以严复的中西文化观为核心,将中国与西欧这两大思想文化体系,在历史的纵向发展与时代的横向座标这一大背景下,作宏观与微观的对比分析。.

The Exclusion Argument has afflicted non-reductionists for decades. In this article, I attempt to show that emergentism—the view that mental entities can downwardly cause physical entities in a non-overdetermining way—is the most plausible approach to solving the exclusion problem. The emergentist approach is largely absent in contemporary philosophy of mind, because emergentism rejects the Causal Closure of Physics, a doctrine embraced by almost all physicalists. This article, however, challenges the consensus on causal closure and defends a physicalist version of emergentism. (...) On closer examination, I find that neither physical evidence nor physicalist considerations can satisfactorily support causal closure. Moreover, I argue that two competing approaches that accept causal closure, compatibilism and autonomism, involve ad hoc postulations of mental causation. Therefore, all things considered, emergentism is the best option available to non-reductive physicalists. (shrink)

A growing number of philosophers are bringing interventionism into the field of supervenient causation. Many argue that interventionist supervenient causation is exempted from the fixability condition. However, this approach looks ad hoc, inconsistent with the general interventionist requirement on fixation. Moreover, it leads to false judgments about the causal efficacy of supervenient/subvenient properties. This article aims to develop a novel interventionist account of supervenient causation that respects the fixability requirement. The treatment of intervention and fixation that I propose can accommodate (...) some theoretical constraints on causation and deliver correct causal verdicts in classic examples. It is also worth noting that this interventionist account offers a promising defense of mental causation without postulating mental-physical overdetermination. (shrink)

The Exclusion Argument, which aims to deny the causal efficacy of irreducible mental properties, is probably the most serious challenge to non-reductive physicalism. Many proposed solutions to the exclusion problem can only reject simplified exclusion arguments, but fail to block a sophisticated version I introduce. In this paper, I attempt to show that we can refute the sophisticated exclusion argument by appeal to a sophisticated understanding of causation, what I call the 'Dual-condition Conception of Causation'. Specifically, I argue that the (...) dual-condition account of causation gives strong support to the so-called 'Autonomy Solution', which contends that even if mental properties are unable to cause (fundamental) physical properties, they can still cause higher-level properties (such as mental, behavioral, and social properties)—if so, human agency would be preserved in the physical world. (shrink)

In Zhong (Philos Phenomenol Res 83:129–147, 2011; Analysis 72:75–85, 2012), I argued that, contrary to what many people might expect, the counterfactual theory of causation will generate (rather than solve) the exclusion problem. Recently some philosophers raise an incisive objection to this argument. They contend that my argument fails as it equivocates between different notions of a physical realizer (see Christensen and Kallestrup in Analysis 72:513–517, 2012). However, I find that their criticism doesn’t threaten the central idea of my (...) view. In this paper, I make two separate responses that appeal to two unequivocal notions of physical realizers, respectively. I aim to show that a modified argument that uses either notion would work. (shrink)

Although physicalism is a dominant position in contemporary philosophy of mind and metaphysics, there are surprisingly very few serious arguments for physicalism, which may contribute to the revival of anti-physicalism in recent decades. In this article, I develop a causal argument for physicalism in general, inspired by the causal argument for reductive physicalism. By comparing each pair of premises, I argue that, while the causal argument for reductive physicalism is controversial, the causal argument for physicalism simpliciter is promising.

