Metaphysicians of causation have long debated the existence of primitive causal modalities (e.g., powers), with reductionists and realists taking opposing stances. However, little attention has been given to the legitimacy of the metaphysical question itself, despite our longstanding awareness of Rudolf Carnap’s critique of metaphysics. This article develops a (broadly) Carnapian-pragmatist approach to causation as an alternative to existing metaphysical approaches. Within this pragmatist approach, metaphysical questions about causation are reinterpreted as practical questions about the choice of causal frameworks. To (...) motivate and justify this new approach, I argue that, in emphasizing the priority of ontology over methodology, metaphysical approaches to causation fail to adequately capture the interplay between causal ontology and causal methodology in scientific practice. In contrast, the Carnapian approach provides a more appealing alternative that emphasizes the mutual dependence and “balance” between the two in an ongoing process of scientific inquiry. I use the recent controversy over “What counts as a cause” in statistical causal inference as a case study to demonstrate how the Carnapian approach can help us better understand the role of ontological issues in methodological practices. (shrink)

: This essay breaks new ground in defending the view that contemporary care-based ethics and early Confucian ethics share some important common ground. Luo also introduces the notion of relational virtue in an attempt to bridge a conceptual gap between relational caring ethics and agent-based virtue ethics, and to make the connections between the ethics of care and Confucian ethics philosophically clearer and more defensible.

Despite being a milestone in the history of statistical causal inference, Sewall Wright’s 1918 invention of path analysis did not receive much immediate attention from the statistical and scientific community. Through a careful historical analysis, this paper reveals some previously overlooked philosophical issues concerning the history of causal inference. Placing the invention of path analysis in a broader historical and intellectual context, I portray the scientific community’s initial lack of interest in the method as a natural consequence of relevant scientific (...) and philosophical conditions. In addition to Karl Pearson’s positivist refutation of causation, I contend that the acceptance of path analysis faced several other challenges, including the introduction of a new formalism, conceptual barriers to causal inference, and the lack of model-based statistical thinking. The presence of these challenges shows that the delayed progress in causal inference in the early twentieth century was inevitable. (shrink)

PurposeAs a new human resource management practice, idiosyncratic deals are personalized employment arrangements negotiated between employees and employers and intended to benefit them both. It plays an important role in attracting, retaining and motivating employees to promote breakthrough innovation. Based on the input-process-output model, this paper examines the relationship between team idiosyncratic deals and team breakthrough innovation, the mediating role of team exploratory-exploitative knowledge sharing, and the moderating roles of team transactive memory systems and team cognitive flexibility.Participants and methodsIn order (...) to reduce the effects of common method biases and causal lag effect, this study is divided into three stages for data collection, with a time interval of 1 month. Eighty teams from six enterprises in Shanghai and Hangzhou were selected as samples, and the hypothesis test was carried out by hierarchical regression analysis, bootstrap, and Johnson-Neyman method.ResultsThe results show that higher team idiosyncratic deals are associated with higher team breakthrough innovation through higher team exploratory-exploitative knowledge sharing, and that team transactive memory systems and team cognitive flexibility positively moderate the mediating effect of team exploratory-exploitative knowledge sharing in the relationship between team idiosyncratic deals and team breakthrough innovation in the first stage and the second stage, respectively. Under the joint effect of high team transactive memory systems and high team cognitive flexibility, the mediating effect of team exploratory-exploitative knowledge sharing is stronger.ConclusionThe research results break through the previous research framework of social exchange theory, and I-P-O model to explore the influence mechanism of team idiosyncratic deals, in order to promote the sustainable growth of team breakthrough innovation through this non-standard work arrangement. It is hoped that this research can inspire modern enterprises to create team idiosyncratic deals for valuable teams engaged in breakthrough innovation, which are more conducive to give full play to their heterogeneous talents, and finally help enterprises break through the industry bottleneck and win the market competition. (shrink)

In Strategic Bargaining and Cooperation in Greenhouse Gas Mitigations, Zili Yang connects these two important approaches by incorporating various game theoretic solution concepts into a well-known integrated assessment model of climate ...

In the formal semantics based on modern type theories, common nouns are interpreted as types, rather than as predicates of entities as in Montague’s semantics. This brings about important advantages in linguistic interpretations but also leads to a limitation of expressive power because there are fewer operations on types as compared with those on predicates. The theory of coercive subtyping adequately extends the modern type theories and, as shown in this paper, plays a very useful role in making type theories (...) more expressive for formal semantics. It not only gives a satisfactory solution to the basic problem of ‘multiple categorisation’ caused by interpreting common nouns as types, but provides a powerful formal framework to model interesting linguistic phenomena such as copredication, whose formal treatment has been found difficult in a Montagovian setting. In particular, we show how to formally introduce dot-types in a type theory with coercive subtyping and study some type-theoretic constructs that provide useful representational tools for reference transfers and multiple word meanings in formal lexical semantics. (shrink)

本书所编选的文章,是作者从事伦理学的教学和科研工作40多年来,在伦理道德建设方面潜心研究的成果。大体分为以下几个方面:伦理学基本理论研究、中国传统伦理思想研究、现实道德问题研究等。.

