In 2015, the Chinese pharmacologist, Tu Youyou, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of artemisinin. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) was the source of inspiration for Tu's discovery and provides an opportunity for the world to know more about TCM as a source of medical knowledge and practice. In this article, the value of TCM is evaluated from an ethical perspective. The characteristics of ‘jian, bian, yan, lian’ are explored in the way they promote (...) accessibility and economic efficiency for TCM. The article also examines how the increased use and prevalence of TCM reflects the scientific, cultural, and ethical values of TCM and their increasing attraction in meeting major challenges to medicine and health systems currently and in the future. The article discusses safety issues within TCM, which is a controversial area, and also comments on some shortcomings and challenges which pose difficulties for more widespread and greater uptake of TCM‐derived clinical or therapeutic interventions. The article concludes that TCM is generally safe if it is used according to TCM theory and where such applications are cognizant of the strengths and weaknesses of TCM. TCM has important bioethical values which may inform potential measures for meeting challenges facing global health care systems and the article argues that it can have an increasing role in improving human health. (shrink)

Scientists normally earn less money than many other professions which require a similar amount of training and qualification. The economic theory of marginal utility and cost-benefit analysis can be applied to explain this phenomenon. Although scientists make less money than entertainment stars, the scientists do research work out of their interest and they also enjoy a much higher reputation and social status in some countries.

This study explores how and when ethical leadership predicts three forms of team-level creativity, namely team creativity, average of member creativity, and dispersion of member creativity. The results, based on 230 members of 44 knowledge work teams from Chinese organizations, showed that ethical leadership was positively related to team creativity and average of member creativity but was negatively related to dispersion of member creativity. Consistent with the predictions of uncertainty reduction theory, psychological safety climate mediated the relationship between ethical leadership (...) and the three forms of team-level creativity. Furthermore, supervisor support for creativity positively moderated the effect of ethical leadership on psychological safety climate and the indirect effects of ethical leadership on the three forms of team-level creativity through psychological safety climate. The analysis offers significant theoretical and practical implications on ethical leadership and creativity in organizations. (shrink)

Based on social cognitive theory, this paper explored the cognitive mechanism between ethical leadership and the followers’ extra-role performance. We tested a moderated mediation model in which general self-efficacy mediated the relationship between ethical leadership and the employee extra-role performance, while intrinsic motivation moderated the relationship between ethical leadership and subordinate’s general self-efficacy. Data were collected in two waves from 208 dyads. Results supported the time-lagged effect of ethical leadership on individual extra-role performance and the mediating role of general self-efficacy. (...) Moreover, our findings revealed that intrinsic motivation positively moderated the effect of ethical leadership on general self-efficacy. Furthermore, intrinsic motivation also moderated the indirect effect of ethical leadership on extra-role performance via general self-efficacy. Theoretical and practical implications were further discussed. (shrink)

This article brings Leo Strauss’s “Persecution and the Art of Writing” thesis to bear on the crisis of independent thinking in modern Chinese intellectual history. It argues that while heterodox Chinese thinkers frequently practiced “writing between the lines” to evade censorship, conformist minds were equally adept at utilizing the charm of the clandestine—deception, fabrication, and self-mythologization—for their own agendas. To illustrate the peculiar tension between conformity and dissent, I focus on two Chinese thinkers who exploited esotericism at crucial junctures of (...) The People’s Republic of China’s history: Liu Xiaofeng (劉小楓, 1956–), a conservative theologian who spawned a Chinese Straussian School to preach antiliberal doctrines in contemporary China; and Chen Yinke (陳寅恪, 1890–1960), a cultural traditionalist who resisted Marxist doctrines throughout the Mao era. Both Liu and Chen conceived of the public as a hostile and conformist crowd and deliberately developed special techniques of writing that contain multiple levels of significance—Liu named his variant “subtle words with profound meaning” (微言大義) while Chen called his “inner history from the heart” (心史). Though formally similar, these two approaches took Strauss’s thesis in drastically different directions: while Chen deployed a rhetorical smoke screen of obscure references to tease the censor, Chinese Straussians wielded double teaching to conceal the conformism of their politics from the public. (shrink)

