Rational Discourse Research Articles

Thích Nhất Hạnh’s Early Critiques of Enlightenment Rationality and Academic Buddhism, 1956–1961

This article examines Thích Nhất Hạnh’s articles published in the journals Phật-Giáo Việt-Nam [Vietnamese Buddhism] and Liên-Hoa Nguyệt-San [Lotus Monthly] between 1956 and 1961. These articles reveal how Thích Nhất Hạnh developed a critique of the excess rationality of Western civilization through a reading of criticisms of the Enlightenment from philosophical and new-age Buddhist sources that were themselves European. When writing to an exclusively Buddhist audience, Thích Nhất Hạnh emphasizes the need for rational, ecumenical, and empirical discourse on Buddhism, whereas when writing to a non-Buddhist audience, he stresses the insufficiency of rational calculations and the need for a proper understanding of Buddhism to be derived from personal experience. These articles show the deep early influence of the Buddhist reform movement, international Buddhist political developments, and contemporary European philosophy on Thích Nhất Hạnh’s thinking.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY EFFICIENCY IN THE CONTEXT OF CONTEMPORARY GLOBAL CHALLENGES AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Purpose. The purpose of this study is to deepen the understanding and further development of theoretical approaches to evaluating the efficiency of economic activity, which will serve scientists and politicians to justify the choice of methods of evaluation, taking into account the nature of the object of evaluation and the context of this process. The research objectives follow from this: to analyze the correctness of using market prices to determine the efficiency of economic activity and to propose methods of adjustment. Design/methodology/approach. In the article, the authors investigated methodological the basics which are methods of system and comparative analysis, cost-benefit analysis, and multi-criteria methods, which were used to develop a holistic approach to performance evaluation. The informational basis of the study was made up of scientific domestic and foreign publications, as well as the authors’ own long-term experience of research work in the field of ecological economics. Findings. Today, many approaches to evaluating economic efficiency have been developed. However, all of them have strengths and weaknesses, so the question of the correctness of using these approaches requires further research. We suggest differentiating approaches to performance evaluation as follows. If decisions are made at the global or regional level and are of a strategic and/or irreversible nature or are associated with unrecognizability, then it is necessary to be guided by communicative (social) rationality and apply deliberative methods. In these cases, methods based on individual assessments are advisory. If we are talking about insignificant local influences and market-valued goods, then individual rationality and analytical decision-making methods will be relevant. Practical implications. The results of this research are of interest to economists and politicians. Proposed logic of cost-benefit analysis, the conceptual model of the ecological economy, positioning of approaches to determining efficiency according to two features: rationality and the nature of the goodwill that seek to improve the adaptation of their marketing communication strategy to meet the conditions of digitalization and tostrengthen their competitive foothold within the market. Also, the findings can help to improve economic activity efficiency in the context of contemporary global challenges and Sustainable Development. Originality/value. Based on the results of the analysis of the features of economic activity evaluation, determined by the subject and context of evaluation, as well as the choice of the evaluation methods themselves, a new paradigm of efficiency evaluation is proposed by differentiating its approaches taking into account the essence of the evaluated activity, the context of evaluation and the corresponding rationalities and tools. This paradigm, in response to modern challenges, allows expanding the subject area of economic science and overcoming the methodological limitations of monetary estimates

An argumentation experience regarding concepts of calculus with ChatGPT

ABSTRACT ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence-supported chatbot, has become a resource in the field of education for students across various disciplines. The conversation that unfolds based on the user-generated questions and ChatGPT’s responses implies the emergence of an argumentation between the student and ChatGPT. In this study, the argumentation between a university student and ChatGPT, conducted to examine situations where a tangent line cannot be drawn to a function’s graph, was analyzed using Toulmin’s model enriched with Habermas’ construct of rationality. The findings indicate that ChatGPT offers rational support to the warrant in student’s reasoning in the of context epistemic rationality regarding the definitions of continuity, derivative, and tangent concepts. However, ChatGPT provides problematic responses in the context of epistemic rationality regarding the relationship between continuity and derivative, as well as in the context of communicative rationality concerning the geometric interpretation of the derivative and the definition of the tangent line. ChatGPT has not provided reliable and stable support to the student in the reasoning process. It can be concluded that ChatGPT, which is considered to have the potential to assist learning processes, requires expertise in calculus concepts for its use in mathematical reasoning processes. Otherwise, it may be confusing and/or misleading.

