This article examines posthuman subjectivity and singularity as it exists within a nature-culture continuum. It reinterprets Rosi Braidotti’s idea of posthuman subjectivity from the philosophical p...

While social interaction and play in a VR environment are becoming ever more popular, little is known about how social VR games affect users. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the role of several contingent factors in social VR games by modeling the relationships between involvement, well-being, depression, self-esteem, and social connectedness. A conditional process-moderated mediation model of the measured variables was analyzed with 220 pieces of collected data. The result showed that: the direct effect of involvement on (...) well-being was significant, and the index of moderated mediation involving depression, self-esteem, and social connectedness was significant. We conclude that high levels of involvement in social VR games by socially isolated users with low self-esteem can negatively affect their well-being. The findings of this study contribute in several ways to our understanding of the effect of social VR games upon users and provide important practical implications. (shrink)

This study investigates the characteristics of the generalized gravitation equation in a complex spacetime manifold. The newly applied complex spacetime coordinates were designed to integrate peculiar velocity and the receding velocity of the particle into a single coordinate system. On this basis, the Schwarzschild metric solution was extended to a complexified version, and a generalized geodesic equation was derived in the complex spacetime manifold. It was found from the derived gravitation equation that the gravitation interaction depends on the space deceleration (...) parameter \ and can act as a repulsive force in the giant space scale that satisfies \. These results require a rapid expansion of space in the early universe and suggest that the gravitational interactions of matter are fundamentally linked to the space expansion characteristics. (shrink)

How can sport community involvement influence life satisfaction during a pandemic? Self-expansion theory posits that individuals seek to gain resources such as positive interpersonal relationships for growth and achievement. By considering psychological capital as a dispositional resource intervening between sport community involvement and life satisfaction, we examined an empirical model to test the chain of effects. Based on the stress process model, distress and generational group were tested as moderators. Participants responded to the scale item questionnaire for model assessment. Supporting (...) the hypothesized relationships, the model was supported with a significant moderated-moderated mediation. The mediation effect of PsyCap was stronger when distress level was lower and such interaction effect was amplified for Generation Z. Whereas the global sport communities and Gen Z were found to be more particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, our findings suggest that there are psychological pathways for fans to maintain their resilience. It is foremost imperative to lower the stress level of sport fans for their community involvement to positively affect life satisfaction. Gen Z were more stressed during the pandemic but individuals who managed to cope with stress were able to leverage community involvement to boost positive psychological resources. Acknowledgment of these effects brings implications for better management strategies and provides avenues for new research. (shrink)

Green consumers are those who seek to fulfill economic responsibility with their choices of environment-friendly products. Previous research found that it is not easy to identify green consumers by using traditional demographic or psychographic measurements due to the instability of moral attitude and actual behavior. The frontal theta brain waves of 19 right-handed respondents were recorded and analyzed in a choice task between an environment-friendly (green) product and a conventional product. Product information, which was provided to the respondents, included written (...) descriptions as well as the price of each product without visual depiction. Based on the respondents’ choice, they were classified into two groups: green (GR) consumers who chose an environment-friendly product option and non-green (Non-GR) consumers who chose the option of a conventional product. While processing the green product message, we discovered that frontal theta activations were significantly higher among GR consumers than Non-GR consumers. On the contrary, the frontal theta waves of GR consumers were not differentiated from Non-GR consumers while processing the price information. Therefore, theta activations in the frontal area may potentially be a unique neural indicator of GR consumers’ cognitive engagement with environment-friendly product messages. (shrink)

Smartphone app-use patterns will predict professional golfers’ athletic performance, and the use time of serious apps would be associated with improved performance. This longitudinal 4-week observation of 79 professional golfers assessed golf handicaps and smartphone app-use patterns at the start of the Korean professional golf season and 2 and 4 weeks later. We classified use as social networking, entertainment, serious apps, and others. Use time of entertainment apps increased for non-improved golfers but did not change for improved golfers. Use time (...) of serious apps increased for improved golfers and decreased for non-improved ones. Changes in golf handicaps were positively correlated with changes in entertainment app use time and negatively correlated with changes in serious app use time. Professional golfers’ sports performance was not associated with smartphone use time but was with the smartphone app type. The management of smartphone app-use patterns is important for professional golfers’ performance. (shrink)

