Three visual habituation studies using abstract animations tested the claim that infants’ attachment behavior in the Strange Situation procedure corresponds to their expectations about caregiver–infant interactions. Three unique patterns of expectations were revealed. Securely attached infants expected infants to seek comfort from caregivers and expected caregivers to provide comfort. Insecure-resistant infants not only expected infants to seek comfort from caregivers but also expected caregivers to withhold comfort. Insecure-avoidant infants expected infants to avoid seeking comfort from caregivers and expected caregivers to (...) withhold comfort. These data support Bowlby’s (1958) original claims—that infants form internal working models of attachment that are expressed in infants’ own behavior. (shrink)
This paper represents an effort to distinguish between two types of guanxi prevalent in mainland China: favor-seeking guanxi that is culturally rooted and rent-seeking guanxi that is institutionally defined. Different rules of maneuvering the two types of guanxi are identified in light of Chinese cultural and business ethics. Strategies for entering guanxi in mainland China are also suggested.
Guanxi as one of the key factors leading to business success in China (PRC) has ironically been synonymous with bribery. This raises some serious questions: should Western foreign firms do business in China? How should they do business with Chinese firms? This study investigated the relationship between guanxi orientation and cognitive moral development in an attempt to determine whether the level of guanxi orientation of Chinese business people affects their ethical reasoning. Based on a classification of Chinese enterprises (Nee, 1992), (...) it was found that Chinese enterprises rely on guanxi for business to different extents. However, their levels of cognitive moral development are not significantly different, suggesting that guanxi orientation has very little to do with ethical reasoning (as captured through an established measure of cognitive moral development). Furthermore, time in profession was found to positively affect guanxi orientation; however, age failed to predict guanxi orientation and education turned out to be a negative predictor of guanxi orientation. (shrink)
Guanxi (literally interpersonal connections) is in essence a network of resource coalition-based stakeholders sharing resources for survival, and it plays a key role in achieving business success in China. However, the salience of guanxi stakeholders varies: not all guanxi relationships are necessary, and among the necessary guanxi participants, not all are equally important. A hierarchical stakeholder model of guanxi is developed drawing upon Mitchell et al.’s (1997) stakeholder salience theory and Anderson’s (1982) constituency theory. As an application of instrumental stakeholder (...) theory, the model dimensionalizes the notion of stakeholder salience, and distinguishes between and among internal and external guanxi, core, major, and peripheral guanxi, and primary and secondary guanxi stakeholders. Guanxi management principles are developed based on a hierarchy of guanxi priorities and management specializations. The goal of this application of instrumental stakeholder theory is to construct, for Western business firms in China, a means to reliably identify guanxi partners by employing the principles of effective guanxi. These principles are described in the form of testable propositions that advance social scientific research in this area of international business ethics. (shrink)
This article investigates the factors affecting how public relations autonomy, legal dominance, and strategic orientation affect crisis communicative response in corporate contexts. Communication managers, crisis managers, public affairs managers, and/or public relations managers were solicited from Taiwan’s top 500 companies to participate in a survey. The results revealed that, in contrast to public relations autonomy being the strongest and sole predictor of concession strategy, legal dominance could predict defensive and diversionary responses in crisis events. The article concludes with a discussion (...) of practical applications and theoretical implications. (shrink)
This study explores the linear logic between consumer ethical beliefs (CEBs) and consumer unethical behavior (CUB) in a Chinese context. A relational view helps fill the belief–behavior gap by exploring the moderating role of relationship quality in reducing CUBs. Specifically, when consumers are more receptive to a set of actions that may be deemed inappropriate by moral principles, they are more likely to engage in unethical behaviors. However, when consumers perceive their misconduct as possibly damaging to the relationship developed with (...) the seller, they tend to refrain from unethical behaviors. CEBs and relationship quality also combine to affect unethical behaviors. Although consumers find the misconduct acceptable according to their ethical beliefs, they become less likely to conduct the behavior if they have a close relationship with the seller. The results contribute to a better understanding of the simplistic logic that connects CEBs and their unethical behaviors and shed light on how close relationships with consumers help contain CUBs. (shrink)
The results of our research, obtained from a survey of 50 Western managers working in Romania, show that differences exist between Western managers' ethics and those of their Romanian counterparts, especially with regard to bribery. Different backgrounds are at the basis of such divergence. Beyond the communist era and its heritage, the cultural aspect of bribery has been analyzed. Nevertheless, the results of our research suggest that culture may play a double role and the influence could come from both the (...) home environment of Western managers and their new environment. Some Western managers who adapt to the Romanian environment appear to have been already conditioned to bribery from their home environment. (shrink)
