The Malleability of Man in Chinese Marxism

1971 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 609-640 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald J. Munro

“Human nature changes” – a vague statement acceptable to Marx and to Engels, to Stalin and to Mao. The point is: what is it that changes, under what conditions does it change, and what is the nature of the change? The article that follows is a case study of the interaction between the concrete cultural and social dimensions of a given country and a philosophical concept that has made its way into that country's official ideology. It examines the idea of the malleability of human nature in contemporary China. The concept is of monumental importance in Chinese Marxism, and examination of its evolution and implications will illuminate the Chinese definition of social class, and the causes of a nationwide crisis in the educational system in 1958 that foreshadowed the dramatic 1966 closing of all schools and their subsequent restructuring. Most important, the analysis clarifies the meaning of a term so often used in discussions of Chinese thought and so rarely understood.

Author(s):  
Fernanda Lopes da Fonseca ◽  
Oscar José Rover ◽  
Lucia Helena de Oliveira Wadt ◽  
Cleisa Brasil da Cunha Cartaxo

Brazil nut tree (Bertholletia excelsa Bonpl) management, is a traditional activity that plays a key role in the economy of forestbased Amazon communities and in the conservation of forests. Nevertheless, some threats and critical points related to sustainability indicate to the need for establishment of monitoring procedures that can assist in the management of this natural resource. The overall aim of the research was to evaluate the MESMIS method as a tool to support the participatory definition of sustainability indicators to monitor Brazil nut management, and the viability of Brazil nut harvest over time. For that, we carried out a case study in the Porvir Community, RESEX Chico Mendes, Acre State (Brazil), aiming to integrate the perceptions of Brazil nut harvesters, researchers, managers, and technicians to define the indicators. The result was the generation of 18 strategic indicators to assess sustainability in the environmental, technical-economic and social dimensions. Assessment parameters, representing conditions that must be achieved for system sustainability, were collectively defined for each indicator. The main critical values attributed in the evaluation of the indicators are related to Brazil nut commercialization to intermediaries and oscillation in the annual fruit production. The use of the MESMIS method was considered appropriate to the studied context and can be recommended to similar non-timber forest product management systems.


2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-21
Author(s):  
E. A. Kravchenko

Pottery of Uch-Bash settlement (the end of the 12th — beginning of the 7th century BC) has a variety of decors. Ornamentation on ceramics is represented by different methods of decoration — channeled, cut or pressedlines, stripes formed by various shaped stamps, as well as a variety of appliques. Most of the «negatives» and «positives» are part of the compositions that form the motif of the ornament. But there are a number of images that do not fit into these compositions existing separately even on ornamented vessels. There are traditional solar symbols — crosses, swastikas, anthropomorphous, as well as several images in the form of an inverted crescent moon with a shoot in the middle or a bird’s paw. The paper deals with one of the signs on a ceramic ware found on the fortified settlement of Uch-Bash in South-West Crimea. This is the image of inverted crescent moon or a three-edged symbol generally referring to anthropomorphic images. Chronologically the artefacts are divided into two groups: the early (Ithaca, Troy) and the late (Sborianovo, Sergen-Yurt, Uch-Bash, Kyzyl-Koba, Bulakhivka, Bystrica). The early group generally dates to the final of the Late Helladic period, the later one dates since the 10th till the 8th century BC. Cumulatively the early artefacts in their region (Mediterranean basin) as the late ones in their (the Black Sea basin) coincide with the change of epochs — transition to the iron production and use. The presence of pottery with a three-edged symbol in the necropolises with innovations in custom such as in Sborianovo and Ferigele (Bystrica) testifies to certain changes in the ideology of the population linked with these sites. According to the researchers numerous finds of items with anthropomorphic features are found on the sites where pottery with the three-edged symbol have been found and the three-edged symbol itself is an anthropomorph. Given the fact that such sign on artefacts is not combined with solar symbols, and in the structure of ornamentation the oddness (unlike the parity in the previous horizons) prevails, we can assume that the process of disseminating knowledge and skills in the manufacture of iron and use of iron objects was underway with certain innovations in ideology. However, the fact of such ideological transformations cannot be overlooked because just the Iron Age was the time which eventually formed the main monotheistic concepts and world religions. Absolutely spontaneously this conclusion coincided with the concept of «Axial Age» (Gem. — Achsenzeit) by the German existentialist philosopher K. Jaspers. He defined the beginning of the Iron Age (as a historical era) as the so-called axial time which was marked by the change of outlook that led to the formation of a new ideology of the modern world. In general, the conceptualisation of existential searches is directed at the humanitarian, anthropocentric definition of social order, so, the object and subject of these searches is a human. Considering the absolute difference between the methods and sources used by archaeologists and philosophers we anyway note the quite not coincidental coincidence of the philosophical concept and the conclusion made on the basis of the analysis of the sign system — the most abstract source that has come to us since that time.


