Wittgenstein’s N-operator is a ‘primitive sign’ which shows every complex proposition is the result of the truth-functional combination of a finite number of component propositions, and thus provid...

BackgroundMore than 15% of Chinese respondents reported somatic symptoms in the last week of January 2020. Promoting resilience is a possible target in crisis intervention that can alleviate somatization.ObjectivesThis study aims to investigate the relationship between resilience and somatization, as well as the underlying possible mediating and moderating mechanism, in a large sample of Chinese participants receiving a crisis intervention during the coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic.MethodsParticipants were invited online to complete demographic information and questionnaires. The Symptom Checklist-90 somatization subscale, 10-item (...) Connor–Davidson resilience scale, and 10-item Perceived Stress Scale were measured.ResultsA total of 2,557 participants were included. Spearman correlation analysis revealed that lower resilience was associated with more somatic symptoms. The conditional process model was proved. The interaction effects between perceived stress and sex predicted somatization.ConclusionResilience is a key predictor of somatization. The mediating effects of perceived stress between resilience and somatization work in the context of sex difference. Sex-specific intervention by enhancing resilience is of implication for alleviating somatization during the coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic. (shrink)

Misconduct in science is often viewed and analyzed through the lenses of normative ethics and moral philosophy. However, notions and methods in the philosophy of science could also provide rather penetrative explanatory insights into the nature and causes of scientific misconduct. A brief illustration in this regard, using as examples the widely popular Popperian falsification and the Kuhnian scientific paradigm, is provided. In multiple areas of scientific research, failure to seek falsification in a Popperian manner constitutes a questionable research practice (...) and could lead to “falsification” in the context of research misconduct. On the other hand, scientific misconduct is often facilitated by its perpetrators using the familiarity, expectations and confines of a Kuhnian paradigm to blend in fabricated data/results. A rudimentary application of these philosophical notions could be useful in our understanding of the nature and cause of research misconduct, and facilitate mitigation of the latter through educational means. (shrink)

The purpose of this study is to examine the link between English foreign language teacher’s professional identity and employee success via mediating role of critical thinking. Further, we examined the moderating role of leader motivational language between employee professional identity and critical thing and also indirect effect on employee success via critical thinking. We collected data from Chinese MNC’s school by using time lagged study design. We used hierarchical linear regression for direct hypotheses and Hayes PROCESS model’s for mediation, moderation, (...) and mediation moderation analysis. The results show that there is positive relation between employee’s professional identity and teacher’s success. Further, critical thinking mediates the link between professional identity and employee success. The results of the moderated mediation analysis show that critical thinking mediated the interaction of employee’s professional identity and leader’s motivational language on teacher’s success. (shrink)

Background: Previous systematic review indicated the prevalence of prenatal anxiety as 14–54%. Pregnant women are a high-risk population for COVID-19. However, the prevalence of anxiety symptoms and related factors is unknown in Chinese pregnant women during COVID-19 outbreak.Objective: To investigate the prevalence of anxiety symptoms and the related factors in Chinese pregnant women who were attending crisis intervention during the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: The data of this cross-sectional study were collected in about 2 months. Data analysis was performed from April to (...) May 2020. Participants completed a set of questionnaires via the Wechat Mini-program before starting the online self-help crisis intervention for COVID-19 epidemic. A total of 2,120 Chinese pregnant women who were attending a self-help crisis intervention participated in this study. A survey was developed to address possible stress-related factors in pregnant women during the COVID-19 outbreak, including demographic, socioeconomic, and pregnancy-related factors, as well as COVID-19 related factors. Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 scale and the 10-item perceived stress scale were, respectively, employed to measure anxiety and stress-related factors.Results: A total of 21.7% of pregnant women reported at least mild anxiety, and only 82 women reported moderate to severe anxiety. Factors associated with at least mild anxiety included living in Hubei province, nobody providing everyday life support, pelvic pain or vaginal bleeding, and higher perceived stress. Having relatives or neighbors with a diagnosis of COVID-19 was not associated with anxiety.Conclusions and Relevance: Our findings indicate that evaluation and intervention for maternal and infant health are necessary in pregnant women with anxiety during COVID-19 epidemic, especially those with higher perceived stress, less everyday life support, or vaginal bleeding. Interactions among these related medical, social and psychological factors need to be investigated in future studies. (shrink)