This essay breaks new ground in defending the view that contemporary care-based ethics and early Confucian ethics share some important common ground. Luo also introduces the notion of relational virtue in an attempt to bridge a conceptual gap between relational caring ethics and agent-based virtue ethics, and to make the connections between the ethics of care and Confucian ethics philosophically clearer and more defensible.

There has been much debate among scientists and philosophers about what it means for interventions invoked in causal inference to be “well-defined” and how considerations of this sort should constrain the choice of causal variables. In this paper, I propose that an intervention is well-defined just in case the effect of interest is well-defined, and that the intervention can serve as a suitable means to identify that effect. Based on this proposal, I identify several types of ambiguous intervention. Implications for (...) variable choice are discussed using case studies drawn from the sciences. (shrink)

Luo Longji was a political scientist who spent seven years studying in England and America, culminating in a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1928. Together with Hu Shi and Liang Shiqiu, he published a number of articles on human rights in the magazine Xinyue in 1929 and 1930. The present essay stands out as the most theoretically sophisticated of the numerous Xinyue articles. Luo draws on a number of themes and concepts he learned from mentors in the West, most especially (...) from Harold Laski, whose social liberalism Luo found very appealing. Unlike earlier generations of thinkers, Luo rarely engages explicitly with the earlier Chinese tradition; in this he resembles Gao Yihan more than anyone else represented in the present collection. Both saw themselves as engaged with ideas relevant the world over, rather than with China's specific cultural situation. We translate here the first two sections of Luo's article, wherein he sets down his fundamental theoretical position. In the balance of the article, he addresses more specific aspects of human rights in the following sections: "Human Rights and the State," "Human Rights and the Law," "The Temporal and Spatial Characters of Human Rights," and "The Human Rights that We Would Like.". (shrink)

This essay breaks new ground in defending the view that contemporary care-based ethics and early Confucian ethics share some important common ground. Luo also introduces the notion of relational virtue in an attempt to bridge a conceptual gap between relational caring ethics and agent-based virtue ethics, and to make the connections between the ethics of care and Confucian ethics philosophically clearer and more defensible.

The past century has witnessed numerous methodological innovations in probabilistic and statistical methods of causal inference (e.g., the graphical modelling and the potential outcomes frameworks, as introduced in Chapter 1). These innovations have not only enhanced the methodologies by which scientists across diverse domains make causal inference, but they have also made a profound impact on the way philosophers think about causation. The philosophical issues discussed in this thesis are stimulated and inspired by these methodological innovations. Chapter 2 addresses the (...) question of how the holding of screening-off conditions for a causal model depends on the choice of variables. As bridge principles between probability and causation, screening-off conditions (especially the Causal Markov Condition) play a key role in causal inference. However, it has been known that these conditions may fail due to poor variable choice. My aim in this chapter is to further examine those constraints on variable choice that are deemed necessary for the satisfaction of screening-off conditions. The idea of a well-defined (hypothetical) intervention is also crucial for reliable causal inference. Chapter 3 explores the question of when interventions invoked in causal inference are “well-defined” or unambiguous, and how this requirement constrains the choice of cause-variables. I propose that an intervention is well-defined just in case the effect of interest is well-defined (under ideal interventions), and that the intervention can serve as a suitable means to identify that effect. Based on this proposal, several distinct types of ambiguous interventions are identified. Methodological progress in causal inference also poses the following question: Can such progress shed light on the ontology of causation? My answer is yes. In Chapter 4, I develop a Carnapian-pragmatist approach to the ontology of causation as an alternative to existing metaphysical approaches. I argue that, compared to traditional metaphysics, the pragmatist approach provides a superior picture of how the ontology and methodology of causation interact with each other in scientific practice. I conclude in Chapter 5 that the thing we call “causation” consists in both the right worldly infrastructure (e.g., screening-off patterns and possibilities for interventions) and appropriate ways of framing this infrastructure. (shrink)

This essay calls attention to an aspect of Confucius's notion of ren that has often been overlooked or even denied in much recent discussion of the topic. While the egalitarian aspect of ren, i.e., the idea that every human being has the potential to become a ren person, is frequently asserted, the leadership dimension of ren has for the most part been given short shrift. I argue that for Confucius, ren is the leadership virtue. This conclusion is mainly based on (...) a careful and systematic analysis of what may be called ?the definitional ren passages? and some ?elucidative ren passages? in the Analects. (shrink)

Within Luo’s (2001, J. Math. Econ. 36, 95–109) framework of a general system, I establish an equivalence theorem for the conservative stable standard of behavior (CSSB for short) developed by J. Greenberg (“The Theory of Social Situation: An Alternative Game-Theoretic Approach,” Cambridge University Press, 1990). It is shown that a standard of behavior for a situation is a CSSB if, and only if, its graph is a φ-stable set for the associated general system.

