The accurate measurement of university students’ motivation to participate in physical activity is a prerequisite to developing better physical fitness programs. However, motivation driven by government policies, i.e., physical education policies, are often excluded from many existing scales. The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a psychometric instrument based on self-determination theory that exclusively measures the motivation of Chinese university students to participate in PA. A total of 1,215 university students who regularly participated in PA at five (...) universities in China constituted the final valid sample. Sample 1 was used to determine the underlying factor structure of the initial Chinese University Students’ Physical Activity Motivation Scale through exploratory factor analysis. Sample 2 was used to test the model fit of the EFA-derived factor structure and data through confirmatory factor analysis and to test the internal consistency of each factor and of the whole scale. Sample 3 was used to confirm the model stability and criterion validity. Finally, 177 individuals were randomly selected from Sample 3 to perform test–retest reliability. Preliminary evidence showed that the nine-factor CUSPAMS, consisting of 32 items, yielded good psychometric characteristics. The development of the CUSPAMS provides an opportunity to improve current theories and practices regarding the assessment of PA motivation. The CUSPAMS is recommended for examining factors that influence motives as well as the impact of motives on PA among Chinese university students. (shrink)

We compare Carnap's and Kuhn's views on science. Although there are important differences between them, the similarities are striking. The basis for the latter is a pragmatically oriented semantic conventionalist picture of science, which suggests that the view that post-positivist philosophy of science constitutes a radical revolution which has no interesting affinities with logical positivism must be seriously mistaken.

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in English; abstract also in Chinese. Embedded in the narration of “Bioethics: Cross Cultural Explorations” is a trilogy of three nuanced and tightly interwoven accounts: (1) a descriptive account, (2) a reflective account, and (3) a futuristic account. Together, they offer invaluable insights into the complexity and challenges in conducting cross-cultural bioethics dialogues. These complexities are illustrated through Father Joseph Tham’s 12-year-long engagement with the project “Bioethics, Multiculturalism and Religion” in his capacity as Chair of (...) the UNESCO project in Bioethics and Human Rights. (Abstract taken from first paragraph of document) 本文評論了Tham的豐富論述，及其深刻解説後現代世界道德多元化和多元文化為跨文化生命倫理學對話帶來的複雜性和挑戰。本文亦回應了Tham提出應如何重塑跨文化接觸的本質、使命、目標和方法的關鍵問題，以協和 道德普遍性和多元性之間的緊張關係，並深化參與及對話，以促進有成效的跨文化接觸。. (shrink)

This paper is a tribute to H.T. Engelhardt Jr. for the intellectual resources he provided to challenge cosmopolitan liberalism as the foundation for an overarching global bioethics in the post-modern world. It is a also a tribute to the moral pluralism and cultural diversity which he argued so forcefully in all his works and which have inspired the flourishing of fierce bioethical debates across the world, including in the non-Western and Asian societies.

In A Theory of Justice (1971), John Rawls introduces the concept of “reflective equilibrium.” Although there are innumerable references to and discussions of this concept in the literature, there is, to the present author's knowledge, no discussion of the most important question: Why reflective equilibrium? In particular, the question arises: Is the method of reflective equilibrium applicable to the choice of this method itself? Rawls's drawing of parallels between Kant's moral theory and his own suggests that his concept of “reflective (...) equilibrium” is on a par with Kant's concept of “transcendental deduction.” Treating these two approaches to justification as paradigmatic, I consider their respective merits in meeting the reflexive challenge, i.e., in offering a justification for choice of mode of justification. My enquiry into this topic comprises three parts. In the first part (Eng 2014a), I raised the issue of the reflexivity of justification and questioned whether the reflexive challenge can be met within the framework of A Theory of Justice. In this second part, I shall outline a Kantian approach that represents a paradigmatic alternative to Rawls. (shrink)

Teo describes two centuries of challenges to mainstream psychological thinking along with the mainstream's reactions.

