This paper sketches the antilogism of Christine Ladd-Franklin and historical advancement about antilogism, mainly constructs an axiomatic system Atl based on first-order logic with equality and the wholly-exclusion and not-wholly-exclusion relations abstracted from the algebra of Ladd-Franklin, with soundness and completeness of Atl proved, providing a simple and convenient tool on syllogistic reasoning. Atl depicts the empty class and the whole class differently from normal set theories, e.g. ZFC, revealing another perspective on sets and set theories. Two series of Dotterer (...) and the theorem proved by Russinoff are re-characterized in antilogistic formulas corresponding to the square of opposition and twenty-four moods of syllogism. Then the restricted equivalence between two forms of antilogism and minimal inconsistency is built up, implying the internal connection between antilogisms and minimal inconsistency and leaving two related conjectures not proved. Besides, this paper provides a new explanation for the reason why contrariety, subcontrariety, and subalternation and the nine special moods require the non-empty assumption. (shrink)

This paper sketches the antilogism of Christine Ladd-Franklin and historical advancement about antilogism, mainly constructs an axiomatic system Atl based on first-order logic with equality and the wholly-exclusion and not-wholly-exclusion relations abstracted from the algebra of Ladd-Franklin, with soundness and completeness of Atl proved, providing a simple and convenient tool on syllogistic reasoning. Atl depicts the empty class and the whole class differently from normal set theories, e.g. ZFC, revealing another perspective on sets and set theories. Two series of Dotterer (...) and the theorem proved by Russinoff are re-characterized in antilogistic formulas corresponding to the square of opposition and twenty-four moods of syllogism. Then the restricted equivalence between two forms of antilogism and minimal inconsistency is built up, implying the internal connection between antilogisms and minimal inconsistency and leaving two related conjectures not proved. Besides, this paper provides a new explanation for the reason why contrariety, subcontrariety, and subalternation and the nine special moods require the non-empty assumption. (shrink)

This paper sketches the antilogism of Christine Ladd-Franklin and historical advancement about antilogism, mainly constructs an axiomatic system Atl based on first-order logic with equality and the wholly-exclusion and not-wholly-exclusion relations abstracted from the algebra of Ladd-Franklin, with soundness and completeness of Atl proved, providing a simple and convenient tool on syllogistic reasoning. Atl depicts the empty class and the whole class differently from normal set theories, e.g. ZFC, revealing another perspective on sets and set theories. Two series of Dotterer (...) and the theorem proved by Russinoff are re-characterized in antilogistic formulas corresponding to the square of opposition and twenty-four moods of syllogism. Then the restricted equivalence between two forms of antilogism and minimal inconsistency is built up, implying the internal connection between antilogisms and minimal inconsistency and leaving two related conjectures not proved. Besides, this paper provides a new explanation for the reason why contrariety, subcontrariety, and subalternation and the nine special moods require the non-empty assumption. (shrink)

This paper examines how drawing classes can contribute to moral education in primary schools. This paper uses class observation, interviews with teachers and students, and analysis of students’ wor...

Music is the universal language of mankind. The process of learning music can be understood as the process of constantly copying and spreading cultural memes. The term "mime" here comes from meme theory, which is a theory that studies cultural imitation and aims to explore the evolutionary model of cultural information dissemination. According to the principle of meme theory, music education itself is a process of cultural dissemination, which is transmitted to different meme carriers through imitation and replication. At present, (...) music education, especially instrumental music education, focuses on teaching performance skills, so there are many performers and educators who "only focus on skills". The author believes that this process should be based on the transmission of metaphysical music culture to be more in line with the philosophical meaning of education? Is education based on meme theory more effective? In order to verify this view, the author selected 20 students from a primary school and conducted a piano teaching experiment lasting 7 months. In the end, it was proved that the piano teaching model of " listening, reading, and playing" based on meme theory has a more benign improvement on students, and also revealed the philosophical significance of music education under the perspective of meme theory and the practical path of the future development of music education. (shrink)

