According to standard assumptions in semantics, ordinary users of a language have implicit beliefs about the truth-conditions of sentences in that language, and they often agree on those beliefs. For example, it is assumed that if Anna and John are both competent users of English and the former utters ‘grass is green’ in conversation with the latter, they will both believe that that sentence is true if and only if grass is green. These assumptions play an important role in an (...) intuitively compelling picture of communication, according to which successful communication through literal assertoric utterances is normally effected thanks to our shared beliefs about the truth-conditions of the sentences uttered in the course of the conversation. Against these standard assumptions, this paper argues that the participants in a conversation rarely have the same beliefs about the truth-conditions of the sentences involved in a linguistic interaction. More precisely, it argues for Variance, the thesis that nearly every utterance is such that there is no proposition which more than one language user believes to be that utterance’s truth-conditional content. If Variance is true, we must reject the standard picture of communication. Towards the end of the paper I identify three ways in which ordinary conversations can be communication-like despite the truth of Variance and argue that the most natural amendments to the standard picture fail to explain them. (shrink)

The propositional view of communication states that every literal assertoric utterance of an indicative sentence expresses a proposition, and the audience understands those utterances only if she entertains the proposition(s) the speaker expressed. According to an important objection due to Ray Buchanan, the propositional view is ill‐equipped to handle meaning underdeterminacy. Using resources from situation semantics and MacFarlane's nonindexical contextualism, this article develops a view of literal communication close to the propositional view which overcomes Buchanan's underdeterminacy considerations while accounting for (...) the kind of indifference that typically characterizes speakers' intentions. (shrink)

Indirect speech reports can be true even if they attribute to the speaker the saying of something weaker than what she in fact expressed, yet not all weakenings of what the speaker expressed yield true reports. For example, if Anna utters ‘Bob and Carla passed the exam’, we can accurately report her as having said that Carla passed the exam, but we can not accurately report her as having said that either it rains or it does not, or that either (...) Carla passed the exam or pandas are cute. This paper offers an analysis of speech reports that distinguishes weakenings of what the speaker expressed that yield true reports from weakenings that do not. According to this analysis, speech reports are not only sensitive to the informational content of what the speaker expressed, but also to the possibilities a speaker raises in making an utterance. As I argue, this analysis has significant advantages over its most promising competitors, including views based on work by Barwise and Perry : 668–691, 1981), views appealing to recent work on the notion of content parthood by Fine :199–226, 2016) and Yablo, and Richard’s : 605–616, 1998) proposal appealing to structured propositions. (shrink)

Auditory perception is traditionally conceived as the perception of sounds — a friend’s voice, a clap of thunder, a minor chord. However, daily life also seems to present us with experiences characterized by the absence of sound — a moment of silence, a gap between thunderclaps, the hush after a musical performance. In these cases, do we positively hear silence? Or do we just fail to hear, and merely judge or infer that it is silent? This longstanding question remains controversial (...) in both the philosophy and science of perception, with prominent theories holding that sounds are the only objects of auditory experience and thus that our encounter with silence is cognitive, not perceptual. However, this debate has largely remained theoretical, without a key empirical test. Here, we introduce a novel empirical approach, presenting experimental evidence that silence can be genuinely perceived (not just cognitively inferred). We ask whether silences can ‘substitute’ for sounds in event-based auditory illusions — empirical signatures of auditory event representation in which auditory events distort perceived duration. Seven experiments introduce three new ‘silence illusions’ — the one-silence-is-more illusion, silence-based warping, and the oddball-silence illusion — each adapted from a prominent perceptual illusion previously thought to arise only from sounds. Subjects were immersed in ambient noise interrupted by silences structurally identical to the sounds in the original illusions. In all cases, silences elicited temporal distortions perfectly analogous to the illusions produced by sounds. Our results suggest that silence is truly heard, not merely inferred, introducing a general approach for studying absence perception. (shrink)

