out our favoured theory of intentionality, we may for the sake of simplicity talk as if belief is merely binary or all-or-nothing. But we should be able to supplement or (...) modify our account to accommodate credences. I shall argue, however, that it is difficult to do so with respect to certain causal or teleological theories of intentionality-in particular, those advanced by the likes of Stalnaker (Inquiry, 1984) and Millikan (J Philos 86:281–297, 1989). I shall first show that such theories are tailor-made to account for the intentionality of binary beliefs. Then I shall argue that it is hard to extend or supplement such theories to accommodate credences. Finally, I shall offer some natural ways of modifying the theories that involve an appeal to objective probabilities. But unfortunately, such modifications face problems. (shrink)

Family socioeconomic status (SES) is known to have a powerful influence on adolescent depression. However, the mechanisms underlying this association are unclear. Here, we explore this issue by testing the potential mediating roles of social support (interpersonal resource) and optimism (intrapersonal resource), based on the predictions of the reserve capacity model (RCM). Participants were 652 adolescents [age range: 11–20 years old, M age = 14.55 years, SD = 1.82; 338 boys (51.80%)] from two junior and two senior high schools in (...) Wuhan, China. They completed questionnaires measuring family SES, perceived social support, optimism, and depression. Results showed, as predicted, (1) SES negatively predicted adolescent depression; (2) social support and optimism serially mediated the relations between SES and depression, consistent with the predictions by the RCM. Specifically, higher SES predicted greater social support and increased optimism, which in turn contributed to reduced depression. The implications of these data to the prevention and interventions of adolescent depression were discussed. (shrink)

The force of globalization has greatly challenged people’s conceptualization of national identity. The traditional definition of national identity as being distinct, stable and generated by such internal factors as ethnic, religion, citizenship and so on, has been replaced by the understanding that national identity is invested with more dynamic and complex features and is actually constructed differently in different situations. By following Van Dijk’s socio-cognitive perspective in critical discourse analysis and drawing on the 47 news reports collected on the websites (...) of People’s Daily Online and Xinhuanet, this study explores how China’s national identities are negotiated in its news reports of the Sino-US trade war. It is found that China’s news reports have constructed three types of Sino-US relations, namely, antagonistic, negotiatory and cooperative relations. Out of these relations, China has been constructed as victim of the trade war, defender of free trade, driver for negotiations and beneficiary of mutual cooperation. The construction of these identities and relations is realized through constructive, destructive, justification and transformation strategies. It is further found that the diversity of both China’s national identities and Sino-US relations in China’s news reports is the result of the political, social and economic differences between the two countries. (shrink)

Evolved dispositions influence, but do not determine, how people think about economic problems. The evolutionary cognitive approach offers important insights but underweights the social transmission of ideas as a level of explanation. The need for asocialexplanation for the evolution of economic attitudes is evidenced, for example, by immense variations in folk-economic beliefs over time and across individuals.

The idea, based on Life History Theory, that the Industrial Revolution was a positive feedback process wherein prosperity induced prosperity-promoting preference shifts is just an intriguing speculation. The evidence does not distinguish this explanation from simple alternatives. For example, increased prosperity may have freed up time for individuals to engage in innovative activity and increased the benefits from doing so.

In this paper, we use Saaty's Eigenvector Method and the Power Method as well as Ω=1, 2, ⋯, 9, 1/2, 1/3, ⋯, 1/9} and Ω-={1,2, ⋯,9,1, 1/2, ⋯,1/9} as the sets from which the pairwise comparison judgments are assigned at random to examine the variation in the values determined for the mean random consistency index. By extensive simulation analysis, we found that both methods produce the same values for the mean random consistency random index. Also, we found that the reason (...) for producing two different sets of values is the use of Ω vs. Ω- and not the selection of the Power Method vs. Saaty's Eigenvector Method. (shrink)

The Pairizhang (day-to-day accounts) found in Huizhou were mostly written by the pupils in old-style private school. They seem similar to a dairy in some way with the activities of family members (mostly male) as the main contents. However, they differ from modern diaries in many ways. It was a common practice in Wuyuan County to keep day-to-day accounts in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. By analyzing the 5 accounts found there, many underlying facts can be (...) revealed, such as the time allocation of the main labor force, the composition of the peasant’s family economy, the general situation of productive activity and the days and ranges of their outdoor activity, etc. All these findings can help us have a better understanding of the peasants’ life in Huizhou at that time. (shrink)