Most people would not associate Confucian philosophy with contemporary education. After all, the former is an ancient Chinese tradition and the latter is a modern phenomenon. But this book shows otherwise, by explaining how millennia-old Confucian ideas and practices can inform, inspire and improve teaching and learning today. Drawing upon major Confucian texts such as the Analects and Mencius, as well as influential thinkers such as Confucius, Zhu Xi and Empress Xu, the various chapters address current educational issues and (...) challenges such as the following: How can humanity resolve the climate emergency? What (more) should schools do to promote education for girls? Is there more to lifelong learning than just skills upgrading? Is teacher-centred education really bad? What is missing in the existing frameworks on 21st century competencies? What new initiatives are needed to champion sustainable development? Confucian Philosophy for Contemporary Education answers the above questions and more by presenting a Confucian model of education. The author describes a Confucian school where Dao - a shared vision of human excellence - is realised through an inclusive, mindful, learning-centred and ultimately humanising form of education. This book is a useful resource for academic researchers, educators, students and general readers on Confucian philosophy and its continual relevance for present-day education. (shrink)

What is the value of history to philosophy? Hasok Chang proposes that when a philosophical model runs into a problem, it is likely that its underlying historical assumption that informs and upholds such model, requires a revisit, if not, a major overhaul. A reconstruction of history could contribute to a new way of approaching philosophical problems. Chang through a series of articles gives us a detailed account of the debate over the nature of combustion, phlogiston and fixed air in (...) the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, which shed light on operationalism, realism, natural kinds, pragmatism, epistemic iteration, incommensurability, epistemic pluralism, and other philosophcical issues in the realm of HPS. This article applied his interdisciplinary approach to philosophy and history, to the three prevalent models concerning the relation between Christianity and philosophy. I argue that Integration Model, Disjunction Model, and Conflict Model, is not clear-cut but interwoven in the thoughts of early church fathers, many of whom hold onto paradoxical stances. I suggest that it is better to measure a person’s commitment to Christianity and philosophy on a spectrum with philosophy on one side while Christianity the other. A person’s degrees of committment move back and forth on the spectrum contingent upon the semantic, political and social contexts within which they are speaking, as will be shown in the case of two early church fathers, Lactantius and Eusebius. (shrink)

Zhongdaology is the core of Chinese traditional Confucian philosophy. The zhongdaological way of thinking represents the Chinese philosophical thinking mode, with Confucianism as the main body, and has deeply influenced many aspects of Chinese culture. It is different from the traditional ontological thinking in the West. However, for a long time, due to the influence of the dominant position of Western ontological thinking in the field of philosophical research, the characteristics of zhongdaological thinking have not been fully elaborated and (...) promoted. This essay briefly exposes the historical origin of the doctrine of zhongdaology and its significance in Confucianism. Like the situation of traditional Chinese philosophy, African philosophy also has long been overshadowed and ignored by western philosophy to some extent. To this end, it can be safely stated that the dominance of western tradition is why the interaction between Chinese philosophy and African philosophy and otherunderrepresented philosophical traditions in the south have not taken firm roots. This essay makes some preliminary comparisons betweenChinese Confucian zhongdaology with some African philosophical ideas such as Ezumezu and Ubuntu, to show, first, the significance of broader dialogue and exchange among different philosophical traditions in the south, second how zhongdaology itself could serve as a veritable framework for doing philosophy across borders. (shrink)

Shanghai has always led college entrance examination reform in China, and has piloted the new round of college entrance examination reform for 5 years. At present, the comprehensive quality evaluat...