Studies have documented that career exploration is significantly associated with CDSE, but how this association occurred is not clear yet. This study committed to clarifying the mechanism underlying the relationship between career exploration and CDSE by investigating the mediation effect of work volition and career adaptability among 586 pre-service kindergarten teachers. The participants are recruited from Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in northwest China, covering Han, Hui, and other minorities. They took part in a two-wave longitudinal survey and reported on their (...) career exploration at T1, work volition, career adaptability, and career decision self-efficacy at T2. Results showed that T1 career exploration is directly related to the T2 CDSE. Further, career exploration contributed to the CDSE through both the separated mediation path and the chained mediation path of T2 work volition and T2 career adaptability. The results suggest that individuals who engage in more career exploration activities are likely to have more confidence in their abilities to make career decisions over time, which was partially and serially explained by individuals’ perception of capacity despite constraints and greater self-regulatory strength. This study is a first attempt to deeply clarify the link between career exploration and CDSE, and the findings shed light on the independent and serial mediating effects of work volition and career adaptability. The implications and limitations are discussed. (shrink)

In the information era, the instant and diversified broadcasting of the COVID-19 pandemic has played an important role in stabilizing the societal mental state and avoiding inter-group conflicts. The presentation of visual graphics was considered as an innovative information form and broadly utilized in news reports. However, its effects on the audiences' cognition and behaviors have received little empirical attention. The current study applied real-time and retrospective priming paradigms to examine the impacts of information framing (positive vs. negative) and form (...) (plain text vs. pie chart) on individuals' risk perception (cognition), positive emotion (emotion), and willingness to help others (behavioral intention) during the outbreak and post-pandemic period in China. The results indicated the “amplification effect” of the innovative form of information in the real-time priming condition, which increased the effect of the information framing on cognition, emotion, and behavioral intention. However, in the retrospective priming condition, the amplification effect on cognition and emotion were weakened, while its effect on behavioral intention disappeared. In conclusion, the study found the “amplification effect” of innovative information forms. Further, the difference in the results in the real-time and retrospective priming paradigms suggested the constraint of the context of the “amplification effect,” and indicated the possible deviation of the retrospective paradigm in studies about disaster-related news. This study provides empirical support for how subtle changes in information presentation influence public mental and behavioral responses during a pandemic and has important implications for media psychology and social governance. (shrink)

Targeting people living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus, this research examined the prevalence of space-focused stereotypes and their underlying mechanism on behavioral inclinations. Study 1 adopted the explicit nomination and implicit Go/No-Go association tests to explore the existence of space-focused stereotypes of people living with HIV/AIDS. The results demonstrated that space-focused stereotypes were only manifested explicitly with characteristics such as messy, dirty, and gloomy. Study 2 demonstrated a more negative evaluation and community-approaching willingness for communities that include people living with HIV/AIDS (...) than those without HIV/AIDS. Additionally, space-focused stereotypes were found to have an indirect influence on community-approaching willingness; the influence was mediated by both emotional and cognitive factors. These results indicate the deviation of explicit and implicit space-focused stereotypes. More importantly, it revealed that space-focused stereotypes decreased community evaluation and influenced behavioral inclination. This research suggested the existence of space-focused stereotypes on another stigmatized social group. Characteristics of space might be the key to forming space-focused stereotypes. (shrink)

