When stripped to the bare bone, there are only 11 foundational paradigms in social sciences. These foundational paradigms are like flashlights that can be utilized to shed light on different aspects of human society, but each of them can only shed light on a limited area of human society. Different schools in social science result from different but often incomplete combinations of these foundational paradigms. To adequately understand human society and its history, we need to deploy all 11 foundational paradigms, (...) although more limited combinations of them may be adequate for understanding more specific social facts. (shrink)

This book is a study of the transformation of Chinese political consciousness during the post-Mao era.

本书共分六章,对私法统一化中具有全局性和法哲学性质的问题进行论述。第一章“私法统一化的缘起”:作者对“私法”和“统一”进行界定后,详细论述了私法中财产法和人身法本质上的不同,进而提出私法统一化的根本原 因在于人的“需要层次”。第二章“私法统一化的历程”:作者认为私法统一化的历史比较久远,但相对于人类漫长的历史,私法统一化的成效并不显著。第三章“影响私法统一化的因素之解析”:本书从影响私法统一化的有利 因素和不利因素两方面,详细地分析了影响私法统一化的多种因素。由此我们可以在实践中因势利导,趋利避害,大大加快私法统一化的步伐。第四章“私法统一化的原因探索”:本书运用心理学的视角考察了私法统一化的原因 ,认为“安全需要说”才是私法统一化的最根本原因。第五章“私法统一化的正当化考量”:鉴于私法统一化进程本身所固有的渐进性和艰难性等诸多问题,作者认为,私法统一化的发展趋势只能是相对统一。第六章“私法统一 化语境下的中国”:在统一化的语境下,中国私法的未来发展问题,是应当认真研究的重大问题。作者分析了我国私法的立法既要顺应私法统一化趋势的原因,又要注意私法立法的本土化问题。.

Urban rail transit can improve a city’s accessibility. However, high construction and operation costs restrict the development of urban rail transit. Value capture recoups the additional value that the investments of urban rail transit confer to local land and is considered to be an effective measure to alleviate this financial problem. Understanding the land value uplift effects of urban rail transit is essential for understanding value capture. This study applied a Space-P model of urban rail transit network based on complex (...) network theory and demonstrated the influence of urban rail transit network characteristics on residential and commercial land prices. The model was tested with eight metropolises in China, using the 2003 to 2022 timeframe as the context. The results showed a significant positive correlation between the number of nodes and the land prices, the average clustering coefficient was highly positively correlated with the land prices, and there was a significant negative correlation between the average path length and the land prices. This study provides theoretical support for value capture, is beneficial for urban rail transit planning, and supports improvements in the development quality of urban rail transit networks. (shrink)

Niche construction theory (NCT) has become a prominent strain within the “Extended Synthesis” literature in evolutionary biology. Moreover, because human beings are indisputably “the most creative niche constructor”, “the ultimate ecosystem engineers”, and “the world’s greatest evolutionary force”, niche construction has been imported to social sciences as social niche construction (SNC) or human niche construction. Yet, NCT has also encountered quite a bit of criticism. If so, what is the value of importing NCT to social sciences as SNC? This article (...) takes the criticisms against NCT and SNC seriously and advances a set of ontological and epistemological principles for applying SNC in social sciences. In particular, I highlight the potential explanatory power of SNC, contending SNC can help us transcend the agent-structure/system debate in social theory, illustrating with Norbert Elias’s [1939] 1994a. The Civilizing Process. I also stress that SNC allows us to synthesize micro, meso, and macro for understanding social changes in different niches or domains through time and space, by firmly bringing time and space into theorization in social sciences inquires. (shrink)