We argue that consumer sovereignty in an increasingly high tech world is more of a fiction than a fact. We show how the principle of consumer sovereignty that governs the societal impact of economic competition is no longer valid. The world of high tech is increasingly responsible for changes in the opportunity, ability, and motivation of business firms to compete. Furthermore, the world of high tech is increasingly responsible for changes in the opportunity, ability, and motivation of consumers to engage (...) in rational decision making. We conclude that we cannot rely on consumer sovereignty to maintain a thriving economy. Instead, we need to develop performance standards designed to meet the demands of the various stakeholders of the organization. (shrink)
Enterprise philanthropy is practiced in a very unique and rudimentary form in China. Based on a unique random survey data on 3837 Chinese private enterprises conducted in 31 provinces of China in 2006, I find the significant positive relationship between enterprise philanthropy donation and enterprise profitability, and the result supports the political and institutional power view of enterprise philanthropy in the latest development of China. Simply put, Chinese private enterprises carried out philanthropy activities to better protect property rights and nurture (...) political connections, which in turn, leads to better enterprise profitability. The␣result is even stronger in institutions weaker provinces. (shrink)
This study uses three audit-specific ethical dilemmas to assess the level of ethical reasoning between Chinese accounting students (as proxies for new entrants to the auditing profession) and experienced auditors. A sample of U.S. accounting students is used as a base for comparison. Consistent with expectations based on particularly salient aspects of Chinese national culture, we find the Chinese students’ levels of ethical reasoning to be significantly lower than those of their U.S. counterparts in the two cases that invoked these (...) cultural attributes. In contrast, the Chinese students’ level of ethical reasoning is slightly higher than that of the U.S. students in the third, control case. We further find that the Chinese auditors’ levels of ethical reasoning are even lower than those of the Chinese students in two cases, while not being significantly different in the third. Together, these findings suggest that cross-national differences in auditors’ ethical reasoning depend on the nature of the ethical dilemma and caution against wholesale inferences about ethical reasoning levels in China. (shrink)
In a series of articles later collected in his book The Lost Art of Economics, David Colander argues that the dichotomous distinction of positive and normative economics has misled economists into treating applied policy economics as part of positive economics and hence adopting the methodology of positive economics for applied policy analysis. Colander therefore urges a reintroduction of the art of economics and calls for a serious discussion on the appropriate methodology for applied policy work. This paper first explores some (...) points not thoroughly examined by Colander in his arguments regarding the art of economics, in particular on its scope and the nature of judgements in the art of economics. It then examines the potential challenges to the tripartite division of economics, the presupposition of Colander's arguments for the art of economics, by examining, respectively, Tony Lawson's and Daniel Hausman's discussion on positive economics as a separate body of knowledge. (shrink)
We construct a decidable first-order theory T such that the theory of its finite models is undecidable. Moreover, T will be equationally axiomatizable and of finite type.
Background: Adherence to ethical principles in clinical research and practice is becoming topical issue inChina, where the prevalence of mental illness is rising, but treatment facilities remainunderdeveloped. This paper reports on a study aiming to understand the ethical knowledgeand attitudes of Chinese mental health professionals in relation to the process of diagnosisand treatment, informed consent, and privacy protection in clinical trials. Methods: A self-administered survey was completed by 1110 medical staff recruited from Shanghai's22 psychiatric hospitals. Simple random selection methods were (...) used to identify targetindividuals from the computerized registry of staff. Results: The final sample for analysis consisted 1094 medical staff (including 523 doctors, 542nurses, 8 pharmacologists and 21 other staff). The majority reported that their medicalinstitutions had not established an Ethics Committee (87.8%) and agreed that EthicsCommittees should be set up in their institutions (72.9%). Approximately half (52%) had notreceived systematic education in ethics, and almost all (89.1%) of the staff thought it wasnecessary. Nearly all participants (90.0%) knew the Shanghai Mental Health Regulationswhich was the first local regulations relating to mental health in China, but only 11% and16.6% respectively knew of the Nuremberg Code and the Declaration of Helsinki. About half(51.8%) thought that the guardian should make the decision as to whether the patientparticipated in clinical trials or not. Conclusions: The study indicates that most psychiatric hospitals in Shanghai have no Medical EthicsCommittee. More than half the medical staff had not received systematic education andtraining in medical ethics and they have insufficient knowledge of the ethical issues related toclinical practice and trials. Training in ethics is recommended for medical staff during theirtraining and as ongoing professional development. (shrink)
This article presents results from a nationally representative survey conducted in Taiwan in November 2011 that explores Taiwanese attitudes toward China and the world. It demonstrates that while (KMT) and (DPP) supporters maintained different attitudes towards China, few Taiwanese supported reunification. Taiwanese attitudes towards other countries, the sources of Taiwanese party identification, and policy implications for cross–Strait relations are also explored.