This article presents Mencius' concept of human dignity in the Chinese Confucian moral tradition, focused on the context of long-term care. The double nature of Mencius' notion of human dignity as an intrinsic quality of human beings qua being human is analyzed and contrasted with the dominant Western account of human dignity as grounded in personhood. Drawing on the heuristic force of an interview with an elder person in Hong Kong, the insights of the Mencian theory of human dignity are (...) used to provide a moral foundation for long-term care for elder persons in a context of diminishing personhood and shrinking autonomy. (shrink)

This paper aims to provide a rendition of the care ethic in Confucian philosophy and to argue that social policy developments in Hong Kong society, including health care policy, have been significantly shaped and justified in terms of the ideal of care in the Confucian moral tradition. On the basis of this analysis, the paper raises a number of questions about a recent proposal for health care reform for Hong Kong put forth by the Harvard School of Public Health which (...) argues for adopting the principle of equity as the overriding value for the moral foundation of Hong Kong's health care system. The paper examines how the over-emphasis on equity in the Harvard Report proposals can lead to the erosion of care and ultimately the eclipse of the vision of care in Hong Kong's health care system. It argues that the pursuit of equity, which is itself a valuable principle, should not displace the importance of the value of care or undermine the ideal of care and that health care decisions must be firmly embedded in local cultures and moral traditions. (shrink)

This article presents Mencius' concept of human dignity in the Chinese Confucian moral tradition, focused on the context of long-term care. The double nature of Mencius' notion of human dignity as an intrinsic quality of human beings qua being human is analyzed and contrasted with the dominant Western account of human dignity as grounded in personhood. Drawing on the heuristic force of an interview with an elder person in Hong Kong, the insights of the Mencian theory of human dignity are (...) used to provide a moral foundation for long-term care for elder persons in a context of diminishing personhood and shrinking autonomy. (shrink)

Our aim is to illuminate the interconnected notions of meaning and truth. For this purpose, we investigate the relationship between meaning theories based on commonsensical ‘means that’ and interpretive truth theories. The latter are Tarski–Davidson-style truth theories serving as meaning theories. We consider analytically true semantic principles containing ‘means’ and ‘means that’ side to side with ‘denotes’, ‘satisfies’, and ‘true’, which constitute the extensional semantic constants of interpretive truth theories. We show that these semantic constants are definable in terms of (...) ‘means’ and ‘means that’ operators. The definitions themselves are semantic principles in the role of meaning postulates. We extend a meaning theory based on ‘means that’ by adjoining semantic principles to the axioms of the theory. Then, all axioms, hence all theorems, of a corresponding interpretive truth theory are provable in the extension of the meaning theory. Furthermore, every interpretive truth theory can be included in the extension of a corresponding meaning theory. Therefore, the extension of a meaning theory resulting from the adjunction of semantic principles constitutes a unified meaning-and-truth theory since it includes both a meaning theory and an interpretive truth theory. (shrink)

This book is about multiculturalism, broadly defined as the recognition, respect and accommodation of cultural differences. Teo proposes a framework of multicultural denizenship that includes group-specific rights and intercultural dialogue, by problematising three issues: a) the unacknowledged misrecognition of non-citizens within the scholarship of multiculturalism; b) uncritical treatment of citizens and non-citizens as binary categories and; c) problematic parcelling of group-specific rights with citizenship rights. Drawing on the case of Singapore as an illustrative example, where temporary labour migrants are culturally (...) stereotyped, socioeconomically disenfranchised and denied access to rights accorded only to citizens, Teo argues that understandings of multiculturalism need to be expanded and adjusted to include a fluidity of identities, spectrum of rights and shared experiences of marginalisation among citizens and non-citizens. Civic Multiculturalism in Singapore will be of interest to students and scholars of multiculturalism, critical citizenship studies, migration studies, political theory and postcolonial studies. (shrink)

The word _meṇḍaka_, a derivative of _meṇḍa_ (“ram”), is generally translated as “made of the ram” or “about the ram” or “horned.” However, in the Pāli _Milindapañha_ (_Questions of Milinda_), the word _meṇḍakapañha_, literally, a question about the ram, is also rendered as a logical conclusion that refutes an imaginary dilemma. Hence, in this treatise, the word _meṇḍaka_ is a special logical term which means an imaginary dilemma that can be logically refuted. This raises the question as to why the (...) word _meṇḍaka_ has come to be associated with this logical technique. To answer this question, this paper examines various aspects of the word and its possible connections to a dilemma and its refutation. The discussion ranges from the meaning of this word in a tale in the _Jātaka_ (Birth Stories), within the contextual usage in a _meṇḍaka_ question, to a relatively recent commentarial text (_aṭṭhakathā_) which gives a different perspective on the etymology of the word. The _Milindapañha_ is explicit in defining a _meṇḍaka_ question as knotty, hard to penetrate, and difficult to resolve, some of which an opponent puts forth to undermine certain aspects of the Buddhist system. However, the way certain _meṇḍaka_ questions are framed, though not directly stated, seem to utilize the principles of logic in a dilemmatic form of argument. With that, a _meṇḍaka_ question, at least in the _Milindapañha_, could also mean “a dilemmatic expression put forth by a challenger to undermine an opponent, but which can be logically refuted.”. (shrink)