The article Disagreement lost, written by Martín Abreu Zavaleta, was originally published electronically on the publisher’s internet portal on 16 September 2020 without open access. The copyright of the article changed on 18 September 2020 to © The Author 2020 and the article is forthwith distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Journal of the History of Ideas 63.1 (2002) 1-17 [Access article in PDF] What if the Father Commits a Crime? Rui Zhu Apparently, Socrates and Confucius respond similarly to the question if a son should turn in his father in the case of the father's misdemeanor. When Euthyphro, flaring his pride of his moral impartiality, tells Socrates that he is on his way to report his father because he (...) has thrown one of the household slaves into a ditch and left him bound there until he was dead, Socrates says, "Good Heaven! Certainly, Euthyphro, most men would not know how they could do this and be right. It is not the part of anyone to do this, but of one who is far advanced in wisdom." 1According to Socrates, only a man of high wisdom knows how to prosecute his father righteously, but Euthyphro does not appear to have this wisdom. When his interlocutor observes that an upright man in his state would bear witness against his father if he misappropriates a sheep, Confucius contradicts the interlocutor's understanding of uprightness by speaking in a matter-of-fact tone: "In my country the upright men are of quite another sort. A father will cover up for his son, and a son his father—which incidentally does involve a sort of up—rightness." 2Confucius stands on the same line with Socrates but seems the more radical of the two. Socrates does not directly refute Euthyphro and only suggests that he make sure he understands what he is doing before going any further. Socrates is not only typically Socratic—indirect and suggestive—but also sounds so reasonable that Euthyphro appears in contrast to be a reckless youth who harbors [End Page 1] only a faint understanding of morality. Confucius's response is more rigid, for he categorically dismisses an act of the Euthyphroian kind. He demands that father and son cover up for each other in the case of either one's guilt. Compared to Socrates, Confucius advocates the position that seems a little too strong and leaves no room for justice, while Socrates does not have that problem with justice. This is how we feel about Socrates and Confucius on our first impression. The prima facie observations that we make from the remarks of Socrates and Confucius seem both plain and unproblematic.By embedding these remarks into their respective social or philosophical cultures, this paper will show that our previous observations are not quite accurate. The apparent affinity of the Socratic and Confucian stances belies different underlying moral philosophies. We want to use their comments as bridges to explore the early Greek and Confucian ethics and show how different a picture we see after things are examined within their traditions.The issue of a possible father-son conflict may be treated as a case study of the early Greek (the Heroic era until the age of Socrates) and early Confucian (Confucius and Mencius) morals. There is a strong theme in the early Greek morals that allows, or sometimes demands, a son such as Euthyphro to prosecute his father for the sake of justice, because justice, instead of love (philein) or filial piety, is the governing principle in the early Greek ethics. Confucian ethics is founded on love (human-heartedness), which in turn is extended from the love between father and son. All moral principles including justice are derived from this extension of love. The mutual love of father and son then becomes the governing principle in the case of Confucianism. A Guilty Father: The Greek Motif The question, "What if the father commits a crime?" has a certain realistic aroma to a boy coming of age in the Hesiodic Greek world. That father has to be overcome by son before some relief from strife becomes possible is a familiar theme in Greek literature. In Hesiod's Theogony, Uranus (the sky) incurs hatred from all his newborn children since he hides them in their mother Gaia's womb and does not let them return to the light, for no reason... (shrink)

