This paper argues that yu 欲 (desire), in Xunzi’s view, cannot by itself motivate action. Such a clarification will also bear on our understanding of the relation between xin 心 (the heart/mind) and yu in the Xunzi. This paper is divided into three main sections. The first section seeks to explicate the common assumption that yu can be an independent source of motivation. In the second section, I will conduct textual analysis that challenges such an assumption and argues that only (...) xin can by itself motivate action. In the third section, I explain that the issue of whether yu can conflict with xin is not applicable in Xunzi’s thought and extrapolate the implications that xin is always activated and that xin has natural inclination to pursue the objects of yu. For these reasons, the source of moral failure lies in xin being active in certain problematic ways. (shrink)

In this paper I have two main aims. My first aim is to introduce the notion of bounded emotionality. This notion is the analogue of that of bounded rationality in behavioural economics. Bounded rationality says, roughly, that human beings are cognitively limited with respect to their processing and memory capacities. Bounded emotionality says that we are limited in our emotional capabilities, notably in the intensity, duration, and possible combinations of our emotional states. Bounded rationality is a foundational notion in behavioural (...) economics and has played an important role in various fields of philosophy as well. In particular, in epistemology bounded rationality has been thought to have implications with respect to our doxastic norms. My second aim in this paper is to suggest that bounded emotionality also has an important role to play in philosophy. As a case in point, I discuss the implications that bounded emotionality has for our doxastic norms. In particular, I argue that one is not obligated to believe something or to stop holding a belief if one could not believe/fail to believe it without having an emotional response that exceeds one's bounded emotional capacities. (shrink)

This essay analyses the Confucian conception of xin, an attribute that broadly resembles what we would ordinarily call trustworthiness. More specifically, it provides an analysis of the psychology of someone who is xin and highlights a feature of the Confucian conception of trustworthiness: the trustworthy person has to ensure that there is a match between her self-presentation and the way she is. My goal is not to argue against any of the existing accounts of trustworthiness but to draw on Confucian (...) insights so as to shed light on features of trustworthiness that are overlooked in current discussions. I hope to show that the Confucian conception of trustworthiness puts more emphasis on the way a trustworthy person actively tries to make sure another’s dependency on her is not unwarranted than on how the trustworthy person responds to the one who gives trust. (shrink)

The Reichenbach-Grunbaum thesis of the conventionality of simultaneity is clarified and defended by developing the consequences of the Special Theory when assumptions are not made concerning the one-way speed of light. It is first shown that the conventionality of simultaneity leads immediately to the conventionality of all relative speeds. From this result, the general-length-contraction and time-dilation relations are then derived. Next, the place of time-dilation and length-contraction effects within the Special Theory is examined in the light of the conventionality thesis. (...) The slow-transport method of synchrony is then examined in the light of these results and is shown not to provide an adequate method of uniquely determining the one-way speed of light. Finally, the general ε -Lorentz transformations for events along the x-axis are derived from three principles: the round-trip light principle, the principle of equal passage times, and the linearity principle. These principles are shown to be independent of one-way velocity assumptions, and thus may form the basis of a Special Theory of Relativity without distant simultaneity assumptions. (shrink)

As basic units of communication recognized by speakers themselves, communicative events have always been assumed to have clearly definable boundaries and characterizable joint activity for content. This, however, is not always the case. In this article, I argue for a communicative event I term ` prospecting an encounter' which typically occurs between shoppers and salespersons in Chinese local markets. `Prospecting' opens in a deliberately ambiguous way and ends when it either develops into a fully ratified encounter or dissolves into mere (...) unfocused interaction or even cessation of co-presence. The joint activity that occurs within its boundaries has an equivocal status as engagement. Close analysis of interactional data reveals how `prospecting' events are jointly accomplished by speakers through the strategic withholding of glances and the extensive use of silence. (shrink)

