Personal competition among colleagues and co-workers has been observed in order to prove their professional superiority over others. Such behaviors have grave consequences on the overall team performance. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of personal competition on team performance incorporating the mediating role of the playing dumb behavior of knowledge hiding. The study has further checked the moderating effect of task interdependence on the relationship between personal competition and playing dumb. Data for the present study (...) had been collected through questionnaires from the sports players actively associated with games through their educational institutes in China. The sample size of the study was 339, selected on the basis of convenience sampling. Smart PLS had been employed to analyze the data through structural equation modeling. The results of the study showed a strong impact of personal competition on team performance and the playing dumb variable. Furthermore, playing dumb has been found to have a strong mediating impact on team performance. The study has theoretically contributed to the literature of competition and performance by investigating the mediating role of playing dumb. The study also offers certain practical implications to the managers of the corporate world to devise such human resource policies that take appraisals from the colleagues so as to rectify the negative workplace behaviors and could be worked out accordingly. (shrink)

The significance of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in eukaryotic evolution remains controversial. Although many eukaryotic genes are of bacterial origin, they are often interpreted as being derived from mitochondria or plastids. Because of their fixed gene pool and gene loss, however, mitochondria and plastids alone cannot adequately explain the presence of all, or even the majority, of bacterial genes in eukaryotes. Available data indicate that no insurmountable barrier to HGT exists, even in complex multicellular eukaryotes. In addition, the discovery of (...) both recent and ancient HGT events in all major eukaryotic groups suggests that HGT has been a regular occurrence throughout the history of eukaryotic evolution. A model of HGT is proposed that suggests both unicellular and early developmental stages as likely entry points for foreign genes into multicellular eukaryotes. (shrink)

This article is a review of the rise and development of women’s studies and the sociology of women/gender, two interrelated academic fields in China. Informed by the sociology of knowledge, the authors analyze how historical and sociopolitical factors such as the legacy of Marxism, state/party control, economic reform, political upheavals, local conditions, and global influences have greatly shaped what and how women’s and gender issues are studied and the resultant characteristics and knowledge production of the two fields in China. Specifically, (...) the authors examine the dynamic process of knowledge development in sociology of women/gender in terms of its academic positioning, standpoint, content, research methodology, curriculum transformation, and teaching in China. Finally, the authors demonstrate how the characteristics and issues shared by the two fields have evolved in a dynamic interplay between Chinese Marxism and feminism. (shrink)

內容簡介 本書是由王金凌教授 100 學年（時年 62 歲）於輔仁大學中文研究所開設的「先秦學術專 題」的上課錄音檔整理而成。為了方便讀者理解，王教授的相關教學講義及論文若干篇也 一併收錄。本講學錄是一本具有「三度」空間的書。第一度是「深度」，書中深入探討先秦學術所關心的問題，其根本在於宗法封建制度的結構性缺陷，問題剖析之深，為學界首見。 第二度是「廣度」，全書所講述的人物從孔子到韓非子，所討論的典籍從四書到老莊，能全面照應到先秦學術思想的重要流派。第三度是「跨度」，全書能將先秦的學術思想與現代社 會所見的問題及現象，進行了縝密且具見解的聯結，在先秦與現代、思想與人生之間，自由地跨越，進而超越。.

Theoretical research into the emotional attributes of ideological and political education can improve our ability to understand human emotion and solve socio-emotional problems. To that end, this study undertook an analysis of emotion in ideological and political education by integrating a gate recurrent unit with an attention mechanism. Based on the good results achieved by BERT in the downstream network, we use the long focusing attention mechanism assisted by two-way GRU to extract relevant information and global information of ideological and (...) political education and emotion analysis, respectively. The two kinds of information complement each other, and the accuracy of emotion information can be further improved by combining neural network model. Finally, the validity and domain adaptability of the model were verified using several publicly available, fine-grained emotion datasets. (shrink)

