H Kim

This study examined the effectiveness of two theoretical models for tracking the spiritual growth of Sundo Taoist practitioners: Wilber's Four Quadrants of Integral Development and Kim's Five Archetypes of Personal Growth. It asked: What if any, developmental changes occur in long-term Sundo practitioners? Do practitioners in Korea report the same experiences as those in North America? What if any, differences do the Korean and North American practitioners exhibit in terms of the two theoretical models? Does the Sundo practitioner show a different health profile as the length of Sundo practice increases? ;A total of 202 Sundo practitioners from both North America and the Republic of Korea participated . They included 103 males and 99 females who had practiced from 2 weeks to 15 years. This mixed-design study utilized three Likert-type questionnaires, one based on Wilber's model and one on Kim's model, both heuristically derived to assess spiritual growth. The third questionnaire was the Survey of Self-Rated Health, Wellness, and Quality of Life. Seven male and 7 female long-term North American practitioners were interviewed, using open-ended semi-structured questions designed to explore their experiences in relation to Sundo practice. Descriptive statistics supplemented with ANOVAs compared the effects of practice over time as well as gender and geographic location. The interviews were explored using content analyses that focused on thematic material. ;Significant findings included: long-term increases in spiritual development across all levels of practice on all measures; increases in health scores with length of practice; national differences with higher scores on both questionnaires for North American participants; larger increases for women in one of Wilber's Four Quadrants; and greater variability among females than males on both Wilber's and Kim's questionnaires. Subjective content analyses disclosed similar developmental patterns in spiritual growth. ;Overall, this investigation supported the validity of both Wilber's and Kim's developmental models, and suggested their usefulness for similar studies. It also lent support to Sundo practice as a valid and effective path to spiritual growth

Astroturf organizations are fake grassroots organizations usually sponsored by large corporations to support any arguments or claims in their favor, or to challenge and deny those against them. They constitute the corporate version of grassroots social movements. Serious ethical and societal concerns underline this astroturfing practice, especially if corporations are successful in influencing public opinion by undertaking a social movement approach. This study is motivated by this particular issue and examines the effectiveness of astroturf organizations in the global warming context, wherein large corporate polluters have an incentive to set up astroturf organizations to undermine the importance of human activities in climate change. We conduct an experiment to determine whether astroturf organizations have an impact on the level of user certainty about the causes of global warming. Results show that people who used astroturf websites became more uncertain about the causes of global warming and humans’ role in the phenomenon than people who used grassroots websites. Astroturf organizations are hence successful in promoting business interests over environmental protection. In addition to the multiple business ethics issues it raises, astroturfing poses a significant threat to the legitimacy of the grassroots movement.

There are two related but distinct questions concerning indexical expressions: What is the semantic feature that makes indexical expressions behave differently from non-indexical ones? And what is the special role that indexicals play in performing actions? The goal of my dissertation is to provide an adequate framework in which both questions are addressed. John Perry criticizes Frege claiming that there is no space for the meaning of an indexical expression within the Fregean semantics. In Chapter 1, however, I argue that Frege's scattered remarks on indexical expressions, despite prima facie inconsistency, have at least a plausible and promising interpretation. In Chapter 2, I turn to Perry's theories. I agree with Perry that both of the above two questions should be dealt with within one framework but disagree with him on the nature of the framework. Crudely speaking, Perry, at least in his early theories, takes the semantic feature of indexical expressions to be responsible for their special cognitive significance in performing actions. I show that this idea faces many problems. In Chapter 3 through 5, I develop the clues and lessons from Chapter 1 and 2. As for the semantic aspect of indexicality, I argue that the semantic job of indexical expressions is pointing, in order to produce effective content . In Chapter 4, I consider the action-theoretic aspect of indexicality. After examining various cases I argue that there are no essentially indexical thoughts that are responsible for performing actions. The explanation of whether one performs an action or fails to perform it lies fundamentally not in the existence of essentially indexical thoughts but in the availability of proper beliefs and the agent's success or failure in connecting those beliefs. In Chapter 5, I seek the grounds that make plausible the claim that indexicality is a pervasive phenomenon, not restricted only to expressions such as "I", "you", "now", etc

For the legions of Paper Magazine fans, and anyone who's interested in Where Style Starts. This stunning portrayal of the last 20 years is a wonderful commemorative look at the life and times of the era. Following introductions and commentary by a virtual who's who of popular culture, 20 Years of Style charts just how style has evolved over the past twenty years, illustrating the huge influence that underground cultures from the worlds of art, music, film, sports and urban street life ultimately have played on mainstream fashion. Laid out by year starting in 1984 and continuing through the present, this star-studded journey cannot be described by words alone. Adding to this visual feast are essays and commentary from Paper Magazine founders and co-editors Kim Hasreiter and David Hershkovits, as well as celebratory tributes to Paper Magazine from dejay and musicologist Moby; rap icon Fab 5 Freddy; artist/designer Todd Oldham; and style historian Harold Koda.