Assessment of transdisciplinarity by its participants: the case of Tertúlias do Montado, Alentejo, Portugal

AbstractEvaluation plays a pivotal role in transdisciplinary (TD) research, often discussed during funding stages or when assessing project impacts. A few studies delve into the participant perspective when examining the quality of transdisciplinarity. Our work contributes to this area of assessment. Rather than providing a definitive definition of transdisciplinarity, we developed a questionnaire to evaluate a set of TD principles within a specific TD initiative. We collected insights from 100 individuals out of a pool of 200 participants engaged in a TD initiative since 2016. Given the long-term nature of the case study, our sample included both frequent and occasional participants. Using non-parametric statistical, we concluded that frequent participants express higher satisfaction with their involvement, identify more outcomes stemming from their participation, and assign greater importance to TD principles. These findings highlight the significant impact of investing in long-term TD initiatives. Additionally, our questionnaires featured open-ended questions to capture participants’ individual definition of the initiative, along with their perceived benefits and drawbacks. Through content analysis, we identified two distinct discourses: positivism and postpositivism. The positivist discourse predominantly features male participants over 60 years of age, primarily from the research community. These participants express lower satisfaction with their participation and assign less value to TD principles. We found no association between positivism/postpositivism and participation frequency (i.e., frequent/casual). This suggests that these two discourses can coexist and interact within a TD environment. Nevertheless, the perceived value of TD is not uniform across these groups, indicating that TD may not align with everyone’s objectives, even in complex contexts where the approach is considered essential.

Positive discourse analysis of Aotearoa New Zealand Foreign Minister’s speeches: an ecolinguistic perspective

Abstract As opposed to Western ideologies that promote unrestrained consumption of environmental resources, Indigenous or Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) encourages a more beneficial relationship with nature. In order to address underrepresented subjects and contexts, this article investigates the integration of TEK within political discourse by examining a corpus of speeches given by Aotearoa New Zealand former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nanaia Mahuta, between 2020 and 2022. The study refers to the frameworks of ecolinguistics and Positive Discourse Analysis (PDA) to understand how Māori culture shapes Mahuta’s linguistic choices. Particularly, it focusses the attention on lexical and figurative items, drawing on the concepts of metaphor, framing, and intertextuality. Results show a considerable concern over the state of the environment in Mahuta’s speeches. Furthermore, they reveal the presence of an adaptation framing inspired by Indigenous thinking that acknowledges nature’s agency and complexity. The latter is used to conceptualise current environmental challenges and international cooperation directed at tackling them. Mahuta’s language ultimately supports the idea of interconnectedness within nature and offers as an instance of positive discourse in institutional settings.

Positive Discourse Construction Around Dietary Sugars Consumption

Eco-advertisements promote products with environmentally friendly attributes and often play a significant role in shaping public perceptions, attitudes, and use of a specific product. The consumption of dietary sugar products has become a topic of increasing concern worldwide, given its potential impact on the ecology of the human body. This research is also based on positive discourse construction around dietary sugar consumption by using a semio-linguistic analysis of eco-advertisements in Pakistan. The aims of this research are: firstly, to highlight the marked semiotic instances in relation to eco-advertisements. Secondly, to identify lexical items that have positive connotations in context with dietary sugars products, and lastly, to interpret the semiotic and lexical evidence as a tool for constructing positive discourse. The data has been collected through simple random sampling and the basic framework of Arran Stibbe has been used for data analysis. The findings of this research indicate that eco-advertisements in Pakistan tend to employ persuasive techniques such as positive framing, emotional appeals, and visual symbolism to present dietary sugar consumption in a favorable light and these advertisements emphasize the natural origins of sugars and promote their nutritional benefits.

An Attempt to Gain Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment In Social Media

Social media plays a crucial role in shaping public opinion and crafting narratives around gender issues. The active participation of the community on various social media platforms enriches discussions about gender with diverse perspectives and experiences. Through campaigns, hashtags, and visual content, social media not only provides a space for narratives but also shapes paradigm shifts and social norms related to gender issues. This research aims to identify how the Instagram account @unwomen represents gender equality and women's empowerment issues and explores how @unwomen can influence individuals' perceptions of these issues. The method used is qualitative descriptive with a critical paradigm. Data were collected using a random selection method on posts from the Instagram account @unwomen to provide a fair and representative overview. The posts contain content related to women's rights, employment, closing gender gaps, and the role of women in development. The analysis process involves using critical discourse analysis by Sara Mills, incorporating two concepts: subject-object position and writer-reader position. The analysis includes the identification of text, narratives, and images reflecting gender equality and women's empowerment issues, followed by noting keywords or phrases used in the discourse. Research findings reveal that social media, particularly through the @unwomen account, significantly influences public opinion on gender issues. The subject-object position in gender discourse is reflected in the active role of UN Women as the subject designing messages to influence public opinion as the object. The writer-reader position is reflected in the active role of UN Women as writers responsible for creating messages and content shared using language, images, and specific formats to convey messages and influence the audience. Readers (audience) are individuals or groups consuming and responding to content shared by the @unwomen account. They shape perceptions, interpret messages, and provide feedback. This research integrates Mills' concepts of subject-object and writer-reader positions in the context of social media, highlighting the importance of understanding power dynamics in shaping gender narratives. The results contribute to a deeper understanding of how social media can be used to advocate for gender equality and women's empowerment. Globally, the implications can guide further strategies in addressing gender issues and women's empowerment through social media platforms.

