Confucian Modernity, Ultimacies, and Transcendence

2021 ◽  
Vol 75 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 397-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Cummings Neville

Abstract I want to engage Taylor with a comparative Confucian vision of modernity. In order to do this, I need to present a metaphysics which can serve as a framework for comparisons necessary for a global philosophical historical perspective on modernity and transcendence and in which, in particular, I can represent both Christian and Confucian categories as alternative specifications of ultimate reality. Using non-personalistic metaphors of spontaneous emergence and stressing (dis)harmonies, Confucian philosophy gives its own specification of the ultimate conditions of human life. This will allow me to sketch how Confucian modernists might engage with modernity. I will thus defend in Confucian terms Taylor’s claim that genuine religious transcendence is possible within the conditions of modernity.

1966 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfred E. Hofflander

foresight ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 554-570
Author(s):  
Boyan Christov Ivantchev

Purpose The purpose of this study is to research the latest quantitative and qualitative transformations of money and its interaction with the market economy and societies in terms of their influence on the inner nature of money and its transformation from a simple tool to an aim per se, i.e. postmoney. Transforming the perception of the intrinsic value and “soul” of the money into the postmoney, influenced by the rising longevity and wide expectation for the ability to scientifically prolong the human life, will be discussed. This transformation will be confirmed by analysing the results from a national representative sociological survey (panel study with sample size n = 1,000). Design/methodology/approach The author uses the following philosophical methodological approaches – comparative-constructive, phenomenological, cognitive and deconstructive analysis. Findings The objective and qualitative reasons offered by the postmoney theory (PMT) for the transformation of money into postmoney, are related to the being of temporality, as well as to technologization and the sixth factor of production, scientific exponentiality and mental changes in the human being. A current postmoney survey gives a strong base to believe that the perception of an intrinsic value of postmoney changes the shape of a value function – from logarithmic to linear or even stochastic. This is the reason to believe that increasing of a postmoney quantity will lead to a qualitative transformation and psychological increase of postmoney sensitivity. Research limitations/implications The author intends to expand the postmoney survey on the international level so to confirm local findings. Practical implications Postmoney survey might be used as a powerful tool in creating and legalizing non-monistic money based on blockchain technologies and philosophical and socio-economic research of the postmoney issue. Social implications The future of money is of great importance for the exponentiality of the socio-economic environment and societies. Social impact of the money will be inevitably rising in the domain of postmoney perception. Originality/value The author of the current paper coined for the first-time notion of postmoney and now is expanding research developing PMT. As per the best knowledge of the author, shape of the curve of value function was not questioned and believes it might be of help to better understand the money phenomenon.


2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 496-514 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nataraj Poomathi ◽  
Sunpreet Singh ◽  
Chander Prakash ◽  
Rajkumar V. Patil ◽  
P.T. Perumal ◽  
...  

Purpose Bioprinting is a promising technology, which has gained a recent attention, for application in all aspects of human life and has specific advantages in different areas of medicines, especially in ophthalmology. The three-dimensional (3D) printing tools have been widely used in different applications, from surgical planning procedures to 3D models for certain highly delicate organs (such as: eye and heart). The purpose of this paper is to review the dedicated research efforts that so far have been made to highlight applications of 3D printing in the field of ophthalmology. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the state-of-the-art review has been summarized for bioprinters, biomaterials and methodologies adopted to cure eye diseases. This paper starts with fundamental discussions and gradually leads toward the summary and future trends by covering almost all the research insights. For better understanding of the readers, various tables and figures have also been incorporated. Findings The usages of bioprinted surgical models have shown to be helpful in shortening the time of operation and decreasing the risk of donor, and hence, it could boost certain surgical effects. This demonstrates the wide use of bioprinting to design more precise biological research models for research in broader range of applications such as in generating blood vessels and cardiac tissue. Although bioprinting has not created a significant impact in ophthalmology, in recent times, these technologies could be helpful in treating several ocular disorders in the near future. Originality/value This review work emphasizes the understanding of 3D printing technologies, in the light of which these can be applied in ophthalmology to achieve successful treatment of eye diseases.


Kybernetes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lantian Li ◽  
Bahareh Pahlevanzadeh

PurposeCloud eases information processing, but it holds numerous risks, including hacking and confidentiality problems. It puts businesses at risk in terms of data security and compliance. This paper aims to maximize the covered human resource (HR) vulnerabilities and minimize the security costs in the enterprise cloud using a fuzzy-based method and firefly optimization algorithm.Design/methodology/approachCloud computing provides a platform to improve the quality and availability of IT resources. It changes the way people communicate and conduct their businesses. However, some security concerns continue to derail the expansion of cloud-based systems into all parts of human life. Enterprise cloud security is a vital component in ensuring the long-term stability of cloud technology by instilling trust. In this paper, a fuzzy-based method and firefly optimization algorithm are suggested for optimizing HR vulnerabilities while mitigating security expenses in organizational cloud environments. MATLAB is employed as a simulation tool to assess the efficiency of the suggested recommendation algorithm. The suggested approach is based on the firefly algorithm (FA) since it is swift and reduces randomization throughout the lookup for an optimal solution, resulting in improved performance.FindingsThe fuzzy-based method and FA unveil better performance than existing met heuristic algorithms. Using a simulation, all the results are verified. The study findings showed that this method could simulate complex and dynamic security problems in cloud services.Practical implicationsThe findings may be utilized to assist the cloud provider or tenant of the cloud infrastructure system in taking appropriate risk mitigation steps.Originality/valueUsing a fuzzy-based method and FA to maximize the covered HR vulnerabilities and minimize the security costs in the enterprise cloud is the main novelty of this paper.