This book traces ideological trends in China through a range of historical and comparative perspectives, spanning the ancient belief systems of Confucianism, Legalism, and Taoism to political ideologies of the present day. Chapters in this edited volume are divided into four parts: traditional Chinese ideology, ideology of the Republic, Maoism as an ideology and post Mao ideology, zoning in on specific historical periods from the Qing and Republic periods to the reform era, as well as the period after the founding (...) of the PRC - through which Mao Zedong's political thought is notably discussed from the perspective of epistemology and the global impact of Maoism. Key topics include Sun Yat-sen as the Father of the Republic, Li Dazhao, the early Marxist theoretician, Chiang Kai-shek and his nationalist Fascism, Liang Qichao's emotional appeals through liberal political discourse, Jiang Zemin's theory of 'Three Represents' de-emphasising the Marxist concept of class, Hu Jintao's theory of 'Harmonious Society' and Xi Jinping's political thought. Contributions from world-leading scholars take both comparative and critical approaches, examining not only how studies of ideology are relevant, but how Chinese ideologies have retained their own characteristics distinct to the West. As the first comprehensive study of this subject in the English language, Chinese Ideologywill appeal to students and scholars of philosophy, political science, history, and Asian studies more broadly. (shrink)

If the coming of the last universal cellular ancestor marks the crossing of the “Darwinian Threshold”, pre-LUCA evolution must have been pre-Darwinian. But how did pre-Darwinian evolution actually operate? Bringing together and extending insights from both earlier and more recent contributions, this essay advances three principal arguments regarding the pre-Darwinian evolution. First, in the pre-Darwinian epoch, survival essentially meant persistence within the prebiotic system, and it depended mostly on chemical variation and interaction. Second, selection operated upon four different properties: chemical; (...) chemical-physical; vesicles’ capacities in absorbing, engulfing, and merging; and protocells’ coupling of metabolism, replication, and division. Third, division evolved from a state without tight coupling of replication with division to a state of tight coupling. Eventually, protocells with a tight coupling of replication with division became the First Universal Cellular Ancestors and then LUCA. (shrink)

In this essay I survey the key themes within China's discourse on international order, especially how China views its position and role in shaping the existing and future order. I go on to explore the possible implications of China's thinking and actions toward the existing international order. I conclude that overall, China sees no need for and hence does not seek fundamental transformation, but rather piecemeal modification of the existing order. In fact, China has been quite content with the existing (...) order that supports globalization, despite occasional rhetoric indicating otherwise. In the near future, China will likely invest heavily in two key issue areas: (1) regionalism in East Asia and Central Asia; and (2) interregional cooperation and coordination. Perhaps unsurprisingly, China's ambitious “One Belt and One Road” initiative seeks to integrate these two issue areas. (shrink)

Major debates on democratic renewal suggest two ways of eliciting social change: either by strengthening vertical practices of representation or by expanding horizontal forms of participation. The article develops an argument for why there is a need to rethink democratic resistance beyond the vertical–horizontal divide. If contemporary forms of resistance encompass a strategic interplay between vertical and horizontal practices, then an alternative framework is required to capture this logic. Filling this gap, the article introduces the concept of ‘horizontal experimentalism’. Such (...) an idea comprehends an understanding of political means and ends as a continuum and as adjusting each other in an ongoing process of experimental inquiry. (shrink)

An inclusive vision of mathematics-- its beauty, its humanity, and its power to build virtues that help us all flourish. For mathematician Francis Su, a society without mathematical affection is like a city without museums. To miss out on mathematics is to live without experiencing some of humanity's most beautiful ideas. In this profound book, written for a diverse audience but especially for those disenchanted by their past experiences, an award-winning mathematician and educator weaves personal reflections, puzzles, and stories to (...) show how mathematics meets basic human desires and cultivates virtues essential for human flourishing. Readers will explore mathematical concepts-- and see how mathematical thinking can even fulfill such longings as for love, play, freedom, justice, and community. Some lessons come from those who have struggled, including philosopher Simone Weil, whose own mathematical contributions were overshadowed by her brother's, and Christopher Jackson, who discovered mathematics as an inmate in a federal prison. Christopher Jackson's letters to the author appear throughout the book and show how this intellectual pursuit can-- and must-- be open to all. (shrink)