This study aims to analyze the integrated construction and application of ideological and political education and innovation and entrepreneurship education in colleges based on the positive psychological quality of entrepreneurship. 549 college students are selected for a questionnaire survey. The correlations between entrepreneurial psychological quality of college students, IEE in colleges, IPE, and entrepreneurial self-efficacy are analyzed with the Spearman correlation and linear regression. The hierarchical regression analysis is used to analyze the intermediary role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy in IEE, IPE (...) in colleges, and entrepreneurial psychological quality of college students. The results show that the entrepreneurial psychological quality of college students is significantly different in gender, family location, and grade level ; the main channels of IPE and daily IPE have significant positive effects on the positive entrepreneurship psychological quality, and have extremely significant positive effects on the entrepreneurial self-efficacy ; innovation and entrepreneurship course, innovation and entrepreneurship practices, innovation and entrepreneurship environment, and total score of IEE have significant positive correlations with positive entrepreneurship psychological quality and entrepreneurial self-efficacy of college students ; and the intermediary effect of entrepreneurial self-efficacy accounts for 33.49% on the IPE and entrepreneurial psychological quality, and 41.85% on IEE and entrepreneurial psychological quality. In short, IPE and IEE can effectively improve the positive psychological quality and self-efficacy of college students, and the joint construction of the two can have a more significant effect. (shrink)

Harmony is a concept essential to Confucianism and to the way of life of past and present people in East Asia. Integrating methods of textual exegesis, historical investigation, comparative analysis, and philosophical argumentation, this book presents a comprehensive treatment of the Confucian philosophy of harmony. The book traces the roots of the concept to antiquity, examines its subsequent development, and explicates its theoretical and practical significance for the contemporary world. It argues that, contrary to a common view in the West, (...) Confucian harmony is not mere agreement but has to be achieved and maintained with creative tension. Under the influence of a Weberian reading of Confucianism as "adjustment" to a world with an underlying fixed cosmic order, Confucian harmony has been systematically misinterpreted in the West as presupposing an invariable grand scheme of things that pre-exists in the world to which humanity has to conform. The book shows that Confucian harmony is a dynamic, generative process, which seeks to balance and reconcile differences and conflicts through creativity. Illuminating one of the most important concepts in Chinese philosophy and intellectual history, this book is of interest to students of Chinese studies, history and philosophy in general and eastern philosophy in particular. (shrink)

In this article, I argue that the current literature on political hope overlooks its non-instrumental value. By proposing a Kant-inspired account of treating reasonable hopes as fundamental hopes, I argue that it is rational for people to hold certain political hopes not only because such hopes promote particular ends but also because they are constitutive of a person’s practical identity as a responsible political agent with limited power to make changes. This view reveals that victims of injustice face an affective (...) injustice because the unjust social system forces them to face a double bind in upholding their fundamental political hopes. (shrink)

The detection of moving targets is to detect the change area in a sequence of images and extract the moving targets from the background image. It is the basis. Whether the moving targets can be correctly detected and segmented has a huge impact on the subsequent work. Aiming at the problem of high failure rate in the detection of sports targets under complex backgrounds, this paper proposes a research on the design of an intelligent background differential model for training target (...) monitoring. This paper proposes a background difference method based on RGB colour separation. The colour image is separated into independent RGB three-channel images, and the corresponding channels are subjected to the background difference operation to obtain the foreground image of each channel. In order to retain the difference of each channel, the information of the foreground images of the three channels is fused to obtain a complete foreground image. The feature of the edge detection is not affected by light; the foreground image is corrected. From the experimental results, the ordinary background difference method uses grey value processing, and some parts of the target with different colours but similar grey levels to the background cannot be extracted. However, the method in this paper can better solve the defect of misdetection. At the same time, compared with traditional methods, it also has a higher detection efficiency. (shrink)