This article considers whether there is room in the work of Goldenberg, which is characterized as materialist, for spirituality. The author shows how Freudian psychoanalysis gives the opportunity for the body to be resurrected from the place of signifier of death and dissolution. However, it is also argued that it is possible to bring body and spirit together in such a way as to allow the body to flourish. The author argues for a 'thinking through the body' that is best (...) accomplished when grounded in goddess spirituality. (shrink)

The Reichenbach-Grunbaum thesis of the conventionality of simultaneity is clarified and defended by developing the consequences of the Special Theory when assumptions are not made concerning the one-way speed of light. It is first shown that the conventionality of simultaneity leads immediately to the conventionality of all relative speeds. From this result, the general-length-contraction and time-dilation relations are then derived. Next, the place of time-dilation and length-contraction effects within the Special Theory is examined in the light of the conventionality thesis. (...) The slow-transport method of synchrony is then examined in the light of these results and is shown not to provide an adequate method of uniquely determining the one-way speed of light. Finally, the general ε -Lorentz transformations for events along the x-axis are derived from three principles: the round-trip light principle, the principle of equal passage times, and the linearity principle. These principles are shown to be independent of one-way velocity assumptions, and thus may form the basis of a Special Theory of Relativity without simultaneity assumptions. (shrink)

This article focuses on a psychological phenomenon discussed by the early Confucian: yuan 怨, which is often translated as “resentment”, “grievance”, “lament”, or “complaint”. I attempt to use the early Confucian discussions of yuan to shed light on an aspect of human psychology, namely, when one laments about certain conditions that obtain in such a way that she sees as beyond her control and negatively affects her. This is an unusual reactive attitude because one who has yuan takes the “passive (...) stance.” This paper has four main sections: the first section makes textual observations of “yuan” in the early Confucian texts; the second section proposes a Confucian-inspired account of yuan and highlights the psychological state in which one who has yuan sees oneself as object; the third section discusses the problematic dimensions of yuan; the final section discusses the negative implications of the passive stance with respect to contemporary concerns: vulnerability, moral repair, and self-respect. (shrink)

This article seeks to advance discussion of Xunzi’s view of ritual by examining the problem ritual treats and the way in which it targets the problem. I argue that the root of the problem is the natural inclination of the heart/mind to be concerned only with self-interest. The reason ritual works is that, on the one hand, it requires one to disregard concern for self-interest and observe ethical standards and, on the other, it allows one to express feelings in an (...) ethically appropriate way. The ideal character shaped by ritual is one of respect in dealing with affairs and people; the ideal effect of ritual on the person is a sense of ease and security. Based on these conclusions, I will flesh out an implicit assumption Xunzi might have adopted about a pattern in human psychological constitution so as to further our understanding of Xunzi’s moral psychology. (shrink)

This research aims to present a literature review regarding developments in financial performance in the latest research in the electricity industry. This research uses a qualitative analysis approach with the Connected Paper application. The keywords used are financial performance and the electricity industry. The study found that financial performance was used in research by linking it to various aspects of corporate organization, including technological activities, innovation exploitation and exploration, alliances and performance, the importance of geographic location in exploration and exploitation, (...) as well as environmentally friendly innovation and its driving factors. These findings also show that social, economic and environmental factors have a significant influence on environmentally friendly innovation in the long term. The originality of this research lies in the comprehensive approach taken in reviewing various related literature sources so that this research can provide important insights for readers, open up new opportunities for further research, and enrich understanding of the topic of company financial performance. (shrink)

On meditation practice in Indonesia related to Javanese philosophy.

Javanese philosophy and teachings pertaining perfection of the soul.

