With the advancement of human microbiome research, it is inevitable that a growing number of biobanks will include a collection of microbiota specimens to characterize the microbial communities that inhabit the human body and explore the relationships between the microbiota and their human hosts. Biobanks of human microbiota and their associated genetic information may become a valuable health resource. But, this area of research also presents ethical and social problems, some of which are distinct from those faced by biobanks that (...) store human tissue samples. This paper examines four core issues which are considered highly relevant to microbiome biobanking: the nature of human microbiome samples and how different understandings have an impact on benefit/risk evaluation, privacy, informed consent, and returning the result to participants. We argue that these issues should be addressed early on in microbiome research projects and also call for adjusting or developing new governance mechanism to better accommodate these changes. (shrink)

Changes in society lead to changes in science, changing its fundamental foundations - ideological and value, methodological and instrumental foundations. In turn, a change in the scientific paradigm leads to social change. A situation of this kind is especially evident in the socio-political sciences, since it is they who are more affected by social reality. The nature of postmodern societies is such that its economic component generates a huge number of subcultures, in the scientific world it is called "subcultural explosion." (...) Postmodern societies are societies of permanent changes: consumer standards, moral values, political structure, and so on, repeatedly change during the life of one generation, significantly affect the search for the truth of science and its understanding. In the list of various questions of truth, its character, origin, postmodern departs from objective truth, therefore it becomes contextual and consensus. Theories are replaced by approaches, views, points of view, thoughts. Scientific concepts with their strict certainty change concepts, in which under the same name everyone puts their own meaning and essence. According to this, in postmodernism, not only the scientific paradigm as a model of scientific activity is changing, but the purpose of science, its understanding as a special activity with the search for truth, is changing. This implies a review of the attitude to the "organizational forms" of science, that is, the way in which scientific knowledge is disseminated to the professional scientific community to search for truth, which in its classical understanding no longer exists. (shrink)

任劍濤編著的《拜謁諸神--西方政治理論與方法尋蹤(中國政治發展與比較政治)》對現代主流的政治價值形態——自由主義、共和主義、保守主義和激進主義進行了觀念史梳理，並且對它們共同關注的學術問題進行了分析， 力圖在「諸神之爭」的現代政治理論處境中，尋求各種價值觀念的兼容。 論述圍繞緊密聯系的三大論題展開：一是「諸神之爭」狀態中凸顯的現代政治價值的主流與支流，以及它們之間逐漸呈現出來的合流趨勢；二是「諸神之爭」情境中顯現的、共同關注的政治理論問題，諸如政治理論的建構基點、 擴展視野、創新方式，等等；三是「諸神之爭」的政治理論建構所蘊含的問題意識與方法進路。 全書視野廣闊、分析深入、邏輯性強、說理透徹 ，對現代政治理論的處境、發展現狀與方法進路，進行了系統的描述和探究，值得所有關注和思考現代政治問題的讀者悉心閱讀。.

本书写作受中山大学人文社会科学发展基金重大项目资助,本书出版受华夏英才基金资助。.

本书从道德信仰与现时代的关系切入,分析道德信仰的本质、确立与演变、功能及其道德信仰与道德的重建等。.

本书围绕四大主题展开:以天人之际为真奠立终极依据,以人性善恶为其提供德性凭借,以内圣外王描摹政治思想,以德主刑辅作为制度精神。从而,在伦理政治理论上,形成了一个完整体系的雏形。.

本书阐述了青年和大学生在人生道路上必然遇到和必须解决的人生目的、人生价值、人生理想、人生态度等人生问题。.

The fundamental importance of reverence is recognized by all major world cultures. Confucianism’s account of “The three things of which the sage is in awe” is seen in Chinese culture through the value placed on reverence. “The three things of which the sage is in awe” both manifests itself as an approach to value and is also an expression of practical ethical guidance. The essential aspect of reverence is a sincere and ethical outlook; accordingly it is a part of virtue (...) ethics. In this kind of virtue ethics, ethical practice accords with self-conscious conduct that is guided by a sense of reverence, and this forms the guiding thought of Confucianism. From a comparative cultural perspective, the Confucian sense of reverence founded upon ethical self-awareness and Christian sense of reverence founded on divine worship are different. However, both take reverence to be the root of culture, thus proving that reverence is an element that none of the world’s major cultures can be without. In the early modern period, a sense of reverence was seen something enchanted and harmful to the rational progress of civilization. However, the contemporary reenchantment movements in some ways call up a return to such reverence. (shrink)