The development of highly humanoid sex robots is on the technological horizon. If sex robots are integrated into the legal community as “electronic persons”, the issue of sexual consent arises, which is essential for legally and morally permissible sexual relations between human persons. This paper explores whether it is conceivable, possible, and desirable that humanoid robots should be designed such that they are capable of consenting to sex. We consider reasons for giving both “no” and “yes” answers to these three (...) questions by examining the concept of consent in general, as well as critiques of its adequacy in the domain of sexual ethics; the relationship between consent and free will; and the relationship between consent and consciousness. Additionally we canvass the most influential existing literature on the ethics of sex with robots. (shrink)

本套文集是作者一生学术成果的总结,共14卷500余万字,收录了他的15部重要美学著作.

The impetus of this study is to gauge the nexus between economic policy uncertainty and financial innovation in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa nations for the period from 2004M1 to 2018M12. This study utilizes both the linear and non-linear autoregressive distributed lag models to evaluate the long-run and the short-run association between EPU and financial innovation; furthermore, the causal effects are investigated by following the non-Granger casualty framework. The results of long-run cointegration, i.e., the test statistics of modified (...) F-test, standard Wald test, and tBDM, reject the null hypothesis and establish the presence of the long-run association between EPU and financial innovation. Conversely, long-run asymmetry cointegration revealed the test statistics of FPSS, WPSS, and tBDM in non-linear estimation. Furthermore, both in the long run and short run, the Wald test results disclose asymmetric effects running from EPU to financial innovation. In regards to the asymmetric impact of EPU on financial innovation, this study documents that the positive and negative shocks in EPU are negatively linked with financial innovation in the long run but are insignificant for short-run effects. Besides, financial innovation measured by R&D investment exhibits a positive linkage with shocks in EPU, implying that uncertainty induces innovation in the economy. Referring to causality effects, this study divulges the feedback hypothesis, i.e., bidirectional causality prevails between EPU and financial innovation in all sample countries. (shrink)

Based on the institutional theory, this article attempts to examine two consecutive questions regarding the impact of various factors on corporate decision in environmental information disclosure (EID): (1) whether or not to disclose; and (2) the level of disclosure. The relevance of these factors is empirically tested using data collected from publicly listed manufacturing companies from 2006 to 2008 in China. Some interesting findings appear. We find that firms that are state-owned, those that operate in environmentally sensitive industries, those having (...) more industrial peers engaged in EID, and those with better reputation are more likely to disclose environmental information. When it comes to the content of EID, variables that attempt to capture external institutional pressures exhibit either no or weak explanatory power. Only the variable of organizational image and reputation is demonstrated to have a significant impact on both the act and the content of EID. This study provides a snapshot of the dialogues between constituencies in the organizational field and EID development. (shrink)

Government have in the past embarked on many infrastructural programmes such as building of roads, hospitals, health centers in the rural areas, schools, etc for its citizens. A lot of projects have been carried out in the past years, there are institutions formed to carter for the implementation of such programmes, institutions like NEMA to check disasters, repair of roads, collapse buildings etc. NDDC was formed to take care of roads in the South East but many of these programmes and (...) institutions have not fared well in recent years because of corruption. Take for instance in the channels news of Tuesdays 16/6/2020 the new NDDC Director revealed how projects awarded to contractors in the past were all not carried out, funds meant for those purposes were all embezzled into private pockets. With the coming of Covid 19, governments have now found cover to say Covid 19 has attacked all revenue sources and so cannot carry out projects in the country. This is the burden of this work. Is it true that it is Covid 19 that halted the success of programme implementation in Nigeria? This is what this paper is out to ascertain. (shrink)

Since the user recommendation complex matrix is characterized by strong sparsity, it is difficult to correctly recommend relevant services for users by using the recommendation method based on location and collaborative filtering. The similarity measure between users is low. This paper proposes a fusion method based on KL divergence and cosine similarity. KL divergence and cosine similarity have advantages by comparing three similar metrics at different K values. Using the fusion method of the two, the user’s similarity with the preference (...) is reused. By comparing the location-based collaborative filtering algorithm, user-based collaborative filtering algorithm, and user recommendation algorithm, the proposed method has the preparation rate, recall rate, and experimental effect advantage. In different median values, the proposed method also has an advantage in experimental results. (shrink)

Guided by the ecosystem theory, this study aimed to explore the association between parental autonomy support and future-oriented coping of high school students, as well as the mediating effects of future time perspective and meaning in life in this relationship. A total of 707 Chinese high school students were involved in a paper questionnaire survey and data analysis. It was found that parental autonomy support was significantly positively related to future-oriented coping. Mediation analyses demonstrated that parental autonomy support directly affects (...) future-oriented coping; parental autonomy support indirectly affects future-oriented coping through separate mediation and serial mediation of future time perspective and meaning in life. These findings have important implications for the improvement of future-oriented coping abilities of high school students. (shrink)