Resumo: Uma das medidas mais significativas do progresso de uma nação, no fornecimento de educação para pessoas com deficiências, bem como uma medida de quão bem seus sistemas de apoio operam e quão longe a sociedade se encontra, em seu desenvolvimento social, é o crescimento do ensino superior para pessoas com deficiências. Os resultados indicaram que os alunos surdos com experiência escolar geral apresentaram melhor adaptabilidade. O modelo de integração era mais adequado para aumentar a conscientização dos alunos surdos sobre (...) a interação social e a adaptabilidade escolar. Ademais, os alunos surdos tinham uma demanda maior por orientação profissional. No entanto, é importante observar que o modelo de treinamento de integração ainda possui espaço para aprimoramentos. Com base nos resultados das referidas pesquisas e nos problemas da prática, o presente artigo apresenta as sugestões e pareceres de contramedidas correspondentes. O artigo sugere que devemos construir um modelo educativo de integração baseado no conceito “trindade”, orientado para talentos socialmente integrados em aplicações artísticas, aperfeiçoar o sistema de gestão da educação de integração, melhorar o sistema de apoio ao aprendizado de estudantes universitários surdos sob a liderança da escola, modificar e reconstruir o sistema curricular de integração das áreas de arte e artesanato e fortalecer o apoio e a orientação da sociedade para a construção de um ambiente de integração. (shrink)

Volume 34, Issue 8, December 2020, Page 1646-1663.

The vast majority of indigenous communities are among the world’s poorest and are unlikely to be engaged in a thriving, mutually beneficial partnership with an MNC. While there are increasing studies on CSR initiatives in base of the pyramid communities, few—if any—feature the self-initiated stakeholder transition of an impoverished community. This paper examines the factors that motivated the stakeholder transformation process of an indigenous community, from its position as a non-stakeholder, one lacking in power and legitimacy, to the status of (...) being a primary stakeholder of the firm. We applied a constructivist grounded theory approach to longitudinal data to arrive at the conceptual framework. The findings presented are drawn from an in-depth case study of the Maasai, an indigenous community from East Africa. The findings point to the existence of entrepreneurial alertness that is instrumental in propelling the indigenous community to evolve from one stakeholder category to the next. Our research aims to propose a possible foundation for how communities deep in poverty can coalesce themselves to make their social needs salient to multinational organizations. (shrink)

Peifeng Tang untersucht das Verhältnis von Eigentum und Staat im Rahmen von Kants Transzendentalphilosophie. Nach systematischen und begrifflichen Vorklärungen analysiert der Autor zunächst, wie Kant? unter der Annahme einer Abhängigkeit des Rechts von der Moral? rechtfertigt, dass die Möglichkeit des Eigentums mit Notwendigkeit vorausgesetzt werden muss. Anschließend wird dargestellt, wie Kant das Problem des wirklichen Erwerbs des Eigentums transzendentalphilosophisch behandelt und von hier aus Entstehungsgrund, Aufgaben und Befugnisse des Staates in Bezug auf das Eigentum konzipiert. Dabei zeigt sich, dass (...) nicht erst dem Sozialstaat, sondern bereits dem kantischen Rechtsstaat eine Befugnis zur Eigentumsbeschränkung zukommt; sie darf aber nicht willkürlich, sondern nur streng demokratisch und zweckgebunden ausgeübt werden. Schließlich wird Kants Rousseau-Rezeption erläutert. Dadurch kommt die Arbeit zu dem Ergebnis, dass der Themenkomplex nicht nur eine rechts-, sondern auch eine geschichtsphilosophische Dimension hat. Unter letzterem Aspekt würde die Ausbreitung des Privateigentums nicht unbedingt zu Unfrieden führen, vielmehr könnte sie sogar einen Beitrag zur Rechtsverbesserung und zur Menschheitsentwicklung leisten. (shrink)

从生存语义入手来检讨人类美学的历史性迷雾,将美与人类生存发展及其行为意义联系起来进行整体考察,揭示美的产生与人类的诞生、审美创造与人类生存发展间的本质关系—其立意与视野,既新颖,又具有前所未有性。.