Spinoza’s stance against “bad” universals is well known but his own view on “good” universals is not obvious. In this paper we examine the ontological status of general terms in Spinoza against the background of his metaphysical ontology. We then move onto his view of universals in his discussions of the three kind of knowledge. I argue that Spinoza’s view may be best characterized as trope-conceptualism. Universals are, considered in things themselves, nothing but tropes, i.e., fully particularized properties of individual objects. In particular, I claim that what Spinoza calls “attributes” in his grand scheme of ontology are tropes, of which we can have “adequate” ideas. Spinoza’s theory is a lot more delicate and sophisticated than is usually construed.

Subjective materialism is a new worldview of the subject of self-awareness based on man-in-the world, and a methodology of man interconnecting the world. Subjective materialism is a logical result of development in western philosophy. This logic comes from the metaphysics of Graeco, while its thinking originates from Kantian philosophy. Kant’s philosophy has been occupying the most important position in the history of western philosophy. Of important significance in the history of philosophy is a fact implied by the Copernican Revolution in Kant’s philosophy, namely the indication of the possibility for subjective materialism. A particular transcendental epistemology and its point of view about man’s free nature led to today’s subjective materialism. Subjective materialism is a finalization of Kantian philosophy in a materialistic form.

We give definitions that distinguish between two notions of indiscernibility for a set {aη∣η∈ω>ω}\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\{a_{\eta} \mid \eta \in ^{\omega>}\omega\}}$$\end{document} that saw original use in Shelah [Classification theory and the number of non-isomorphic models. North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1990], which we name s- and str−indiscernibility. Using these definitions and detailed proofs, we prove s- and str-modeling theorems and give applications of these theorems. In particular, we verify a step in the argument that TP is equivalent to TP1 or TP2 that has not seen explication in the literature. In the Appendix, we exposit the proofs of Shelah [Classification theory and the number of non-isomorphic models. North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1990, App. 2.6, 2.7], expanding on the details.

In this essay, I examine the concept of individual freedom that varies depending on cultures through different attitudes toward the administrative policy of wearing masks. Many Westerners criticized the enforcement of the policy in East Asia as the oppression of individual freedom. I argue that the criticism is based on a narrow understanding of the problem and that individual freedom becomes obscure even in the West as we are entering the society of surveillance capitalism due to technological revolution. Confucian cultures give us a context in reference to which we reflect on individual freedom in the post-pandemic situation.

The third section of the Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals presents a particularly acute interpretative problem that has perplexed generations of Kant commentators. Having devoted the two preceding sections of the work to identifying the supreme principle of morality, Kant, in this section, turns to the task of justifying the principle for rational yet sensually affected beings like humans. However, in the middle of this famous “deduction,” he suddenly confesses that “there is a hidden circle” from which “there is no escape.” Kant’s abrupt confession of the circle leaves the reader deeply puzzled, partly because Kant has so confidently presented his arguments for our subjection to the constraints of the supreme principle of morality up to that point, and partly because no clues are readily apparent as to what the mistake in the arguments might be. Where is the circle located? In this paper I tackle Kant’s problem of the hidden circle in the Foundations. In particular, I will identify and critically discuss three influential interpretations of the fallacy of circularity and offer an alternative reading of Kant’s way out of the problem.

Despite the dominant practice in contemporary Korean academia since 1936 to define Dasan’s philosophy and Practical Learning as intellectual defiance against neo-Confucianism and neo-Confucian society, some scholarly efforts that have sought to disprove this understanding attract the unremitting attention of many modern skeptics. These efforts revolve around one point: they are not separated from neo-Confucianism philosophically, politically, and historically. In this view, these “new” intellectual trends are perceived as redemption of the ideal Confucian statecraft commonly cherished by all types of Confucians, and a natural development consequent on the expansion of neo-Confucian interest in Confucian classical texts. In stark contrast to the prevailing perspective on Dasan’s philosophy and Practical Learning, which sees them as estranged from their neo-Confucian predecessors probably with hope of positioning them closer to modernity, the opposition insists continuity exists between the two Confucian traditions, somewhat provoking disconnection of all Joseon intelligentsia from modernity.