For the past three decades or so, the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS) has shed light on the interrelationship between modern science and technology, on one side, and contemporary society, on the other. A majority of this knowledge and insights are situated in the context of Western societies, or more precisely, in economically and technologically advanced societies in Western Europe and North America. However, STS has much to offer to the discourse of science and technology in the Global (...) South, a territory characterized by developmental processes. Insights from different schools of thoughts in STS are arguably not only relevant but also applicable to unveil the root cause of problems that many developing societies are facing today. To make this possible, an STS-informed framework is developed to replace the Triple Helix model, which is currently a dominant perspective that prompts how science, technology, and innovation are structurally organized in the developing world. Two steps are taken in this agenda. First, limitations of the Triple Helix are exposed, and second, a new approach drawing on STS concepts is offered as an alternative model that takes into account structural, cultural, and epistemological features of technoscience. (shrink)

On Javanese mysticism, ethics, and philosophy.

In this paper we, an epistemologist and a machine learning scientist, argue that we need to pursue a novel area of philosophical research in AI – the ethics of belief for AI. Here we take the ethics of belief to refer to a field at the intersection of epistemology and ethics concerned with possible moral, practical, and other non-truth-related dimensions of belief. In this paper we will primarily be concerned with the normative question within the ethics of belief regarding what (...) agents – both human and artificial – ought to believe, rather than with questions concerning whether beliefs meet certain evaluative standards such as being true, being justified, constituting knowledge, etc. We suggest four topics in extant work in the ethics of (human) belief that can be applied to an ethics of AI belief: doxastic wronging by AI (morally wronging someone in virtue of beliefs held about them); morally owed beliefs (beliefs that agents are morally obligated to hold); pragmatic and moral encroachment (cases where the practical or moral features of a belief is relevant to its epistemic status, and in our case specifically to whether an agent ought to hold the belief); and moral responsibility for AI beliefs. We also indicate two relatively nascent areas of philosophical research that haven’t yet been generally recognized as ethics of AI belief research, but that do fall within this field of research in virtue of investigating various moral and practical dimensions of belief: the epistemic and ethical decolonization of AI; and epistemic injustice in AI. (shrink)

This study raises the question whether it is possible, in Xunzi’s 荀子 view, for someone who has gone through moral transformation to backslide. I consider three possible interpretations. On the first interpretation, one’s dispositions are transformed by environmental forces. Backsliding is possible and likely. I rule out this interpretation because it is inconsistent with other aspects of Xunzi’s thought. On the second interpretation, one’s kind-determining constitution is transformed from a neutral constitution to a moral constitution. Backsliding is not possible because (...) one has acquired a moral constitution that is insusceptible to bad environmental influences. On the third interpretation, to be transformed is to have accumulated significantly more moral knowledge than ordinary untransformed people. Backsliding is possible but unlikely. I will then explain why it is difficult to adjudicate between the second and third interpretations and suggest further issues in Xunzi’s thought that need to be investigated. (shrink)

This study raises the question whether it is possible, in Xunzi’s 荀子 view, for someone who has gone through moral transformation to backslide. I consider three possible interpretations. On the first interpretation, one’s dispositions are transformed by environmental forces. Backsliding is possible and likely. I rule out this interpretation because it is inconsistent with other aspects of Xunzi’s thought. On the second interpretation, one’s kind-determining constitution is transformed from a neutral constitution to a moral constitution. Backsliding is not possible because (...) one has acquired a moral constitution that is insusceptible to bad environmental influences. On the third interpretation, to be transformed is to have accumulated significantly more moral knowledge than ordinary untransformed people. Backsliding is possible but unlikely. I will then explain why it is difficult to adjudicate between the second and third interpretations and suggest further issues in Xunzi’s thought that need to be investigated. (shrink)

In a recent essay in this journal, John Maynard Smith argues that the often expressed idea that the genome is the repository of meaningful information is not merely a heuristically useful metaphor. Instead, he contends, it is a central idea in contemporary microbiology. While I am in general agreement with Maynard Smith on this issue, his account suffers, I believe, from using an inappropriate concept of ‘information.’ One result of this is that the concept of genomic information becomes burdened by (...) a conceptual load that the biological facts cannot support. When, however, the appropriate concept of information is used, then these burdens are shed, and the result is an account that is in substantial agreement with the heart of Maynard Smith's thesis. (shrink)

