In Exploring Robotic Minds: Actions, Symbols, and Consciousness as Self-Organizing Dynamic Phenomena, Jun Tani sets out to answer an essential and tantalizing question: How do our minds work? By providing an overview of his "synthetic neurorobotics" project, Tani reveals how symbols and concepts that represent the world can emerge in a neurodynamic structure--iterative interactions between the top-down subjective view, which proactively acts on the world, and the bottom-up recognition of the resultant perceptual reality. He argues that nontrivial problems of consciousness (...) and free will could be addressed through structural understanding of such iterative, conflicting interactions between the top-down and the bottom-up pathways. A wide range of readers will enjoy this wonderful journey of the mind and will follow the author on interdisciplinary discussions that span neuroscience, dynamical systems theories, robotics, and phenomenology. The book also includes many figures, as well as a link to videos of Tani's exciting robotic experiments. (shrink)

Tosaka Jun (1900-1945) was one of modern Japan's most unique and important critics of capitalism, the emperor system, imperialism, and everyday life in wartime Japan. This collection of translations contains some of Tosaka's most important essays and original articles on Tosaka.

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)

沈黙を強いられた時代にひそかに続けられた抵抗。総動員体制と戦争のさなか名を秘して書き綴られた戦闘的唯物論者の論文を発掘!

Clustering plays an important role in data mining, pattern recognition, and machine learning. Then, single-valued neutrosophic sets are a useful means to describe and handle indeterminate and inconsistent information, which fuzzy sets and intuitionistic fuzzy sets cannot describe and deal with. To cluster the data represented by single-value neutrosophic information, the article proposes a single-valued neutrosophic minimum spanning tree clustering algorithm. Firstly, we defined a generalized distance measure between SVNSs. Then, we present an SVNMST clustering algorithm for clustering single-value neutrosophic (...) data based on the generalized distance measure of SVNSs. Finally, two illustrative examples are given to demonstrate the application and effectiveness of the developed approach. (shrink)

Clustering plays an important role in data mining, pattern recognition, and machine learning. Single-valued neutrosophic sets are useful means to describe and handle indeterminate and inconsistent information that fuzzy sets and intuitionistic fuzzy sets cannot describe and deal with. To cluster the data represented by single-valued neutrosophic information, this article proposes single-valued neutrosophic clustering methods based on similarity measures between SVNSs. First, we define a generalized distance measure between SVNSs and propose two distance-based similarity measures of SVNSs. Then, we present (...) a clustering algorithm based on the similarity measures of SVNSs to cluster single-valued neutrosophic data. Finally, an illustrative example is given to demonstrate the application and effectiveness of the developed clustering methods. (shrink)

On the basis of the combination of single-valued neutrosophic sets and hesitant fuzzy sets, this article proposes a single-valued neutrosophic hesitant fuzzy set as a further generalization of the concepts of fuzzy set, intuitionistic fuzzy set, single-valued neutrosophic set, hesitant fuzzy set, and dual hesitant fuzzy set. Then, we introduce the basic operational relations and cosine measure function of SVNHFSs. Also, we develop a single-valued neutrosophic hesitant fuzzy weighted averaging operator and a single-valued neutrosophic hesitant fuzzy weighted geometric operator and (...) investigate their properties. Furthermore, a multiple-attribute decision-making method is established on the basis of the SVNHFWA and SVNHFWG operators and the cosine measure under a single-valued neutrosophic hesitant fuzzy environment. Finally, an illustrative example of investment alternatives is given to demonstrate the application and effectiveness of the developed approach. (shrink)

We critically examine Denis Walsh’s latest attack on the causalist view of fitness. Relying on Judea Pearl’s Sure-Thing Principle and geneticist John Gillespie’s model for fitness, Walsh has argued that the causal interpretation of fitness results in a reductio. We show that his conclusion only follows from misuse of the models, that is, (1) the disregard of the real biological bearing of the population-size parameter in Gillespie’s model and (2) the confusion of the distinction between ordinary probability and Pearl’s causal (...) probability. Properly understood, the models used by Walsh do not threaten the causalist view of fitness. (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。.

Di ka mi shi ou zhou jin dai li xing zhu yi zhe xue de chuang shi ren. ben shu li tu dui di ka mi di yi zhe xue de si xiang zuo yi quan mian yan jiu, dui ta de fang fa lun " wo si gu wo zai " wu fu guan nian lun, xin shen guan xi deng zhu yao li lun jin xing le xi tong yan jiu.