In response to criticisms made by Keith Dowding (hereafter KD) of `Capitalists Rule OK', this article argues (1) that there is a genuine structural conflict of interest between consumers and producers, voters and politicians, and capitalists and governments, and (2) that only by ad hoc and arbitrary limitations on the scope of the concept of power can it be denied that consumers collectively have power over producers and capitalists (collectively) have power over government. KD accepts that voters (collectively) have power (...) over governments. Ironically, however, this is by far the most tenuous and generally problematic of the three putative power relations. Furthermore, there is no plausible way of conceding that voters (collectively) have power over politicians without also having to accept the validity of a power relation in the other two cases. The implication is that the thesis that is supposed to justify the standard North American or western European politico-economic system, according to which consumers and voters have power but capitalists do not, is nothing more than ideology, in Marx's sense of a fantastical picture of the world designed by the beneficiaries of the status quo to protect their privileged positions against legitimate demands for revolutionary change. The article concludes by taking up KD's primary objection to `Capitalists Rule', which is its rejection of the proposal to equate power with resources. According to KD's official definition, `resources' are the means of raising and lowering others' utilities. I pointed out in `Capitalists Rule' that KD himself acknowledges the inadequacy of this definition, since he almost immediately goes on to say that people do not necessarily have the power that is attributed to them. Obviously, `power' in this new sense must be something different, and is, in fact, the ability to get people to do what you want them to do or to refrain from doing things you do not want them to do. This is precisely my own proposed definition in `Capitalists Rule'. The only remaining disagreement arises from KD's wish to turn everything that lies between power in his first sense and power in his second (and my) sense into a further `resource'. I argue that this is obfuscatory and, in any case, infeasible. Key Words: power • democracy • capitalism. (shrink)
We show that if any number of variables are allowed to be simultaneously and independently randomized in any one experiment, log2(N ) + 1 experiments are sufficient and in the worst case necessary to determine the causal relations among N ≥ 2 variables when no latent variables, no sample selection bias and no feedback cycles are present. For all K, 0 < K <.
Hilary Putnam made the claim several times that the direct reference theory (DRT) he endorsed had startling consequences for the theory of necessary truth and essentialism. If DRT was correct, so he claimed, it followed that things belonging to natural kinds had their deep structures necessarily. Inspired by Keith Donnellan, Nathan Salmon tried to spell out what Putnam seemed to have in mind when making the claim, and Salmon called the result of his analysis “the OK mechanism.” Salmon showed that (...) it was not DRT, but some other essentialism-entailing premise, that had the claimed startling consequences in the OK mechanism. In this paper, I argue that Salmon’s OK is not the right interpretation of Putnam’s intended mechanism. Instead, I present Putnam’s intention as the OK* mechanism, and show that, in OK*, DRT does have the claimed startling consequences when supplemented only with other metaphysically innocent, purely empirically verifiable premises. (shrink)
By combining experimental interventions with search procedures for graphical causal models we show that under familiar assumptions, with perfect data, N − 1 experiments suffice to determine the causal relations among N > 2 variables when each experiment randomizes at most one variable. We show the same bound holds for adaptive learners, but does not hold for N > 4 when each experiment can simultaneously randomize more than one variable. This bound provides a type of ideal for the measure of (...) success of heuristic approaches in active learning methods of causal discovery, which currently use less informative measures. (shrink)
Cuando apareció Heidegger y el nazismo el mundo intelectual internacional habló de una «bomba», pese al tono mesurado y exacto del texto. El descubrimiento innegable de su vínculo con el nazi-fascismo, comprometía no sólo a su propio país, sino a toda la cultura del siglo XX. Esta discusión sigue viva. Por eso, Heidegger y su herencia: el neonazismo, el neofascismo y el fundamentalismo islámico compromete de modo sorprendente la proyección del pensamiento heideggeriano en el presente y el futuro. Con su (...) metodología estricta y sobria, su exposición clara, fundada siempre en hechos y textos, Víctor Farías pone de manifiesto la función vitalizadora que Heidegger tiene en las formas totalitarias y extremistas de la actualidad. Para todo lector será una sorpresa mayor descubrir su pensamiento en relación a la polémica antisemita y revisionista iniciada por su alumno Ernst Nolte, la función central de la filosofía heideggeriana en el programa y la praxis del NPD —el mayor partido neonazi alemán— y en el discurso teórico de los neofascistas más relevantes de Francia, Italia y Bélgica, fundamentando