Marx and Engels have elaborated the new system of their thought in German Ideology, including some important ideas on religion, from 1845 to 1846. Engels firstly applied the newly founded worldview and methodology to the systematic study of religion in his monograph Peasant War in Germany in 1850. Both events marked the founding of the Marxist Study of Religion. The Marxist humanity theory of religion benefitted from the religious critiques of Neo-Hegelian, Feuerbachian and religious philosophy. The social theoretical sources of (...) Marxism on religion are supposed to be the topics of other articles.Contribution: The general view in Chinese academia has been that the study of religion in the West was founded by Friedrich Max Müller in 1873 when he coined a new terminology ‘Science of Religion’ for his book. Comparatively speaking, the classic Marxist writers had only ‘a view of religion’ and not a view of ‘the study of religion’. The authors argued that there is a systematic study of religion from the very beginning of Marxism. Marx and Engels constructed the humanity theory of the Marxist Study of Religion by adopting and developing religious critique of Neo-Hegelian, Feuerbachian, critical theological thought. The academics in Western countries do not have such kind of views and this resulted in limited contributions in this area. (shrink)

"The work is on an important topic that has been oft debated but rarely systematically studied – the political, cultural, and moral effects of distant news coverage of suffering. [The book] is extremely well steeped in the relevant literature, including semiotics, discourse analysis, meda and social theory and makes a fresh methodological contribution by looking at the codes and formats of news about suffering. It has a fresh vision and answer to some of the stickiest moral and media problems of (...) our time … and deserves to find its place among important books about the moral aspects of media and society in our times." —John D. Peters, F. Wendell Miller Distinguished Professor, University of Ohio This book is about the relationship between the spectators in countries of the west, and the distant sufferer on the television screen; the sufferer in Somalia, Nigeria, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, but also from New York and Washington DC. How do we relate to television images of the distant sufferer? The question touches on the ethical role of the media in public life today. They address the issue of whether the media can cultivate a disposition of care for and engagement with the far away other; whether television can create a global public with a sense of social responsibility towards the distant sufferer. (shrink)

The study examined the effect of celebrity attractiveness, celebrity trustworthiness, and celebrity cause fit on the attitude toward green cosmetics. This was followed by the effect of brand awareness, brand associations, brand loyalty, perceived quality, brand credibility on brand equity, including the impact of attitude toward green cosmetics and brand equity on the willingness to purchase green cosmetics among of young Chinese consumers. This study adopted a cross-sectional design and collected quantitative data from 301 respondents using a structured questionnaire, which (...) was distributed online using various social media platforms. It was found that celebrity attractiveness, celebrity trustworthiness, and celebrity cause-fit had a significant impact on the attitudes toward green cosmetic, while brand loyalty, perceived quality, and brand credibility substantially affected brand equity. Moreover, the attitudes toward green cosmetics and brand equity had a strong impact on the willingness to purchase green cosmetics. To increase the sales for green cosmetics, the advertisements for it should have appeal, trustworthiness, and cause-fit celebrities to improve consumers’ attitudes and willingness to purchase green cosmetics. Finding of this study provide a guideline for green cosmetic manufacturers, to direct their resources to enhance brand loyalty, credibility, and perceived quality of the product they produce by highlighting the difference between conventional and green cosmetics. (shrink)

Though there has been much debate about whether Abelard's ethics are dangerously subjective or surprisingly absolutist, one thing is unanimous: they are intentionalist. The goal of this article is to parse out what should be meant by this claim, distancing his ethical account from the popular Kantian appraisal. Though much of the secondary literature on Abelard likens him to Kant, I argue that this is mistaken. For Abelard, an agent's intentions are informed by their affections—whether carnal or spiritual. This becomes (...) clear when contextualizing Abelard's use of intentio with a view to his Commentary on Romans. Using the account of intention I suggest—one nuanced by Abelard's own theological commitments and biblical exegesis—it will be clear that Abelard's ethics is not a case for the moral neutrality of the passions nor an ethic of pure reason. (shrink)

Digital peddling of fake news is influential to persuasive political participation, with veritable social media platforms. Social media, with their instantaneous and widespread usage, have been exploited by ‘anonymous’ political influencers who fabricate and inundate internet community with unverified and false information. Using van Leeuwen’s Discourse Legitimation approach and insights from Discourse Analysis, this study analyses 120 purposively sampled fake news posts on Whatsapp, Facebook and Twitter, shared during the 2019 general elections in Nigeria. WhatsApp allows for the easy and (...) fast sharing of fake news as it pulled the largest occurrence of legitimation strategies, followed by Facebook. Authorisation is the highest occurring legitimation strategy at 46.6% frequency; this is followed by Moralisation which has 27% and Rationalisation at 26.4%; while Mythopoesis did not feature at all in the sampled data, leaving it at 0%. In particular, expert and role model authority are most often deployed to validate fake news such as the demise and cloning of President Buhari, ruling party’s plan to rig and destabilise the 2019 election, massive corruption in the current administration and imminent ethnic violence. The study argues that these strategies are viable persuasive tools owing to their use of discourse markers like make-believe images, emotive language, appeal to emotions, rational conclusions, hateful comments, verbal indictment and coercive verbs. (shrink)