This article re-examines speculations about school affiliation of the Milindapañha (Questions of King Milinda) and traces its presence from North West India in the early centuries CE up to Southeast Asia in the nineteenth century. As there are significant differences between the textual traditions of the Pali Text Society’s Milindapañho and the Siamese printed edition, the Milindapañh?, I will discuss the little-known textual characteristics of the Siamese recensions which were circulating in Central Siam from at least the seventeenth century. This (...) is possible with the discovery of several Ayutthaya period Milindapañha manuscripts kept at a temple and the National Library of Thailand. By the end of the eighteenth century, at least three different recensions were circulating in Central Siam. This paper will present some of their dissimilarities as well as their probable textual lineages. The newly discovered manuscripts also partly demonstrate that the shape of the textual tradition of a text, at least for the Milindapañha in Siam, reflects a function of the textual community that preserved and transmitted it. (shrink)

ResumeLa question du filtrage de ľinformation génétique dans la cellule est fondamentale. Comment la cellule sélectionne‐t‐elle, avant de les transformer en RNA puis en protéines, certaines parties bien déterminées de son information génétique? Il ne sera probablement pas possible de donner une explication cohérente du développement embryonnaire, de la différentiation cellulaire et du maintien de ľétat différencie tant que nous n'aurons pas repondu de manière satis‐faisante à cette question.Dans un premier chapitre, quelques notions de base concernant ľexpression génétique sont préséntées. (...) Le dogme de flux de ľinformation génétique dans la cellule, DNARNA protéine est valable à la fois pour les procaryotes et les eucaryotes malgré des différences significatives au niveau de la structure et de la régulation des gènes. Contrairement aux génes procaryotes, la plu‐part des gènes eucaryotes sont morcelés. Le DNA codant pour une protéine est interrompu par des régions non‐codantes dont les transcrits sont éliminés par excision pendant la maturation du RNA messager ultérieurement traduit en protéine. Une grande variété de mécanismes interviennent dans la régulation de ľactivité de ces gènes.Le pouvoir et les limites des méthodes modernes de ľanalyse structurale et fonctionnelle des génes sont discutés dans la deuxième partie de ľarticle. Ľhybridation moléculaire reposant sur la complémentarité des bases azotées des acides nucléiques joue un rôle déterminant dans ľétude de la complexity des génomes et de leur expression. Récemment, ľapplication de la technologie du DNA recombinant et des techniques annexes a permis ľisolement ainsi que la caractérisation de plusieurs génes eucaryotes. La question de ľexpression différentielle de ces génes est actuellement intensément étudiée dans plusieurs systèmes de transcription ayant chacun ses points forts et ses faiblesses.En guise de conclusion, quelques implications de ľessor prodigieux que connaît la génétique moléculaire sont discutées.SummaryThe question of selective expression of genetic information in the cell is fundamental. How does a cell choose particular parts of its genetic information prior to transforming them into RNA and then into proteins? It will probably not be possible to give a coherent explanation of embryonic development, of cell differentiation, and of the maintenance of