In congenitally or prelingually deaf childrencochlear implantation is open to seriousethical challenge. The ethical dimension ofthis technology is closely related to both asocial standard of quality of life and to theuncertainty of the overall results of cochlearimplantation. Uncertainty with regards theacquisition of oral communicative skills.However, in the western world, available datasuggest that deafness is associated with thelowest educational level and the lowest familyincome. Notwithstanding the existence of aDeaf-World, deafness should be considered as ahandicap. Therefore, society should provide themeans for the (...) fulfilment of a deaf child'sspecific needs.For the time being there is no definitiveanswer with regard the best way to rehabilitatea particular deaf child. Therefore,communitarian values may be acceptable. If thedeaf child parents' decide not to implant,their decision should be respected. Guardiansare entitled to determine which standard ofbest interest to use in a specificcircumstance. They are the proper judges ofwhat (re)habilitation process is best for theirdeaf child. However, most deaf children areborn to two hearing parents. Probably, theywill not be acculturated in the Deaf-World. Itfollows that cochlear implantation is awelcomed (re)habilitation technology.If auditory (re)habilitation will in the futureprovide the necessary communicative skills, inparticular oral language acquisition, customs,values and attitudes of the hearing worldshould be regarded as necessary to accomplish adeaf child's right to an open future. Ifcochlear implantation technology will provideall deaf children with the capacity to developacceptable oral communicative skills –whatever the hearing status of the family andthe cultural environment – then auditory(re)habilitation will be an ethical imperative. (shrink)

Silva-Rui_Ceteris-paribus-laws-and-the-human-sciences.

本书内容包括:法律推理、法律推理中的演绎与归纳、法律推理中的类比、法律推理的客观性、法律推理的一致性、法律推理的有效性等。.

This essay intends to explore the ontological consequences of Vilém Flusser’s philosophy of language that he introduced in his first works, written in Portuguese and published in Brazil. This paper will critically examine its main topics: his definition of speech as an act and language as an expanding human presence in the cosmos; linguistic performance as the most dignifying human characteristic and the identification of reality with language; and finally, the thesis that language creates, shapes and disseminates reality. Starting out (...) from an instrumental definition of language, Flusser is compelled to define the world as secondary in relation to language. This paper tries to examine the underlying tensions or paradoxes of such a position as part of Flusser’s dramatic rhetoric strategy, exploring the dangers of an extremely idealistic position sustaining the project of a linguistic ontology. (shrink)

O direito à proteçāo da saúde tende hoje a ser considerado como uma conquista civilizacional, o que faz com que a salvaguarda deste direito seja sobretudo uma responsabilidade da sociedade e das suas instituições democráticas. Tal como noutros países ocidentais, a existência em Portugal de um sistema público de proteçāo da saúde enquadra-se nesta dinâmica, sendo esse um factor decisivo para a melhoria sustentada dos indicadores de saúde da população portuguesa. Nessa medida, defende o autor do artigo, a política de (...) saúde deve sempre tentar conciliar os princípios da equidade e da solidariedade com a vontade social, democraticamente determinada, atribuindo um carácter operacional a critérios de justiça social, fundamentais para uma política de protecção da saúde atenta às necessidades básicas dos cidadãos. Por outro lado, reconhece-se também que, não obstante o contributo fundamental do Serviço Nacional de Saúde para a protecção da saúde dos portugueses, a gestão estatal dos serviços públicos se tem revelado pouco eficiente. Daí a necessidade de se promover uma nova cultura na saúde fundada na convergência de dois factores aparentemente irreconciliáveis: a qualidade na prestação de cuidados de saúde e a optimização da utilização dos recursos disponíveis. Para isso, porém, é necessário perceber que a saúde e a sua protecgao são um bem económico altamente dispendioso e não "gratuito", ainda que frequentemente o seja no momento da utilização dos serviços. Daí se deriva também, segundo o autor, a necessidade de se promover a eficiência do ponto de vista económico através da adequada gestão dos recursos financeiros e dos meios humanos e materiais. De facto, mais do que um direito constitucional, a protecção da saúde deve ser considerada como um dos grandes pilares de uma sociedade democrática e plural. /// All countries face the issue of choice in health care. It is one of the main problems of pluralistic societies. Allocation of healthcare resources is clearly associated with the concept of distributive justice. But does justice, in this context, imply the existence of a right to healthcare? And if it does, is it a fundamental right? Moreover, does such a right, if it exists, include all types of healthcare services or should it be limited to selected types only? Thus, choices must be made and priorities must always be set. In the Portuguese Constitutional Law the right to healthcare services is regarded as a fundamental one. But in most European countries the right to healthcare is a social right, politically and not ethically determined. Hence, this issue is one of distributive justice the aim of which is to ensure that everyone has access to necessary care based on the substantive ethical principles of equity and solidarity. The article proposes that resource allocation is paramount in public policy particularly in regard to healthcare. But whatever the healthcare financing model, the problem is that the efficiency of the system might be related to the degree of state intervention on the healthcare market. Moreover, the ethical principles involved in the debate are associated to an agreed definition of human dignity. This concept implies that no citizen should be excluded from the health system due to lack of financial resources. In fact, the full achievement of personal liberty implies equal access to certain basic goods, namely to the healthcare services deemed necessary. (shrink)

