In empiricism, there are only two answers for a question: black or white. Yet, subjective meanings of human behaviours and responses toward health and illness cannot be simply explained with black and white. Gray zones are needed because they are characterized by complexity and require a contextual understanding. In this paper, we present and suggest fuzzy logic as an example of theoretical bases that help transcend the conflicts between objectivity and subjectivity, respect gray zones between black and white answers for (...) questions, and provide a contextual understanding of complex nursing phenomenon. A historical review of fuzzy logic is followed by a definition of fuzzy logic. Then, fuzzy logic is discussed in terms of its compatibility with nursing epistemological views and philosophical thoughts. Fuzzy logic agrees with three categories of epistemological views of nursing, including correspondence, coherence and pragmatism. Fuzzy logic also agrees with four major philosophical thoughts in nursing, including postempiricism, pragmatism, feminism, and postmodernism. Based on the discussion, we propose that fuzzy logic be further explored, used and developed in research and practice in the nursing areas/situations/phenomena that are characterized by complexity, ambiguousness, and vagueness. (shrink)

Departing from frequent use of moral conflict cases in business ethics teaching and research, the paper suggests an elaboration of a moral conflict approach within business ethics, both conceptually and philosophically. The conceptual elaboration borrows from social science conflict research terminology, while the philosophical elaboration presents casuistry as a kind of practical, inductive argumentation with a focus on paradigmatic examples.

In this article I argue against Chad Hansen’s version of the “White Horse Dialogue” (Baimalun) of Gongsun Longzi as intelligible through writings of the later Moists. Hansen regards the Baimalun as an attempt to demonstrate how the compound baima, “white horse,” is correctly analyzed in one of the Moist ways of analyzing compound term semantics but not the other. I present an alternative reading in which the Baimalun arguments point out, via reductio, the failure of either Moist analysis; in particular (...) they point out how neither analysis accounts for ordinary, acceptable inferences like “There is a white horse; therefore there is a horse.” At issue for Gongsun Longzi is a fundamental problem with atomic terms: none of them seems capable of referring to a particular, “stand-alone” individual. (shrink)

In an award-winning essay, Shu-Shan L ee discusses scholarly commentary about obedience to the emperor, focusing on public and hidden records of protest. The thesis of Lee’s essay is that the relationship between authority and subject in imperial Confucianism was built on a conditional obligation of obedience, despite traditional accounts of it as absolute. On his account, the obligation of obedience should be conceived through the rubric of imperial Confucianism as being conditional on fulfillment of reciprocal obligations. As part of (...) my response, I suggest that there is a third way to understand the obligation of obedience through the Confucian lens, which is less transactional than reciprocal obligation, while also providing a plausible alternative to absolute obligation as the correct understanding of imperial Confucian thinking about obedience to the emperor. (shrink)

1. Sŏŏn -- 2. Illyu sahoe ŭi tangmyŏn kwaje -- 3. 'Kŭllobŏl ch'ŏrhak (Global Philosophy)' ŭrosŏ sinsiryongjuŭi (Neopragmatism) -- 4. Sinsiryongjuŭi (Neopragmatism) ŭi kyŏngje ch'ŏrhak kwa kyŏngje ironjŏk mohyŏng -- 5. Sinsiryongjuŭi ŭi 'ch'ŏngsajin’ -- 6. Sinsiryongjuŭi (Neopragmatism) wa Miguk, Chungguk siryongjuŭi ŭi ch'aichŏm -- 7. Sinsiryongjuŭi (Neopragmatism) wa Marŭk'ŭsijŭm (Marxism) ŭi ch'aichŏm -- 8. Han'guk sahoe e taehan Sinsiryongjuŭi chŏgyong -- 9. Yoyak mit kyŏllon.

1. T. Isaak Iselins Leben und Bildungsgang bis 1764.--2. T. Iselins Stellung in der Geistesgeschichte des XVII. Jahrhunderts.

Early Confucian thought is still not completely understood. This is particularly so, I argue, in the case of Mencius , who was the first prominent follower of Confucius. I present a new reading of this early figure. ;The key problem in traditional analyses is in attributing to Mencius the view that a person's motivational capacities, especially her emotions, require cultivation in order for her to act and feel correctly. That reading, combined with certain important passages of the text, make it (...) seem that Mencius is quite simply confused. For he seems in those passages to exhort people to do and feel what is right even though it is clear that they lack the kind of cultivation Mencius's view supposedly requires. What is more, he quite obviously expects such people to be able immediately to do and feel what is right. ;Once we leave the cultivation reading behind, I argue, pieces of Mencius's fall into place and a more or less systematic ethical theory begins to form. Far from being confused, I argue, Mencius combines a psychologically realistic account of the morally virtuous person, i.e. one which recognizes human limitations with respect to our emotional lives, with a plausible account of the control that we have and the responsibility that we bear for how we feel or don't feel toward one another. (shrink)

Die Beiträge in diesem Buch sind in transkultureller Perspektive Problemen der Epistemologie, der Anthropologie, der Ethik und der politischen Philosophie gewidmet. Unter dem Titel Menschsein - On Being Human diskutieren koreanische und deutsche Philosophen Themen der einen Welt: Universale und lokale Diskurse über Kultur und Transkulturalität im Zeitalter der Globalisierung, die Rolle der Religionen, öffentliche Rationalität, transkulturelle Gerechtigkeit und Universalität von Menschenrechten. The contributions in this book are from a transcultural perspective and devoted to problems in epistemology, anthropology, ethics and (...) political philosophy. Under the title Menschsein - On Being Human, Korean and German philosophers discuss topics to do with one world: universal and local discourses about culture and transculturality in the age of globalization, the role of religion, public rationality, transcultural justice, and the universality of human rights. (shrink)

This essay argues against the standard reading of Mencius that the emotions are perfectible or that they require perfecting in order to render a person virtuous. Rejecting this perfectibility reading allows us to explore two interesting philosophical points: (1) we can give an account of moral virtue and moral development that is significantly different from broadly Aristotelian accounts and that provides a psychologically realistic model of the Mencian sage; and (2) this account introduces a conception of emotional engagement as active (...) and under a person's control. (shrink)

With cutting-edge insights from leading European and North American scholars, this authoritative book addresses the fundamental problems of business in an age of crisis whilst presenting radical, but practical, solutions. The contributors explore three main value shifts: from inequality to equality, from the technical-materialistic to the ecological-spiritual, and from compliance and enforcement to autonomy and responsibility. A number of striking issues are addressed including the doctrine of self-interest, the purpose of business, codes of conduct, personal responsibility, existential perspectives on business (...) ethics and the development of ethical competence. This book will be an essential point of reference for academic researchers and postgraduate students in business ethics and corporate social responsibility, as well as practitioners interested in the relevance of business ethics to leadership, management, strategy and finance. (shrink)

독일제국과 현대물리학의 출현, 원자핵이 깨어지다 등 과학사적인 성과 및 20세기 과학의 쟁점사항 14 가지를 풀어쓴 현직 교수의 저서.