We have it on the authority of Aristotle that “reason (nous) is the best thing in us” (EN X.7, 1177a20). This idealization of reason permeates his account of eudaimonia, a term commonly translated as ‘happiness’, which Aristotle identifies with living and doing well (EN I.4, 1095a18-20). In harmony with a certain intellectualism peculiar to the mainstream of ancient philosophical accounts of eudaimonia, Aristotle holds that living well requires the unique practical application of rationality of which only humans are capable (EN (...) I.7, 1098a13-15/EE I.7, 1217a25-27). This dissertation investigates Aristotle’s substantive view on the practical application of reason by examining how, according to him, human agents use reason to decide what to do, what kind of person to be, and indeed how to live well. A distinctively human way of making decisions is deliberation (bouleusis), an exercise of practical reason par excellence. The first chapter reconstructs Aristotle’s account of deliberation from a wide range of texts in the corpus. It argues that deliberation is a complex decision-making process that, for the most part, unfolds into four stages: (1) positing a provisional goal; (2) constructing a set of alternatives; (3) identifying the best alternative; (4) forming an intention to do the most proximate action as identified in the penultimate stage. This reading offers a comprehensive representation of Aristotle’s theory while rendering his theory more sophisticated—and indeed more modern—than the alternatives in recent years. Deciding what to do often requires that we confront the question, “Which is preferable (hairetōteron) or better (beltion) between two or more options?” In Topics III, a text widely acknowledged as the inaugural treatment of the logic of preference, Aristotle articulates a set of principles to guide our preference-ranking. While scholars pay historical homage to Aristotle, there is little engagement with his treatment of preference logic. The second chapter addresses the need for a current study and reassessment of Aristotle’s preference-ranking principles. It argues that, despite differences in scope and methodology between the Aristotelian and modern systems, the description inaugural treatment of preference logic comfortably, and accurately, applies to Topics III. When one looks at the role that Aristotle allows reason to play in the production and motivation of action, it is tempting to conclude that Aristotle endorses the Humean division of labor. For Aristotle claims that deliberation is about “the things towards the goal” (EN III.3, 1112b11-16) and that virtue (aretē) makes our goals right (EN VI.12, 1144a7-9). Chapter three seeks to show, against a recent influential quasi-Humean interpretation, that the primary function of practical reason is mapping the landscape of value corresponding to the agent’s reasoned conception of what eudaimonia consists in, as a rational being that she is. Aristotle notoriously defends the political subordination of individuals he believes to have a defective deliberative capacity. In Politics I.13, he claims that the deliberative faculty is undeveloped in children and “ineffectual” (akuron) in women (1260a12). The concluding chapter considers a puzzle about the development of the female’s deliberative faculty: How do women become ineffective in their deliberation, but freemen do not, given that all children have deliberative faculties that are unperfected? Drawing from the theories defended in previous chapters, I argue that the female’s deliberative defect is primarily due to her lack of moral education rather than inalterable sexual, biological differences—a thesis widely endorsed by scholars lately. (shrink)

This paper summarizes the author’s view and research on the concept of ‘Spiritual Humanism’ as a cross-cultural, historical heritage and theoretical framework for contemporary research in philosophy. It builds on comprehensive scholarship conducted over the last decades within a plurality of leading academic communities. It reflects the author’s commitment to include Chinese Philosophy and intellectual history within the international scholarly canon.

Sanskrit text, with Sanskrit commentary of Anantaśaktipāda and English explanation on Śaivism, and Hindu philosophy.