In order to explore, from the perspective of the social ecological model, the relationship and its mechanism linking public risk familiarity and mental health during the new coronary pneumonia epidemic, the new coronary pneumonia epidemic risk perception scale, psychological resilience scale, Chinese mental health scale, and SARS familiarity scale were used 741 members of the public were surveyed as research objects. The results show that: When gender, age, and educational background are controlled, risk familiarity has a significant positive predictive effect (...) on public mental health; Risk familiarity predicts mental health through the mediating effect of mental toughness; The mediating effect of mental toughness is moderated by the public’s familiarity with SARS. Specifically, for members of the public with low SARS familiarity, the indirect effect of risk familiarity on mental health through mental toughness is smaller than that for those with high SARS familiarity. The results of this study integrate psychological resilience into the theory of risk cognition, which has implications for the improvement of public mental health. (shrink)

BackgroundAdvance directives (ADs) were implemented in Portugal in 2012. Although more than a decade has passed since Law 25/2012 came into force, Portuguese people have very low levels of adherence. In this context, this study aimed to identify and analyse the attitudes of people aged 18 or older living in Portugal towards ADs and to determine the relationships between sociodemographic variables (gender/marital status/religion/level of education/residence/whether they were a health professional/whether they had already drawn up a living will) and people’s attitudes (...) towards ADs.MethodsAn online cross-sectional analytical study was conducted using a convenience sample. For this purpose, a request (email) that publicized the link to a –form—which included sociodemographic data and the General Public Attitudes Toward Advance Care Directives (GPATACD) scale—was sent to 28 higher education institutions and 30 senior universities, covering all of mainland Portugal and the islands (Azores and Madeira). The data were collected between January and February 2023.ResultsA total of 950 adults from completed the online form. The lower scores (mean 1 and 2) obtained in most responses by applying the GPATACD scale show that the sample of the Portuguese population has a very positive attitude towards ADs. The data showed that women, agnostics/atheists, health professionals and those who had already made a living will had more positive attitudes (p < 0.001) towards ADs. There were no statistically significant differences in the attitudes of the Portuguese population sample towards ADs in relation to marital status, education level, and residence.ConclusionThe results obtained enable us to confirm that this sample of the Portuguese population has a positive attitude towards ADs. We verify that there are certain fringes of this sample with certain sociodemographic characteristics (women, agnostics/atheists, health professionals and those who had already made a living will) that have a more positive attitude towards ADs. This data could facilitate the implementation and adjustment of relevant measures, particularly in the field of health education and aimed at groups with less favourable attitudes, to increase the effectiveness of voluntary exercise of citizens’ autonomy in end-of-life care planning. (shrink)

This dissertation argues for Semantic Variance, the thesis that nearly every utterance is such that there is no proposition that more than one languge user takes to be that utterance's truth-conditional content. I argue that Semantic Variance is problematic for standard theories concerning the nature of communication, the epistemic significance of ordinary disputes, the semantics of speech reports, and the nature of linguistic competence. In response to the problems arising from the truth of Semantic Variance, I develop new accounts of (...) the transmission of relevant information, ordinary disputes, and the semantics of speech reports. Towards the end of the dissertation I outline a pluralistic account about the nature of communication and linguistic competence. (shrink)