Research based on the behavioral theory of the firm (BTOF) argues that firms will actively adopt strategic actions to respond to performance that falls below aspirations, that is performance shortfalls. However, most previous studies have focused on market-related strategic actions, paying less attention to the impact of performance shortfalls on non-market-related strategic actions, especially corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate social irresponsibility (CSI). In this study, we propose that firms facing performance shortfalls are likely to reduce CSR levels and increase (...) CSI levels. In addition, we also propose that board characteristics (board size, board age and board tenure) have a significant moderating effect on the above relationship. Empirical analyses based on an unbalanced panel data of China's listed firms from 2010 to 2018 show that our arguments are largely supported. (shrink)

A quite popular approach to solving the Causal Exclusion Problem is to adopt a counterfactual theory of causation. In this paper, I distinguish three versions of the Causal Exclusion Argument. I argue that the counterfactualist approach can block the first two exclusion arguments, because the Causal Inheritance Principle and the Upward Causation Principle upon which the two arguments are based respectively are problematic from the perspective of the counterfactual account of causation. However, I attempt to show that the counterfactualist approach (...) is unable to refute a sophisticated version (i.e. the third version) of the exclusion argument in that the Downward Causation Principle, a premise of the third exclusion argument, is actually implied by the counterfactual theory of causation. Therefore, even if other theories of causation might help the non-reductive physicalist to solve the exclusion problem, the counterfactual theory of causation cannot. (shrink)

It is widely accepted that supervenience is a minimal commitment of physicalism. In this article, however, I aim to argue that physicalism should be exempted from the supervenience requirement. My arguments rely on a parallel between ontological dependence and causal dependence. Since causal dependence does not require causal determination, ontological dependence should not require ontological determination either. Moreover, my approach has a significant theoretical advantage: if physicalism is not committed to supervenience, then the metaphysical possibility of zombies—which is still wide (...) open after all these years—would pose no challenge to physicalism. (shrink)

The dominant way to define physical entities is by appeal to ideal physics (as opposed to current physics). However, it has been worried that physicalism understood in terms of ideal physics would be too liberal to rule out “psychism”, the view that mentality exists at the fundamental metaphysical level. In this article, I argue that whereas physicalism is incompatible with some psychist cases, such as the case of “phenomenalism” in which ideal physics adopts mental concepts to denote fundamental entities, physicalism (...) should accommodate a certain type of psychist case in which fundamental mental entities are denoted by non-mental concepts in ideal physics. In so doing, I propose a distinctive account of physical entities, which asserts that physical entities are entities denoted by non-mental natural concepts in ideal physics. Physicalism thus understood is expected to be neither too liberal nor too demanding. (shrink)

In this article, I defend a biconditional counterfactual account of causation, which places equal emphasis on what I call “the presence condition” and “the absence condition,” whereas Lewis's classical counterfactual theory focuses only on the absence condition. I attempt to show that biconditionalism provides a promising treatment of supervenient causation, namely, causal cases involving the supervenience relationship. Although some philosophers confuse this account with the proportionality constraint on causation, I argue that biconditionalism is distinct from and superior to proportionalism in (...) accommodating our reliable causal intuitions. (shrink)

Several theories, both ancient and recent, suggest that having the time to contemplate a decision should increase moral awareness and the likelihood of ethical choices. Our findings indicated just the opposite: greater time for deliberation led to less ethical decisions. Post-hoc analyses and a followup experiment suggested that decision makers act as if their previous choices have created or lost moral credentials: after an ethical first choice, people acted significantly less ethically in their subsequent choice but after an unethical first (...) choice, people acted significantly more ethically in their subsequent choice. These findings provide the basis for a model of compensatory ethics. (shrink)

Semantic normativism, which is the view that semantic properties/concepts are some kind of normative properties/concepts, has become increasingly influential in contemporary meta-semantics. In this paper, I aim to argue that semantic normativism has difficulty accommodating the causal efficacy of semantic properties. In specific, I raise an exclusion problem for semantic normativism, inspired by the exclusion problem in the philosophy of mind. Moreover, I attempt to show that the exclusion problem for semantic normativism is peculiarly troublesome: while we can solve mental-physical (...) exclusion by adopting the so-called ‘autonomy approach’, a similar autonomy solution to semantic exclusion is implausible if semantic properties are understood as normative properties. (shrink)