Dynamic consent is increasingly recommended for longitudinal and biobanking research; however, the value of investing in such systems is unclear. We undertook a rapid review of the benefits and challenges of implementing dynamic consent by searching five databases (Ovid Medline, Ovid Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature – CINAHL) for articles published up to May 2023 that report on participants’ or researchers’ experience of dynamic consent. From 1611 papers screened, 12 met inclusion criteria. (...) Guided by thematic analysis with an inductive approach, we synthesised 31 benefits and 8 challenges. Benefits included: enhanced participant experience through improved consent management and tailoring; greater participant engagement and retention through increased autonomy, trust and communication; reduced costs and burden and increased accessibility and inclusivity. Participants and researchers also valued additional features that dynamic consent platforms facilitate such as two-way communication and return of research updates. The main challenges included the digital divide and consent fatigue. The papers gave recommendations to mitigate these challenges, for example by supplementing with other communication tools and allowing a broad consent approach, respectively. Overall, dynamic consent was described as a valuable consent approach with many benefits and some surmountable challenges. Most included literature was qualitative, so further research is needed to quantify the impact of dynamic consent on recruitment, retention, and participant experience. Further long-term investigations are necessary to explore whether participants want to and do change their consent over time, as well as the impact of dynamic consent on participant privacy. (shrink)

Some irrational numbers are "random" in a sense which implies that no algorithm can compute their decimal expansions to an arbitrarily high degree of accuracy. This feature of (most) irrational numbers has been claimed to be at the heart of the deterministic, but chaotic, behavior exhibited by many nonlinear dynamical systems. In this paper, a number of now classical chaotic systems are shown to remain chaotic when their domains are restricted to the computable real numbers, providing counterexamples to the above (...) claim. More fundamentally, the randomness view of chaos is shown to be based upon a confusion between a chaotic function on a phase space and its numerical representation in Rn. (shrink)

The term bu ren 不忍, which may be loosely translated as "cannot bear to harm others," does not occur frequently in the Mencius. However, the passages where the term does occur are ones that are crucial to our understanding of Mencius' thought. In one of the key passages, 1A:7, Mencius uses the example of King Xuan of Qi 齊宣王 having the heart/mind of bu ren for an ox to show that he has the kind of heart/mind that enables him to (...) be a true king. The context of the story is this: King Xuan asks Mencius whether he is capable of protecting his people and being a true king. Mencius reminds the king of an incident where the king spared an ox that is about to be killed for consecrating a bell because the king bu ren to see... (shrink)

This paper critically evaluates the transition from crisis to development in northern Uganda from the perspective of agricultural service provision. It contributes to debates on how efforts to link relief to rehabilitation and development may bypass the underlying challenges in linking humanitarian aid to prevailing national development policies and structures. This paper is based on research into agricultural services undertaken in Pader district, northern Uganda, between 2010 and 2012. It studied the interplay between humanitarian interventions and the parallel development of (...) the government’s agricultural departments and services in northern Uganda. The article brings out how Ugandan agricultural policies do not suit the post-conflict realities of northern Uganda. The evolving policies affect power relations and processes of inclusion and exclusion in northern Uganda. As a result, at the time that the government is ready to integrate northern Uganda into the mainstream development of agricultural policy, the gap between addressing humanitarian needs and development has become larger. (shrink)