Communication About Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell (CAR-T) Therapy

Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy has revolutionized the treatment of patients with hematologic malignancies, yet treatment may coincide with the potential for life-threatening toxicities. Currently, no studies have investigated how oncologists communicate with patients about CAR-T therapy or what patients and their caregivers want to know prior to consenting for CAR-T therapy. This study characterizes the content of oncologist communication with patients and caregivers about the risks and benefits of CAR-T therapy and explore the information preferences of patients and their caregivers about CAR-T therapy. We conducted a multimethod study of 20 patients with hematologic malignancies referred for CAR-T therapy at the Massachusetts General Hospital and 10 caregivers. We audio recorded the initial outpatient visit with the oncologist to review and sign consent for CAR-T therapy. We subsequently surveyed patients and caregivers about information gaps that remained after consent. We then interviewed patients and caregiver about their perceptions of oncologist communication and information preferences after the consent visit, 1 month, and 3 months post-CAR-T therapy treatment. Qualitative data analysis was conducted using the framework approach. Six major themes regarding communication about CAR-T therapy were identified: (1) oncologists create a narrative of power and innovation about CAR-T therapy, (2) oncologists set clear expectations regarding CAR-T therapy, (3) oncologists preferentially discuss positive treatment outcomes and less frequently address treatment failures or uncertainties, (4) oncologists couple their discussion about risks of CAR-T therapy with assurances about risk mitigation strategies, (5) oncologists engage in empathetic communication throughout the consent visit, (6) patients and caregivers vary in their preferences regarding communication about CAR-T therapy but largely favor a positive discourse during the consent visit and (7) patients who completed CAR-T therapy and their caregivers report significant knowledge gaps during and after treatment. Overall, patients and caregivers felt well informed about CAR T-therapy yet identified communication gaps regarding, advanced care planning, treatment failure and treatment toxicities. A predominantly positive discourse between patients, caregivers, and oncologists around CAR-T therapy leaves patients and caregivers with significant knowledge gaps about negative outcomes. Further research is needed to help oncologists communicate about treatment uncertainties and help patients and their caregivers prepare for negative outcomes of CAR-T therapy.

On Communicative Rationality with Passion

This paper reflects on the reception and application of Habermas’ concept of the public sphere in media and communication studies at various points in recent history. It argues that it is urgent to focus the scholarly community’s intellectual efforts not on decrying the utopian nature of the concept, but on salvaging and honing its normative edge. Its central philosophical kernel, rational-critical debate, and its connection to concepts such as communicative action, communicative rationality and deliberation developed in Habermas’ later works, need to be re-examined and re-asserted as a vital criterion of democratic public communication. In defence of this argument, some of the most influential critiques of the public sphere model—its alleged neglect of emotions and conflict—are examined and challenged. The pathologies of the current space of mediatised public communication, it is argued, should be understood as symptoms of the erosion of communicative rationality and the ideal of the public sphere from the social imaginary.