We used social network analysis to examine a theoretical model exploring why, and under what circumstances, the perpetrators’ ostracizing behaviors are accurately perceived by the target employees. In turn, these perceptions of ostracism lead to the target employees’ counterproductive work behaviors. Adopting perspectives from both perpetrators and targets, we directly measured the ostracizing behaviors by all potential perpetrators and perceived workplace ostracism by target employees. We integrate Social information processing theory and conservation of resource theory to propose a moderated mediation (...) model, and found that employees who have a high level of need to belong are more likely to capture coworkers’ ostracizing behaviors, and those with low political skill are more likely to engage in counterproductive work behavior as their reaction to perceived workplace ostracism. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. (shrink)

We have been left with a big challenge, to articulate consciousness and also to prove it in an artificial agent against a biological standard. After introducing Boltuc’s h-consciousness in the last paper, we briefly reviewed some salient neurology in order to sketch less of a standard than a series of targets for artificial consciousness, “most-consciousness” and “myth-consciousness.” With these targets on the horizon, we began reviewing the research program pursued by Jun Tani and colleagues in the isolation of the formal (...) dynamics essential to either. In this paper, we describe in detail Tani’s research program, in order to make the clearest case for artificial consciousness in these systems. In the next paper, the third in the series, we will return to Boltuc’s naturalistic non-reductionism in light of the neurorobotics models introduced (alongside some others), and evaluate them more completely. (shrink)

In this article, we will make the case for an intercultural philosophy of religion with a special focus on interculturality between Chinese and African philosophies. We will provide an overview of the kind of intercultural philosophy that has already been undertaken between the East and the South and point out that a philosophy of religion has been left out. We will then make the case for a global philosophy of religion approach and why Chinese and African philosophies of religion should (...) engage in philosophical interchanges. We will then highlight some directions for carrying out such a philosophy and explain why the problem of evil may be better addressed from an intercultural perspective. (shrink)

Successful formation of a new venture is not the most critical indicator of the real success of an entrepreneurial venture. Instead, the sustainability of an entrepreneurial venture (i.e., entrepreneurial sustainability) is the most critical but the most difficulty goal. Entrepreneurial sustainability relies largely on positive collective psychology. This article offers systematic and detailed discussion of the effects of psychological capital on the critical elements of entrepreneurship sustainability – not just that on a successful formation of a new venture. The goal (...) is to shed light on potential practical designs and theoretical improvement in the future. (shrink)

The Reformation had a profound impact on hermeneutical practices by challenging ecclesiastical authority and emphasising interpretive freedom, addressing a crucial gap in historical theology. This study aimed to assess the influence of Martin Luther’s principle of self-interpretation of the Bible and Matthias Flacius’ organismic methodology, which builds on that principle, on the foundations of modern hermeneutics, particularly the methodological hermeneutics represented by Schleiermacher and Dilthey. Set within the context of the 16th-century Reformation, the study conducted a rigorous textual analysis of (...) historical theological documents, revealing a significant paradigm shift towards more inclusive and rational interpretations of sacred texts. This shift, aligning with emerging humanistic values, marked a lasting transformation in the field of hermeneutics.Contribution: The primary contribution of this study lies in its detailed exploration of the historical roots of modern hermeneutics, highlighting the Reformation’s pivotal role in shaping contemporary interpretive methodologies. By elucidating the connections between theological reforms and hermeneutical practices, this research enriches the discourse on the development of hermeneutics and underscores the enduring relevance of Reformation-era innovations. These insights provide valuable perspectives on the interplay between historical and contemporary hermeneutical theories, closely aligning with the intersection of historical theology and interpretive methodologies, thus offering a significant contribution to the field. (shrink)

It is widely agreed that China is experiencing a substantial transition toward modernization. However, both business behavior and day-to-day life in China are still greatly influenced and regulated by the traditional culture that has been embedded in Chinese society for thousands of years. Therefore, when studying social phenomena in China, researchers must take the indigenous cultural context into account. Focusing on the young generation in China, the authors explore the relationships between the most fundamental traditional concepts and various value dimensions. (...) Three hundred and thirty-two university students in Southeast China took part in the survey and data were analyzed with SPSS. The result might help both scholars and practitioners to better understand the contemporary Chinese culture. The discussion and implications are also offered. (shrink)