en él la xenofobia extrema y el antisemitismo. Aun los ecologistas fundamentalistas heideggerianos, con Rudolf Bahro a la cabeza, anhelan el advenimiento de un «Adolf verde». Sorprende también que los fundamentalistas islámicos vean en Martin Heidegger una suerte de icono en su lucha contra los «infieles», la modernidad y la democracia, se revela que Khomeini formó un grupo autodenominado «los heideggerianos» que recibieron la misión de articular la cultura y la legalidad islámica en Irán. Uno de sus miembros era Ahmadinezhad. El neomarxista populista Hugo Chávez, primitivo pero antisemita radical, tuvo como su asesor más importante a Norberto Ceresole, el neonazi heideggeriano más relevante de Argentina. Incluso los neoracistas indigenistas del Perú acuden a Heidegger para fundamentar su «lucha por su sangre inca y su suelo» en la autenticidad del «Ser-ahí» heideggeriano. (shrink)
Este artículo explora los artilugios conceptuales que utiliza la teoría de Bruno Latour para comprender y explicar la realidad natural y social. Asimismo, se exponen cuáles son los límites a su principio de “indeterminación radical” o principio de simetría generalizado. Este análisis muestra la posibilidad de un estudio normativo de la realidad social y tecnocientífica compatible con la evolución que se encuentra en el mismo Latour respecto del significado y funcíon políticos de la ciencia.This article explores the conceptual tools which (...) philosopher, sociologist and anthropologist Bruno Latour uses to understand and also to explain natural and social realities investigated by the sciences and by the philosophy of science. This text also sets the limits to Labour’s principle of radical indeterminacy, also known as the principle of generalized symmetry. As a result of this, the possibility of a normative study of social and techno-scientific realities is emphasized as a type of technoscientfic and social research, which is compatible with Latour’s own evolution of thought concerning the meaning and function of the politics of science. (shrink)
Most explanations of beliefs are epistemically or pragmatically rationalizing. The distinction between these two types involves the explainer's differing expectations of how the believer will behave in the face of counter-evidence. This feature suggests that rationalizing explanations portray beliefs as either (i) a consequence of the believer's following a norm, or (ii) part of a sub-intentional goal-oriented system. Which properly characterizes pragmatic believing? If there were pragmatic norms for believing, I argue, they would not be consciously followable. Yet an unallowable (...) norm is not a norm at all, and so I conclude that there are no such norms and that pragmatic believing is a sub-intentional, and not a norm-driven, process. /// La mayoría de las explicaciones de las creencias racionalizan de forma epistémica o pragmática. La distinción entre estas dos involucra las diferentes expectativas del que explica acerca de cómo se comportará el creyente frente a evidencia contraria. Este rasgo sugiere que las explicaciones racionalizadoras toman las creencias o bien (i) como una consecuencia de que el creyente siga una norma, o bien (ii) como parte de su sistema subintencional orientado a fines. ¿Cuàl caracteriza de manera apropiada el creer pragmático? Aquí argumento que si hubiera normas pragmáticas para creer, no se podrían seguir conscientemente; sin embargo, una norma no seguible no es una norma en ningún sentido, por lo que concluyo que no existen tales normas y que el creer pragmático es un proceso subintencional y no un proceso guiado por normas. (shrink)
David Hume (1711-1776) es sin duda el filósofo más importante de la ilustración británica. Se ocupó de una enorme variedad de problemas y sobre todos ellos ejerció su mirada crítica. En los ensayos que aquí presentamos puede apreciarse muy bien el alcance y la actualidad de sus planteamientos: una epistemología dispuesta a atenerse tanto a lo que nos muestra la experiencia como a las disposiciones de nuestra naturaleza. Una moral atenta a la felicidad humana (basada en la búsqueda de lo (...) inmediatamente agradable y de lo útil), y a la variedad de formas en que la misma puede concretarse. Una política elaborada pensando en la justicia, en el diálogo y en la necesidad de establecer acuerdos y contratos. Una crítica implacable de la superstición y el entusiasmo, y de las consecuencias negativas para la sociedad del fanatismo y la intolerancia. No es entonces extraño que nuestro autor pueda convertirse así en un interlocutor privilegiado para muchas corrientes filosóficas del momento. (shrink)
El siguiente trabajo se propone Hamar la atención sobre algunos pasajes de los Dialogos platónicos con el fin de poder extraer de su analisis algunas consideraciones respecto de la noción de logos en relación con la figura del filósofo. Para esto, dividire la exposición segun los siguientes puntos: (I) para constituir una base de apoyo hermeneutico adecuada, recordare primero la naturaleza de la tekhne eidolopoiike tal como es presentada en el Sofista (235d y ss.); luego (II) sefialare la importancia de (...) ciertos pasajes de los Dialogos medios que se refieren a la limitación y función intrinseca del logos ante la captación del ser verdadero; y por ultimo, (III) dare un ejemplo de la superación filosofica del logos teniendo en cuenta lo encontrado en II. En la conclusión intentare realizar una adecuada ponderación de la exposición propuesta. . (shrink)