Many philosophers insist that the most plausible solution to the exclusion problem is to adopt the so-called ‘autonomy approach’, which denies either upward or downward causation between mental and physical properties. But the question of whether the autonomy approach is compatible with respectable theories of causation has seldom been discussed in the literature. This paper considers two influential theories of causation, the counterfactual account and the regularity account. I argue that neither the counterfactual theory nor the regularity theory can support (...) the autonomy approach – while the counterfactual approach fails to block downward causation, the regularity approach is unable to refute upward causation. (shrink)

In the literature there has been evidence that a kind of relational structure called a quantum Kripke frame captures the essential characteristics of the orthogonality relation between pure states of quantum systems, and thus is a good qualitative mathematical model of quantum systems. This paper adds another piece of evidence by providing a tensor-product construction of two finite-dimensional quantum Kripke frames. We prove that this construction is exactly the qualitative counterpart of the tensor-product construction of two finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces over (...) the complex numbers, and thus show that composition of quantum systems, especially the phenomenon of quantum entanglement, can be modelled in the framework of quantum Kripke frames. The assumptions used in our construction hint that we need complex numbers in quantum theory. Moreover, for this construction, we give a new and interesting characterization of linear maps of trace 0 in terms of the orthogonality relation. (shrink)

Wet markets, a ‘traditional’ form of food retail, have maintained their popularity in urban China despite the rapid expansion of ‘modern’ supermarket chains. Their continued popularity rests in the freshness of their food. Chinese consumers regard freshness as the most important aspect of food they buy, but what constitutes ‘freshness’ in produce is not simply a given. Freshness is actively produced by a range of actors including wholesalers, vendors as well as consumers. The paper examines what fresh food means to (...) consumers in the Chinese market. It argues that wet markets create a sense of freshness that resonates with this culinary culture through their sensoria, atmosphere, and trust between food vendors and consumers. Together these respond to desires for and reproduce criteria used to evaluate freshness. Within a fragmented food trade system, wet market vendors have an advantage in offering ‘freshness’ through their ability to connect various wholesalers, agencies, and middlemen, and shorten supply chains. The paper is based on participatory observation, a consumer survey and in-depth interviews of various stakeholders in southern China, especially Sanya in Hainan and Guangzhou in Guangdong. This study suggests that this cultural construction of freshness creates a niche for small-scale players and ‘traditional’ markets in an increasingly concentrated global food system. (shrink)

In this paper we show that some orthogeometries, i.e. projective geometries each defined using a ternary collinearity relation and equipped with a binary orthogonality relation, which are extensively studied in mathematics and quantum theory, correspond to Kripke frames, each defined using a binary relation, satisfying a few conditions. To be precise, we will define four special kinds of Kripke frames, namely, geometric frames, irreducible geometric frames, complete geometric frames and quantum Kripke frames; and we will show that they correspond to (...) pure orthogeometries, irreducible pure orthogeometries, Hilbertian geometries and irreducible Hilbertian geometries, respectively. The discovery of these correspondences raises interesting research topics and will enrich the study of logic. (shrink)

From the Hilbert space formalism we note that five simple conditions are satisfied by the orthogonality relation between the (pure) states of a quantum system. We argue, by proving a mathematical theorem, that they capture the essentials of this relation. Based on this, we investigate the rationale behind these conditions in the form of six physical hypotheses. Along the way, we reveal an implicit theoretical assumption in theories of physics and prove a theorem which formalizes the idea that the Superposition (...) Principle makes quantum physics different from classical physics. The work follows the paradigm of mathematical foundations of quantum theory, which I will argue by methodological reflection that it exemplifies a formal approach to analysing concepts in theories. (shrink)