The ideal Chinese thinker is a scholar‐official who is informed by a profound historical consciousness, well seasoned in the fine arts of poetry, lute and calligraphy, and deeply immersed in the daily routine of government. If philosophy is loosely defined as disciplined reflection on insights, Chinese philosophy is distinguished in its commitment to and observation of the human condition. It is a disciplined engaged reflection with insights derived primarily from practical living. The Chinese thinker, unlike the Greek philosopher, the Hebrew (...) prophet, the Indian guru, the Christian priest, or the Buddhist monk, is engaged in society, involved in politics, and dedicated to the spiritual transformation of the world from within. (shrink)

Mencius’ claim that human nature is good is well known among students of classical Confucian thought. It has been taken for granted that underlying Mencius’ deceptively simple thesis is an appeal to intuition. No persuasive argument is offered, except the insistence that the moral propensities, such as the “four germinations” are inherent in human nature. A corollary of this insistence is the unquestioned belief that human beings all have the inner ability to commiserate with others, to feel ashamed of themselves, (...) to have a sense of humbleness, and to differentiate right from wrong. And the only example of an attempt to “prove” the thesis which approximates a kind of empiricist procedure seems no more than a commensense observation. (shrink)

This study investigated the perception of Mandarin tonal alternations in disyllabic words. In Mandarin, a low-dipping Tone3 is converted to a high-rising Tone2 when followed by another Tone3, known as third tone sandhi. Although previous studies showed statistically significant differences in F0 between a high-rising Sandhi-Tone3 and a Tone2, native Mandarin listeners failed to correctly categorize these two tones in perception tasks. The current study utilized the visual-world paradigm in eye-tracking to further examine whether acoustic details in lexical tone aid (...) lexical access in Mandarin. Results showed that Mandarin listeners tend to process Tone2 as Tone2 whereas they tend to first process Sandhi-T3 as both Tone3 and Tone2, then later detect the acoustic differences between the two tones revealed by the sandhi context, and finally activate the target word during lexical access. The eye-tracking results suggest that subtle acoustic details of F0 may facilitate lexical access in automatic fashion in a tone language. (shrink)

By focusing on the Confucian ideal of forming one body with Heaven, Earth, and myriad things, I argue that the distinctive feature of Chinese cosmology is not the absence of cosmogonist concerns, but faith in the interconnectedness of all modalities of being as the result of the continuous creativity of the cosmic process.

An exposition of the core Confucian text, the Analects, is a rich resource for thinking philosophically about aesthetics, ethics, and religion. Indeed, the Analects is an inspiration for doing philosophy as a dialogical, rather than a dialectic, dialogue and an edifying conversation. The four integrated dimensions of Confucian humanism as embodied in Confucius’ “anthropocosmic” philosophy encompass the sacredness of earth, body, family, community, and the world. Specifically, it envisions that the full realization of the way of learning to be human (...) consists of (1) the integration of the body and mind, (2) the fruitful interaction between the individual and society, (3) the sustainable and harmonious relationship between humanity and nature, and (4) the mutual responsiveness between the human hear-mind and the Way of Heaven. Furthermore, it transcends the concepts of rationality in the Enlightenment mentality and provides a philosophy of life rooted in the sensitivity, sympathy, and compassion inherent in human nature. Confucius’ “anthropocosmic” philosophy is one of the most profound spiritual legacies in rethinking the human in the twenty-first century. (shrink)

By focusing on the Confucian ideal of forming one body with Heaven, Earth, and myriad things, I argue that the distinctive feature of Chinese cosmology is not the absence of cosmogonist concerns, but faith in the interconnectedness of all modalities of being as the result of the continuous creativity of the cosmic process.