Few studies have examined the relationship between personality traits and social networking sites (SNSs) with a dominant concentration on the personality alterations under SNSs influence. The relationship between personality and privacy control was less focused and discussed. In order to figure out the internal mechanism of such link among youth SNSs users, the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was extended by including Five-Factor Model of Personality to explore how personality traits interact with privacy control behavior on SNSs. The investigation using (...) the theoretical method mentioned led to several hypotheses which were later assessed by an online study conducted within randomly chosen college students (N = 201) from two randomly chosen universities in China. This sampling strategy was designed to mimic the situation of targeted research population in the most reasonable way. The results suggested neuroticism and openness predicted SNSs privacy. Neuroticism and openness predicted “networked privacy” was also found. Theoretical implications of these findings were addressed. (shrink)

Firms worldwide are increasingly required to disclose their carbon emissions due to the environmental damage associated with climate change. Because there has been no previous literature focusing on the determinants of corporate carbon disclosure integrating environmental legitimacy and green innovation, the present study attempted to develop an original framework to fill the research gap. This study explored the influence of environmental legitimacy on corporate carbon disclosure, and investigated the role of green innovation as a mediator. With the samples of Carbon (...) Disclosure Project in China from 2008 to 2012, the results demonstrate that environmental legitimacy significantly negatively influences the likelihood of corporate carbon disclosure, and that green process innovation mediates the relationship, while green product innovation has no significant mediating effect. It means that environmental legitimacy not only directly affects the likelihood of corporate carbon disclosure, but also indirectly affects it via green process innovation. Hence, companies must increase both informal and formal mechanisms, i.e., external environmental legitimacy and internal green process innovation, to engage in carbon information disclosure and ensure sustainability. (shrink)

Nurses are experiencing new ethical issues as a result of global developments and changes in health care. With health care becoming increasingly sophisticated, and countries facing challenges of graying population, ethical issues involved in health care are bound to expand in quantity and in depth. Blended learning rather as a combination of multiple delivery media designed to promote meaningful learning. Specifically, this study was focused on two questions: (1) the students’ satisfaction and attitudes as members of a scenario-based learning process (...) in a blended learning environment; (2) the relationship between students’ satisfaction ratings of nursing ethics course and their attitudes in the blended learning environment. In total, 99 senior undergraduate nursing students currently studying at a public nursing college in Taiwan were invited to participate in this study. A cross-sectional survey design was adopted in this study. The participants were asked to fill out two Likert-scale questionnaire surveys: CAAS (Case Analysis Attitude Scale), and BLSS (Blended Learning Satisfaction Scale). The results showed what students felt about their blended learning experiences — mostly items ranged from 3.27—3.76 (the highest score is 5). Another self-assessment of scenario analysis instrument revealed the mean scores ranged from 2.87—4.19. Nearly 57.8% of the participants rated the course ‘extremely helpful’ or ‘very helpful.’ This study showed statistically significant correlations (r = 0.43) between students’ satisfaction with blended learning and case analysis attitudes. In addition, results testified to a potential of the blended learning model proposed in this study to bridge the gap between students and instructors and the one between students and their peers, which are typical of blended learning, and to create meaningful learning by employing blended pedagogical consideration in the course design. The use of scenario instruction enables students to develop critical analysis and problem solving skills through active learning and social exchange of ideas. (shrink)

Does morality require the filial obligation of grown children toward their aged parents? First, problems with some accounts of filial morality that have been put forth in recent years in the West are examined (Jane English, Jeffrey Blustein, and others), and then it is shown how Confucianism provides a sensible alternative perspective.