2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashutosh Shankhdhar ◽  
Pawan Kumar Verma ◽  
Prateek Agrawal ◽  
Vishu Madaan ◽  
Charu Gupta

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to explore the brain–computer interface (BCI) as a methodology for generating awareness and increasing reliable use cases of the same so that an individual's quality of life can be enhanced via neuroscience and neural networks, and risk evaluation of certain experiments of BCI can be conducted in a proactive manner.Design/methodology/approachThis paper puts forward an efficient approach for an existing BCI device, which can enhance the performance of an electroencephalography (EEG) signal classifier in a composite multiclass problem and investigates the effects of sampling rate on feature extraction and multiple channels on the accuracy of a complex multiclass EEG signal. A one-dimensional convolutional neural network architecture is used to further classify and improve the quality of the EEG signals, and other algorithms are applied to test their variability. The paper further also dwells upon the combination of internet of things multimedia technology to be integrated with a customized design BCI network based on a conventionally used system known as the message query telemetry transport.FindingsAt the end of our implementation stage, 98% accuracy was achieved in a binary classification problem of classifying digit and non-digit stimuli, and 36% accuracy was observed in the classification of signals resulting from stimuli of digits 0 to 9.Originality/valueBCI, also known as the neural-control interface, is a device that helps a user reliably interact with a computer using only his/her brain activity, which is measured usually via EEG. An EEG machine is a quality device used for observing the neural activity and electric signals generated in certain parts of the human brain, which in turn can help us in studying the different core components of the human brain and how it functions to improve the quality of human life in general.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Salma S. Abed

Purpose The Covid-19 pandemic has affected every aspect of human life. Even though the pandemic length was not too long, a huge volume of research relating to Covid-19 has been published in different contexts. This paper aims to review the literature investigating the impact of Covid −19 on businesses generally and explore studies examining the technology role of business survival during the Covid-19 lockdowns specifically. Design/methodology/approach This study implemented the concept of a systematic review approach to review the literature that has been conducted in the business field during the Covid-19 crisis in general. Additionally, it looks into the research examining the role of technology in business survival in the Covid-19 crisis specifically. All studies were conducted in 2020. A total of 53 studies were identified and categorised into different themes. The research methods, theories and locations have also been analysed. Findings It was found that Covid-19 pandemic has affected all business sectors in several ways. Technology adoption has a critical role for business survival during the Covid-19 crises especially with small businesses. Very limited research has been conducted on the adoption of different technologies during the Covid-19 lockdowns. Originality/value This study presents the most frequent themes and topics that have been explored in the literature during the Covid-19 crisis in the business field. It highlights the methods used in addition to the theories and research locations present in this literature. Finally, it proposes the possible implications of this literature review.


Author(s):  
Sibajiban Bhattacharyya

In the Ṛg Veda, the oldest text in India, many gods and goddesses are mentioned by name; most of them appear to be deifications of natural powers, such as fire, water, rivers, wind, the sun, dusk and dawn. The Mīmāṃsā school started by Jaimini (c.ad 50) adopts a nominalistic interpretation of the Vedas. There are words like ‘Indra’, ‘Varuṇa’, and so on, which are names of gods, but there is no god over and above the names. God is the sacred word (mantra) which has the potency to produce magical results. The Yoga system of Patañjali (c.ad 300) postulates God as a soul different from individual souls in that God does not have any blemishes and is eternally free. The ultimate aim of life is not to realize God, but to realize the nature of one’s own soul. God-realization may help some individuals to attain self-realization, but it is not compulsory to believe in God to attain the summum bonum of human life. Śaṅkara (c.ad 780), who propounded the Advaita Vedānta school of Indian philosophy, agrees that God-realization is not the ultimate aim of human life. Plurality, and therefore this world, are mere appearances, and God, as the creator of the world, is himself relative to the concept of the world. Rāmānuja (traditionally 1016–1137), the propounder of the Viśiṣṭādvaita school, holds God to be ultimate reality, and God-realization to be the ultimate goal of human life. The way to realize God is through total self-surrender to God. Nyāya theory also postulates one God who is an infinite soul, a Person with omniscience and omnipresence as his attributes. God is the creator of language, the author of the sacred Vedas, and the first teacher of all the arts and crafts.