Information‐theoretic complexity metrics, such as Surprisal (Hale, 2001; Levy, 2008) and Entropy Reduction (Hale, 2003), are linking hypotheses that bridge theorized expectations about sentences and observed processing difficulty in comprehension. These expectations can be viewed as syntactic derivations constrained by a grammar. However, this expectation‐based view is not limited to syntactic information alone. The present study combines structural and non‐structural information in unified models of word‐by‐word sentence processing difficulty. Using probabilistic minimalist grammars (Stabler, 1997), we extend expectation‐based models to include (...) frequency information about noun phrase animacy. Entropy reductions derived from these grammars faithfully reflect the asymmetry between subject and object relatives (Staub, 2010; Staub, Dillon, & Clifton, 2017), as well as the effect of animacy on the measured difficulty profile (Lowder & Gordon, 2012; Traxler, Morris, & Seely, 2002). Visualizing probability distributions on the remaining alternatives at particular parser states allows us to explore new, linguistically plausible interpretations for the observed processing asymmetries, including the way that expectations about the relativized argument influence the processing of particular types of relative clauses (Wagers & Pendleton, 2016). (shrink)

Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, EarlyView.

This study investigated whether and how a person's varied series of lexical categories corresponding to different discriminatory characteristics of the same colors affect his or her perception of colors. In three experiments, Chinese participants were primed to categorize four graduated colors—specifically dark green, light green, light blue, and dark blue—into green and blue; light color and dark color; and dark green, light green, light blue, and dark blue. The participants were then required to complete a visual search task. Reaction times (...) in the visual search task indicated that different lateralized categorical perceptions of color corresponded to the various priming situations. These results suggest that all of the lexical categories corresponding to different discriminatory characteristics of the same colors can influence people's perceptions of colors and that color perceptions can be influenced differently by distinct types of lexical categories depending on the context. (shrink)

The work environment of employees has been greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and many limitations and risks can be seen until now. In addition to employees in firms, the faculty in colleges and universities also suffer from pressure and face challenges. For the purpose of performance assessment and promotion, the faculty not only needs to teach students, but also assumes the time pressure from academic research. This study discusses the process in which the faculty’s subjective well-being is affected, in (...) an effort to learn about the job demands of the faculty under the work environment with a high level of time pressure, and the effect of these time-related job demands on their psychological health. In this study, 347 valid questionnaires were collected from universities in coastal areas of the Chinese mainland. The results show that time-related job demands have a positive impact on time pressure; time pressure has a negative impact on subjective well-being; and time-related self-efficacy can significantly mediate the relationship among time-related job demands, time pressure, and subjective well-being. On this basis, this study proposes its theoretical and practical implications. (shrink)

This study focused on the frequency of social media use. Through investigating and verifying the correlations between social media use frequency, online political participation, and social capital, we derived two models of socialization that affect citizen well-being and, accordingly, proposed strategic suggestions for democratic society construction and network management. This study drew upon the 2019 Taiwan Communication Survey database and used structural equation modeling as a statistical method to explore the causal relationship between these four variables. The data analysis yielded (...) an overall good fit with the overall fit indicators: χ2 = 214.417, df = 84, p = 2.293, RMSEA = 0.028, GFI = 0.998, CFI = 0.986, SRMR = 0.066, and CN = 993.411. Future communication scholars who wish to explore issues related to new media users can draw on this model for subsequent research. (shrink)

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor vision and mission are to improve the people's living standards of Pakistan and China through bilateral investments, trade, cultural exchanges, and economic activities. To achieve this envisioned dream, Pakistan established the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Authority to further its completion, but Covid-19 slowed it down. This situation compelled the digitalization of CPEC. This article reviews the best practices and success stories of various digitalization and e-governance programs and, in this light, advises the implementation of the Ajman Digital (...) Governance model as a theoretical framework for CPEC digitalization. This article concludes that the Pakistani government needs to transform CPEC digitalization by setting up the CPEC Digitalization and Transformation Center at the CPECA office to attract more investors and businesses. (shrink)