For many energy companies in China, green brand strategy is becoming an important approach to enhance competitive advantage. However, greenwashing behaviors result in a crisis of trust. Existing research focuses on green marketing, but is silent on the institutional view of the trust crisis resulting from greenwashing by energy brands. Thus, this study takes a decoupling perspective from institutional theory and considers legitimacy, energy policy management, and green brand theories to shed light on the path from the decoupling of an (...) energy brand from green promise to green energy brand trust and the role of brand legitimacy and brand loyalty. It then analyzes survey data to conclude that DEBG not only has a direct negative effect on GEBT but also has an indirect influence through the vital mediating role of green energy brand legitimacy. Moreover, brand loyalty is a moderating factor and can alleviate the energy brand trust crisis. These findings not only can enrich the theories of energy brand management and green marketing but also offer important implications for energy policy management. (shrink)

Despite their differences, the two Greek notions of justice, dike and dikaiosune, share a common framework which is built around the empirical concept of individual worth. Their Hellenistic feature forms an interesting contrast to modern egalitarian justice. An historical reevaluation of the latter, as this paper suggests, might cast a shadow on its current prestige.

di 1 juan. Qian shen shou--shen shou shi dai -- di 2 juan. She ji shou shi dai -- di 3 juan. Zhu zi shi dai.

In my dissertation, "Psychosemantics and its Thematic Duality", I have examined Fodor, Dretske and Millikan's psychosemantic approaches to meaning and mind. The focus is to disclose the fact that there is a thematic duality with which psychosemantics begins and also ends. Psychosemantics is committed to the belief that psychological states and processes are not fully explained unless their semantic properties are grasped. For, according to psychosemantics, semantic properties are causally efficacious in our mental transactions--cognition is best described as semantic causation. (...) To say that semantic properties are causally efficacious is intentional realism. To say that semantic properties are physical properties is physicalism. Psychosemantics wants to build intentional realism under physicalism or physicalism under intentional realism. The duality thesis is that intentional realism and physicalism have failed to be unified in psychosemantics. ;The dissertation has six chapters plus a short introduction. Chapter 1: "What is psychosemantics?" provides a general characterization of psychosemantics. Chapter 2: "Dretske's proof of mental causation" examines the problems in Dretske's proof of mental causation. Chapter 3: "Dual Contents and Fodor's Representational Theory of Mind" argues for the duality thesis in general by criticizing Fodor's representational theory of mind in specific. Chapter 4: "Mental Causation: Causal Efficacy and Causal Relevance" criticizes mental causation thesis from a broad perspective. Chapter 5: "Millikan's Biosemantics and its Thematic Duality" argued that Millikan's biosemantics also fails to bring physicalism and intentional realism together. Chapter 6: "Psychological Explanation" is the conclusion. (shrink)

Although we may find the concept of anomie in Greek thought, it is since Durkheim that the concept begins to be used specifically as a sociological concept. However, a theory of anomie only becomes consolidated since “Social Structure and Anomie” by Robert K. Merton (Merton 1938). The theory becomes important and conquers its space in the rest of the century as one of the most productive theories about deviance. In this study, based on a contemporary conception of scientific theory, that (...) of the structuralist metatheory, a reconstruction of Merton’s approach is proposed, allowing to make explicit the deep structure of the theory. (shrink)

This paper proposes a new 5D chaotic system with the flux-controlled memristor. The dynamics analysis of the new system can also demonstrate the hyperchaotic characteristics. The design and analysis of adaptive synchronization for the new memristor-based chaotic system and its slave system are carried out. Furthermore, the modularized circuit designs method is used in the new chaotic system circuit implementation. The Multisim simulation and the physical experiments are conducted, compared, and matched with each other which can demonstrate the existence of (...) the attractor for the new system. (shrink)