University students are a key source of volunteers, and their volunteering reasons are an academic concern. Adopting a push-pull perspective, this study explores why China’s university students participated in long-term volunteer teaching in distant, unfamiliar locations. Data were drawn mainly from documents and interviews with 20 university students participating in year-long volunteer teaching in distant schools. Findings reveal that students’ participation resulted from the interplay of push factors causing them to leave (e.g., helping others) and pull factors (e.g., destinations and (...) projects) enticing them to come. The interplay was exhibited in two patterns: pull factors triggering the emergence of push factors, and the former being used to realise the latter. Such interplay was facilitated by the volunteering organisation’s mission, resources, and efforts to make its projects attractive. The study reflects that volunteering organisation and management in higher education institutions need to rethink how to gear their volunteering missions to suit students’ diverse motivations and develop their organisational features and resources to attract and retain volunteers. (shrink)

In the Pre-Qin time, pursuing “Dao” was the main task in the scholarship of most of the ancient Chinese philosophers, while the Ancient Greek philosophers considered pursuing “Truth” as their ultimate goal. While the “Dao” in ancient Chinese texts and the “Truth” in ancient Greek philosophic literature do share or cross-cover certain connotations, there are subtle and important differences between the two comparable philosophic concepts. These differences have deep and profound impact on the later development of Chinese and Western (...) class='Hi'>philosophy and culture respectively. Interestingly, while the modern Chinese philosophy has gradually accepted and established the Western conception of “Truth” on its way towards modernization, the “post-modern” Western philosophy is just undergoing a process of deconstructing its traditional concept of “Truth”, thus, in a certain sense, going closer to the traditional Chinese “Dao”. From a comparative, relative and dynamic perspective, there could possibly be a fusion of horizon between the Chinese “Dao” and the Western “Truth”. (shrink)

The feeling brings the "Hard Problem" to philosophy of mind. Does the subjective feeling have a non-ignorable impact on Intelligence? If so, can the feeling be realized in Artificial Intelligence (AI)? To discuss the problems, we have to figure out what the feeling means, by giving a clear definition. In this paper, we primarily give some mainstream perspectives on the topic of the mind, especially the topic of the feeling (or qualia, subjective experience, etc.). Then, a definition of the (...) feeling is proposed through a thought experiment, the "semi-transparent room". The feeling, roughly to say, is defined as "a tendency of changing input representations by representing its inner state". Also, a formalized definition is given. The definition does not help to verify "having the feeling", but it helps to provide evidence. Based on the definition, we think these are the hard problems of intelligence — whether the "innate" feeling plays an important role in Intelligence, whether the difference between the "simulated" feeling and the "innate" feeling will have a significant influence on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), and, if so, where the "innate" feeling comes from and how to make an artificial agent possess it. (shrink)

Critical Discourse Analysis has excelled with its functional and ideological analysis of socio-political texts. Its capacities and achievements notwithstanding, this tradition is constituted of Western concepts, values, ways of thinking, analytic tools and topics of interest; such becomes problematic when universalised and globalised in international academic discourse. It is against this backdrop of cultural and intellectual tension that a culturally conscious and critical paradigm of discourse and communication research is emerging: Cultural Discourse Studies. It is manifested in the forms of (...) participation by searchers from the Developing World in significant proportions, development of locally grounded, globally minded research frameworks; and a growing multicultural awareness in the discipline. Inspired by Third World experiences, aspirations and scholarships on the one side and drawing on culturally critical insights in the human and social sciences on the other side, this multicultural scholarship endeavours to deconstruct ethnocentrism, construct culturally diversified modes of research and propel intercultural dialogue and debate in the discipline, all with a view to enhancing human cultural coexistence, harmony and prosperity. One exemplar of this new trend is Chinese Discourse Studies, characterised by a holistic philosophy, equilibrium and discrepancy theory, all-encompassing methodology and development-minded research agenda. (shrink)