As cyberspace has become an important factor in modern-day life, the impact of the Internet on residents has also attracted more attention. Based on the data of China Family Panel Studies, this study empirically examines the impact of Internet use on Chinese residents’ subjective well-being from a multi-dimensional perspective. The research found that Internet use had a significant impact on residents’ SWB, which was mainly reflected in job satisfaction, happiness, social ties, and future confidence. The impacts of the Internet’s different (...) application fields are not consistent. Applying its use more in studying, working, socialize and commercial activities has a stronger effect, but has no significant impact on entertainment. Further heterogeneity tests also found that the marginal effect of Internet use increases with age, male and low-income groups can obtain greater benefit from the Internet, and there is almost no difference between urban and rural areas. This research provides micro evidence of the social effects of Internet use and provides enlightenment for how to further promote the quality of Internet use to better benefit people. (shrink)

There are two putative disanalogies between moral explanations and other sorts of higher-order explanations. First, moral properties epistemically depend on their non-normative base properties. Some might thus argue that the explanatory role of moral properties entirely derive from the role of non-normative base properties. Second, moral explanations seem to be characteristically mediated by our moral beliefs, attitudes, and sensibilities, etc., in a way in which most higher-order explanations are not. It could thus be argued that alleged moral explanations are just (...) an elliptical form of psychological explanation. These arguments against moral explanation don’t seem to challenge many other kinds of higher-order explanations. In my paper, I attempt to show that the two putative disanalogies do not in the end raise serious challenges to the explanatory efficacy of the moral. In doing so, I appeal to a unificationist account of explanation to vindicate the explanatory efficacy of moral properties. I argue that moral facts or properties can have explanatory power due to their distinctive unifying role (even if they are irreducible to non-normative properties). (shrink)

Contemporary virtue ethicists have attempted to offer a virtue-based account of right action. However, such an account is faced by a daunting challenge, the ‘supererogation problem’ as it may be called. Since what a virtuous person would characteristically do is often beyond the scope of moral duty, virtue ethics seems to have difficulty in accommodating the distinction between obligation and supererogation. This essay aims to meet this challenge by recommending a Confucian virtue theory of supererogation.

Employing a unique dataset of Chinese non-listed firms, this paper investigates the effects of the presence of 19 governance structures on 20 employees’ interest indicators. In general, we find that firms with the governance structures pay workers higher hourly wages, require less monthly working hours, and have a smaller chance of wage arrears. Meanwhile, the shares of total wage and welfare expenditures in total sales revenue are lower in these firms, which results in higher profitability. Moreover, firms with the governance (...) structures invest significantly more into training and provide employees with better fringe benefits. Considering the low labor protection standard and the weak external regulations of China’s labor market, we explain the positive findings thusly: corporate governance structures induce managers to adjust wage payments to the “efficiency wage” level, which is the best balance point for the interests of both shareholders and employees and, therefore, for maintaining the stakeholder relationships. We also find the governance structures that give blockholders superpower are negatively associated with employees interests. These results highlight the importance of giving enough discretion to managers in order to successfully find the common ground for creating mutual values for shareholders and employees. (shrink)

Understanding the influencing factors of cyberbullying is key to effectively curbing cyberbullying. Among the various factors, this study focused on the personal level of individual students and categorized the influencing factors of cyberbullying among college students into five sublevels, i.e., background, Internet use and social network habits, personality, emotion, and literacy related to digital citizenship. Then a questionnaire survey was applied to 947 Chinese college students. The results show that cyberbullying among Chinese college students are generally at a low level. (...) There are many factors influence cyberbullying. Specifically, at the personal background level, gender has a significant impact on cyberbullying and being cyberbullied. In terms of personal Internet use and social network habits, students’ average daily online time has no significant correlation with cyberbullying and being cyberbullied; however, the proportion of online non-learning time has a significantly positive correlation with cyberbullying, and the proportion of online learning/work time has a significant impact on being cyberbullied. At the personality level, the Big Five personality traits have varying degrees of correlation with and influence on cyberbullying and being cyberbullied. At the personal emotions level, students’ life satisfaction has a significantly negative correlation with cyberbullying and being cyberbullied while it only has a significant impact on being cyberbullied; the personal stress and empathetic concern aspects of empathy have a significantly positive correlation with cyberbullying and being cyberbullied among female students. At the literacy related to digital citizenship level, students’ understanding of and compliance with Internet etiquette have significantly negative impacts on cyberbullying; the ability to communicate and collaborate online and Internet addiction have significantly positive impacts on cyberbullying and being cyberbullied; the understanding of and compliance with relevant digital laws and regulations have significantly negative correlations with cyberbullying and being cyberbullied. Overall, college students’ digital citizenship level has a significantly negative correlation with cyberbullying but no significant correlation with being cyberbullied. Finally, analysis and suggestions were provided according to these statistical results and the effects of these factors on cyberbullying and being cyberbullied among college students, so as to help solve this problem and provide a new perspective for research in this field. (shrink)