What ultimately is the relationship of the development of scientific technology and the consequent raising of the material level of life to the development of morality? Today, as the realization of the Four Modernizations is accelerated, a thorough examination of this question is highly important and meaningful.

In 1964, a debate that attracted widespread attention occurred within Chinese philosophical circles on the question of "one divides into two" and "two combine into one." But because the scholarly questions became mixed with politics, this debate never fully developed, and the critique of "one divides into two" was hurriedly terminated. "One divides into two" was judged to be the "correct, living, and common expression of the true nature and core of the materialist dialectic — the theory of the unity (...) of opposites," and it was interpreted as representing the broad functions of the revolutionary dialectic. (shrink)

Hierarchies occur widely in evolving self‐organizing ecological, biological, technological, and social networks, but detecting and comparing hierarchies is difficult. Here we present a metric and technique to quantitatively assess the extent to which self‐organizing directed networks exhibit a flow hierarchy. Flow hierarchy is a commonly observed but theoretically overlooked form of hierarchy in networks. We show that the ecological, neurobiological, economic, and information processing networks are generally more hierarchical than their comparable random networks. We further discovered that hierarchy degree has (...) increased over the course of the evolution of Linux kernels. Taken together, our results suggest that hierarchy is a central organizing feature of real‐world evolving networks, and the measurement of hierarchy opens the way to understand the structural regimes and evolutionary patterns of self‐organizing networks. Our measurement technique makes it possible to objectively compare hierarchies of different networks and of different evolutionary stages of a single network, and compare evolving patterns of different networks. It can be applied to various complex systems, which can be represented as directed networks. (shrink)

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is more and more important in the supply chain. Drawing from the stakeholder theory and channel relational reciprocity literature, we develop and empirically support a theoretical framework. Our framework predicts that CSR reciprocity between buyer and seller firms in a supply chain affects channel tie intensity and channel sales performance (main effects) and that market competition may amplify these influences (moderated effects). The framework reveals important implications regarding the role of reciprocal CSR for channel relationship management.

Computer vision is widely used in manufacturing, sports, medical diagnosis, and other fields. In this article, a multifeature fusion error action expression method based on silhouette and optical flow information is proposed to overcome the shortcomings in the effectiveness of a single error action expression method based on the fusion of features for human body error action recognition. We analyse and discuss the human error action recognition method based on the idea of template matching to analyse the key issues that (...) affect the overall expression of the error action sequences, and then, we propose a motion energy model based on the direct motion energy decomposition of the video clips of human error actions in the 3 Deron action sequence space through the filter group. The method can avoid preprocessing operations such as target localization and segmentation; then, we use MET features and combine with SVM to test the human body error database and compare the experimental results obtained by using different feature reduction and classification methods, and the results show that the method has the obvious comparative advantage in the recognition rate and is suitable for other dynamic scenes. (shrink)

In this thesis, I have explored, explicated and argued for some specific areas of commonalities between the philosophy of John Dewey and the teaching of Confucius. Both theories start with the same fundamental assumption that there is no such thing as immutable human nature, and their shared emphasis on education is based on this supposition. John Dewey and Confucius agree that the self mainly consists of habits and that the transformation of the self implies growth, i.e., the acquisition of new (...) and intelligent habits. The Deweyan conception of growth overlaps the Confucian doctrine of self-cultivation in that both concepts focus on the obtainment of inner moral qualities that are of great communal import. Dewey's construal of freedom seems to parallel jen, the Confucian ideal, because both thinkers maintain that human perfection is the ultimate goal for which we should strive unceasingly. (shrink)

本书是罗根泽对诸子的哲学研究,包括《古史辨》第四册《诸子丛考》自序;战国前无私家著作说;由《墨子》引经推测儒墨两家与经书之关系;《墨子》探源等内容。.

本书收集了中国伦理学会会长罗国杰教授近20年来发表的著作、文章、书序等共计194 篇。从中,既可以看到罗国杰先生教学、研究的思想脉络,更可以把握改革开放以来我国伦理道德建设和社会主义精神文明建设的大致轨迹。.

