Mind was the oneness of form and function. The change from an old theory to a new one about zhong ä¸ (the mean) and he å (harmony) was a shift from the idea of the separate form of nature and function of mind to one about both form and function of mind. Form was both the form of the spirit of the mind and of the substantiality of nature (not the same as substantial realities in substantialism); it was the integration (...) of vacancy and substantiality, the integration of mind and nature. In contrast, function meant both feelings and perceiving action. It was infeasible to interpret function without reference to form; likewise, it was impractical to talk about perception without mentioning nature. On the other hand, a knower represented nature through concrete things and his actions, and a perceiver enlightened himself, realizing the self-consciousness of nature as a whole. Mind, nature, and perception could be interpreted as a whole, and these three could be separated too. Viewed in general, mind, nature, and principles were oneness; observed separately, nature differed with principles: nature meant principles, but perception was the quintessence of qi. The unfolding of perception, however, had its independence, and could be easily influenced by qi; thus, it was necessary to transform and cultivate qi-related temperament. Realistically, a man needs to face up to himself and to transform himself, and this sentiment is inspiring for today. (shrink)
In response to the rapidly increasing application and abuse of psychological tests in China, the Psychometrics Division of the Chinese Psychological Society published the 2008 revisions of the Chinese Code of Ethical Use of Psychological Tests. We investigated the implementation status of the code 2½ years after its promulgation. Sample included 284 psychological professionals and psychology graduate students. The average accuracy rate for the appropriate use of psychological tests was 67.1% (range = 25.5?97.5%), with 10 items having accuracy rates below (...) 45%. Participants remained uncertain about the clients' rights to information about the purpose, psychometric properties, and scores of the tests. The most frequent violations involved ?using psychological tests without psychometric information for entertainment purposes? and ?using SCL-90 to measure mental health of normal people.? (shrink)
The use of the term hsing in the Meng-tzu is discussed, along with Mencius' views on jen-hsing. It is argued that while the use of hsing need not connote something unlearned and shared, Mencius did view jen-hsing in terms of certain unlearned emotional predispositions shared by all jen. He regarded jen as a species distinguished from other animals by its capability of cultural accomplishment, and felt that it is the presence of the emotional predispositions that makes this possible.
"Chuang Tzu" means "Master Chuang". If we are to believe traditional accounts (like those in the Records of the Historian , by Ssu-ma Ch'ian), he lived in the fourth century BC, contemporary with Plato and Aristotle. He was from a place called Meng, probably in the state of Sung, where he was "an official in the lacquer garden"; nobody knows what that means. Chuang Chou is also recorded as being a member of the Chi-Hsia academy maintained by the larger (...) and more advanced state of Ch'i, along with many of his most famous philosophical contemporaries, like Mencius and Hui Shih. And that is about it, so far as Chuang Chou goes. (shrink)
The revolution has not yet succeeded. Comrades, carry on! On February 17, 1904, one month after the Russo-Japanese War broke out in northeastern China (Manchuria), Cai Yuanpei,1 a prominent Chinese intellectual, began to publish his short story “Xinnian meng” (New Year’s dream) in Eshi jingwen (Alarming news about Russia), a daily based in Shanghai.2 In this piece, Cai depicts his dream of a future world where humans ultimately achieve universal freedom and affluence. The contemporary scholar Arif Dirlik praised Cai (...) Yuanpei’s creativity, regarding “New Year’s Dream” as worthy of inclusion in an “anarchist canon.”3 Cai Yuanpei, although a prestigious scholar and educator and the most famous chancellor of .. (shrink)
Recent research suggests there may be a link between religiousness and business ethics. This study seeks to add to the understanding of the relationship through a questionnaire survey on Malaysian Christians in business. The questionnaire taps into three different constructs. The religiousness construct is reflected in the level of participation in various common religious activities. The love of money construct is captured through the Love of Money Scale as used in Luna-Arocas and Tang [Journal of Business Ethics 50 (2004) 329]. (...) Response to 25 business vignettes taken from Conroy and Emerson [Journal of Business Ethics 50 (2004) 383] would surface ethical attitudes. A convenience sample of 300 was drawn from three large churches in the Kuala Lumpur area each with a congregation exceeding 1000 together with some representation from the smaller churches. The study finds some differences in the ethical attitudes of Malaysian Christians in business with different levels of religiousness. The study also finds that those longer in the faith are less accepting of unethical behavior. As such it can be concluded that there are ethical attitude differences between Christians in business with different levels of religiousness. This lends support to the claim of a positive relationship between religion and business ethics. The more significant finding is that even within a somewhat homogenous religious group there are different love of money profiles resulting in significant differences in ethical attitudes. This suggests that moderating money attitudes can contribute towards stronger ethical attitudes. (shrink)