According to experimental philosophers, the diversity and sensitivity of intuitions have posed a severe threat to the traditional philosophical methodology, which relies extensively on intuitions triggered by thought experiments. However, defenders of traditional armchair philosophical methodology argue that experimental philosophers misunderstand the importance of intuitions for philosophy. What philosophers genuinely rely on are arguments, which provide a reliable foundation for their judgments on thought experiments. However, a recent cross-cultural experiment conducted by Wysocki (2017) indicates that arguments do not affect the (...) judgments about Gettier cases as philosophers once expected. That poses a challenge to those philosophers who contend that judgments are based on arguments. In this paper, we expand the experimental investigation of the effect of arguments on judgments about thought experiments. We report the result of three experiments in which eleven thought experiments drawn from multiple philosophical subdisciplines were used. It turns out that arguments have significant impacts on Chinese participants’ judgments in response to most of these thought experiments. These results present new resources for defending the traditional methodology but also bring new challenges. (shrink)

Analytic philosophy has been developing in China for over a century, and philosophers shaped by the analytic tradition have grown into an important philosophical community in China. The views of contemporary analytic philosophers in China on central philosophical issues and their similarities and differences with analytic philosophers in English-speaking countries have not been systematically investigated. Bourget and Chalmers have conducted two large-scale online questionnaire surveys on analytic philosophers in English-speaking countries. Inspired by their studies, a survey on analytic philosophers in (...) China was performed. It is found that philosophers in China had no agreement on most issues. According to the comparative analysis with the results of Bourget and Chalmers’ second survey, there were significant differences in views as well as thinking styles between analytic philosophers in China and English-speaking countries. And these differences may be partially explained by cultural factors and academic environments. (shrink)

The multilevel model of meme diffusion conceptualizes how mediated messages diffuse over time and space. As a pilot application of implementing the meme diffusion, we developed the social media analytics and research testbed to monitor Twitter messages and track the diffusion of information in and across different cities and geographic regions. Social media analytics and research testbed is an online geo-targeted search and analytics tool, including an automatic data processing procedure at the backend and an interactive frontend user interface. Social (...) media analytics and research testbed is initially designed to facilitate searching and geo-locating tweet topics and terms in different cities and geographic regions; filtering noise from raw data ; analyzing social media data from a spatiotemporal perspective; and visualizing social media data in diagnostic ways. Social media analytics and research testbed provides researchers and domain experts with a tool that can efficiently facilitate the refinement, formalization, and testing of research hypotheses or questions. Three case studies are introduced to illustrate how the predictions of meme diffusion can be examined and to demonstrate the potentials and key functions of social media analytics and research testbed. (shrink)

The relation between knowledge and action has been a lengthy debate in philosophy which traces back to Descartes and Locke. Purism holds that the practical factors related to action are fundamentally independent of the standard of knowledge, while pragmatic encroachment argues that practical considerations about action can impact judgments about knowledge. This traditional debate was put front and center recently by discussions on some knowledge attribution cases and relevant empirical studies. This paper reports three empirical studies based on three pairs (...) of classic knowledge attribution cases on Chinese participants. The results indicate that folk's understanding of knowledge is more compatible with purism and suggest a conversational implicature account of the connection between judgments about knowledge and action. (shrink)

1. Pulgyo rŭl chŏmke hanŭn kil -- 2. Kisang ŭi chilmun kwa ch'ŏnoe ŭi tappyŏn.

Positioning accuracy of micropositioning stage in scanning ion conductance microscopy is the key to obtain high-precision scanning model. Most piezoelectric ceramic micromotion platforms are used for that, and hysteresis characteristics are the main reason for the nonlinear characteristics of piezoelectric ceramics and the influence on the control accuracy. In order to solve this problem, backpropagation algorithm based on whale optimization algorithm is used to model the hysteresis, which is directly used as a feedforward controller to compensate the hysteresis effect, and (...) the robust adaptive moving average control method is used for feedback control. The results show that the hysteresis model of backpropagation algorithm based on the whale optimization algorithm can fit the hysteresis curve well, and the maximum fitting error is 0.2050 μm, only 0.256%. By adopting feedforward and feedback, feedforward robust adaptive moving average control algorithm decreases the hysteresis from 17.64% to 2.51%, which enables the output of the piezoelectric ceramic controller to track the expected displacement well and makes it possible to improve the scanning accuracy. (shrink)

