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Drawing primarily on the Mòzǐ and Xúnzǐ, the article proposes an account of how knowledge and error are understood in classical Chinese epistemology and applies it to explain the absence of a skeptical argument from illusion in early Chinese thought. Arguments from illusion are associated with a representational conception of mind and knowledge, which allows the possibility of a comprehensive or persistent gap between appearance and reality. By contrast, early Chinese thinkers understand mind and knowledge primarily in terms of competence or ability, not representation. Cognitive error amounts to a form of incompetence. Error is not explained as a failure to accurately represent the mind-independent reality due to misleading or illusory appearances. Instead, it can be explained metaphorically by appeal to part-whole relations: cognitive error typically occurs when agents incompetently respond to only part of their situation, rather than the whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personal control beliefs have been extensively studied in body image research; however, research on social beliefs is limited. In the current study, the authors examined how individuals' cynical beliefs about the social world, that is, social cynicism, linked to body esteem and moderated the relationship between body esteem and self-esteem. A total of 205 female college students were recruited from Australia and Hong Kong. The results showed that social cynicism was negatively associated with two out of three body esteem factors, namely, appearance and weight (but not attribution esteem). In addition, social cynicism significantly moderated the impact of weight esteem on self-esteem. In other words, among socially cynical women, weight dissatisfaction does not largely influence their general self-image because they are less likely to internalize the social norms and expectations attached to thinness. Cultural differences in body esteem level were also observed and discussed. Clinical applications of the present findings and future research directions are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]