Abstract:This article investigates Ahn Changho's notion of 'mutual love', the central features of which present a picture of society in which the selfish desires of free-spirited individuals can be regulated through the self-cultivation of mutual love. Specifically, first, by analyzing Ahn Changho's reconfiguration of the Confucian ideal of parent-child intimacy with mutual love, I will argue that his notion of mutual love sheds light on a hybrid imaginary of modernity that cannot be reduced to either the anti-Western rehabilitation of Confucian (...) 'filial piety' or the pro-Western adaptation of 'individuality'. Second, scrutinizing Ahn Changho's empirical criticism of early modern Korea, which has been termed 'the absence of mutual love', it is proposed that his pragmatic vision of individuality is shaped through non-domination as an alternative to the Weberian framework of modernization in which the processes of individualization and rationalization are unduly opposed to those of cultivating a commonality in a society. (shrink)

This study attempts to describe the notion of the ‘self’ using dynamical systems language based on the results of our robot learning experiments. A neural network model consisting of multiple modules is proposed, in which the interactive dynamics between the bottom-up perception and the top-down prediction are investigated. Our experiments with a real mobile robot showed that the incremental learning of the robot switches spontaneously between steady and unsteady phases. In the steady phase, the top-down prediction for the bottom-up perception (...) works well when coherence is achieved between the internal and the environmental dynamics. In the unsteady phase, conflicts arise between the bottom-up perception and the top-down prediction; the coherence is lost, and a chaotic attractor is observed in the internal neural dynamics. By investigating possible analogies between this result and the phenomenological literature on the ‘self', we draw the conclusions that the structure of the ‘self’ corresponds to the ‘open dynamic structure’ which is characterized by co-existence of stability in terms of goal-directedness and instability caused by embodiment; the open dynamic structure causes the system's spontaneous transition to the unsteady phase where the ‘self’ becomes aware. (shrink)

Democratic deliberation has an inherent tension between self-government and good government. It grants democratic politics a legitimacy which depends on its responsiveness to the collective opinion of the members of a political community, while it also seeks good decisions, the justification of which adheres to an ideal of right action beyond the opinion of the majority. In this regard, Philip Pettit proposes liberty as non-domination as a regulative ideal that guides democratic deliberation for self-government without jettisoning the ideal of good (...) government. His republican theory of democratic deliberation is worthy of our consideration in the sense that without endorsing either any pre-existing commonality in a society or a set of inalienable individual rights, it successfully justifies the imposition of external premises in democratic deliberation. However, his theory of democratic deliberation still falls prey to charges of having an anti-self-government tendency, particularly when civil contention between individuals or groups is driven by contrasting views of liberty as non-domination. Based on this observation, in this paper, supplementing his consequentialism with the Daoist practices of becoming ‘nothingness’, I will suggest the ethics of ‘difference’ as an additional regulative principle that helps better steer democratic deliberation toward the premise of liberty as non-domination. (shrink)

This paper introduces a refined single-valued neutrosophic set (RSVNS) and presents a similarity measure of RSVNSs. Then a multicriteria decision-making method with RSVNS information is developed based on the similarity measure of RSVNSs. By the similarity measure between each alternative and the ideal solution (ideal alternative), all the alternatives can be ranked and the best one can be selected as well. Finally, an actual example on the selecting problems of construction projects demonstrates the application and effectiveness of the proposed method.

Monoidal t-norm based logic $\mathbf {MTL}$ is the weakest t-norm based residuated fuzzy logic, which is a $[0,1]$ -valued propositional logical system having a t-norm and its residuum as truth function for conjunction and implication. Monadic fuzzy predicate logic $\mathbf {mMTL\forall }$ that consists of the formulas with unary predicates and just one object variable, is the monadic fragment of fuzzy predicate logic $\mathbf {MTL\forall }$, which is indeed the predicate version of monoidal t-norm based logic $\mathbf {MTL}$. The main (...) aim of this paper is to give an algebraic proof of the completeness theorem for monadic fuzzy predicate logic $\mathbf {mMTL\forall }$ and some of its axiomatic extensions. Firstly, we survey the axiomatic system of monadic algebras for t-norm based residuated fuzzy logic and amend some of them, thus showing that the relationships for these monadic algebras completely inherit those for corresponding algebras. Subsequently, using the equivalence between monadic fuzzy predicate logic $\mathbf {mMTL\forall }$ and S5-like fuzzy modal logic $\mathbf {S5(MTL)}$, we prove that the variety of monadic MTL-algebras is actually the equivalent algebraic semantics of the logic $\mathbf {mMTL\forall }$, giving an algebraic proof of the completeness theorem for this logic via functional monadic MTL-algebras. Finally, we further obtain the completeness theorem of some axiomatic extensions for the logic $\mathbf {mMTL\forall }$, and thus give a major application, namely, proving the strong completeness theorem for monadic fuzzy predicate logic based on involutive monoidal t-norm logic $\mathbf {mIMTL\forall }$ via functional representation of finitely subdirectly irreducible monadic IMTL-algebras. (shrink)