Objective: Based on the theory of perceived organizational support (POS), conservation of resource (COR) and job demands-resources (JD-R) model, this study establishes a moderated mediation model to test the role of job satisfaction in mediating the relationship between perceived organizational support and job burnout, as well as the role of regulatory emotional self-efficacy in moderating the above mediating process. Method: A total of 784 police officers were surveyed with the Perceived Organizational Support Scale, the Job Burnout Questionnaire, the Regulatory Emotional (...) Self-Efficacy Scale, and the Minnesota Job Satisfaction Questionnaire. Results: (1) After controlling for gender, seniority, age, police classification, education, and marital status, regression analysis showed a significant negative correlation between perceived organizational support and burnout (r = -0.42, p < 0.01), and the former had a significant negative predictive effect on job burnout (β = -0.42, p < 0.001). (2) The mediating effect test shows that job satisfaction plays a partial role in mediating the relationship between perceived organizational support and job burnout. (3) Through the analysis of the moderated mediation model test, regulatory emotional self-efficacy moderates the first half of the path of “perceived organizational support → job satisfaction → job burnout". Conclusion: Perceived organizational support not only directly affects police job burnout but also indirectly affects police job burnout through job satisfaction. Regulatory emotional self-efficacy enhances the influence of organizational support on job satisfaction. This study indicates the combined effect of perceived organizational support, job satisfaction and regulatory emotional self-efficacy on job burnout and has certain guiding significance for alleviating police job burnout. Keywords: Perceived organizational support, Job burnout, Job satisfaction, Regulatory emotional self-efficacy, Moderated mediation. (shrink)

Recent advances in machine learning methods have created opportunities to eliminate unfairness from algorithmic decision making. Multiple computational techniques (i.e., algorithmic fairness criteria) have arisen out of this work. Yet, urgent questions remain about the perceived fairness of these criteria and in which situations organizations should use them. In this paper, we seek to gain insight into these questions by exploring fairness perceptions of five algorithmic criteria. We focus on two key dimensions of fairness evaluations: distributive fairness and procedural fairness. (...) We shed light on variation in the potential for different algorithmic criteria to facilitate distributive fairness. Subsequently, we discuss procedural fairness and provide a framework for understanding how algorithmic criteria relate to essential aspects of this construct, which helps to identify when a specific criterion is suitable. From a practical standpoint, we encourage organizations to recognize that managing fairness in machine learning systems is complex, and that adopting a blind or one-size-fits-all mentality toward algorithmic criteria will surely damage people’s attitudes and trust in automated technology. Instead, firms should carefully consider the subtle yet significant differences between these technical solutions. (shrink)

Cultural diversity between residents and staff is significant in aged care homes in many developed nations in the context of international migration. This diversity can be a challenge to achieving effective cross‐cultural communication. The aim of this study was to critically examine how staff and residents initiated effective cross‐cultural communication and social cohesion that enabled positive changes to occur. A critical hermeneutic analysis underpinned by Giddens’ Structuration Theory was applied to the study. Data were collected by interviews with residents or (...) their family and by focus groups with staff in four aged care homes in Australia. Findings reveal that residents and staff are capable of restructuring communication via a partnership approach. They can also work in collaboration to develop communication resources. When staff demonstrate cultural humility, they empower residents from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds to engage in effective communication. Findings also suggest that workforce interventions are required to improve residents’ experiences in cross‐cultural care. This study challenges aged care homes to establish policies, criteria and procedures in cross‐cultural communication. There is also the challenge to provide ongoing education and training for staff to improve their cross‐cultural communication capabilities. (shrink)

In diesem für den Unterricht an französischen Universitäten konzipierten, reichhaltig mit Karten, Stadtplänen und Grundrissen ausgestatteten Studienbuch gibt der Autor, ein ausgewiesener Kenner der italienischen und insbesondere der genuesischen Seehandels- und Kolonialpolitik im östlichen Mittelmeer und im Schwarzmeergebiet nach 1204/1261 (La Romanie génoise. 2 Bde. [BEFAR 235], Roma 1978), dem wir bereits eine kleine Kreuzzugsgeschichte verdanken (Les Croisades, Paris, MA Editions, 1988), nicht nur einen elementaren Überblick über die Geschichte der Kreuzzüge, sondern zugleich einen Einblick in die Entwicklung der im (...) Vorderen Orient entstandenen Kreuzfahrerstaaten, wobei er gelegentlich auch auf die Quellenlage zu Spezialproblemen und auf den aktuellen Forschungsstand hinweist. (shrink)

In this paper, we revisit a host–parasite system with multiple parasite strains and superinfection proposed by Nowak and May :81–89, 1994), and study its global dynamics when we relax the two strict conditions assumed therein. As for system with two parasite strains, we derive that the basic reproduction number $$R_0$$ is the threshold condition for parasite extinction and the invasion reproduction number $$R_i^j\ $$ is the subthreshold condition for coexistence of two parasite strains. As for system with three parasite strains, (...) we are surprised to discover the global stability of parasite-free and coexistence equilibrium, which is distinct from the previous result. Furthermore, for system with n strains, we obtain the global asymptotical stability of the parasite-free equilibrium, conjecture a general result on the global stability of coexistence equilibrium and provide two numerical examples to testify our conjecture. (shrink)