The last two decades have witnessed the rising prevalence of both co-publishing and retraction. Focusing on research collaboration, this paper utilizes a unique dataset to investigate factors contributing to retraction probability and elapsed time between publication and retraction. Data analysis reveals that the majority of retracted papers are multi-authored and that repeat offenders are collaboration prone. Yet, all things being equal, collaboration, in and of itself, does not increase the likelihood of producing flawed or fraudulent research, at least in the (...) form of retraction. That holds for all retractions and also retractions due to falsification, fabrication, and plagiarism. The research also finds that publications with authors from elite universities are less likely to be retracted, which is particularly true for retractions due to FFP. China stands out with the fastest retracting speed compared to other countries. Possible explanations, limitations, and policy implications are also discussed. (shrink)

The present paper provides a critical edition of basic verses of Madhyamakāvatāra chapter 6. The verses are extracted from the Sanskrit manuscript of the Madhyamakāvatārabhāṣya preserved at Potala Palace. The Madhyamakāvatāra is one of Candrakīrti’s major works and clearly establishes his own doctrinal position. Chapter 6 contains most important doctrinal discussions of the work.

Capitalist reforms usually drive outmigration of peasants to cities, while elders, children, and women responsible for their care are “left behind” in the countryside. The plight of these “left behind” populations is a major focus of recent agrarian studies in China. However, rural women are not merely passive victims of these transformations. Building on ethnographic research in Guangxi and Henan provinces from 2013 to 2017, and drawing on critical gender studies and feminist political ecology, I show how the food safety (...) crisis in China creates conditions for peasant women to increase control and income from organic food production, often establishing alternative food networks with the support of female scholars and NGO organizers. Thus, I shift focus of scholarship on rural women from “left behind” to leaders in struggles for justice and food sovereignty. (shrink)

Background Nurses often face ethical issues in their daily work that can have an impact on their level of job embeddedness. And positive job embeddedness is essential to reduce burnout among nurses and improve professional retention in the medical industry. However, few studies have focused on the relationship between moral distress, moral resilience, and job embeddedness. Objectives To investigate the relationship between moral distress, moral resilience, and job embeddedness, and explore the mediating role of moral resilience between moral distress and (...) job embeddedness among nurses. Design A quantitative, cross-sectional study. Methods Nurses from a number of tertiary general hospitals in central China were surveyed and assessed using the Moral Distress Scale, the Nurse Moral Resilience Scale, and the nurse job embeddedness Scale from February to March 2023. The study was conducted in line with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki. Ethical consideration All study procedures were approved by the Ethics Committee of Hunan Normal University (No. 2023-313). Findings Moral distress was positively correlated with moral resilience ( β = 0.525, p < 0.01) and negatively correlated job embeddedness ( β = −0.470, p < 0.01). Moral resilience partially mediated the relationship between moral distress with job embeddedness ( β = −0.087, p < 0.01). Discussion The findings reveal a relationship between moral distress, job embeddedness, and moral resilience among nurses. Conclusion Moral distress and moral resilience are important correlates of job embeddedness in nurses. Interventions to reduce moral distress and increase moral resilience may have potential benefits for improving nurses’ job embeddedness. It is recommended that clinical nursing administrators create a favorable ethical atmosphere, educate nurses about ethics, and increase nurses' moral resilience. (shrink)

This study discusses the impact of different economic indicators on economic stability, including honest leadership, improved infrastructure, revenue generation, and CPEC taking into account the double mediating role of environmental sustainability and sustainable development, while considering the latest COVID-19 situation. This study adopted primary data collection methods and obtained data from the employees of CPEC by using questionnaires and smart-PLS for analysis purposes. The results revealed that honest leadership, improved infrastructure, revenue generation, and CPEC have a positive nexus with economic (...) stability. Despite the severe impact of COVID-19 on the country’s economy, the economic corridor plays a vital role in stabilizing the state’s economy and supports all those related to this phenomenal project either directly or indirectly. (shrink)

This study conducts a bibliometric analysis of news discourse analysis using CiteSpace to sketch its scientific landscape based on journal articles in English in the Scopus database from 1988 through 2020. The statistical analysis provides evidence for the interdisciplinarity of this area, and shows an upward trend in general over these years as well as an accelerating growth rate in the past decade. Findings also indicate that the problem-oriented CDA has gained the most popularity in this area since its emergence, (...) and the appraisal framework, multimodality analysis, and discursive news values have become three hotspots of news discourse analysis. In addition, the authors in the West have contributed most in this area, but those from Chinese Mainland, Malaysia, South Africa, and Indonesia have gradually been an emerging powerhouse, which has added diversity in topics and will enhance equality and promote dialogue between different communities, ethnics, and races across the globe. (shrink)

This essay analyses two kinds of harmony as exemplified in Confucianism and Daoism and examines their relation with domination and freedom.