2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Saida Parvin

Women’s empowerment has been at the centre of research focus for many decades. Extant literature examined the process, outcome and various challenges. Some claimed substantial success, while others contradicted with evidence of failure. But the success remains a matter of debate due to lack of empirical evidence of actual empowerment of women around the world. The current study aimed to address this gap by taking a case study method. The study critically evaluates 20 cases carefully sampled to include representatives from the entire country of Bangladesh. The study demonstrates popular beliefs about microfinance often misguide even the borrowers and they start living in a fabricated feeling of empowerment, facing real challenges to achieve true empowerment in their lives. The impact of this finding is twofold; firstly there is a theoretical contribution, where the definition of women’s empowerment is proposed to be revisited considering findings from these cases. And lastly, the policy makers at governmental and non-governmental organisations, and multinational donor agencies need to revise their assessment tools for funding.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Owusu-Kwarteng ◽  
Prince Opoku ◽  
Gershon Dagba ◽  
Mark Amankwa

Author(s):  
Michael C. Medlock

This chapter begins with a discussion of the philosophy and then definition of the RITE method. It then delves into the benefits of this method and provides practical notes on running RITE tests effectively. The chapter concludes with an overview of the original case study behind the 2002 article documenting this method.


Author(s):  
Emron Esplin

This essay explores Edgar Allan Poe’s extraordinary relationships with various literary traditions across the globe, posits that Poe is the most influential US writer on the global literary scene, and argues that Poe’s current global reputation relies at least as much on the radiance of the work of Poe’s literary advocates—many of whom are literary stars in their own right—as it does on the brilliance of Poe’s original works. The article briefly examines Poe’s most famous French advocates (Baudelaire, Mallarmé, Valéry); glosses the work of his advocates throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas; and offers a concise case study of Poe’s influence on and advocacy from three twentieth-century writers from the Río de la Plata region of South America (Quiroga, Borges, and Cortázar). The essay concludes by reading the relationships between Poe and his advocates through the ancient definition of astral or stellar influence.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4186
Author(s):  
Abdulhakeem Raji ◽  
Abeer Hassan

This paper adopted a case study approach to investigate the sustainability practices of a Scottish university in order to understand if sustainability forms part of its central policy agenda. As such, the paper focuses on the levels of awareness and disclosure of their sustainable practices, measuring the impacts and effectiveness of those initiatives. This paper introduces signaling theory to explore the idea that appropriate communication via integrated thinking can close the gap between the organization and its stakeholders. We believe that the provision of this relevant information will lead to better communication between the organization and its stakeholders, supporting a signaling theory interpretation. Therefore, we are suggesting that integrated thinking is an internal process that organizations can follow to increase the level of disclosure as a communication tool with stakeholders. From the literature reviewed, four themes were identified (definition of university sustainability, sustainability awareness, disclosure framework within universities, and level of accountability). The research adopted a pragmatic view and conducted individual interviews with participants belonging to three stakeholder groups (members of the university’s senior management, the governing council, and the student union executive). Although this study focused on just one Scottish university, it should still provide some insight for the better understanding of the underpinning issues surrounding the sustainability accountability practices of Scottish universities in general. The research findings indicated that the university prioritized only two sustainability dimensions—economic and environmental—and that the university still perceived sustainability as a voluntary exercise. Additionally, it is evident that the university had no framework in place for measuring its sustainability delivery—and therefore had no established medium of communicating these activities to its stakeholders. Moreover, research findings showed that the social and educational context of sustainability was lacking at the university. The university has done little or nothing to educate its stakeholders on sustainability.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xu Zhang ◽  
Hoang Nguyen ◽  
Jeffrey T. Paci ◽  
Subramanian K. R. S. Sankaranarayanan ◽  
Jose L. Mendoza-Cortes ◽  
...  

AbstractThis investigation presents a generally applicable framework for parameterizing interatomic potentials to accurately capture large deformation pathways. It incorporates a multi-objective genetic algorithm, training and screening property sets, and correlation and principal component analyses. The framework enables iterative definition of properties in the training and screening sets, guided by correlation relationships between properties, aiming to achieve optimal parametrizations for properties of interest. Specifically, the performance of increasingly complex potentials, Buckingham, Stillinger-Weber, Tersoff, and modified reactive empirical bond-order potentials are compared. Using MoSe2 as a case study, we demonstrate good reproducibility of training/screening properties and superior transferability. For MoSe2, the best performance is achieved using the Tersoff potential, which is ascribed to its apparent higher flexibility embedded in its functional form. These results should facilitate the selection and parametrization of interatomic potentials for exploring mechanical and phononic properties of a large library of two-dimensional and bulk materials.


2021 ◽  
pp. tobaccocontrol-2020-056145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ollie Ganz ◽  
Mary Hrywna ◽  
Kevin R J Schroth ◽  
Cristine D Delnevo

In 2009, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (TCA) granted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory authority over tobacco products, although initially this only included cigarettes, smokeless tobacco and roll-your-own tobacco. In 2016, the deeming rule extended regulatory authority to include all tobacco products, including cigars. The deeming rule prohibited the introduction of new tobacco products into the marketplace without proper marketing authorisation and laid out pathways for tobacco companies to follow. The deeming rule should have frozen the cigar marketplace in 2016. In this paper, we describe how the cigarillo marketplace, nevertheless, continues to diversify with new brands, flavors, styles and packaging sizes entering the market regularly. As an example, we highlight recent promotional efforts by Swedish Match North America (Swedish Match) for their popular cigarillo brands, including White Owl, Night Owl and Garcia y Vega’s Game brand. We argue that ambiguities in the TCA make it unclear whether Swedish Match’s seemingly new cigarillos fit the definition of new tobacco products and, if so, whether they are on the market legally. Swedish Match and other cigarillo companies may be taking advantage of these ambiguities to promote a variety of cigarillo flavors and styles in innovative ways. Given that cigars are combustible tobacco products that pose many of the same risks as cigarettes, this business practice raises significant concerns regarding the protection of public health, particularly among young people.


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