A model of corporate ethics and social responsibility (CESR) was developed and empirically tested among Chinese business undergraduates in Hong Kong and Singapore. As predicted, it was found that CESR beliefs were negatively related to Machiavellianism and two Confucian concepts, guanxi (interpersonal connections) and mianzi (face). CESR beliefs were also lower among Hong Kong than Singaporean youths. The negative effects of guanxi, mianzi, and Machiavellianism were more pronounced for the Hong Kong than Singapore sample. Implications of these findings are discussed (...) and directions for future research suggested. (shrink)
The concept of self-efficacy is concerned with people''s beliefs in their ability to produce given attainment. It has been widely applied to study human conduct in various settings. This study, based on Albert Bandura''s social cognitive theory, proposes the employment of self-efficacy for investigating people''s ethical conduct related to computer use. Specifically, an ethical computer self-efficacy (ECSE) construct concerning software piracy is developed and validated. The measurement model of the construct was rigorously tested and validated through confirmatory factor analysis. The (...) results suggest that ECSE can be operationalized as a second-order factor model. The first order constructs are termed use&keep (do not use), distribution (do not distribute), and persuasion (persuade others not to commit piracy). These factors are governed by a second-order construct of ECSE. This construct could be useful to research a wide range of information ethics in the future. (shrink)
This study examines discrimination in the overseas recruitment print ads of Multinational National Corporations (MNCs) in a lax regulatory environment, Singapore. Institutionalization theory suggests that in a weakly regulated environment, MNC affiliates would tend to adopt the less stringent requirements. With the lack of a strong legal framework in the host country, the home country's legal and cultural imperatives would be more salient, suggesting differences in discrimination as a function of home country imperatives. Some 1122 recruitment print ads of U.S., (...) U.K., and Japanese affiliates of MNCs were examined. While discrimination was found in the print ads of all organizations, U.S. affiliates were least discriminatory, followed by Japan and U.K. affiliates. When Singapore firms were included, they were found to be least discriminatory. However, Singapore firms became more discriminatory when the request for a recent photograph was considered in the discrimination index. Implications of the findings are discussed and suggestions for future research advanced. (shrink)
We show that for any real number, the class of real numbers less random than it, in the sense of rK-reducibility, forms a countable real closed subfield of the real ordered field. This generalizes the well-known fact that the computable reals form a real closed field. With the same technique we show that the class of differences of computably enumerable reals (d.c.e. reals) and the class of computably approximable reals (c.a. reals) form real closed fields. The d.c.e. result was also (...) proved nearly simultaneously and independently by Ng (Keng Meng Ng. Master's Thesis. National University of Singapore, in preparation). Lastly, we show that the class of d.c.e. reals is properly contained in the class or reals less random than Ω (the halting probability), which in turn is properly contained in the class of c.a. reals, and that neither the first nor last class is a randomness class (as captured by rK-reducibility). (shrink)
We study the Turing degrees which contain a real of effective packing dimension one. Downey and Greenberg showed that a c.e. degree has effective packing dimension one if and only if it is not c.e. traceable. In this paper, we show that this characterization fails in general. We construct a real $A\leq_T\emptyset''$ which is hyperimmune-free and not c.e. traceable such that every real $\alpha\leq_T A$ has effective packing dimension 0. We construct a real $B\leq_T\emptyset'$ which is not c.e. traceable such (...) that every real $\alpha\leq_T B$ has effective packing dimension 0. (shrink)
Concerns with improper collection and usage of personal information by businesses or governments have been seen as critical to the success of the emerging electronic commerce. In this regard, computer professionals have the oversight responsibility for information privacy because they have the most extensive knowledge of their organization's systems and programs, as well as an intimate understanding of the data. Thus, the competence of these professionals in ensuring sound practice of information privacy is of great importance to both researchers and (...) practitioners. This research addresses the question of whether male computer professionals differ from their female counterparts in their self-regulatory efficacy to protect personal information privacy. A total of 103 male and 65 female subjects surveyed in Taiwan responded to a 10-item questionnaire that includes three measures: protection (protecting privacy information), non-distribution (not distributing privacy information to others), and non-acquisition (not acquiring privacy information). The findings show (1) significant gender differences exist in the subjects' overall self-regulatory efficacy for information privacy, and, in particular, (2) that female subjects in this study exhibited a higher level of self-regulatory efficacy than males for the protection and non-acquisition of personal privacy information. The identification of the factorial structure of the self-regulatory efficacy concerning information privacy may contribute to future research directed to examining the links between privacy efficacy and psychological variables, such as ethical attitude, ethical intention, and self-esteem. Studies can also be extended to investigate how different cultural practices of morality and computer use in men and women may shape the different development patterns of privacy self-efficacy. Understanding the different cultural practices may then shed light on the social sources of privacy competence and the appropriate remedies that can be provided to improve the situation. (shrink)