Integrating affective events theory, work-family compensation, and moral balance theory, the present study proposes a model that examines how and when abusive supervisory behavior is related to employees’ deviant behavior toward their supervisor. Using a diary method that involved two surveys per day over two weeks, we found support for our model based on 707 daily observations from 130 employees. Specifically, anger toward one’s supervisor mediated the relationship between abusive supervisory behavior and deviant behavior toward one’s supervisor. In addition, the (...) degree to which employees engaged in deviant behavior toward their supervisor depended on their prior-day deviant behavior toward their family. When employees engaged in lower prior-day deviant behavior toward their family, anger toward their supervisor was positively related to subsequent deviant behavior toward their supervisor. In contrast, when employees had higher prior-day deviant behavior toward their family, the relationship between anger toward their supervisor and deviant behavior toward their supervisor was weaker. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for research on abusive supervision, work-family interface, and moral balance theory. (shrink)

Our age is one of globalization. A major characteristic of this age is the interaction, contention, and integration of various cultural and philosophical traditions. In such an environment, Chinese studies can no longer be conducted in isolation, independently of external influences. If we call the 18th-19th centuries the age of reason, the 20th century the age of analysis, the 21st century is the age of comparative study. In our age, the mantra of “interpreting China in terms of (only) Chinese perspectives” (...) is no longer appropriate. Comparative approaches are becoming a quasi-paradigm in Chinese studies. (shrink)

All cultures are infused by or even rooted in certain values. Although those values are generally recognised in all societies, they are diversely ranked or proritised in different human groups and different perceptions partly account for cultural diversity as not all values can be equally upheld in any community or by any individual. Though value universalism in a strict sense is unachievable, we can all agree on a pluralistic mutual understanding of and tolerance for diversity.

In Aristotle’s moral psychology, deliberation (βούλευσις) is a very important concept that bridges the agent’s desire and action. However, his theory of what kind of desire is connected to deliberation creates puzzle for the reader: on the one hand, he repeatedly emphasizes that wish (βούλησις) sets the end for the agent, and deliberation finds the means for the agent to achieve the end of the action, and on the other hand, his moral psychology suggests that there are three kinds of (...) desires, namely, wish, spiritedness (θυμός), and appetite (ἐπιθυμία), and that, according to this division, all three kinds of desires can set the end of the action for deliberation. The traditional way of resolving this puzzle is to abandon wish as the only kind of desire that sets the end of deliberation and action, and to argue that at least appetite can also set the end of deliberation and action for the agent. The key rationale is that the akratic fails to achieve the object of her wish, but instead achieves the object of their appetite, and thus appetite sets the ends for their deliberation and actions. In addition, although the intemperate achieves the object of her wish, she also achieves the object of her appetite. This article argues against this traditional interpretation. Instead, I defend the view that, first, the end of all actions is set by the wish of the agent, and, second, the starting point of every act of deliberation is the end of the action set by the wish. On the basis of this interpretation, I also explain why the intemperate and the akratic agents initiate their deliberation with the end set by the wish. (shrink)