本书力图探讨利益的人类生命本质和社会本质,制定出更符合人类目标的利益伦理价值导向系统和利益道德规范体系。正面探讨了利益的终极道德本质,从整体上重新考察了利益伦理的基本道德原则,利益与劳动、价值、德行、 公正、政府道德和法律治理等重要而迫切的问题.

本书对马克思主义哲学的发展问题进行研究,作者致力于通过对马克思主义发展的某些概念、范畴和原理的反思和阐述,使读者洞悉马克思主义哲学过去、现在和未来的诸多方面。.

本书包括: 与命与仁: 原始儒家的伦理精神及其现代诠释、问题与观念: 现代性格义、原始儒家的天命—道德史观与现代性的时间、原始儒家的“为己之学”与现代性的自我问题、原始儒家的“天命在身”观念与现代性的政道问题.

To reconcile the standard possible worlds model of knowledge with the intuition that ordinary agents fall far short of logical omniscience, a Stalnakerian strategy appeals to two components. The first is the idea that mathematical and logical knowledge is at bottom metalinguistic knowledge. The second is the idea that non-ideal minds are often fragmented. In this paper, we investigate this Stalnakerian reconciliation strategy and argue, ultimately, that it fails. We are not the first to complain about the Stalnakerian strategy. But (...) in contrast to existing complaints, we want to cause trouble for the strategy directly on its home turf. That is, we will advance our objection while granting both the plausibility of the fragmentation component—save for an extreme version of it—and that of the metalinguistic component. Once our central objection to the Stalnakerian strategy is in place, we will show how it negatively affects Adam Elga and Augustín Rayo’s recent attempt to apply the Stalnakerian strategy in the context of Bayesian decision theory. (shrink)

The flow of high-level talents in China is becoming more and more active and has a profound impact on the innovation and development of cities. Based on the research on the spatial distribution of the school and work stages of high-level talent in China, we study the structure and evolution of China’s high-level talent mobility network by using the data on the flow trajectory of talent among cities in China. The results show that: the spatial distribution of talents in the (...) two stages has greater consistency, but there is a change characteristic of “large dispersion, small agglomeration.” Compared with the school stage, the network in the work stage has much more connections; the centrality gap of cities has narrowed. “Core-periphery” structure of two networks is relatively significant and similar. The core layer in the two networks has not changed, but the subcore layer and the subedge layer have undergone changes. In addition, talents mainly flow to core and subcore cities. The space structure of network is more complex in the work stage, and it is expanding to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in southeastern China. (shrink)

本书是一本关于意识的自然科学研究的论著,提出了要用自然科学的观点和方法,考察了意识的实验资料,探讨了意识的本质及四个规律。.

Quarantine and isolation at extended length, although considered as highly effective countermeasures for the novel coronavirus which started at the end of 2019, can have great impact on individual's mental health, especially emotional state. The present research recruited 5,115 participants from the general public across 32 provinces and autonomous regions in China in an online survey study, about 20 days after the lockdown of the epicenter, to investigate the relationship between the length of the quarantine and negative affect, as well (...) as the mediating roles of negative cognition, and the moderating roles of dispositional optimism, tolerance of uncertainty, social support, and healthy behavior. The results showed that: Worry and anticipation mediated the relationship between quarantine length and depression and anxiety; Dispositional optimism moderated the path coefficients of quarantine length to worry, worry to anxiety, and anticipation to depression; Tolerance of uncertainty moderated the path coefficient of worry to anxiety; Social support moderated the path coefficient of anticipation to anxiety. In conclusion, during quarantine, dispositional optimism, uncertainty tolerance, and social support can buffer the direct or indirect effects of quarantine length on depression and anxiety. These findings could have profound implications on the societal responses to COVID-19 and future pandemics. (shrink)