Machine learning has been proven useful for solving the bottlenecks in building expert systems. Noise in the training instances will, however, confuse a learning mechanism. Two main steps are adopted here to solve this problem. The first step is to appropriately arrange the training order of the instances. It is well known from Psychology that different orders of presentation of the same set of training instances to a human may cause different learning results. This idea is used here for machine (...) learning and an order arrangement scheme is proposed. The second step is to modify a conventional noise-free learning algorithm, thus making it suitable for noisy environment. The generalized version space learning algorithm is then adopted to process the training instances for deriving good concepts. Finally, experiments on the Iris Flower problem show that the new scheme can produce a good training order, allowing the generalized version space algorithm to have a satisfactory learning result. (shrink)

This study conducted a cross-sectional investigation of facial appearance dissatisfaction between patients before undergoing orthognathic surgery and a non-surgical sample to evaluate the potential influencing factors of facial appearance dissatisfaction. A sample of 354 participants completed a set of questionnaires concerning facial appearance dissatisfaction, interpersonal pressure, media pressure, and fear of negative appearance evaluation (112 patients, 242 controls). The patients reported higher facial appearance dissatisfaction, more media pressure, more interpersonal pressure, and a greater fear of negative appearance evaluation among others (...) than the control group. Moreover, regression analyses identified interpersonal pressure and fear of negative appearance evaluation as the main influencing factors on facial appearance dissatisfaction whether in the orthognathic patients or in the control groups. The associations between the perceptions of interpersonal pressure, fear of negative appearance evaluation, and facial appearance dissatisfaction support the possible utility of strengthening social experiences and psychological intervention in preventing and treating these appearance-concerns, especially for the orthognathic patients. (shrink)

This paper explores the salient features of Chinese social and workplace values in offering an alternative to the established Western approach to the notion and practice of organizational devel opment. The authors argue that the emphasis of the Chinese traditional values on trust, fidelity, altruism and unspecified obligations of reciprocity norms is an important source of strategic advantage which gives a Chinese firm its resilience and flexibility to cope with change. The paper thus goes on to examine the cultural disposition (...) of the Chinese mentality as it applies in the context of such East Asian economies as Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong for the organization of the workplace and its 'reformation'. With the help of organizational data the authors trace out a corporate approach to 'national harmony' in the Confucian domain in the big Chinese enterprises. The paper also reflects on the organizational practices in the small Chinese firms and explores the 'nexus' of informality and personalized trust in these firms. Finally, the authors contend that the propensities of the Chinese communities to transfer the features of traditional governance within the family milieu to the domain of business organizations have instigated a Western academic consciousness to search for Oriental inspiration in order to overcome the sterility of their post-industrial syndrome. (shrink)

Majority of Chinese characters are pictographic characters with strong associative ability and when a character appears for Chinese readers, they usually associate with the objects, or actions related to the character immediately. Having this background, we propose a system to visualize the simplified Chinese characters, so that developing any skills of either reading or writing Chinese characters is not necessary. Considering the extensive use and application of mobile devices, automatic identification of Chinese characters and display of associative images are made (...) possible in smart devices to facilitate quick overview of a Chinese text. This work is of practical significance considering the research and development of real-time Chinese text recognition, display of associative images and for such users who would like to visualize the text with only images. The proposed Chinese character recognition system and visualization tool is named as MyOcrTool and developed for Android platform. The application recognizes the Chinese characters through OCR engine, and uses the internal voice playback interface to realize the audio functions and display the visual images of Chinese characters in real-time. (shrink)

<2020 Buddhist Book Award (2nd place), Korea> <2020 Sejong Book Award, Korea> The book discusses and provides solutions for the philosophical issues of Aristotelian essentialist biology, Darwin’s evolutionary theory, and contemporary molecular biology in light of Buddhist concepts of dependent arising and emptiness. CONTENT 1. Buddhist Teachings from the perspective of Bioscience 2. Bioscience from the Perspective of Buddhist Teachings 3. Enlightenment, Compassion and Bioscientific Phenomena 4. Enlightenment, Revolutionary Change of Worldview 5. The Buddhist Understanding of Development in Biology 1 (...) 6. The Buddhist Understanding of Development in Biology 2 7. The Buddhist Understanding of Development 1 8. The Buddhist Understanding of Development 2 9. The Buddhist Understanding of Aging 10. The Buddhist Understanding of Sickness 11. The Buddhist Understanding of Death 1 12. The Buddhist Understanding of Death 2 13. The Buddhist Understanding of Species 1 14. The Buddhist Understanding of Species 2 15. The Concept of Gene and its History 16. Genetic Dualism and Buddhist Criticism 17. The Buddhist Understanding of the Gene 1 18. The Buddhist Understanding of the Gene 2 19. Evolution is not Progress but Changes 20. Evolution is neither Deterministic nor Indeterministic. It is the Process of Interdependent Arising 21. Reconsidering Chance and Necessity 22. What Darwin Left Us 23. The Evolution of Buddhism 1 24. The Evolution of Buddhism 2 . (shrink)