Enterprise philanthropy is practiced in a very unique and rudimentary form in China. Based on a unique random survey data on 3837 Chinese private enterprises conducted in 31 provinces of China in 2006, I find the significant positive relationship between enterprise philanthropy donation and enterprise profitability, and the result supports the political and institutional power view of enterprise philanthropy in the latest development of China. Simply put, Chinese private enterprises carried out philanthropy activities to better protect property rights and nurture (...) political connections, which in turn, leads to better enterprise profitability. The␣result is even stronger in institutions weaker provinces. (shrink)

What signals do firms in emerging economies send to stakeholders when they adopt corporate social responsibility practices? We argue that in emerging economies, firms that adopt CSR practices positively signal investors that their firms have superior capabilities for filling institutional voids. From an institution-based view, we hypothesize that the institutional environment moderates the signaling effect of CSR on a firm’s financial performance. Based on a sample of firms from ten Asian emerging economies, we find a positive relationship between CSR practices (...) and financial performance. This positive relationship is stronger in the less developed capital market than in the more developed one. The financial benefits of CSR practices are also more salient in the low information diffusion market than in the high one. We emphasize that signaling theory and the institution-based view can jointly contribute to the CSR literature. (shrink)

The aim of this study was to investigate factors associated with seriously ill patients’ preferences for their family and physicians making resuscitation decisions on their behalf. Using SUPPORT II data, the study revealed that, among 362 seriously ill patients who were experiencing pain, 277 (77%) answered that they would want their family and physicians to make resuscitation decisions for them instead of their own wishes being followed if they were to lose decision-making capacity. Even after controlling for other variables, patients (...) who preferred the option of undergoing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in the future were twice as likely, and those who had had ventilator treatment were four-fifths less likely, to rely on their family and physicians than those who did not want CPR (odds ratio (OR)-2.28; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.18-4.38) or those who had not received ventilator treatment (OR-0.23; 95% CI 0.06-0.90). Psychological variables (anxiety, quality of life, and depression), symptomatic variables (severity of pain and activities of daily living) and the existence of surrogates were not significantly associated with patients’ preferences for having their family and physicians make resuscitation decisions for them. Age was not a significant factor for predicting the decision-making role after controlling for other variables. (shrink)

In this paper we first consider hyperfinite Borel equivalence relations with a pair of Borel $\mathbb {Z}$ -orderings. We define a notion of compatibility between such pairs, and prove a dichotomy theorem which characterizes exactly when a pair of Borel $\mathbb {Z}$ -orderings are compatible with each other. We show that, if a pair of Borel $\mathbb {Z}$ -orderings are incompatible, then a canonical incompatible pair of Borel $\mathbb {Z}$ -orderings of $E_0$ can be Borel embedded into the given pair. (...) We then consider hyperfinite-over-finite equivalence relations, which are countable Borel equivalence relations admitting Borel $\mathbb {Z}^2$ -orderings. We show that if a hyperfinite-over-hyperfinite equivalence relation E admits a Borel $\mathbb {Z}^2$ -ordering which is self-compatible, then E is hyperfinite. (shrink)

Kwŏnil chʻŏn. Kibon wŏlli pʻyŏn -- kwŏni chi. Chŭksa ihwa pʻyŏn -- kwŏnsam in. Pulcha haengdŭng pʻyŏn.

This article reflects on Collins’s classic work, The Credential Society (1979), situating his critique of educational credentialism within broader ‘conflict sociology’. The discussion reappraises Collins’s work in the context of the ‘new credentialism’, ‘new learning’ and the race, gender and class concerns raised in current debates on higher education. The article characterizes contemporary higher education as being trapped in a Procrustean dynamic: techno-utopianism with job displacement and expansionism with declining public support. Collins attempts to escape the legacy of structural-functionalism through (...) conflict sociology or predictions of systemic crisis. This is contrasted with his contemporary, Herbert Gintis’s eclectic attempt to construct a transdisciplinary social science. The key problem of marketized inequality is linked to the sociology of absences in conflict sociology, and it is argued that inequalities of class, race, gender and coloniality in higher education and credentialism can no longer be ignored. (shrink)