This paper explores the integration of philosophical principles with Civic and Political Science education to foster innovative teaching reforms. It starts by delineating specific pedagogical methods—comparative analysis, case study, and outcome-oriented strategies—to enrich Civics and Politics through philosophical discourse. Central to this integration is developing a teaching model rooted in cultural self-confidence, structured around interactive lectures where students are active participants and teachers guide the exploration. Philosophical tenets are employed to cultivate comprehensive teaching resources that support a culturally confident pedagogical (...) framework. This approach is evaluated using fuzzy subset theory and characteristic functions to assess the impact of incorporating philosophical perspectives into political education, moving through incremental assessment stages towards sophisticated evaluative indices. Empirical findings from an experimental setup reveal significant enhancements in student achievements and understanding of their political environment. Students exposed to the experimental teaching model showed a notable increase in achievement, with a progress value of 21.68 compared to 1.52 in the control group. Furthermore, their comprehension of the political landscape reached 93.5%, which is 30.1% higher than their counterparts. This teaching model elevates student performance and political acumen and deepens their appreciation of Chinese cultural values, thereby bolstering their cultural self-confidence. Through this philosophical-educational synthesis, the paper contributes to ongoing dialogues within the philosophy of religion, suggesting how religious values can implicitly support civic and political education in a multicultural context. (shrink)

Intending to have a constructive dialogue with the combination of evolutionary theory (E) and metaphysical naturalism (N), Alvin Plantinga’s evolutionary argument against naturalism (EAAN) takes the reliability of human cognition (in normal environments) as a purported explanandum and E&N as a purported explanans. Then, he considers whether E&N can offer a good explanans for this explanandum, and his answer is negative (an answer employed by him to produce a defeater for N). But I will argue that the whole EAAN goes (...) wrong by assuming that R is a qualified explanandum crying out for scientific explanations, since it cannot meet either of the two criteria for any scientifically qualified explanandum: Realizability Criterion and Informativeness Criterion. Hence, EAAN is simply setting a task that E&N, as a scientific theory, will not care at all. Therefore, EAAN cannot substantially shake E&N. (shrink)

The field of eSports is undergoing a process of developing and evolving with irresistible forces. The process witnesses the ever-refreshing and hybrid meanings and definitions of Sports and eSports in the digital era of technology empowerment and advancing artificial intelligence. This paper calls us to re-construct the meanings and sporting values of eSports, re-evaluate the eSports landscape, going beyond the debate ‘Are eSports Sports?’ and move to re-examine the contextual nature and values of Sports and eSports, as well as their (...) interweaving relationships in contemporary society. It is of significance to explore the way in which the intelligent embodiment of eSports and the virtualisation of traditional sports integrate with each other, offering the potential for fitness and physical exercises and practices in real and virtual spaces. Meanwhile, crucial digital ethics issues are emerging in the field of eSports, potentially challenging and alerting the eSports industry to take timely measurements to maintain the Sport’s integrity. (shrink)

Starting with Jaakko Hintikka’s seminal work, epistemic logic has now grown up to a huge academic industry. When we look back to its history, however, there is a practical paradox. While Hintikka’s original purpose was to facilitate epistemological discussion, most subsequent work of epistemic logic has been done outside of philosophy, and has been ignored by most mainstream epistemologists. At the current point, one might naturally wonder, does epistemic logic still have something to do with epistemology? Along with Hintikka (...) and a growing number of formal epistemologists, we believe the answer is “yes”. Contemporary epistemology has largely focused on the goal of providing an analysis of knowledge and an answer to skepticism. To avoid skepticism, many epistemologists prefer to define knowledge in terms of evidence and relevant alternatives. A typical saying is that “in order to know that p, one only needs evidence to eliminate all relevant alternatives, rather than all alternatives”. We see such a project as perfectly congenial to the spirit of Hintikka’s epistemic logic. In this paper, we propose an epistemic logic to deal with evidence and relevant alternatives explicitly, and extend EREL to its dynamic version to investigate how different notions of knowledge behavior with the decrease and increase of relevant alternatives. To illustrate its philosophical application, we provide a new formalization of the so called factivity problem of epistemic contextualism. We conclude with some remarks on further developments of our framework. (shrink)