洪耀勳是誰？是否有臺灣哲學？何謂臺灣哲學？何以洪耀勳的思想與實存哲學、日本哲學有深刻的關聯？哲學在東亞的接受與發展脈絡和洪耀勳的哲學思想有何關聯？洪耀勳的哲學思想能以何種形式和東亞的哲學發展產生關聯？ 其哲學思想有何種當代性意義？ 本書收錄洪耀勳日治時期的八篇哲學文章，撰寫年代在1934至1943十年之間，其中或隱或顯地援用日本京都學派哲學作為其哲學思索的資源。洪耀勳援引西田幾多郎「我和你」的理論，針對當時哲學發展的脈動，提出貼 近當代哲學需求的歷史實存概念。此外，他在探索臺灣文學創作的哲學理論時，亦以實存概念出發，主張新康德學派的價值哲學應與歷史實存形成呼應，藉以超越形而上學的價值世界。實存概念經洪耀勳的哲學探索，使得和辻哲 郎的風土論、務臺理作「表現世界的邏輯」、田邊元的「種的邏輯」等哲學資源，以一種「個別、特殊、普遍」的臺灣歷史實存姿態出現，並在異文化的臺灣，得到特殊性的發展。 Who is Hung Yao-hsün? Is there Taiwanese philosophy? What is Taiwanese philosophy? Why is Hung Yao-hsün’s thought deeply related to philosophy of existence and Japanese philosophy? What is the relationship between the reception and development of philosophy in East Asia and Hung Yao-hsün’s philosophical thought? In what form can Hung Yao-hsün’s philosophical thoughts be related to the development of philosophy in East Asia? What is the contemporary significance of his philosophical thinking? This book contains eight philosophical articles written (...) by Hung Yao-hsün between1934-1943, when Taiwan was under Japanese rule. These papers show implicit and explicit references to Kyoto School philosophy, which is a resource for his philosophical thinking. In response to the philosophical development at that time, Hung develops the notion of historical existence by citing Nishida’s theory of I and Thou. Besides, he explores the concept of existence as the philosophical foundation of Taiwanese literature, and argues the philosophy of value of Neo-Kantianism should echo the historical reality in order to overcome the metaphysical world of value. Hung’s philosophy deepens the concept of existence, and transforms the philosophical resources of Watsuji’s theory of Fūdo, Mutai Risaku’s logic of world expression and Tanabe’s logic of species into Taiwan’s historical reality of “individuality, particularity and universality;” these philosophies developed into a new dimension in Taiwan, a culture alien to Japan. (shrink)

Although a substantial literature in anthropology and comparative religion explores divination across diverse societies and back into history, little research has integrated the older ethnographic and historical work with recent insights on human learning, cultural transmission, and cognitive science. Here we present evidence showing that divination practices are often best viewed as an epistemic technology, and we formally model the scenarios under which individuals may overestimate the efficacy of divination that contribute to its cultural omnipresence and historical persistence. We found (...) that strong prior belief, underreporting of negative evidence, and misinferring belief from behavior can all contribute to biased and inaccurate beliefs about the effectiveness of epistemic technologies. We finally suggest how scientific epistemology, as it emerged in Western societies over the past few centuries, has influenced the importance and cultural centrality of divination practices. (shrink)

Emergence is a notorious philosophical term of art. A variety of theorists have appropriated it for their purposes ever since George Henry Lewes gave it a philosophical sense in his 1875 Problems of Life and Mind. We might roughly characterize the shared meaning thus: emergent entities (properties or substances) ‘arise’ out of more fundamental entities and yet are ‘novel’ or ‘irreducible’ with respect to them. (For example, it is sometimes said that consciousness is an emergent property of the brain.) Each (...) of the quoted terms is slippery in its own right, and their specifications yield the varied notions of emergence that we discuss below. There has been renewed interest in emergence within discussions of the behavior of complex systems and debates over the reconcilability of mental causation, intentionality, or consciousness with physicalism. (shrink)

山西大学科学技术哲学研究中心资助国家教育部“十五”社科规划青年项目“当代西方分析哲学与解释学的融合”的研究成果.

The following framework of theses, roughly hewn, shapes contemporary discussion of the problem of mental causation: (1) Non-Identity of the Mental and the Physical Mental properties and states cannot be identified with specific physical properties and states. (2) Causal Closure (Completeness) of the Physical The objective probability of every physical event is fixed by prior physical events and laws alone. (This thesis is sometimes expressed in terms of explanation: In tracing the causal history of any physical event, one need not (...) advert to any non-physical events or laws. To the extent that there is any explanation available for a physical event, there is a complete explanation available couched entirely in physical vocabulary. We prefer the probability formulation, as it should be acceptable to any physicalist, though some reject the explanation formulation.) (3) Causal Exclusion There is at most one complete and wholly independent explanation for any given event or sequence of events. (shrink)