To model a (particular kind of) physical system, the perspective that encompasses preparations, tests and the interplay between them is crucial. In this paper, we employ the conceptual and technical framework presented by Buffernoir (2023) to model physical systems through this pivotal lens, utilizing Chu spaces. With some intuitive and operational axioms we manage to reproduce the following fundamental and abstract results, as well as (part of) the involved reasoning: (1) the states corresponding to a property form a (bi-orthogonally) closed (...) set; (2) the properties form an orthomodular lattice. Adding some idealistic axioms, we can derive: (1) the pure states form a quantum Kripke frame in the sense of Zhong (2017, 2021, 2023); (2) the properties form an irreducible propositional system in the sense of Piron (1976), isomorphic to the lattice of closed sets of pure states. Our axioms are different from those in Buffernoir (2023): on the one hand, they say less about the structure of mixed states; on the other hand, they are arguably more intuitive and operational. The work formalizes some important reasoning about quantum systems, reveals some implicit idealization behind the Hilbert space formalism of quantum theory and hints at other possible formalisms. Finally, it is argued that the framework can be applied to classical physics at an abstract level as well as naturally extended with probabilities. (shrink)

Ben shu yi Wang Yangming di zi Zou Dongkuo wei yan jiu dui xiang, zhuo zhong tan tao qi si xiang jie gou he nei han, bing jiang dui qi ge ti zhe xue si xiang de yan jiu na ru dao zheng ge Yangming xue fen hua, yan bian de li shi jin cheng zhong lai que ding qi ge ti de si xiang shi ding wei, jie yi kao cha qi ge ti de si xiang te (...) se he zheng ge Yangming xue zai zhong wan Ming de fa zhan te dian. (shrink)

The information in the working environment of industrial Internet is characterized by diversity, semantics, hierarchy, and relevance. However, the existing representation methods of environmental information mostly emphasize the concepts and relationships in the environment and have an insufficient understanding of the items and relationships at the instance level. There are also some problems such as low visualization of knowledge representation, poor human-machine interaction ability, insufficient knowledge reasoning ability, and slow knowledge search speed, which cannot meet the needs of intelligent and (...) personalized service. Based on this, this paper designs a cognitive information representation model based on a knowledge graph, which combines the perceptual information of industrial robot ontology with semantic description information such as functional attributes obtained from the Internet to form a structured and logically reasoned cognitive knowledge graph including perception layer and cognition layer. Aiming at the problem that the data sources of the knowledge base for constructing the cognitive knowledge graph are wide and heterogeneous, and there are entity semantic differences and knowledge system differences among different data sources, a multimodal entity semantic fusion model based on vector features and a system fusion framework based on HowNet are designed, and the environment description information such as object semantics, attributes, relations, spatial location, and context acquired by industrial robots and their own state information are unified and standardized. The automatic representation of robot perceived information is realized, and the universality, systematicness, and intuition of robot cognitive information representation are enhanced, so that the cognition reasoning ability and knowledge retrieval efficiency of robots in the industrial Internet environment can be effectively improved. (shrink)