Through investigation of Chinese cultural ideals and life practices, Prof. Cho-yun Hsu constructs an original portrait of Chinese spiritual life. Apart from focusing on the exalted subtleties of the scholarly elite, Prof. Hsu pays more attention to the everyday people's cultural idea. By examining their daily practices (including eating, living, medical practices, poems, songs, art, and literature) and "collective memory" such as legends, he seeks to clarify Chinese ideas concerning the universe, human life and nature, from traditional times down to (...) the present day. Different from Judeo-Christian tradition centered on "God," the spiritual life of the Chinese people develops around ideas of being "human," and thus cultivating an interactive relationship between man, time, and space. Cho-yun Hsu considers the mode and direction of Chinese culture will impact the future of the entire world. Based on his observation, Western civilization represented by Europe and America nowadays is on the verge of a great change. The problems they are facing, including various crises of alienation and separation from nature, are, in terms of their basic origins, problems for which Western civilization lacks the resources to arrive at a solution. Thus, Chinese culture centered on the man and on the idea of intimate, interdependent relations between man and nature, might offer another solution. It is expected that, by integrating its features into modern civilization, Chinese culture can continue to prosper and be of benefit to the future of the world. (shrink)

After more than 40 years of development, China has established a relatively complete system of lawyers, including laws and regulations, a unified qualification examination, and lawyers associations. Today, there are nearly 600,000 lawyers working in various fields. However, the Communist regime in China has never adopted the so-called Western values of freedom and equality, the guarantee of human rights, and the rule of law, while the socialist ideology emphasizes the obedience of the individual to the collective and to the power (...) of the State, and thus the Communist Party has always emphasized management and control in its attitude toward lawyers. At the same time, because of its consistency with socialist ideology in many aspects, various concepts of traditional Chinese law have been preserved, which allowed a prejudice against lawyers based on traditional Chinese legal culture to persist to this day, to the extent that many Chinese people lack trust in lawyers. Chinese lawyers have no choice but to tactfully try to come to terms with the Communist Party and overcome traditional attitudes and unfavorable publicity against lawyers. (shrink)

Consciousness is a natural and integral part of human beings that is at the core of our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual functions throughout our lives. However, we tend to be too occupie...

This article elaborates the conditions as well as four potential modes of the ecological problem: (1) The mode of the absolute minimization of the ecological problem: minimum population plus minimum Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is characterized by the quantity of destruction being less than the quantity of natural rehabilitation of an ecosystem. This mode is the poorest mode with minimum change. (2) The mode of the relative minimization of the ecological problem: minimum population plus maximization of GDP, which is (...) characterized by the quantity of destruction being less than the quantity of both natural rehabilitation and human rehabilitation of an ecosystem. This mode is the best mode with minimum change. (3) The mode of the relative maximization of the ecological problem: maximization of population plus minimum GDP, which is characterized by the quantity of destruction to the ecosystem not being offset by the quantity of human rehabilitation. An example of this mode is an underdeveloped district with vast population and limited farmland. (4) The mode of the absolute maximization of the ecological problem: maximization of population plus maximization of GDP. This is characterized by the continuous increase of the quantity of destruction beyond the quantity of both natural rehabilitation and human rehabilitation of the ecosystem. Its final outcome is the collapse of the ecosystem and a catastrophe to human beings. (shrink)

Any text can not leave the text the user exists, with the phenomenon of indirect discourse anaphora is no exception. Therefore, the phenomenon of indirect anaphora can not be studied only from the text itself, but also from the recipient of discourse processing and mental representation of discourse strategies such as perspective depth studies to explore the source of discourse coherence factors. Indirect anaphor is a special kind of anaphor that receives more and more attention these years. Based on previous (...) research findings, this paper mainly deals with the syntactic and semantic classifications of indirect anaphor and comes up with several theoretic frameworks in which it could be explained. The author believes that a text is not a text without its users. It is no exception for texts containing indirect anaphora. Therefore, a proper method of investigation into indirect anaphora should contain not only studies of the text, but also studies on how the text is processed and mentally represented by text users. (shrink)

