This thesis provides a theoretical foundation explaining the long-standing paradox of Chinese-Indonesian entrepreneurs' highly successful economic behaviour. Combining Western and Eastern philosophies, this study examines the role of culture in prescribing beliefs and practices that affect human efforts to self-actualise, notably the motivations underlying these entrepreneurs' business practices. It applies Aristotle's notion of phronesis (practical knowledge or wisdom) to organisation studies (as suggested by Tsoukas and Cummings, 1997, and Flyvbjerg, 2006). The enquiry employs the concept of self-organising systems (drawn from complexity theory) to ground the Confucian organismic conception of the cosmos (Needham 1956). The underlying empirical study investigated Chinese entrepreneurs' strategic actions in a particular field (Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia), an environment characterised by complexity, uncertainty and social instability. Primary data was collected through extensive field interviews, developed into narrative case studies and analysed using the explanation building technique (Yin 2003) based on Confucian modelling of social interactions to explain informants' trajectories in their life course. The findings support the Confucian organismic conception of the cosmos, which emphasises the notions of complexity, continuity, irreversibility and unpredictability. When the future is highly unpredictable, people learn and progress by recourse to learned strategies that were effective in their own adaptive success in the past. Especially when facing tension or instability, the studied entrepreneurs' decision making and strategic actions were spontaneous, without explicit predetermined goals, but based on their pragmatic value judgment, phronesis (practical knowledge) of a situation and the capability of the individual actors within their social networks to control it. When faced with a higher level of instability (especially under extreme constraints), their actions were instinctively revolutionary, often requiring a jump to a new level of network with higher complexity (Holland 1998), returning them to a normal condition. The entrepreneurs' wulun-based social roles and guanxi-based social institutions legitimised all such decisions. Their strategies were therefore contextual and pragmatic, driven by the actors' instinct to enhance the survivability of the individual, family and society. Chinese culture embraced the natural state of complexity, dynamism and unpredictability of the cosmos by establishing Confucian social institutions, specifically wulun and guanxi, that are learned and practiced from an early age and subsequently internalised as habitual and dispositional practices, including in business. Wulun functions as a social control mechanism for constraining people's behaviour and at the same time allowing people to increase their ability to adapt in order to self-organise in different contexts, whereas guanxi is practiced as a strategy to create a pool of interlocking resources that provides a feedback loop promoting continuous self-actualisation and self-transformation. Identity is associated with progression and transformation; when the self is developed, the family and the larger society are also transformed. The contribution of this thesis is its integration of Western and Eastern, natural and social, complexity theory and organisation studies concepts to illuminate the relationship between the self-actualising behaviour of entrepreneurs and the cultural context within which they operate. Keywords: phronesis, complexity, Confucianism, self-organisation, self-actualisation, wulun, guanxi, pragmatism

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 133-137).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 238-249).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 436-454). Abstract also available via World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 436-454). Also available on microfiche. Abstract also available via World Wide Web.

Thesis advisor: LISA S. CAHILL / The Nuremberg trials ushered in a new era in which the four principles approach has become progressively the norm in Euro-American biomedical ethics, while the concepts of virtue and character become marginalized. In recent decades, the AIDS pandemic has highlighted the social aspects of health and illness, and the individualistic nature of the four principles approach proves inadequate in addressing the social causes of illness and poor health. At the global level, the promotion of the four principles approach as the universal norm can lead to the displacement of local values and customs, and the alienation of people from their cultural heritage. In this dissertation, I argue that although principles are indispensable, the virtue-based approach is more adequate in addressing these needs. The dissertation demonstrates that a virtue-based medical ethics informed by the gospel vision of healing would support models of health care that take seriously the social determinants of illness, and advocate action on behalf of the poor and the marginalized. At the global level, virtue-based medical ethics also allows the coexistence of the universal values and the local norms, and encourages cross-cultural dialogue. This dissertation develops a virtue-based medical ethics grounded in the Aristotelian teleological structure, and integrating insights obtained from the historical critical study of the healing narratives in Luke-Acts. It also provides a correlative study of the love command in Luke and the virtue of humaneness in the medical ethics of eighteenth century Vietnamese physician Hai Thuong Lan Ong. The concluding chapter brings these elements together in a discussion of the work of the Vietnamese Catholic AIDS care network. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

Ou Antony. / Thesis submitted in: October 2006. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 160-173). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / List of Appendices and Tables --- p.5 / Preface and Acknowledgements --- p.6 / Notes on Translations and References --- p.9 / Abstract --- p.11 / 中文摘要(Abstract in Chinese) --- p.12 / Chapter Chapter 1: --- Introduction --- p.13 / Chapter Chapter 2: --- "War, Confucianism and Ren: The Definitions" --- p.17 / Chapter Chapter 2.1: --- The Definition of War --- p.17 / Chapter Chapter 2.2: --- Confucianism: A Brief History of Thoughts --- p.20 / Chapter Chapter 2.3: --- Ren as Confucian Justice of war --- p.26 / Chapter Chapter 3: --- Literature Review --- p.34 / Chapter Chapter 3.1: --- Purposes of Just War Theory --- p.34 / Chapter Chapter 3.2: --- Just War Theory Development: Anglo-American Traditions --- p.38 / Chapter Chapter 3.21: --- The History --- p.38 / Chapter Chapter 3.22: --- "The Content: jus ad bellum, jus in bello and jus post bellum" --- p.44 / Chapter Chapter 3.23: --- A Synthetic Analysis of Anglo-American Just War Tradition --- p.56 / Chapter Chapter 3.3: --- Just War Theory: Neo-Confucian approaches --- p.59 / Chapter Chapter 3.4: --- Spring and Autumn and Gongyangzhuan --- p.66 / Chapter Chapter 3.41: --- Nature of Spring and Autumn --- p.66 / Chapter Chapter 3.42: --- History of Gongyangzhuan --- p.70 / Chapter Chapter 3.43: --- The Contents of Gongyangzhuan --- p.79 / Chapter Chapter 4: --- Gongyangzhuan tradition as a source of Confucian just war theory --- p.86 / Chapter Chapter 4.1: --- Criteria for selecting Confucian Texts --- p.86 / Chapter Chapter 4.2: --- Conceptualization of Gongyangzhuan just war theory --- p.92 / """Non-ideal just war scenario"": Feudal lords and peoples in ""chaotic generations""" --- p.95 / """Non-ideal just war scenario"": Ba/Hegemon, feudal lords and peoples in ""transitional generations""" --- p.106 / """Ideal just war scenario"": The True king and peoples in ´ب´ب peaceful generations""" --- p.114 / Chapter Chapter 4.3: --- Synthetic Analysis of Gongyangzhuan Just War Theory --- p.119 / Chapter Chapter 5: --- The Contemporary Significance of Gongyangzhuan Just War Theory --- p.123 / Chapter Chapter 5.1: --- Theoretical Significance --- p.125 / Contribution to just war theory --- p.125 / Contribution to Modern Neo-Confucianism --- p.129 / Chapter Chapter 5.2: --- Practical Significance --- p.131 / Chapter Chapter 6: --- Conclusion --- p.135 / Appendices --- p.140 / Bibliography --- p.160

Thesis (D. Min.)--Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2008. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 168-200).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2008. / Abstract. Description based on Microfiche version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 168-200).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 193-199).