The two mythical tales from the Samguk yusa, “Lady Suro” and “Monk Hyet’ong Defeats the Dragon” reveal the little-known evil character of the Korean dragons. The second story presents a particular scene of a confrontation between a hero and a malicious dragon; this story leads us to reflect on the question of the symbolism of evil embodied by the Dragon who has a vengeful character. The dragon symbol and its semantic variations were constructed specifically within the singular Korean context and (...) cannot be limited to Chinese Buddhist heritage. (shrink)

In this engaging book, Kosman offers a vigorous extended defence of a distinctive and highly ambitious claim, namely, that Aristotle’s account of potentiality/ability and actuality/activity in book Theta of the Metaphysics is an integral and central part of Aristotle’s account of what being is, which means that, for Kosman, Aristotle defends the thesis that being is, precisely, activity. In addition to the distinctive character of this claim, there are two notable suppositions behind it, which, likewise, Kosman defends. First, the Metaphysics (...) is addressed to a single, overall question, namely ‘What is it for something to be?’, a question that Aristotle introduces in book Gamma, takes on in books Zeta and Eta, gives a distinctive answer to in Theta and takes to its point of culmination in Lambda. This question, as Kosman spells out instructively and at length, is tackled by Aristotle through a distinction between primary being, or substance , and other beings .. (shrink)

江戸後期に活躍した平田篤胤の思想を宗教性に注目して内在的に把握し、さらにその展開を門人組織=気吹舎の実践が幕末社会ではたした役割から捉えかえし、思想史研究・社会史研究・宗教史研究の三つの視点と方法を有 機的に結びつけた注目の成果。.

This study explores the transhuman from an East Asian perspective. In terms of cognitive science, mathematics, and theology, we define the transhuman system as characterized by transcendence, extension by compactification, and samtaegeuk. Compactification is conceptualized here in mathematical terms, as adding one or more elements so that a system becomes more complete—as one might join both ends of a line, and thereby create a circle. We assert that the East Asian transhuman could be defined as a three-point compactification: as an (...) extension of biophysical objects and events such as robots, cyborgs, and environments ; as an extension of culture, science, and art ; and as an extension of the interaction between the human and Cosmic Absolute such as in religions. Such a notion of the Transhuman might be associated with God, but any description of God, the Absolute Infinite, will apply to something less than God. (shrink)

A clear account of the principles of fuzzy logic-based design, from a computer/electronics engineering perspective. This pedagogical work incorporates current fuzzy logic techniques, emphasizing hardware/software design for fuzzy systems and fuzzy logic development tools.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between organizational ethical context and the individual ethical decision-making process. In addition, a new statistical approach combining cluster and discriminant analyses was developed to overcome violations of regression assumptions, which are commonly not identified and/or ignored in behavioral and psychological research. Using regressions and this new alternative method, the findings indicated that ethical context does indeed influence the various components of ethical reasoning. However, social desirability was the strongest predictor of (...) ethical decision making, which raises new concerns about how this bias can confound business ethics research. Finally, the findings showed that the alternative method provided more useful and interpretive results, indicating that it has the capacity to influence future empirical work in the field of business ethics, particularly when dealing with data that do not satisfy regression assumptions. The implications and limitations of the study are discussed, and several noteworthy suggestions for future research are provided. (shrink)

This study investigates the effects of cultural orientation and the degree of disdain for robots on the preferred conversational styles in human-to-robot interactions. 203 participants self-reported on questionnaires through a computer-based online survey. The two requesting situations were intended to simulate the participants' interactions with humanoid social robots through an Internet video-phone medium of communication. Structural equation modeling was performed to examine the mediating role of mechanistic disdain between multicultural orientation and conversational constraints. The findings reveal that between the two (...) dimensions of multicultural orientation, only open-mindedness inversely influences mechanistic disdain. Mechanistic disdain, in turn, negatively affects three face-related conversational constraints, thereby leading to a lesser concern for robots' feelings, for minimizing impositions on robots, and for avoiding robots' negative evaluations. The implications of our findings on humans' relations with virtual robot entities and on the future development of humanoid robots are discussed. (shrink)

This study investigates the effects of cultural orientation and the degree of disdain for robots on the preferred conversational styles in human-to-robot interactions. 203 participants self-reported on questionnaires through a computer-based online survey. The two requesting situations were intended to simulate the participants’ interactions with humanoid social robots through an Internet video-phone medium of communication. Structural equation modeling was performed to examine the mediating role of mechanistic disdain between multicultural orientation and conversational constraints. The findings reveal that between the two (...) dimensions of multicultural orientation, only open-mindedness inversely influences mechanistic disdain. Mechanistic disdain, in turn, negatively affects three face-related conversational constraints, thereby leading to a lesser concern for robots’ feelings, for minimizing impositions on robots, and for avoiding robots’ negative evaluations. The implications of our findings on humans’ relations with virtual robot entities and on the future development of humanoid robots are discussed. (shrink)