the differentiated state as until we have answered this question satisfactorily.In the first chapter, several basic notions concerning genetic expression are presented. The central dogma of the flow of genetic information in the cell, DNARNA‐ protein is valid both for prokaryotes and eukaryotes despite significant differences at the level of gene structure and regulation. In contrast to prokaryotic genes, most eukaryotic genes are split. The DNA coding for a protein is interrupted by non‐coding regions whose transcripts are eliminated by excision during the maturation of the messenger RNA which will subsequently be translated into protein. A wide variety of mecanisms are implicated in the regulation of these genes.The scope and limits of modern methods for the structural and functional analyses of genes are discussed in the second part of the article. Molecular hybridization, which is based on the complementarity between the bases of the nucleic acids, plays a key role in the study of the complexity and expression of genes. Recently, the application of recombinant DNA technology and associated techniques has allowed the isolation as well as the characterization of several eukaryotic genes. The question of the differential expression of these genes is currently studied intensively in many transcription systems which all have their strengths and weaknesses.As a conclusion, several implications of the prodigious progress of molecular genetics are discussed.ZusammenfassungDie Frage nach der selektiven Expression der genetischen Information in der Zelle ist fundamental. Wie wählt eine Zelle bestimmte Teile ihrer genetischen Information, um diese dann in RNA und Proteine zu übersetzen? Wahrscheinlich wird es nicht möglich sein, eine vollständige Erklärung für die Embryonalentwicklung, für die Zeildifferenzierung und für di Aufrechterhaltung des differenzierten Zustandes zu geben, bevor wir eine befriedigende Antwort auf diese Frage gefunden haben.Im ersten Kapitel sind mehrere grundlegende Erkenntnisse über die Genexpression dargestellt. Das zentrale Dogma über den Fluss der genetischen Information in der Zelle, DNA RNA Protein, gilt sowohl für Prokaryonten als auch für Eukaryonten trotz bedeutender Unterschiede auf der Ebene der Genstruktur und Genregulation. Im Gegensatz zu den Genen von Prokaryonten sind die meisten Gene der Eukaryonten unterteilt. Die DNA, welche für ein Protein kodiert, ist durch nicht‐kodierende Regionen unterbrochen, welche wahrend des Reifungsprozesses der messenger RNA herausgeschnitten werden. Diese messenger RNA wird schliesslich in ein Protein iibersetzt. Sehr verschiedenartige Mechanismen sind an der Regulation dieser Gene beteiligt.Im zweiten Teil des Artikels werden Ziele und Grenzen moderner Methoden zur Analyse von Struktur und Funktion von Genen diskutiert. Molekulare Hybridisation, welche auf der Komplementarität zwischen den Basen der Nukleinsäuren beruht, spielt eine Schlüsselrolle in der Analyse der Komplexität und Expression der Gene. Die Anwendung der rekombinanten DNA Technologie sowie damit zusammenhängender Methoden hat kürzlich die Isolierung und Charak‐terisierung verschiedener eukaryontischer Gene erlaubt. Die Frage nach der differenziellen Expression dieser Gene wird gegenwärtig mit Hilfe verschiedener Transkriptionssysteme, welche alle ihre Stärken und Schwächen haben, intensiv studiert.Zusammenfassend werden verschiedene Implikationen des gewaltigen Fortschrittes der molekularen Genetik diskutiert. (shrink)