The paper argues that it is a mistake to interpret Thomas Reid as holding a libertarian notion of freedom, and to make use of Reid to argue in support of a libertarian position. More precisely, this paper shows that Reid’s theory of agent-causation may not be what these philosophers take it to be, once such crucial notions as agent-causation and active power in Reid’s theory of free agency have been fully explicated. Reid is more committed to accepting the view of (...) freedom as rational self-control over the determination of the will than a contracausal view of freedom. (shrink)

Previous studies suggest that morphological awareness and word detection skills have facilitating roles in reading fluency; however, it is unknown whether they can interplay with each other in such roles. The present study explored the relationships of MA, word detection, and passage reading fluency across ages. In total, 180 Chinese primary and secondary school students, aged from 8.52 to 15.67 years, completed tasks for these aforementioned capacities. After controlling gender, non-verbal intelligence, and reading ability at the word level, the (...) results showed that the participants with higher scores for MA or word detection performed better in passage reading fluency. However, the predictive effect of word detection on reading fluency became weaker as the children became older. The interaction between MA and word detection was positive in younger children, whereas this interaction tended to be negative for older children. The results demonstrated a dynamic interplay between MA and word detection in contributing to passage reading fluency in Chinese children. While it has a positive interaction with word detection on reading fluency in younger children, MA may become a compensator in older children whose word detection skills are less effective in facilitating fluent reading. (shrink)

The fundamental task of philosophy is to seek for “Shi” or “Being”. One of the features of Chinese Philosophy is that it seeks “Shi是(Bing)” through“shi实(fact)”, “shi事(event)”, “shi史(history)”, “shi时(time)”, “shi势(trend)”, which constituted the general context of understanding and hermeneutic of “Shi(Bing)”in Chinese philosophy. This also represents the practical, humanistic and dialectic features of Chinese philosophy.

Using a panel data of 806 U.S. firms from 2006 to 2015, we find that in their ratings of corporate social responsibility performance, firms with top managers who attended religiously affiliated schools outperform their peers with no such managers. The positive relationship between religious school attendance and CSR performance is stronger among firms with lower level of community religiosity or less external monitoring. Our findings lend support to early theoretical work that suggests managerial CSR-oriented values can be key motivating (...) factors for CSR initiatives. (shrink)

We propose a theory of events and causes against the background of branching time. Notions discussed include possibility based on reality, transitions, events, determinacy, contingency, causes and effects. The main idea in defining causal relations is to introduce a certain preconditioning circumstance under which one event follows another. We also briefly compare this theory with some other theories.

In the current dialogue of “science and religion,” it is widely assumed that the thoughts of Darwinists and that of atheists overlap. However, Jerry Fodor, a full-fledged atheist, recently announced a war against Darwinism with his atheistic campaign. Prima facie, this “civil war” might offer a chance for theists: If Fodor is right, Darwinistic atheism will lose the cover of Darwinism and become less tenable. This paper provides a more pessimistic evaluation of the situation by explaining the following: Fodor’s criticism (...) of adaptationism (as the backbone of Darwinism), viz., his refutation of any counterfactual-supporting laws on the macro-evolutionary level, implies that a law-maker is dispensable on this level. This will either encourage skepticism against the omniscience (at least that concerning the future of macro-evolution) of the Creator, or render the notion of God less appealing. (shrink)

Wittgenstein’s criticism of the notion of ‘private language’ is related to the putative centrality of “being“ and the ‘subject-predicate’ distinction. However, his efforts would prove to be more f...

Based upon the demarcation between Elementalism and Atomism Chemistry from the perspective of the long-term history of chemistry, the authors re-examine the Berthollet-Proust controversy on the three types of chemical compounds, pointing out that Berthollet proposed the law of indefinite proportions by deduction, while Proust proposed the law of definite proportions by induction. The controversy is beyond the framework of affinity chemistry and entail a synthesis of meta-chemical thinking and experiments. Proust’s discovery of the law of definite proportions not only (...) function as Bacon’s “instances of lamp” to invoke Dalton and other atomism chemists to envision atomism, but also served as a bridge linking the two meta-chemistries. John Dalton, the third choice, envisioned his atomism by abduction. The case study on “the Berthollet-Proust controversy and Dalton’s resolution” mandates a reinvestigation of the crucial role of the system of experiments and the evolution of chemistry according to the demarcation between the established branches of Elementalism and Atomism Chemistry. (shrink)