In two occasions a Bibliography of Structuralism has been published in Erkenntnis (1989, 1994). Since then a lot of water has flowed under the bridge and the structuralist program has shown a continuous development. The aim of the present bibliography is to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the publication of An Architectonic for Science –structuralism’s main reference work– and of its recent translation into Spanish by updating the previous bibliographies with titles which have appeared since 1994 as well as before (...) that year but which are not included in them. As in the former deliveries, this bibliography only covers books and articles that are concerned directly with the structuralist approach in the philosophy of science. We would like to thank the many colleagues who have helped us in collecting all the information. Notwithstanding we apologize in advance for the possible entries that we missed to include in this third Bibliography of Structuralism. (shrink)

It has been argued by some authors that our reaction to deaf parents who choose deafness for their children ought to be compassion, not condemnation. Although I agree with the reasoning proposed I suggest that this practice could be regarded as unethical. In this article, I shall use the term “dysgenic” as a culturally imposed genetic selection not to achieve any improvement of the human person but to select genetic traits that are commonly accepted as a disabling condition by the (...) majority of the social matrix; in short as a handicap. As in eugenics, dysgenics can be achieved in a positive and a negative way. Positive dysgenics intends to increase the overall number of people with a particular genetic trait. Marriage between deaf people or conceiving deaf children through reproductive technology are examples of positive dysgenics. Negative dysgenics can be obtained through careful prenatal or pre-implantation selection and abortion (or discarding) of normal embryos and foetuses. Only deaf children would be allowed to live. If dysgenics is seen as a programmed genetic intervention that undesirably shapes the human condition – like deliberately creating deaf or dwarf people – the professionals involved in reproductive technologies should answer the question if this should be an accepted ethical practice because the basic human right to an open future is violated. (shrink)

O objetivo desse artigo será apresentar parte do debate atual sobre o papel da intenção na teoria da ação e na racionalidade prática. Para isso, iniciarei com a perspectiva do autor responsável pela retomada da filosofia da ação na contemporaneidade, Donald Davidson. Após oferecer uma breve exposição da concepção davidsoniana da intenção e da ação, e sobre os modelos teóricos “crença-desejo” e “crença-desejo-intenção” na filosofia da ação, pretendo desenvolver algumas considerações sobre o aspecto normativo da racionalidade prática (no sentido em (...) que envolve “razões para”) e o papel que a intenção tem nesse processo. Para isso, apresento o modo como Michael Bratman (1987) desenvolve uma linha de argumentação a favor de um tipo de função que a intenção pode desempenhar como input no raciocínio prático, argumentando em prol de um papel genuíno para a intenção em uma concepção de racionalidade prática. Por fim, apresento alguns desdobramentos da discussão sobre o modelo crença-desejo versus o modelo crença-desejo-intenção como propostas conflitantes para a explicação da racionalidade prática.AbstractThis paper aims to present part of the current debate about the role of intention in action theory and practical rationality. For this, I begin with the perspective of the philosopher responsible for the resumption of contemporary philosophy of action, Donald Davidson. After a brief exposition of davidsonian conception of intention and action, and of “belief-desire” and “belief-desire-intention” theoretical models in philosophy of action, I intend to develop some considerations about the normative aspect of practical rationality (in the sense that it involves “reasons for”) and the role of intention in that process. For this, I present the way that Michael Bratman (1987) develops a line of argumentation in favor of a certain type of role intention can play as input in practical reasoning, arguing for a genuine role for intention in a conception of practical rationality. Finally, I present some outspread on belief-desire versus belief-desire-intention discussion, as competing proposals for practical rationality explanation. (shrink)