In this paper, I analyse the nature of a particular form of theoretical reasoning—ratiocination. Ratiocination is purposeful, self-conscious, deliberatively controlled reasoning. I will argue that ratiocination concludes when the ratiocinator believes that she ought to believe p. In Section 1, I suggest that the way a reasoner’s mind moves in ratiocination is different from the way her mind moves in non-ratiocinative reasoning. Such a difference should motivate an analysis that focuses just on ratiocination. In Section 2, I provide a general (...) characterisation of ratiocination and distinguish it from non-ratiocinative reasoning. I draw a distinction between non-deliberative rational control and deliberative rational control. I then argue that the ratiocinator always exercises the latter. Since theoretical reasoning is a norm-governed activity and since ratiocination involves deliberatively controlled reasoning, the ratiocinator necessarily tries to control her mental movements in a way that is in line with the normative requirements of this activity. In Section 3, I argue that ratiocination ends when the ratiocinator believes that she ought to believe p. I further explain the nature of the ‘ought’ in the ratiocinator’s belief that she ought to believe p. In Section 4, I address possible objections to the account on offer and explain why my account does not undermine our general understanding of the nature of theoretical reasoning. I explain that my claim is compatible with the claim that reasons to be rational are transparent to reasons to believe p. I also discuss why the ratiocinator’s belief that she ought to believe p is not an intermediate stage in ratiocination. Finally, I argue that ratiocination, as described, is compatible with the claim that belief is truth-governed. (shrink)

This article introduces and analyses the debate between Mencius and Xunzi on xing 性. While Mencius claims that xing is good, Xunzi claims that xing is bad. A common way of interpreting these two different claims is to determine the scope of xing. It is generally agreed that, for Mencius, it is the heart/mind that falls within the scope of xing, for Xunzi, the sensory desires. This article also explores a different way of approaching Mencius's and Xunzi's different claims about (...) xing. It is suggested that Mencius's and Xunzi's different views on xing can be understood in terms of their different views on the heart/mind. While Mencius thinks that the heart/mind has a morally good natural tendency, Xunzi thinks that the heart/mind has a morally problematic tendency. (shrink)

The problem of the interpretation of theoretical terms is outlined, and some difficulties connected with the distinction between partial definitions and empirical postulates are discussed. A reconstruction is sketched which is intended to explicate the 'definitional' character of partial definitions. Finally, some implications for the methodology of theory construction are indicated.

This study proposes an operational approach to a metaphorical framing analysis using large-scale data. We conducted a case analysis of how war metaphors are framed to address various societal issues in a corpus of public speeches by Hong Kong government officials. By investigating patterns of lexical choices under the source domain of WAR and the underlying reasons for the source-target domain mappings (i.e. Mapping Principles), we found that the target domain of social issues in Hong Kong is primarily conceptualized in (...) terms of a combat frame, and governmental issues are primarily talked about in terms of a protection frame, both of which are positively evaluated. Additionally, economic issues are primarily addressed in terms of a strategy frame, which is both positively and negatively evaluated. We show that analyzing the Mapping Principles of these conceptual metaphors captures the “selection” process of framing at the dimensions of frame frequency and frame sentiment, allowing for a principled way to propose a metaphorical framing analysis in corpora-based studies. The proposed approach enriches Critical Discourse Analysis studies of metaphorical framing and bridges the link between metaphor analysis at a conceptual level and framing analysis at a communication level. (shrink)

This article seeks to interpret Mencius’ criticism of the village worthies and shed light on the distinctive psychological phenomenon that Mencius has captured but not quite articulated. An attempt at filling out the Mencian view of the village worthies will help us better understand the content of the moral charges made against them and also deepen our analysis of the kind of psychology that early Confucians regard as crucial to moral agency. Following an introduction that overviews Mencius’ criticisms of the (...) village worthies, the main discussion of this article is divided into three sections. Section 2 offers an interpretation of the psychology of the village worthy and articulates the way in which the village worthy can be regarded as a special kind of hypocrite, which I label as “appearance-only” hypocrite. Section 3 draws on the proposed interpretation to make sense of Mencius’ criticisms of the village worthy. I argue that while the village worthy can elude some common charges against hypocrisy, it is still problematic in the sense that it weakens an unstable system of morality from the inside and inflicts harm on the genuinely virtuous person. Section 4 delves deeper into analyzing the ethical implications for the self and for others. (shrink)