New Confucianism is comparative philosophy par excellence. It stands or falls with the validity of the comparisons its thinkers have made regarding Western and Asian religious and philosophical systems and conceptions. Yet comparative philosophy and comparative religion in and beyond Asia have recently received criticisms. Questions that have been raised include: is it not a fallacy to take Asian philosophy and religion out of their historical and social contexts and to present them as unchanging entities? Are the across-space-and-time comparisons between (...) Asian and Western philosophy and religion far-fetched and forced? To answer these questions, this paper presents a case study of comparative philosophy: Mou Zongsan’s post-Kantian Confucian metaphysics. After showcasing Mou, in the second part of this paper I shall consider the validity of comparative philosophy in general and the implications to my appraisal of Mou in particular. (shrink)

In the history of Chinese philosophy, the School of "Qi" uses the gathering and scattering of "qi" to explain the coming into being and destruction of things, but is unable to explain the existence of different classes of things. On the basis of that school, the School of "Li" uses principle to explain how there can be classes, but is unable to explain individual objects. Daoism speaks of "Dao" , does away with classes—and on the basis of the Way, which (...) produces "De" —explains individuality. Hence, in Chinese philosophical ontology there are two paths: one that uses virtue to explain individuality, and one that uses principle to explain what is not peculiar to the individual object. The present paper is a criticism and expansion of Feng Youlan's views on Daoism, as expressed in his "New School of Principle.". (shrink)

I. The "Moral Universal" from the Perspectives of East Asian Thought jl\ defining characteristic of East Asian thought is the widely accepted proposition ...

Language plays an essential role in social life, and especially in the life of our modern information society. Studies of language have long been a vital part of philosophical research in the West. In ancient Greek philosophy, Socrates investigated word meaning and Plato universals. Aristotle separated the essence of the matter from accidental factors, postulating that the essence of a thing determines our study of its concept. Closer to our own time, Francis Bacon proposed the concept of "Idols of the (...) market-place," which deals with mistakes caused by different interpretations of word meanings. Thomas Hobbes developed the theory of names and referents. John Locke created the ideational theory of meaning. John Stuart Mill proposed the theory of word meaning and extension. Franz Brentano created the theory of intentionality. To sum up, from Ancient Greece to modern times, language has always been the focus of attention for many philosophers. However, these philosophers never regarded their investigations as a necessary condition and a prerequisite of philosophical research. (shrink)

There is increasing interest in clarifying how different face emotion expressions are perceived by people from different cultures, of different ages and sex. However, scant availability of well-controlled emotional face stimuli from non-Western populations limit the evaluation of cultural differences in face emotion perception and how this might be modulated by age and sex differences. We present a database of East Asian face expression stimuli, enacted by young and older, male and female, Taiwanese using the Facial Action Coding System (FACS). (...) Combined with a prior database, this present database consists of 90 identities with happy, sad, angry, fearful, disgusted, surprised and neutral expressions amounting to 628 photographs. 20 young and 24 older East Asian raters scored the photographs for intensities of multiple-dimensions of emotions and induced affect. Multivariate analyses characterized the dimensionality of perceived emotions and quantified effects of age and sex. We also applied commercial software to extract computer-based metrics of emotions in photographs. Taiwanese raters perceived happy faces as one category, sad, angry, and disgusted expressions as one category, and fearful and surprised expressions as one category. Younger females were more sensitive to face emotions than younger males. Whereas older males showed reduced face emotion sensitivity, older female sensitivity was similar or accentuated relative to young females. Commercial software dissociated six emotions according to the FACS demonstrating that defining visual features were present. Our findings show that East Asians perceive a different dimensionality of emotions than Western-based definitions in face recognition software, regardless of age and sex. Critically, stimuli with detailed cultural norms are indispensable in interpreting neural and behavioral responses involving human facial expression processing. To this end, we add to the tools, which are available upon request, for conducting such research. (shrink)

Tu Wei-ming is the foremost exponent of Confucian thought in the United States today. Over the last two decades he has been developing a creative scholarly interpretation of Confucian humanism as a living tradition. The result is a work of interpretive brilliance that revitalizes Confucian thought, making it a legitimate concern of contemporary philosophical reflections.

The influence of Buddhist philosophy in Vietnamese nation.