Structural position affects topic transition

Abstract In an eye-tracking study, we used Chinese double-subject construction [NPa NPb PREDICATE] (e.g., [nage jiezhi]NPa [sheji]NPb [hen tebie]PREDICATE ‘that ring design very special’) in a concessive construction like suiran…dan… ‘although…but…’ to investigate how the syntactic position of the topic NP (i.e., that ring) affects the comprehension of topic transition in the subsequent clause. We contrasted topics located at a higher pre-connective topic position (e.g., that ring although) and those located at a post-connective subject position (e.g., although that ring). Topic transition was manipulated as either using a subtopic (e.g., workmanship of that ring) or a new topic (e.g., the wedding dress) in the second clause of concession. We found a main effect of topic transition in a batch of eye-movement measures showing that subtopic transition was preferred over new-topic transition. More importantly, we found interactions on total reading time and total fixations at the topic-suiran region and on total fixations at the post-critical region, with post hoc tests revealing a larger cost of topic transition in the high-topic condition than in the low-topic condition. The results suggest that when a topic NP is located at a higher topic position (i.e., above the connective), it binds the topics of both clauses and induces greater cost when the topics do not form a consistent chain. When the topic NP is located at a local (i.e., post-connective) position, the processing of topic shift or resolution of topic conflict in the second clause is less costly because the second topic is not syntactically bound by the higher topic. Together, the results support a prominent status of the before-connective position in Chinese discourse. Furthermore, they indicate that syntactically induced topicality constrains the processing of topic transition in the subsequent discourse.

Shaping the bioeconomy: Public and private sector perceptions across European regions

Shaping the bioeconomy: Public and private sector perceptions across European regions

Engineered cyclodextrin-based supramolecular hydrogels for biomedical applications.

Cyclodextrin (CD)-based supramolecular hydrogels are polymer network systems with the ability to rapidly form reversible three-dimensional porous structures through multiple cross-linking methods, offering potential applications in drug delivery. Although CD-based supramolecular hydrogels have been increasingly used in a wide range of applications in recent years, a comprehensive description of their structure, mechanical property modulation, drug loading, delivery, and applications in biomedical fields from a cross-linking perspective is lacking. To provide a comprehensive overview of CD-based supramolecular hydrogels, this review systematically describes their design, regulation of mechanical properties, modes of drug loading and release, and their roles in various biomedical fields, particularly oncology, wound dressing, bone repair, and myocardial tissue engineering. Additionally, this review provides a rational discussion on the current challenges and prospects of CD-based supramolecular hydrogels, which can provide ideas for the rapid development of CD-based hydrogels and foster their translation from the laboratory to clinical medicine.

Between Appeal to Citizenship and Biopolitical Fracture: Islamophobia and the New Politics of Muslim Citizenship in India

This article aims to analyze the Islamophobic politics at the heart of citizenship denial in the context of India’s CAA-NRC legislation in December 2019 by the Indian Parliament under the leadership of the BJP. The politics of citizenship denial in India thus emerges in appearance as a legal tussle between the Muslim minority citizenship rights and Hindu nationalism in India. However, the biopolitical fracture of the Indian nation-state makes the legal ideal of citizenship further complicated for Muslim minority citizens in India. Tracing the logic of the paradoxical position of Muslim citizenship discourse in India by following its contradictory existence in law, state, and nationalism, this article reveals the limitations of appeal to citizenship, and the necessity need for the question questioning of the biopolitical fracture, wherein the distinction between citizen and non-citizen translates into those with rights and without rights. This article further proposes that rather than sticking to the idealism of citizenship, a critical analysis of Islamophobia and its political correlates must attend to the negative position of the Muslim subject in with respect to the biopolitical fracture at the core of Indian nationalism and the modern nation-state.

Jesus and the Rapture Part 1: Matthew 24:40–41 Reconsidered

Is the doctrine of the pre-tribulation rapture authentically biblical? Many seek to answer this question by turning to the ultimate authority in all doctrinal matters, Jesus Christ. Did Jesus believe in and teach about the rapture? This two-part series maintains that He did. Unfortunately, many seek to discover Christ’s rapture teaching in the wrong place, which is Matthew 24:40–41. The first article in this two-part series contends that the rapture cannot be found here, given Matthew’s overall argument, the exegetical details of Matthew 24:40–41, and the inadequacy of the pro-rapture arguments concerning the passage. However, the second article will contend that John 14:1–4 represents far more fruitful ground for understanding Christ’s rapture teaching. This will be demonstrated through an examination of the position of the upper room discourse in John’s Gospel, the exegetical details of John 14:1–4, and by answering the anti-rapture arguments concerning the interpretation of the passage.

Genealogija civilnog društva - savremena reinterpretacija koncepta

Starting from the exceptional importance of civil society for political/democratic theory, the paper critically analyzes its position in various theoretical discourses, trying to detect the most current changes in its understanding. Along these lines, the paper examines the premodern, modern and postmodern paradigms of civil society. The most important findings are that its interpretation must include: (1) cultural procedurality and diversity against the abstract and repressive given of the Western matrix; (2) the fact that externally controlled non-genuine non-governmental organizations of neoliberal civil society have weak support from citizens and a low level of responsibility; (3) dialogue with neo-traditional associations; and (4) the idea that civil society cannot be freed in a utopian manner from the redistribution of power, which implies its politicization, hierarchization and civil society elites.