Accurate prediction of battery quality using early-cycle data is critical for battery, especially lithium battery in microgrid networks. To effectively predict the lifetime of lithium-ion batteries, a time series classification method is proposed that classifies batteries into high-lifetime and low-lifetime groups using features extracted from early-cycle charge-discharge data. The proposed method is based on a smooth localized complex exponential model that can extract battery features from time-frequency maps and self-adaptively select the time-frequency resolution to maximize the discrepancy of data from (...) the two groups. A smooth localized complex exponential periodogram is then calculated to obtain the time-frequency decomposition of the whole time series data for further classification. The experimental results show that, by using battery features extracted from the first 128 charge-discharge processes, the proposed method can accurately classify batteries into high-lifetime and low-lifetime groups, with classification accuracy and specificity as high as 95.12% and 92.5%, respectively. (shrink)

I address the problem of whether philosophy can be international by its claim to represent rationality, hence universality. I argue in favor of this claim by focusing on the special logic thesis in Chinese philosophy. This thesis holds that a different type of logic must be used when studying the Chinese texts. I argue at length against the special logic thesis by examining the problem of human nature in the Confucian philosophers Mencius, Hsün Tzu and Kao Tzu. I show how (...) their arguments can be reconstructed as inductive analogical arguments and as deductive argument. I then broaden the notion of the logic of argumentation into a discussion of metaphysical anti‐essentialism and underdetermination in order to resolve the problem of human nature and also to show how the same types of logical analysis (more generally construed) can be applied to the arguments from these Confucian philosophers. Under my treatment, Kao Tzu, somewhat surprisingly, turns out to provide the most insight. (shrink)

Corruption devours profits, people, and the planet. Ethical leaders promote ethical behaviors. We develop a first-stage moderated mediation theoretical model, explore the intricate relationships between ethical leadership and employee ethical behaviors, and treat ethical climate and organizational justice as dual mediators and leaders’ moral attentiveness as a moderator. We investigate leadership from two perspectives—leaders’ self-evaluation of moral attentiveness and members’ perceptions of ethical leadership. We theorize: These dual mediation mechanisms are more robust for high moral leaders than low moral leaders. (...) Our three-wave data collected from multiple sources, 236 members and 98 immediate supervisors in the Republic of Iraq, support our theory. Specifically, ethical leadership robustly impacts organizational justice’s intensity and magnitude, leading to high employee ethical behaviors when leaders’ moral attentiveness is high than low. However, ethical leadership only influences the ethical climate’s intensity but has no impact on the magnitude when leaders’ moral attentiveness is high than low. Therefore, organizational justice is a more robust mediator than the ethical climate in the omnibus context of leader moral attentiveness. Our findings support Western theory and constructs, demonstrating a new theory for Muslims in Arabic’s emerging markets. Individual decision-makers apply their values as a lens to frame their concerns in the immediate and omnibus contexts to maximize their expected utility and ultimate serenity-happiness. Ethical leadership trickles down to employee ethical behaviors, providing practical implications for improving the ethical environment, corporate social responsibility, leader-member exchange, business ethics, and economic potentials in the global competitive markets. (shrink)

Editor’s AbstractTang Wenming is a professor of philosophy at Tsinghua University in Beijing, trained in both the European and Chinese traditions, and the author of a sophisticated critique of Mou Zongsan's philosophy. The central idea in this conversation is that contemporary Confucianism must find a way to recover its “edifying” (jiaohua) role in Chinese society. Philosophy is important, says Tang, but Confucianism cannot simply be an academic philosophy; it must have a broader social function, and some sort of institutional (...) innovation is necessary in order to accomplish this. (shrink)