EDITORS’ INTRODUCTION This volume is a collection of papers presented at the international workshop on “Buddhist Approach to Global Education in Ethics” which is being held on May 13, 2019, at International Conference Center Tam Chuc, Ha Nam, Vietnam on the occasion of the 16th United Nations Day of Vesak Celebrations 2019. The aim is to throw new light on the values of the global ethical system with a focus on the Buddhist approach in deepening our understanding of how Buddhist (...) ethics can deliver a social change in the globalized world. REVIEW OF CONTENTS Prof. P. D. Premasiri in his paper titled “Universally valid ethical norms of Buddhism applicable to global education in ethics” deals with hindrance in determining the basis for global education in ethics and providing undeniable facts about the diversity involved in ethical norms, principles and attitudes of various global communities. The author also discusses the characteristics of Buddhist teaching on a humanistic approach to the moral life with perceptions of enlightened humans, i.e. ‘Knowledgeable Persons’ (vi¤¤å purisà). The paper places further emphasis on the necessity to draw the attention of educators to train the minds of humans on ethical choices in accordance with such decisions. The paper entitled “Teaching Buddhist Ethics through the Life of the Buddha and Jesus” by Abraham Velez De Cea has proposed a new approach to the Buddhist ethical way of teaching and its application through interpretations of the Buddha’s life from the perspective of virtue ethics and meditation. The purpose is to heighten the Buddhist contribution being made to global education in ethical issues. The paper is divided into two parts, Buddhist ethics as a form of virtue ethics and secondly, interpretation of the Buddha’s teachings from the perspective of virtue ethics and meditation. (shrink)

Tu (Chinese history and philosophy, Harvard U.) offers a panoramic view of the core values of Confucian intellectual thought that have kept it vital for more than two millennia, and underlie the recent resurgence in eastern Asia. Of interest to students of either China or religion and ethics. Paper edition (unseen), $14.95. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

Anti-intellectualists claim that knowledge-how requires at least a corresponding ability or performance success that includes non-intellectual components. They argue that an insistence on the close relationship between knowledge-how and performance success is needed to account for our intuitions on the practical aspects of knowledge-how. In this paper, we examine three main anti-intellectualist proposals for what constitutes performance success, those of Hawley, Noë, and Kumar, and argue that all of them are non-informative in a practical manner. We further point out that (...) the problem of non-informativeness is dominant in anti-intellectualism. (shrink)

It is interesting to explore the effects of second language acquisition on anatomical change in brain at different stages for the neural structural adaptations are dynamic. Short-term Chinese training effects on brain anatomical structures in alphabetic language speakers have been already studied. However, little is known about the adaptations of the gray matter induced by acquiring Chinese language for a relatively long learning period in adult alphabetic language speakers. To explore this issue, we recruited 38 Indian overseas students in China (...) as our subjects. The learned group included 17 participants who had learned Mandarin Chinese for an average of 3.24 years and achieved intermediate Chinese language proficiency. The control group included 21 subjects who had no knowledge about Chinese. None of the participants had any experience in learning logographic and tonal language before Chinese learning. We found that the learned group had significantly greater gray matter volume in the left lingual gyrus compared with the control group; the Chinese characters’ reading accuracy was significantly and positively correlated to the GMV in the left LG and fusiform gyrus across the two groups; and in the learned group, the duration of Chinese learning was significantly and positively correlated with the GMV in the left inferior frontal gyrus after correction for multiple comparisons with small volume corrections. Our structural imaging findings are in line with the functional imaging studies reporting increased brain activation induced by Chinese acquisition in alphabetic language speakers. The regional gray matter changes reflected the additional requirements imposed by the more difficult processing of Chinese characters and tones. The present study also show that the biological bases of the adaptations induced by a relatively long period of Chinese learning were limited in the common areas for first and foreign language processing. (shrink)

div A sweeping reconstruction of human consciousness and its breakdown, from the Stone Age through modern technology/DIV.