The Polarization of Public Opinion on Weibo about Public Affairs of People’s Livelihood in China

Social media has become a key platform for public discussion and dissemination of social events but has also led to the Echo chamber effect and emotional polarization. This study uses the “Jiang Ping incident” as a case to explore emotional polarization in public opinion on Chinese social media platforms, specifically Weibo. The study first reviews relevant theories, including the Echo chamber effect, selective information preference, silence behavior, and opinion-emotional contagion. Then, using a questionnaire survey, empirical data were collected, and factor analysis was conducted to extract key common factors influencing emotional polarization. In the final regression analysis, the impact of these three common factors on the polarization of public opinion groups was further examined. The results show that selective information preference and opinion-emotional contagion have a significant negative impact on emotional polarization. Additionally, silence behavior was also found to have a negative impact on emotional polarization, suggesting that users’ silence behavior in the face of opposing opinions may exacerbate the degree of emotional polarization. Finally, the study provides recommendations for social media platform managers and policymakers to mitigate emotional confrontation on social media and promote more rational public discussion.

The Knowledge Society: Migration Discourse Captured by Capital

The article focuses on the nature of the modern knowledge society, which is characterized, first of all, by a sharp increase in intellectual capital (education, experience, skills, competencies, know-how, the price of personnel in the labor market, patents, etc.) in the amount of capitalization of large business. The knowledge society is a society of high social dynamics, the embodiment of the migration archetype, of rational discourse and intellectual work, which realizes the well-known thesis “Knowledge is power” in a new way. The last three decades, Nico Stehr, a well-known German sociologist and philosopher has been rethinking, reformulating, and substantiating the theories of the knowledge society, which appeared in the 1960s. The article investigates Stehr’s concept, expresses arguments in its support, and highlights some blank spots that remain inexplicable for him in the light of the social realities of recent years. The conclusion runs that the knowledge society represents a significant social trend in the formation of science and technology as a leading productive force. It also manifests a form of the urban discourse of freedom — the cognitive self-realization of the individual in the spectrum of wide possibilities of the public good as a subject-matter of epistemological urban studies. However, this trend is countered by modern knowledge capitalism (privatization, fencing off of knowledge, including that with the help of patents), as well as by the high degree of risk and uncertainty that dominates the modern world.

De Las Piedras A La Nube: aprendizaje significativo y pedagogías digitales en el procesamiento de matrices litográficas habanera

The activities associated with the Litokingospedagogical project are referred to for the treatment of almost two thousand lithographic matrices from the 19th and 20th centuries, stored in the Havana Graphic Workshop. Their characterization as ephemeral documents and the relevance of the communicative landscapes’methodology for the analysis of the corpusare justified. The budgets used for the meaningful learning methodology with first-year students of the Information Science day course at the University of Havana are presented. The strengths of memorable learning of documentary techniques and their link with communication strategies that allow generating positive discourses on the importance of humanistic data, teamwork, the discovery of traditions, as well as content management for different digitalsocial networks are evident. The importance of open access digital infrastructures for executing pedagogical models in the global South is demonstrated.

The Construction and Transformation of the Discourse System of Higher Vocational Education Counselors in the Era of Information Education

Abstract With the rapid development of information media, senior counselors face many new opportunities and challenges in ideological and political education discourse. This study divides the counselor discourse modal system into linguistic and visual image modal. Adopting the advanced Transformer architecture and combining the BERT and RoBERTa algorithms, this paper profoundly analyzes the syntactic structure in the discourse. It extracts the emotional features in the text using the bert word vector model. Meanwhile, the dynamic features in the audio information of the discourse are extracted by MFCC technique. After completing the preprocessing of discourse features, we used Bayesian classifier for classification and recognition to further refine the annotation of discourse information. The study results showed that the overall sentiment of the discourse of tutor number 1 tended to be harmful during the 30 minutes, with six segments having an emotional pleasantness of more than -2. In addition, the density of positive discourse sentiment of tutor number 3 was 0.0811 higher than that of tutor number 4. In contrast, the number of discourse labeling of tutor number 5 was reduced by 74 times. Through in-depth analysis and understanding of these discourse modalities and affective features, tutors can better adapt to the information media environment and effectively carry out ideological and political education work.

Positive Discourse Analysis of News Reports on “Rural Revitalization” under the Appraisal Theory

Positive Discourse Analysis of News Reports on “Rural Revitalization” under the Appraisal Theory