Physicalism is incompatible with what is known as the possibility of zombies, that is, the possibility of a world physically like ours, but in which there are no conscious experiences. But it is compatible with what is known as the possibility of ghosts, that is, the possibility of a world which is physically like ours, but in which there are additional nonphysical entities. In this paper we argue that a revision to the traditional definition of physicalism designed to accommodate the (...) possibility of ghosts inadvertently accommodates what is known as the possibility of inverted spectra, that is, the possibility of a world which is physically like ours, but in which colour experience is inverted. This consequence is unwelcome, because it is widely agreed that the possibility of inverted spectra is incompatible with physicalism. We argue for a revised definition of physicalism which resolves this problem. We then use our definition to argue that physicalism is not compatible with what is known as the possibility of blockers, that is, the possibility of a world which is physically like ours, but in which additional nonphysical entities have prevented the existence of conscious experience. This undermines Stephan Leuenberger's attempt to defend physicalism from arguments which purport to establish the possibility of zombies. (shrink)

This article aims to investigate the impact of employee perceptions of corporate social responsibility on job embeddedness under the drastic circumstances of coronavirus disease 2019. This study also investigated the role of organizational identification as a psychological mechanism linking employee perceptions of corporate social responsibility to job embeddedness. Survey data were collected from 325 employees in banking industry of China and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. Results revealed that CSR to employees and organizational identification were positively and (...) significantly related to job embeddedness, while CSR to customers, CSR to government, and CSR to society did not significantly predict job embeddedness. Organizational identification fully mediated the relationship between CSR to customers, CSR to government, CSR to society and job embeddedness, and partially mediated the relationship between CSR to employees and job embeddedness. The results suggest engaging in CSR activities can lead employees to identify themselves with the organization and enhance their embeddedness. The article concludes with several implications for practice and recommendations for future research. (shrink)

Research suggests that attitudes guide individuals’ thinking and actions. In this study, we explore the monetary intelligence construct and investigate the relationships between a formative model of money attitudes involving affective, behavioral, and cognitive components and several sets of outcome variables—unethical intentions, intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction, and coping strategies. Based on 515 managers in the Republic of Macedonia, we test our model for the whole sample and also cross sector and gender. Managers’ negative stewardship behavior and positive cognitive meaning (...) of money define MI which, in turn, is related to unethical intentions. Positive cognition in the public sector and poor stewardship behavior in the private sector contribute to unethical intentions, respectively. Good stewards have higher intrinsic and lower extrinsic job satisfaction, those in the private sector, in particular. Affective motive and stewardship behavior are related to their stronger “approach” coping strategies and weaker “avoidance” coping strategies. Affective motive and stewardship behavior contribute to coping responses for managers in the public and private sectors, respectively. Further, the relationship between stewardship behavior and coping mechanisms exists for females, but not for males. We demonstrate that MI, a type of social intelligence, allows individuals to monitor their own emotions, behaviors, and cognitions and guides their thinking and actions. (shrink)

Laboratory safety regulations have been traditionally viewed by its learners and practitioners as a matter of law and policy, which simply requires compliance. A compliance mindset tends be passive and dissociates individuals (or even institutions) from the important reasons and principles underlying the safety rules and regulations, leading to disinterestedness and disdain. I posit that laboratory safety regulations would need to be crafted, presented and taught in a manner that is coupled to, or at least with an emphasis on, research (...) ethics. Learners and practitioners of laboratory safety must be led to fully grasp the ethical underpinnings of the rules and regulations, however perceivably cumbersome or inconvenient the latter may seem. In extended definitions beyond the classical fabrication, falsification and plagiarism, laboratory safety violation (LSV) should indeed be considered a form of research misconduct (RM). A full appreciation of the ethical principles underlying laboratory safety regulations would intuitively make LSVs morally impermissible, and as such defiance would be morally unacceptable. Importantly, LSVs framed as moral transgressions would be equally applied to all perpetrators in terms of culpability regardless of one’s endowment and power status. LSV perpetrators should thus also be punishable in accordance with the federal or institutional laws or bylaws of research ethics and integrity. Pedagogical and content modifications to laboratory safety education to adequately reflect a research ethics emphasis, as well as promotion of epistemic acuity in this regard, would be desirable. (shrink)