Postmodernism is a philosophical description that encompasses philosophy, the arts, a period of history, and many other aspects of today’s existence. This dissertation examines the extent to which Indiana public school superintendents use postmodern philosophy as opposed to modern philosophy to inform their practice. This was accomplished by examining eight leadership concepts through the application of questions with decisions related to either modernism or postmodernism. The study described by this dissertation used a quantitative research method assembling (...) data and determining the correlation of operant philosophy by a superintendent with their tenure. (shrink)

本书解析了博士生教育制度架构、招生、课程与教学、科研、论文等内容,考察了其源流和发展轨迹,分析了其现状、特点及改革趋向等。.

Abduction and metaphor are two significant concepts in cognitive science. It is found that the both mental processes are on the basis of certain similarity. The similarity inspires us to seek the answers to the following two questions: (1) Whether there is a common cognitive mechanism behind abduction and metaphor? And (2) if there is, whether this common mechanism could be interpreted within the unified frame of modern intelligence theory? Centering on these two issues, the paper attempts to characterize and (...) interpret the generation and evolution of scientific metaphors from the perspective of the cognitive mechanism of abductive inference. Then it interprets the common cognitive mechanism behind abduction and metaphor within Hawkins’ frame of intelligence theory. The commonality between abduction and metaphor indicates the potential to further explore human intelligence. (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)

In response to the big data era trend, statistics has become an indispensable part of mathematics education in junior high school. In this study, a pre-test and a post-test were developed for the six attributes of the data distribution characteristic. This research then used the cognitive diagnosis model to learn about the poorly mastered attributes and to verify whether cognitive diagnosis can be used for targeted intervention to improve students' abilities effectively. One hundred two eighth graders participated in the (...) experiment and were divided into two groups. Among them, the intervention materials read by the experimental group students only contained attributes that they could not grasp well. In contrast, the reading materials of the control group were non-targeted. The results of the study showed the following: The variance and the weighted average were poorly mastered by students in the pre-test; compared with the control group, the average test score of the experimental group was significantly improved; in terms of attributes, the experimental group students' mastery of variance and the weighted average was significantly improved than the pre-test, while the control group's mastery was not. Based on this, some teaching suggestions were put forward. (shrink)

In the wake of the devastating Sichuan earthquake in 2008, the Chinese state, for the first time in the history of the People’s Republic, held a nationwide mourning rite for ordinary disaster victims. Why did this “mourning for the ordinary” emerge in the wake of the Sichuan earthquake but not previous massive disasters? Moreover, the Chinese state tried to demonstrate through the mourning that the state respected ordinary people’s lives and dignity. But this moral-political message contradicted the state’s normal repressive (...) practice. The contradiction was salient when the state forbade the parents of child victims, who died of school collapse, to mourn their children at anniversaries of the earthquake. What can account for this contradiction? Drawing on the state-society relations perspective, I argue that the emergence of “mourning for the ordinary” can be explained by some important changes in structural state-society relations in China in the 2000s, such as the rapidly developing civil society with moral consciousness and the more adaptive authoritarian Chinese state with concern about its moral legitimacy. These changes were strengthened in the situational dynamics in 2008, which led to the state’s acceptance of a mourning proposal from the public sphere. The mourning did not occur in previous disasters because those structural factors were absent or weak and the situational dynamics were different. The state suppressed parents’ mourning and outside activists’ alternative mourning because the state’s concern with stability overrode its moral legitimation, particularly in the changing political context after the Beijing Olympics, and, meanwhile, the civil society was unable to resist the state’s repression. This study theorizes an important but understudied mourning genre, “mourning for the ordinary,” and introduces the state-society perspective into public ritual study. (shrink)