Elsewhere I have argued that particular degrees of imagination and consciousness, a cog­nitive process that I call reflective imagination, distinguish humans from other species and make possible, and underlie, the artistic experience. I take the artistic experience to be the universal and characteristically human capacity to experience oneself or others in a story by means of music, dance, song, pantomime, drawing, pretend play, or spoken or written language. In this paper I reconstruct the developmental path of the reflective imagina­tion via (...) the artistic experience in five stages: infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and senescence, and its plausible evolutionary trajectory from Australopithecines to Homo sapiens. Drawing upon both evolutionary and developmental theory, I conclude that the reflective imagination via the artistic experience has fulfilled, and still fulfills, important functions by activating memory systems, regulating emotional expression, promoting mutuality, training attentional focus, developing motor control, enabling prediction, free­ing from actuality, sourcing identity, complexifying consciousness, and affording behav­ioral adaptation. (shrink)

Thomas Kuhn's post-1980 writings have increasingly emphasized the role played by language in the characterization of scientific revolutions and incommensurability. We argue that Kuhn's `linguistic turn' can be understood best against the background of a Whorfian conception of language and certain neo-Kantian themes. While this enables Kuhn to refine and unify his earlier views, it also creates some difficulties.

In the Western media, stories about China seem to fall into one of two categories: China’s astounding economic development or its human rights abuses. As human rights discourses follow increasingly hegemonic conventions, especially with regard to China, many of their key assumptions remain unexamined. This special issue—the second in a two-part series beginning with “Cosmologies of the Human”—critically investigates the relationship between China and the human as it plays out in law, politics, biopolitics, political economy, labor, medicine, and culture. The (...) contributors interrogate the evolving meanings of “China” and “the human,” both inside China and internationally. The issue tracks the ways in which global discourses treat China—still officially socialist—as similar to, different from, and alternative to Western capitalist modernities. Several essays probe the modern theoretical underpinnings of human rights abuses in China, including a crucial distinction between “the human” and “the people.” Others review the impact of Maoism on Marxist debates in China and in the West, as well as the specific influences of Mao’s writings on French politics and theory in the 1960s. A visual dossier compares eight contemporary Chinese artists, directors, and public image-makers in order to discuss the figure of the human from Tiananmen Square to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. While many contributors discuss China and the West comparatively, the issue interrogates the universalizing claims of both Western and Chinese norms of the human by privileging the local, particular, and eccentric. Contributors: Ackbar Abbas, Michael Dutton, David L. Eng, Doug Howland, Petrus Liu, Camille Robcis, Teemu Ruskola, Shuang Shen, Shu-mei Shih, Wang Xiaoming David L. Eng is Professor of English, Comparative Literature, and Asian American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of _The Feeling of Kinship: Queer Liberalism and the Racialization of Intimacy_ and _Racial Castration: Managing Masculinity in Asian America_, both also published by Duke University Press. Teemu Ruskola is Professor of Law at Emory University and Visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown University. Shuang Shen is Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature and Chinese at Pennsylvania State University. (shrink)

We compare Carnap's and Kuhn's views on science. Although there are important differences between them, the similarities are striking. The basis for the latter is a pragmatically oriented semantic conventionalist picture of science, which suggests that the view that post-positivist philosophy of science constitutes a radical revolution which has no interesting affinities with logical positivism must be seriously mistaken.

In A Theory of Justice (1971), John Rawls introduces the concept of “reflective equilibrium.” Although there are innumerable references to and discussions of this concept in the literature, there is, to the present author's knowledge, no discussion of the most important question: Why reflective equilibrium? In particular, the question arises: Is the method of reflective equilibrium applicable to the choice of this method itself? Rawls's drawing of parallels between Kant's moral theory and his own suggests that his concept of “reflective (...) equilibrium” is on a par with Kant's concept of “transcendental deduction.” Treating these two approaches to justification as paradigmatic, I consider their respective merits in meeting the reflexive challenge, i.e., in offering a justification for choice of mode of justification. In the first part of this enquiry (Eng 2014a), I raised the issue of the reflexivity of justification and questioned whether the reflexive challenge can be met within the framework of A Theory of Justice. In the second part (Eng 2014b), I outlined a Kantian approach that represents a paradigmatic alternative to Rawls. In this third and final part, I shall argue that Rawls's reflective equilibrium cannot justify the choice of itself and that in the broader perspective thus necessitated, we cannot escape the metaphysical issues integral to the Kantian approach. (shrink)

Modernism is often implicitly known and understood from the “Western modernist” perspective and history. The wide recognition of the Western modernist canon as centre and universal displaces the contribution and significance of the non-Western world in the modern movement. Within Asia, the modernisms that arose from various nations in the region had subtly different notions of culture, identity, nationhood, and modernity, although almost every Asian country was related in one way or another to the history of Western imperialism. Using a (...) comparative analysis, this article examines modernism in twentieth-century Asia from a multicultural viewpoint, and bringing into picture the place of Asia in the history of modernism. (shrink)

After identifying the discipline of psychology’s history of contributing pioneers and leaders to the field of race research, epistemological problems in empirical psychology are identified including an adherence to a naïve empiricist philosophy of science. The reconstruction focuses on the underdetermined relationship between data and interpretation. It is argued that empirical psychology works under a hermeneutic deficit and that this deficit leads to the advancement of interpretations regarding racialized groups that are detrimental to those groups. Because these interpretations are understood (...) as actions that bring harm to certain racialized groups, and because these actions are made in the name of science and knowledge, the term epistemological violence is applied. Reflections regarding the meanings and consequences of this term in empirical psychology and the human sciences are presented. (shrink)

When people interact with social robots, they treat them as real social agents. How people depict robots is fun to consider, but when people are confronted with embodied entities that move and talk – whether humans or robots – they interact with them as authentic social agents with minds, and not as mere representations.