The processes in construction are more likely than others to breed unsafe behaviors, and the consequences of these actions can be serious. This paper first reviews the research status on unsafe behavior in construction teams. It then analyzes the complex mechanisms that lead to unsafe behavior and constructs a three-layer structural model based on agent-based modeling technology. This modeling deals with complexity and elaborates on key points and potential research ideas in the study of unsafe behavior in construction teams. Using (...) the ABM method, the effects of different incentive strategies on the safe behavior of construction teams under different management scenarios were studied. The results showed that when members have a fair perception of the situation, the effect of the excess performance reward distribution, according to the member’s safety awareness level, is better than the average distribution effect. This is the case whether the member’s safety behavior level is positively or negatively related to the member’s safety awareness level. This study proves the feasibility, validity, and universality of the three-layer structural model. It also reaches certain management conclusions and ideas for further development. The purpose of this paper is to provide a reference for research on the containment and prevention of unsafe behavior in construction teams. (shrink)

In his feature article,1 McCullough LB et al highlights the importance of civility among medical educators and academic leaders in shaping the professional habits of junior doctors. He emphasises the role of medical educators in correcting unprofessional behaviour and emphasises the need for academic leaders to motivate junior doctors to develop virtuous professional habits. The relationship between junior doctors and medical educators can be likened to that between students and teachers. Through active or passive learning from medical educators, junior doctors (...) gain the necessary knowledge, experience and professional virtues. Academic leaders, as prominent experts in their field, play a guiding role in this process. Therefore, their relationship with junior doctors is akin to that between idols and fans. In this regard, academic leaders can serve as exceptional role models for guiding junior doctors to develop the inclination to …. (shrink)

Humans can learn complex functional relationships between variables from small amounts of data. In doing so, they draw on prior expectations about the form of these relationships. In three experiments, we show that people learn to adjust these expectations through experience, learning about the likely forms of the functions they will encounter. Previous work has used Gaussian processes—a statistical framework that extends Bayesian nonparametric approaches to regression—to model human function learning. We build on this work, modeling the process of learning (...) to learn functions as a form of hierarchical Bayesian inference about the Gaussian process hyperparameters. (shrink)

In this essay I attempt to articulate a Confucian idea of gender equality from a perspective of yin-yang philosophy.

Abstract: In this essay I will discuss five major challenges faced by Confucianism in recent times. Two of these challenges have been widely acknowledged, namely those of science and democracy. I believe that Confucianism's problem with science has been largely solved, even though more constructive work would further strengthen Confucianism in this regard. The problem of democracy is still being dealt with. I will examine three more major challenges. The third major challenge for Confucianism comes from environmentalism. Confucianism has taken (...) note of its important message and has begun to respond to it. The fourth major challenge is the feminist challenge. Even though contemporary Confucianism accepts sexual equality, philosophically significant progress is yet to be made. The final challenge is the challenge of Confucianism's own survival. After serving three major assults in the 20th century, especially the most recent assult by "the glorious cat," Confucianism needs to find a way to renew itself into future. . (shrink)

Engaging in dialogue with African philosophy, I respond to questions raised by Thaddeus Metz on characteristics of Confucian philosophy in comparison with African philosophy. First, in both Confucian philosophy and African philosophy, harmony/harmonization and self-realization coincide in the process of person-making. Second, Confucians accept that sometimes it is inevitable to sacrifice individual components in order to achieve or maintain harmony at large scales; the point is how to minimize such costs. Third, Confucians give family love a central place in the (...) good life before extend love to the rest of the world. Fourth, the Confucian philosophy of gender equality is based on appropriate division of labor consistent with its yin-yang philosophy, rather than equal split of power in the family. Fifth, in the Confucian view, hierarchy and harmony do not necessarily contradict each other, though hierarchy is not essential to all forms of harmony. The two can co-exist. (shrink)

