News
The 2020 Tang Prize in Sinology has been awarded to Professor Wang Gungwu, University Professor at NUS Arts and Social Sciences and one of the world’s foremost experts on the Chinese diaspora. Announced on 20 June 2020 by the Tang Prize Foundation, this prestigious award was conferred on Prof Wang in recognition of his trailblazing and dissecting insights on the history of the Chinese world order, overseas Chinese, and Chinese migratory experience.
As the COVID-19 situation escalated in Singapore, additional measures were introduced, including home-based learning (HBL) for all schools and working from home for all workplaces except for essential services. These circumstances threw a light on the difficulties that some families who may not have any laptops at home or only one laptop to share between multiple children, are facing. These children are at risk of missing online lessons.
The outbreak of COVID-19 has brought upon tremendous stress on millions of people worldwide. Health concerns, financial uncertainties, and a prolonged and potentially irreversible departure from one’s normal way of life all contribute to a trying experience. While some people react to these stressors with acts of generosity and kindness, others behave in a selfish and competitive manner: hoarding supplies, violating social distancing regulations, or posting others’ violations online for public ridicule and name calling.
For many, part of the excitement and joy of going to university is the interaction and exchange of ideas in the classroom. Yet, with the current COVID-19 situation, this aspect of university life has ceased. Lecturers all over the world have been grappling with how to deliver quality classes in virtual space without compromising on the quality of student experience. To help with this issue, a group of NUS Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) instructors has started a series of sharing sessions aimed to help colleagues move their classes online more effectively.
In Semester 1, AY2020-2021, FASS is adopting e-learning and e-assessment for the vast majority of undergraduate modules. This is a unique situation that may pose challenges for students, and FASS is committed to supporting you through these challenges as much as possible. Here are some available resources; more will be added as they come online.
Research in psychology suggests that moods vary across cultures in several different ways. This means that any adequate theory of moods has to explain how this is possible. Moreover, the theory has to predict the right amount and the right kind of variation. The purpose of this talk is to put forward a new account of moods—the patterns of attention view, according to which a mood is nothing over and above a pattern of attention.
A state of affairs is either a way things are or a way things aren’t. The two most popular theories of states of affairs are the coarse-grain theory, according to which states of affairs are identical if and only if they are necessarily equivalent (that is, if and only if, necessarily, they either both obtain or they both fail to obtain), and the structure theory, according to which states of affairs are structured in the same kind of way sentences are structured. Despite their popularity, both these theories have serious problems.
Singapore is known as an affluent or middle class society. It has an adaptive knowledge-based economy which produces much opportunities for employment and social mobility. Is poverty the cause of bad decisions, or are bad decisions the cause of poverty? The two opposing views here suggest that either the poor are not to be blamed for the condition they are in or they are to be blamed. A socially responsible capitalism, including a vibrant economy and a progressive tax system to fund redistributive measures, is essential to ensure that all Singaporean meet their basic needs, writes Associate Professor Tan Ern Ser from NUS Sociology.
When we try to navigate potential impacts of artificial intelligence (AI), we invariably ask: Is AI for the good? Often, implicit in the question is: Is AI good for humans and humanity? This vagueness is captured by the interchangeable use of “ethical AI” and “human-centered AI”. But those two AI systems—and those two questions posed above—might differ significantly. While an ethical AI is, by definition, for the good, it might not necessarily be good for humans and humanity in all circumstances. Put differently, a human-centered AI might not be an ethical AI.
There has been a considerable increase in the proportion of single-person households around the world. In Singapore 14% of total households live alone. Single-person household typically involves older persons aged above 65 and urban youngsters who are earning for the first time. CFPR’s Founding Director Professor Jean Yeung was interviewed by Channel NewsAsia for the “Money Mind 2019/2020” program. She shared her views on one-person households, how Asia’s singles are changing consumption trends and the importance of studying their demographics in different countries for businesses to anticipate consumer behaviour.