A recent study has reported that the successful implementation of cognitive regulation of emotion depends on higher-level cognitive functions, such as top-down control, which may be impaired in stressful situations. This calls for “cognition free” self-regulatory strategies that do not require top-down control. In contrast to the cognitive regulation of emotion that emphasizes the role of cognition, traditional Chinese philosophy and medicine views the relationship among different types of emotions as promoting or counteracting each other without the involvement of cognition, (...) which provides an insightful perspective for developing “cognition free” regulatory strategies. In this study, we examined two hypotheses regarding the modulation of anger and aggressive behavior: sadness counteracts anger and aggressive behavior, whereas fear promotes anger and aggressive behavior. Participants were first provoked by reading extremely negative feedback on their viewpoints (Study 1) and by watching anger-inducing movie clips (Study 2). Then, these angry participants were assigned to three equivalent groups and viewed sad, fear-inducing, or neutral materials to evoke the corresponding emotions. The results showed that participants displayed a lower level of aggressive behavior when sadness was later induced and a higher level of anger when fear was later induced. These results provide evidence that supports the hypothesis of mutual promotion and counteraction relationships among these types of emotions and imply a “cognition free” approach to regulating anger and aggressive behavior. (shrink)

We propose a new Real-coded GA(RCGA) using the combination of two crossovers, UNDX-m and EDX. The search region of UNDX-m is biased to the inside area that the population of the RCGA covers. Because of this search bias, the GA using UNDX-m causes stagnation of its search if the cost function has a kind of structure, so called, a ridge structure or a multiple-peak structure. In order to overcome this stagnation, we propose a new crossover EDX, whose search is biased (...) toward extrapolative one. Experimental results show that RCGA with EDX can deal with both ridge-structure function whose dimension reaches more than hundreds and multiple-peak function whose optimum resides at the corner of the search area. (shrink)

Based on social exchange theory and attribution theory, this paper explores the role of affective commitment and organizational support in the relationship between career growth and the engagement of knowledge workers. The results show that career growth has a positive impact on knowledge workers’ organizational engagement; career goal progress and professional ability development promote job engagement; career growth has a positive effect on affective commitment, which in turn influences employee engagement; affective commitment plays a mediating role in the effect of (...) career growth on engagement; and perceived organizational support positively moderates the relationship between career growth and affective commitment. (shrink)

BackgroundOrgan donation and transplantation in China are ethically complex due to questionable informed consent and the use of prisoners as donors. Publishing works from China can be problematic. The objective of this study was to perform a 10-year follow up on Chinese journals active in donation and transplant publishing regarding the evolution of their publishing guidelines.MethodsEleven Chinese journals were analyzed for 7 properties: (1) ethics committee approval; (2) procedure consent; (3) publishing consent; (4) authorship criteria; (5) conflict of interest; (6) (...) duplicate publication; and (7) data integrity. Results were compared with our 2008 study data. Additionally, open access status, impact factor, and MEDLINE-indexing were explored.ResultsMost journals heightened the ethical requirements for publishing, compared to the results of 2008. All 11 now require their published manuscripts to have data integrity. Ten of 11 require ethics committee approval and informed consent for the publication of research studies, whereas in the original study only 2 journals evidenced these requirements. Nine of 11 have criteria for authorship, require conflict of interest disclosure, and forbid duplicate publishing. None of the journals have a policy to exclude data that was obtained from unethical organ donation practices. Nine of 11 journals are MEDLINE-indexed but only 2 are open-access.ConclusionsMost journals have improved their general ethical publishing requirements but none address unethical organ donation practices. (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)