Taking support from ego-depletion theory, this study examines ego depletion as a mechanism that explains how employees’ organizational citizenship behavior leads to antagonistic consequences, i.e., service sabotage. Employees’ positive psychological capital is considered a moderator. PROCESS macro was used to test all the hypotheses using time-lagged, dyadic data collected from 420 employees and their 112 their supervisors associated with the service industry in China. This study finds that employees’ exhibition of OCB is positively linked to ego depletion, which in turn (...) drives service sabotage behavior. Furthermore, employees’ PsyCap weakens the effect of OCB on employees’ ego depletion. This study highlights the dark side of OCB, the mechanism through which it causes adverse effects, and the moderating effect of PsyCap. It also provides insights to the organizations for managing service sector employees to effectively interact with customers. (shrink)

Narcissism is considered a generally undesirable trait in the workplace, but is this the whole story? In grandiose narcissism, two dimensions (narcissistic rivalry and narcissistic admiration) are recognized corresponding to self-protecting and self-enhancing regulatory processes separately. Applying the self-regulation theory and the conservation of resources theory, we investigated the distinct outcomes and influencing mechanisms of the two dimensions in an organizational context using multilevel structural equation modeling. Whereas previous literature has found narcissism to be mainly related to negative outcomes in (...) the workplace, our dimensional framework indicates that grandiose narcissism may have a Janus face—i.e., a dark side of unethical behaviors and a light side of prosocial behaviors. From a sample of 646 frontline employees in a Chinese call center, we found that while employee narcissistic rivalry was positively related to customer-directed sabotage through the mediation of emotional exhaustion, narcissistic admiration was positively related to organizational citizenship behavior toward customers (OCB-C) through the mediation of self-perceived status. In addition to the internal self-regulation of these two narcissism dimensions, political skill provides an external self-regulation that moderates the mediating effect of self-perceived status at the first stage—that is, the positive relationship between narcissistic admiration and self-perceived status is stronger when political skill is high rather than low. Our post hoc analyses further reveal that narcissistic rivalry is negatively related to OCB-C through the mediation of self-perceived status. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed. (shrink)

Although data sharing platforms host diverse data types the features of these platforms are well-suited to facilitating biomarker research. Given the current state of biomarker discovery, an innovative paradigm to accelerate biomarker discovery is to utilize platforms such as Vivli to leverage researchers' abilities to integrate certain classes of biomarkers.

Human dignity is a crucial concept in contemporary ethical, political and legal studies. However, people have different, even opposite understandings of human dignity, which has caused lots of confusion in related discourses. The Confucian notion of human dignity provides an important perspective for reflecting various theories of human dignity. In Confucian ethics, the basis of human dignity is the moral potential that every human being naturally has. Moral potential grants everyone universal dignity, while the development of moral potential grants people (...) acquired dignity. Since all human beings have moral potential to the same extent, everyone owns universal dignity equally. Different people develop their moral potential to different extents. One’s acquired dignity is positively associated with the development of her moral potential. Universal dignity is a moral status but acquired dignity is not. To pursue acquired dignity is the moral demand of universal dignity and protects people’s universal dignity. Confucian discussions on human dignity provide not only a way to justify the equality of human moral status, but also a way to justify the moral obligation of protecting and developing human nature, thereby constituting a reliable theoretical basis for coping with ethical issues caused by biomedical technologies today. (shrink)

This book is the first academic work on the philosophy of engineering in China that reflects two decades of research. It puts forward a new thesis, namely that the core maxim in the philosophy of engineering is “I create, therefore I am,” which is radically different from the Cartesian maxim: “I think, therefore I am.” In addition, the book offers the first detailed portrait of the roots and evolution of the philosophy of engineering in China. The book begins by discussing (...) the triptych thesis of science, technology and engineering, which argues that there are a number of important distinctions between the three, e.g. scientific activities are chiefly based on discovery, while technological activities center on invention, and engineering activities focus on creation. Considering the latest developments in the philosophy of engineering, the author also analyzes engineering communities, engineering practice and a micro–meso–macro framework. In subsequent chapters, the author separately analyzes the three stages of engineering activities: planning, operating and using artifacts. In the closing chapter, two views on the philosophy of engineering are briefly explained. (shrink)