The longstanding debate over Jean Bodin’s (1530–1596) Six Books of a Commonweale—whether it championed an ideology of absolutism or pioneered a normative doctrine of the modern sovereign state—has profoundly influenced our understanding of Bodin’s intellectual legacy. This article challenges the influential absolutist reading by re-examining Bodin’s ideas of violence against tyrants. Proponents of the absolutist interpretation often view Bodin’s rejection of resistance against the tyrant as compelling evidence of his defense of absolutism, suggesting that this stance negates the constitutional constraints (...) imposed by fundamental and natural laws on the sovereign. However, this article contends that such a reading is overly simplistic. A closer analysis of Bodin’s nuanced perspective reveals that he does not remove the constitutional limitations established by both fundamental and natural laws. Instead, Bodin posits that sovereigns who violate these higher laws could face either domestic resistance or a just war of punishment. Thus, labeling Bodin merely as an absolutist ideologue is inappropriate, as it risks overshadowing the profound intellectual legacy he offers as a serious political thinker, jurist, and the father of modern state theory. (shrink)

This paper challenges the colonial reading of Thomas Hobbes’s use of America. Firstly, by analysing all the references and allusions to America in Hobbes’s writings, I claim that Hobbes simply uses America to support his central theory of the state of nature, showing the fundamental significance of a large and lasting society to our being and well-being. Secondly, I argue that Hobbes’s use of America does not serve a second purpose that is similar to Locke’s justification of English land appropriation. (...) Even extending such a Lockean colonial theme from Hobbes’s theory would fail due to Hobbes’s unique property theory. Lastly, with a more nuanced contextual analysis of Hobbes’s involvement in the Virginia Company and relevant textual analysis, I propose that Hobbes is not only not a supporter of English colonialism, but rather an opponent of the Virginia Company, imperial expansion, and colonial conquest. I am not denying the fact that later thinkers like Locke develop Hobbes’s notion of the American state of nature to justify European colonization in America. However, the received history should not be confused with Hobbes’s own writing purpose. Nor should we ignore Hobbes’s opposition to imperial expansion. (shrink)

While previous research has found an in-group advantage (IGA) favouring native speakers in emotional prosody perception over non-native speakers, the effects of semantics on emotional prosody perception remain unclear. This study investigated the effects of semantics on emotional prosody perception in Chinese words and sentences for native and non-native Chinese speakers. The critical manipulation was the congruence of prosodic (positive, negative) and semantic (positive, negative, and neutral) valence. Participants listened to a series of audio clips and judged whether the emotional (...) prosody was positive or negative for each utterance. The results revealed an IGA effect: native speakers perceived emotional prosody more accurately and quickly than non-native speakers in Chinese words and sentences. Furthermore, a semantic congruence effect was observed in Chinese words, where both native and non-native speakers recognised emotional prosody more accurately in the semantic-prosody congruent condition than in the incongruent condition. However, in Chinese sentences, this congruence effect was only present for non-native speakers. Additionally, the IGA effect and semantic congruence effect on emotional prosody perception were influenced by prosody valence. These findings illuminate the role of semantics in emotional prosody perception, highlighting perceptual differences between native and non-native Chinese speakers. (shrink)

Current deep neural networks (DNNs) are far from being able to model the rich landscape of human visual experience. Beyond visual recognition, we explore the neural substrates of visual mental imagery and other visual experiences. Rather than shared visual representations, temporal dynamics and functional connectivity of the process are essential. Generative adversarial networks may drive future developments in simulating human visual experience.

The notion of superhigh computably enumerable (c.e.) degrees was first introduced by (Mohrherr in Z Math Logik Grundlag Math 32: 5–12, 1986) where she proved the existence of incomplete superhigh c.e. degrees, and high, but not superhigh, c.e. degrees. Recent research shows that the notion of superhighness is closely related to algorithmic randomness and effective measure theory. Jockusch and Mohrherr proved in (Proc Amer Math Soc 94:123–128, 1985) that the diamond lattice can be embedded into the c.e. tt-degrees preserving 0 (...) and 1 and that the two atoms can be low. In this paper, we prove that the two atoms in such embeddings can also be superhigh. (shrink)

Say that an incomplete d.r.e. degree has almost universal cupping property, if it cups all the r.e. degrees not below it to 0′. In this paper, we construct such a degree d, with all the r.e. degrees not cupping d to 0′ bounded by some r.e. degree strictly below d. The construction itself is an interesting 0″′ argument and this new structural property can be used to study final segments of various degree structures in the Ershov hierarchy.

Lachlan observed that the infimum of two r.e. degrees considered in the r.e. degrees coincides with the one considered in the ${\Delta_2^0}$ degrees. It is not true anymore for the d.r.e. degrees. Kaddah proved in (Ann Pure Appl Log 62(3):207–263, 1993) that there are d.r.e. degrees a, b, c and a 3-r.e. degree x such that a is the infimum of b, c in the d.r.e. degrees, but not in the 3-r.e. degrees, as a < x < b, c. In (...) this paper, we extend Kaddah’s result by showing that such a structural difference occurs densely in the r.e. degrees. Our result immediately implies that the isolated 3-r.e. degrees are dense in the r.e. degrees, which was first proved by LaForte. (shrink)

Cholak, Groszek and Slaman proved in J Symb Log 66:881–901, 2001 that there is a nonzero computably enumerable (c.e.) degree cupping every low c.e. degree to a low c.e. degree. In the same paper, they pointed out that every nonzero c.e. degree can cup a low2 c.e. degree to a nonlow2 degree. In Jockusch et al. (Trans Am Math Soc 356:2557–2568, 2004) improved the latter result by showing that every nonzero c.e. degree c is cuppable to a high c.e. degree (...) by a low2 c.e. degree b. It is natural to ask in which subclass of low2 c.e. degrees can b in Jockusch et al. (Trans Am Math Soc 356:2557–2568, 2004) be located. Wu proved in Math Log Quart 50:189–201, 2004 that b can be cappable. We prove in this paper that b in Jockusch, Li and Yang’s result can be noncuppable, improving both Jockusch, Li and Yang, and Wu’s results. (shrink)

The pandemic has impacted various industries, including the sports industry. However, corporate social responsibility can mitigate the adverse effects of the crisis and promote the sports industry. To analyze the effect of CSR, the study examined the impact of perceived corporate social responsibility on injury prevention expectation, injury risk perception, and health up-gradation with the mediation of sports safety measures. There are 259 sportsmen of local sports bodies provided the data through a self-administered survey. Data analysis was conducted through Smart-PLS (...) and SEM techniques. The outcome of the analysis showed that perceived corporate social responsibility leads to injury prevention expectation, injury risk perception, and health up-gradation. Also, the study found that sports safety measure mediates the relationship between perceived corporate social responsibility and injury prevention expectation, between perceived corporate social responsibility and injury risk perception, and between perceived corporate social responsibility and health up-gradation among sportsmen of local sports bodies. The theoretical implications were presented related to the significance of CSR and sports safety measure and their impact on sportsmen injury prevention expectation, health, and risk perception. The practical implications were related to the management of local sports bodies and how they can induce CSR initiatives and programs. Some limitations related to sample size, incorporating other variables, examining the model in other contexts, and using different study designs, have also been mentioned in the study. (shrink)