Sensor Review ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (5) ◽  
pp. 605-615
Author(s):  
Ning Yang ◽  
Zhelong Wang ◽  
Hongyu Zhao ◽  
Jie Li ◽  
Sen Qiu

Purpose Dyadic interactions are significant for human life. Most body sensor networks-based research studies focus on daily actions, but few works have been done to recognize affective actions during interactions. The purpose of this paper is to analyze and recognize affective actions collected from dyadic interactions. Design/methodology/approach A framework that combines hidden Markov models (HMMs) and k-nearest neighbor (kNN) using Fisher kernel learning is presented in this paper. Furthermore, different features are considered according to the interaction situations (positive situation and negative situation). Findings Three experiments are conducted in this paper. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed Fisher kernel learning-based framework outperforms methods using Fisher kernel-based approach, using only HMMs and kNN. Practical implications The research may help to facilitate nonverbal communication. Moreover, it is important to equip social robots and animated agents with affective communication abilities. Originality/value The presented framework may gain strengths from both generative and discriminative models. Further, different features are considered based on the interaction situations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Michael Ward

Learning outcomes The case presents a significant amount of information on the outbreak of COVID-19 and the expected impact on the economy. Although the case is necessarily concise, several links are given to the online articles and video material on which the case is based. This allows participants to deepen their knowledge of the virus and their understanding of its likely economic impact. To frame the discussion, several philosophies, ranging from Libertarianism to Marxism, are lightly expounded. Readers will need to consider divergent ideas; the sanctity of human life versus the monetary value of a life; the hysteria evoked by COVID-19 deaths versus the placid acceptance of an annual 66,000 deaths by another disease – TB; and the differential economic impact of the virus across extremes of inequality. Perhaps, the key issue relates to the skewness in the death rate: Should young people’s livelihood be sacrificed for a few old people about to die anyway? The case also illustrates the essence of a dilemma – a situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two or more alternatives, especially ones that are equally undesirable. Case overview/synopsis In March 2020, South African President Cyril Ramaposa ordered a 21-day national “lockdown” to enable and enforce social distancing in an effort to slow the spread of the COVID-19. Many other countries had already taken similar steps, but in a country with 43,000 murders annually, South Africa’s response to only 11 COVID-19 deaths and 1,071 cases was both rapid and harsh. Schools, businesses, social areas and parks were closed. Medical emergencies, essential services and weekly grocery shopping were the only permissible activities. Two weeks after lockdown, there were 1,845 cases and 18 deaths, a far cry from the predicted 30,000 cases and 300 deaths, estimated on the basis of the three-day doubling rate at the start of lockdown. Many businesses, pulverised by closure, daily wage earners and those fearful of losing jobs were hopeful that the lockdown would not be extended. In a country with immense inequality, how would the masses under the age of 65 years, already in poverty and now with their lives pulled apart by an imported disease of the wealthy, respond to extended social and economic deprivation followed by bailouts for business? Complexity academic level MBA and Executive Education Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS: 11 Strategy.


Author(s):  
Anto Arockia Rosaline R. ◽  
Lalitha R. ◽  
Hariharan G. ◽  
Lokesh N.

Purpose Because of the outbreak of Covid 19, the entire world is thinking of new strategies, preventive measures to safeguard the human life from the widespread of the pandemic. The areas where people are affected are marked as containment zones and people are not allowed to exit out of those areas. Similarly, new people are not allowed to enter inside those areas. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to propose a methodology to track the Covid zones, to enhance and tighten the security measures. A geo-fence is created for the containment zone. The person who enters or exits out of that particular zone will be monitored and alert message will be sent to that person’s mobile. Design/methodology/approach After tracking the location of a suspicious individual, the geo-fenced layer is mapped in the area and then the virtual perimeter is used for further trapping process. This geo-fenced layer can be viewed by the citizens as soon as it is updated by the Covid monitoring team. The geo-fencing is a concept of building a virtual perimeter area. This virtual perimeter monitoring system helps in monitoring the containment zones effectively. It reduces operational costs by using an automated system based on wireless infrastructure. It also alerts the authorities immediately to catch the violators. Thus, it helps to speed up the process of inspecting the containment zones and monitoring the individuals who violate the rules given by government. Findings The proposed methodologies will be an effective way to track the Covid’s communal spread. But the workflow of the system demands the required data sets and permission in legal manner to set up the environment that maintains the constitutional law and order in practice. The application developed was a prototype to display how it works if the required data sets are provided by the government. There are several tracking models that are released across the world such as Aarogya setu (India), Trace together (Singapore) and Hagmen (Israel). All these models are based on Bluetooth proximity identification; though Bluetooth proximity identification is helpful for high range in a short distance, the privacy concern is debatable one. Using modern technology, it is so easy to crack the individual gadgets and with Bluetooth enabling it makes things even worse. Thus, it is important to maintain the tracking a safer and secure one, and another issue with those Bluetooth-based applications is that tracking can be done only if the user enabled the Bluetooth option, if not the entire functioning would become a mess. The proposed methodology of tracking without Bluetooth will ensure data security also. Originality/value This was developed as a project by our third-year students of the Department of Information Technology of our college.


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