Aiming at the high false alarm rate when using single sensor to detect fire in aircraft cabin, a multisensor data fusion method is proposed to detect fire. First, the weights of multiple factors, that is, temperature, smoke concentration, CO concentration, and infrared ray intensity in the event of fire, were calculated by using the improved analytic hierarchy process method on each sensor node of wireless sensor network, and the probability of fire event in the cabin was evaluated by multivariable-weighted fusion (...) method. Second, based on the mutual support among the evaluation data of fire probabilities of each node, the adaptive weight coefficient is assigned to each evaluation value, and the weighted fusion of all evaluation values of each node is conducted to obtain the fire probability. In the end, compared to the threshold of probability, the fire alarm is determined. Comparing the proposed algorithm to the grey fuzzy neural network fusion algorithm and fuzzy logic fusion algorithm in terms of the time consumption for fire detection and sending alarm and the accuracy of fire alarm perspectives, the experiments demonstrate that the proposed fire detection algorithm can detect the fire within 10s and reduce the false alarm rate to less than 0.5%, which verifies the superiority of the algorithm in promptness and accuracy. In the meanwhile, the fault tolerance of the algorithm is proved as well. (shrink)

The increasing costs of healthcare delivery led to different political and administrative approaches trying to preserve the core values of the welfare state. This approach has well documented weaknesses namely with regard to healthcare rationing. The objective of this paper is to evaluate if independent healthcare regulation is an important tool with regard to the construction of fair processes for setting limits to healthcare. Methodologically the authors depart from Norman Daniels’ and James Sabin’s theory of accountability for reasonableness and try (...) to determine if new regulatory models—namely independent agencies—perform better with regard to the public disclosure of the reasons and rationales of healthcare rationing. In publicly financed healthcare systems independent regulation is an important tool to assure fair and reasonable procedures of prioritising services. In accordance with the principle of public accountability, independent regulatory agencies are particularly well suited to assure publicity of the decision-making processes, relevance of the rationale involved and particularly mechanisms for challenge and dispute resolution regarding limit setting decisions. It follows that independent healthcare regulation could be regarded not only as an instrument for performance improvement but also as a tool of social justice. The authors conclude by stating that accountability for reasonableness should be regarded as a landmark of any healthcare reform. And therefore regulators have the social task of assuring that the rationales for limit-setting decisions are clearly accessible to the public. (shrink)

While ethics in publishing has been increasingly debated, there seems to be a lack of a theoretical framework for making sense of existing rules of behavior as well as for designing, managing and enforcing such rules. This letter argues that systems-oriented disciplines, such as complexity science and human factors, offer insights into new ways of dealing with ethics in publishing. Some examples of insights are presented. Also, a call is made for empirical studies that unveil the context and details of (...) both retracted papers and the process of writing and publishing academic papers. This is expected to shed light on the complexity of the publication system as well as to support the development of a just culture, in which all participants are accountable. (shrink)

In response to the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 in early 2020, the entire Chinese education system was switched to an online teaching model within a short time. As a front-line teaching manager, I am aware that this entails major changes to the teaching environment and information media, with a subtle psychological impact on both ‘teaching’ and ‘learning’ subjects. Specifically, information technology has an impact on educational fairness and learners’ psychological needs. In this article, I observe the influence of online teaching (...) on learners’ cognition and feelings from the perspective of the ‘needs hierarchy’. The research findings will be helpful to understanding the impact of information-based teaching methods, and to push forward with new forms of telematic online learning. (shrink)

This essay argues that individual-oriented informed consent is inadequate to protect human research subjects in mainland China. The practice of family-oriented decision-making is better suited to guide moral research conduct. The family’s role in medical decision-making originates from the mutual benevolence that exists among family members, and is in accordance with family harmony, which is the aim of Confucian society. I argue that the practice of informed consent for medical research on human subjects ought to remain family-oriented in mainland China. (...) This essay explores the main features of this model of informed consent and demonstrates the proper authority of the family. The family’s participation in decision-making as a whole does not negate or deny the importance of the individual who is the subject of the choice, but rather acts more fully to protect research subjects. (shrink)