The paper aims at revealing the key legal and political factors that determined the organization and holding of the referendum on unconditional and urgent withdrawal of the former USSR army from the territory of the Republic of Lithuania and restitution of damage to Lithuania. It is established that the main factor was that the Supreme Council-Reconstituent Seimas of the Lithuanian Republic adopted provisions on the status of the occupation army and was constant in seeking to ensure the sovereignty of the (...) state of Lithuania throughout its territory. The position of the nations, parliaments and governments of the Republics of Estonia and Latvia was yet another circumstance that the organizers of the referendum relied upon. Their position was aimed at ensuring that as a result of negotiations, the foreign military forces return to dislocation places in its own territory. Retrospective view on the phenomena and facts of the state’s internal and foreign politics in 1991-1992 makes it impossible not to notice that negotiations with the USSR and later, with the Russian Federation, took place in a complicated political arena. While Lithuania was seeking dynamism in negotiations, the other party was finding various excuses to impede dynamic actions and thus to delay positive agreements. Taking due regard to the situation, it was believed that a decision adopted by the Nation would speed up the negotiations on foreign state’s armed forces. (shrink)

We formulate an elementary statistical game which captures the essence of some fundamental quantum experiments such as photon polarization and spin measurement. We explore and compare the significance of the principle of maximum Shannon entropy and the principle of minimum Fisher information in solving such a game. The solution based on the principle of minimum Fisher information coincides with the solution based on an invariance principle, and provides an informational explanation of Malus' law for photon polarization. There is no solution (...) based on the principle of maximum Shannon entropy. The result demonstrates the merits of Fisher information, and the demerits of Shannon entropy, in treating some fundamental quantum problems. It also provides a quantitative example in support of a general philosophy: Nature intends to hide Fisher information, while obeying some simple rules. (shrink)

Culture is the most basic cause of a person’s wants and behavior. Country, like China, who has such a long history, has rich culture background. So it is very critical for international cooperates who want to do business in China to know about Chinese culture and how it works to buyers’ behavior. Starting from Chinese culture in Marketing context, this paper discusses how culture influence buyers’ behavior in Chinese Market.

The main goal of this paper is to analyse the effect of high school scholarships tied to community service on the development of secondary school students in Northwest China. Using data from three rounds of surveys of thousands of students in 298 classes in 75 high schools in Shaanxi province, the paper documents the implementation of the Compassionate Heart Scholars Program and evaluates the effect of the programme on the educational performance, self‐esteem, self‐efficacy and social responsibility of the participants. We (...) present evidence that part of the protocol of the programme (which includes the nomination and election of programme participants) improves the academic performance and self‐esteem of those involved in the programme. The community service part of the programme is shown to raise the self‐efficacy and the sense of social responsibility of the programme participants. One striking result is that the test scores of the community service participants do not appear to be adversely affected, even though they spend considerable time doing community service. The findings of this study, therefore, suggest that adding extra‐curricular community service to school curricula may be a win–win–win strategy, for the students, for schools and for the local communities served. (shrink)

The main goal of this paper is to analyse the effect of high school scholarships tied to community service on the development of secondary school students in Northwest China. Using data from three rounds of surveys of thousands of students in 298 classes in 75 high schools in Shaanxi province, the paper documents the implementation of the Compassionate Heart Scholars Program and evaluates the effect of the programme on the educational performance, self‐esteem, self‐efficacy and social responsibility of the participants. We (...) present evidence that part of the protocol of the programme (which includes the nomination and election of programme participants) improves the academic performance and self‐esteem of those involved in the programme. The community service part of the programme is shown to raise the self‐efficacy and the sense of social responsibility of the programme participants. One striking result is that the test scores of the community service participants do not appear to be adversely affected, even though they spend considerable time doing community service. The findings of this study, therefore, suggest that adding extra‐curricular community service to school curricula may be a win–win–win strategy, for the students, for schools and for the local communities served. (shrink)

A substance in rabbit milk, 2‐methylbut‐2‐enal (2MB2), has been identified as a pheromone that triggers stereotypical searching behavior from rabbit pups.1 Pups respond to the odor of 2MB2 solutions in concentration‐dependent manner, but fail to respond to 20 other volatile components in rabbit milk and 20 additional odorants. The effectiveness of 2MB2 generalizes across strains and breeds of rabbits, but is ineffective in closely related species. Finally, pup responsiveness to 2MB2 is innate and does not require learning. This study, for (...) the first time, identifies a mammary pheromone that provides sufficient sensory cue for nipple attachment by newborns. In addition to contributing to our understanding of pheromonal communication, it provides an advantageous model system for neurobiologists. BioEssays 26:6–9, 2004. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)