In this study, we developed a model of unethical behavior intentions, collected data from managers of the private (n = 208) and the public (n = 307) sectors in the Republic of Macedonia, and tested our model across these two sectors. Results suggested that for both sectors, unethical behavior intentions were not related to the love of money and corporate ethical values, whereas irritation was negatively related to life satisfaction. Moreover, corporate ethical values were related to life satisfaction for the (...) private sector only, whereas the love of money and unethical behavior intentions were related to irritation for the public sector only. Managers in the private sector had higher corporate ethical values, lower unethical behavior intentions, lower irritation, and higher life satisfaction than those in the public sector. There was no difference in the love of money. There were more bad apples in the public sector (34.85%) than in the private sector (23.56%). The strongest factor of unethical behavior intentions in the private and the public sectors was theft and corruption, respectively. Finally, for the culture-free (etic) model, the love of money was positively related to irritation. Corporate ethical values had a positive "double-whammy" effect: reducing irritation and enhancing life satisfaction. Unethical behavior intentions were positively related to irritation (a mediator), which was negatively related to life satisfaction. Our theory provides new insights regarding doing business in the Republic of Macedonia. (shrink)

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English. 唐文明教授以〈承認理論的創造論回歸〉為題，批判了近現代以黑格爾(Hegel)和霍耐特(Axe lHonneth)為首的承認理論，指出其核心缺失在於僅僅將人視為關注必死性的欲望主體，從而無法實現人與人，人與世界的根本承認。唐教授代之以創造論的承認理論：通過解讀奧古斯丁(Saint Augustine)的思想，提出了應該將人視為重視降生性的感應主體。唐教授並指出，重視天地創生的儒家思想，其人倫體系恰恰是建基於這樣一種重視降生性的感應主體。通過感應主體對創造源頭(上帝，或者上天)的 感恩和體認，人與人，人與世界之間才可能有根本且不可缺失的承認。(撮要取自內文首段) In his paper, Tang Wenming notes that a fundamental flaw of modern recognition theories is seeing human beings as being a desire subject. Tang suggests that a recognition theory based on protology, which recognizes God's genesis of human beings and the world, has a much better prospect of realizing fundamental recognition. In this response, discuss two concerns with Tang's proposal: the essentially contested nature (...) of religious faith in modern societies, and the unequal relationship between God and human beings. I also suggest that Confucian ethics can be interpreted to emphasize the equal participation of Heaven and humans, which consequently underpins an alternative understanding of Confucian recognition theory. (shrink)

Previous studies argue that religious firms are more ethical and thus engage less in accrual earnings management. At odds with the ethical view, we use a sample of Chinese listed firms and show that firms in religious regions use more real earnings management. We postulate that besides ethics, religion also proxies for risk aversion, which motivates firms to substitute accrual earnings management with real earnings management. Consistent with this view, we show that the positive association between religiosity and real earnings (...) management is more pronounced for firms with lower litigation risk and for firms with less reputable auditors. In addition, we use a mediation model introduced by Baron and Kenny :1173–1182, 1986) to show that religiosity affects earnings management through the channel of risk aversion. We conclude that firms choose real earnings management over accrual-based earnings management because of risk aversion, rather than ethical reasons. (shrink)

In the current "Eastern culture fad" now engulfing the East Asian mainland, the Book of Changes, that repository of "shining mysteries" that symbolizes the special quality of East Asian culture, has attracted considerable attention. Over the past several thousand years, the Book of Changes has played an extremely important role in molding the foundation of China's great intellectual tradition. It is for this reason that this work has always been so highly regarded as "the first of the Six Classics," as (...) "one of the three mysteries." But the extent and depth of the present studies of the Book of Changes are unprecedented. The Book of Changes was first introduced to the West in the seventeenth century and, arousing the interest of Western scholars, was translated into one language after another. But never before have so many scholars in so many countries been so caught up in studying the Book of Changes as at present. The reason this work has attracted such universal attention is in part the particular conditions of the times and in part the timeless, lasting value of the Book of Changes itself. (shrink)