En 1670, el autor español Juan Caramuel publicó en Italia el segundo tomo de una magna obra, Mathesis biceps (publicada en latín), sobre el saber matemático de su época. En el mismo se incluía un capítulo (un "sintagma" según el propio Caramuel), titulado Kybeia ("juegos de dados" en griego), donde el autor introduce su idea del origen del juego y resuelve algunos problemas relacionados con los mismos, convirtiéndose en una de las obras tempranas sobre cálculo de probablidades. En este texto (...) se da un repaso a los antecedentes al trabajo de Caramuel relacionados con el cálculo de probabilidades, se analiza punto por punto la aportación de este autor al nuevo cálculo en su Kybeia, y se añade la traducción al castellano del mismo. (shrink)
August Weismann rejected the inheritance of acquired characters on the grounds that changes to the soma cannot produce the kind of changes to the germ-plasm that would result in the altered character being transmitted to subsequent generations. His intended distinction, between germ-plasm and soma, was closer to the modern distinction between genotype and phenotype than to the modern distinction between germ cells and somatic cells. Recently, systems of epigenetic inheritance have been claimed to make possible the inheritance of acquired characters. (...) I argue that the sense in which these claims are true does not challenge fundamental tenets of neo-Darwinism. Epigenetic inheritance expands the range of options available to genes but evolutionary adaptation remains the product of natural selection of ‘random’ variation. (shrink)
Even if we do not observe those who own or manage capital doing anything, are there nevertheless good reasons for saying that they have power over government? My thesis is that, on any analysis of `power over others' that enables us to say that voters have power over those elected and that consumers have power over producers, we also have to say that those who own or control capital have power over government. Conversely, the reasons that can be given (and (...) have been given) for denying that owners of capital have power over governments would be equally good reasons for denying that voters have power over governments and that consumers have power over producers. Key Words: power • capitalism • democracy. (shrink)
In this paper we explore the intersection of three topics which have historically been singled out for ethical consideration in advertising and marketing: the use of fear appeals, marketing to the elderly, and the marketing of health care services and products. Issues relevant to using fear appeals in promoting health care issues to the elderly are explored with a consumer psychologist's theoretical view of fear appeals. Next the assumption of the elderly market's vulnerability and indicants of social or psychological function (...) which would differentiate the elderly recipients of marketing communications are examined both in terms of function and ethical concerns.Overall, our review of the theoretical underpinnings of fear-based communication and the psychological characteristics does not indicate that the elderly of today are particularlyvulnerable. While the elderly are probably somewhat more dogmatic than younger consumers and perhaps view outcomes from the perspective of their age, there are no indications that their psychological responses to fear-based appeals differ significantly from those of younger consumers. (shrink)
In the “Sala dei Mesi” of Palazzo Schifanoia the months and the zodiacal constellations go from right to left, while the decans (three for every sign) go in the opposite direction. This problem was not clarified by Aby Warburg in his well-known essay Italian Art and International Astrology in the Palazzo Schifanoia of Ferrara (1912). The purpose of this paper is to investigate the reasons of this double direction.
We consider the issue of what an agent or a processor needs to know in order to know that its messages are true. This may be viewed as a first step to a general theory of cooperative communication in distributed systems. An honest message is one that is known to be true when it is sent (or said). If every message that is sent is honest, then of course every message that is sent is true. Various weaker considerations than honesty (...) are investigated with the property that provided every message sent satisfies the condition, then every message sent is true. (shrink)
Dasan J eong Yagyong (1762–1836) is regarded in South Korea today as one of pre-modern Korea’s best philosophers. This article examines one of the reasons he is so respected. He modified traditional Korean Confucian moral philosophy to include notions of human nature as desires rather than innate virtue, the importance of free will rather than mere determination, and the existence of a Lord Above as a necessary incentive to proper behavior. Though he supported these changes to traditional Korean Confucian philosophy (...) with references to the Classics and his own personal moral experience, observers have noticed the possibility of Western influence on his thinking. He is thus hailed by Koreans as a cross-cultural philosopher, an example of how Koreans can borrow from the West while nonetheless remaining authentically Korean. (shrink)