Over the past decade philosophers of biology have discussed whether evolutionary theory is a causal theory or a phenomenological study of evolution based solely on the statistical features of a population. This article reviews this controversy from three aspects, respectively concerning the assumptions, applications, and explanations of evolutionary theory, with a view to arriving at a definite conclusion in each contention. In so doing I also argue that an implicit methodological assumption shared by both sides of the debate, namely the (...) overconfidence in conceptual analysis as a tool to understand the scientific theory, is the real culprit that has both generated the problem and precluded its solution for such a long time. (shrink)

Each volume in the Wadsworth Philosophical Topic Series presents an engaging overview of philosophical topics that is accessible to undergraduate philosophy students and general readers, and provides a concise introduction to pertinent topics of philosophical interest. The Wadsworth Philosophical Topic Series presents readers with concise, timely, and insightful introductions to a variety of traditional and contemporary philosophical subjects. Edited by Daniel Kolak of the William Paterson University of New Jersey, this series helps philosophy students to discover the richness of philosophical (...) inquiry across a wide array of concepts. Written by a distinguished list of scholars who have been noted for their exceptional teaching abilities, this series presents the vast sweep of today's philosophical exploration in highly accessible and affordable volumes. These books will prove valuable to philosophy teachers and their students as well as to other readers who share a general interest in philosophy. --From publisher's description. (shrink)

The experience of embarrassment was explored in two experiments comparing monolingual and bilingual speakers from cultures varying in the degree of elabo- ration of the embarrassment lexicon. In Experiment 1, narratives in English or Korean depicting three types of embarrassing predicaments were to be rated on their embarrassability and humorousness by Korean-English bilinguals, Korean monolinguals, and Euro-American monolinguals. All groups judged certain predicaments (involving social gaffes) to be the most embarrassing. However, significant group and language differences occurred in judgments of (...) the inten- sity of embarrassment and amusement judgments evoked. Euro-Americans ex- hibited higher overall levels of amusement than the two Korean groups who, in turn, reported higher levels of embarrassment, particularly for certain predica- ment types and contexts (ingroup members present). Further, for the bilinguals, inept performance predicaments in English were judged more embarrassing than those in Korean, whereas all predicament types were judged more amusing when framed with English emotion labels. Bilinguals also appeared to show a heightened embarrassability relative to both monolingual groups. Experiment 2 found lexical selection differences in open-ended responses to embarrassing predicaments depicted in each language, with Euro-Americans preferring to give justifications or use humor to minimize the embarrassment and Korean-English bilinguals preferring to give apologies or say nothing. The findings are interpret- ed to reflect the influence of culturally-mediated schemas guiding the activation and processing of emotion vocabulary. (shrink)

The causal nature of evolution is one of the central topics in the philosophy of biology. The issue concerns whether equations used in evolutionary genetics point to some causal processes or purely phenomenological patterns. To address this question the present article builds well-defined causal models that underlie standard equations in evolutionary genetics. These models are based on minimal and biologically plausible hypotheses about selection and reproduction, and generate statistics to predict evolutionary changes. The causal reconstruction of the evolutionary principles shows (...) adaptive evolution as a genuine causal process, where fitness and selection are both causes of evolution. 1 Introduction2 The Philosophical Puzzle3 Causal Models4 Causal Foundations of Evolutionary Genetics4.1 Univariate quantitative genetics model4.1.1 The causal graph4.1.2 Structural equations4.1.3 Deriving evolutionary transition functions4.2 One-locus population genetics model5 Evolution as a Causal Process5.1 Selection as a causal process5.2 Causes of evolutionary change6 Conclusion. (shrink)

We study the computational content of various theorems with reverse mathematical strength around Arithmetical Transfinite Recursion (ATR_0) from the point of view of computability-theoretic reducibilities, in particular Weihrauch reducibility. Our main result states that it is equally hard to construct an embedding between two given well-orderings, as it is to construct a Turing jump hierarchy on a given well-ordering. This answers a question of Marcone. We obtain a similar result for Fraïssé's conjecture restricted to well-orderings.