色诺芬论苏格拉底的神学

色诺芬在《回忆苏格拉底》中充分展现了苏格拉底在虔敬问题上的含混,并记录了苏格拉底有关神学的两篇对话。根据色诺芬的记述,苏格拉底的虔敬体现于外在的言行,实际是对于诸神的节制;苏格拉底表面反对自然哲学的研究,实则有所保留;他以自然神学的方式论证神存在且神爱人,这一自然神学表达了对城邦神学的质疑,并揭示了苏格拉底的哲人面相。     

《游叙弗伦》作为苏格拉底的哲学申辩

古希腊哲学家苏格拉底究竟敬不敬神,既是一个事实问题,又是一个哲学问题。《游叙弗伦》恰恰是柏拉图为苏格拉底的敬神问题所做的一场更具思想史意义的哲学辩护。正是在这篇对话中,柏拉图指出城邦诸神信仰的危机是苏格拉底不得不面对的思想处境。雅典民主政制发展是这一危机产生的内在原因,而游叙弗伦案例则展现了这一危机的现实图景。苏格拉底通过对虔敬问题的探讨,指明了解决古代信仰危机的可能方向。《游叙弗伦》表明,在思想层面上,苏格拉底作为哲人,对诸神信仰问题的反思和探究具有正当性和重要意义;同时,在现实层面上,苏格拉底竭力阻止年轻人游叙弗伦做出不虔敬的行为,又为苏格拉底的两项罪名做了最好的现实辩护。     

虔敬与正义

游叙弗伦关于虔敬的定义一般被认为是不成功的。很多学者把他归为一个无知的宗教狂热者,也把他的伦理学思想界定为一种神意论的,即以神意为道德奠基的立场。本文则认为游叙弗伦在立场上是接近苏格拉底的。虽然他强调神意对于道德生活的重要性,但他始终围绕着"正义"来界定虔敬,这与苏格拉底的立场是一致的。     

从反讽的修辞到反讽的实践——试析反讽的形而上学意蕴的提升

反讽往往因与修辞相涉而被理解为某种语言表达方式,其形而上学的意蕴常被忽略.但事实上,反讽理论在其得以产生的原初形态中就与哲学结下了不解之缘.从古希腊罗马时期到十九世纪初期的德国,进而延至现当代,反讽始终秉持着语言学意义上的修辞传统,但在其理论逻辑的衍化中却始终自享着与形上之思难以厘界的关联.在长时间遗忘苏格拉底反讽理论的哲学旨趣之后,德国早期浪漫派又再次赋予了反讽以哲学、美学、艺术与诗等规定相互交融的多重意义,而克尔凯郭尔以存在主义的视域超越了这一错综复杂的含混界定,他将反讽理解为人的生存境遇中的“立场”,这就将反讽提升至了纯粹的哲学层面.美国学者维塞尔虽无意承接克尔凯郭尔所规定的反讽的实践性,却在对马克思阶级理论别出心裁的阐释中将无产阶级视为反讽在现实世界中的肉身化,这成就了反讽由修辞到理论、再到实践的内在意蕴的提升过程.     

为特拉叙马库斯辩

本文试图同情地理解《理想国》第一卷中的特拉叙马库斯,论证他提出的两个有关正义的论题,即正义是强者的利益和正义令人受损是前后一致的,他也很好地抵抗了苏格拉底最初提出的挑战。苏格拉底最终"驯服"特拉叙马库斯的论证其实存在诸多问题,但特拉叙马库斯最终放弃抵抗也并非不可理解。本文最后讨论了苏格拉底与特拉叙马库斯的论辩对整部《理想国》的对话发展所具有的重要意义。     

论无产阶级的反讽

这个专栏的意图在于,通过几位作者、译者的努力,提醒人们对马克思与浪漫主义关系的重思,对古典反讽、浪漫反讽和马克思的反讽异同关系的重思。这个问题在国内学界很不受重视,或者被当作马克思不成熟的表现,把浪漫主义视为负面的、招致马克思思想不成熟的东西。维塞尔在《马克思、浪漫派的反讽、无产阶级》一书中力图纠正这种不符合历史事实的传统看法,陈开华特意节译了该书第五章,以凸现“反讽”在马克思思想中的重要地位。我也提供了小文一篇,力图阐明马克思试图扼制虚无主义时从浪漫主义处寻求的思想资源,并在告别了意识内在性之后仍保留和改造了另一种内在性:价值内在性;而它与浪漫派的反讽存在密切关系。罗晓颖的论文则针对马克思的博士论文为了理解哲学与现实的关系而对苏格拉底反讽广泛涉猎的事实,以《游叙弗伦》篇为例对苏格拉底的反讽作出自己的分析,这对理解马克思的反讽,理解古典反讽与现代反讽的关系与区别,会提供一个很好的基础,很值得阅读。     

逻辑、理性与反讽——就《游叙弗伦篇》的解读与邓晓芒教授商榷

在柏拉图的《游叙弗伦篇》中,游叙弗伦欲控告老父,苏格拉底对其反讽、非难与劝阻。然而,以西方作参照系统来批判儒家“亲亲互隐”的邓晓芒教授却解读出苏格拉底“赞同甚至鼓励”游氏“子告父罪”。此种惊人的误读表明邓氏没能理解“苏格拉底的反讽”并误解了逻辑与理性。论辩表明,诸多西方哲人也都倾向或认同“容隐”观念,这也证明了批判者的“参照系统”的虚幻性。至于如何理解“亲亲互隐”所蕴含的伦理困境,那是一件生存论而非逻辑论证之画。     

苏格拉底对德性的“技艺类比”

<正>研究者们通常认为把德性视为技艺是智者的做法,苏格拉底则针锋相对地提出了德性是知识的观念。但有意思的是,在早期的柏拉图对话,即被普遍认为反映了苏格拉底真实思想的所谓"苏格拉底对话"中     

亚里士多德论不自制

对于亚里士多德在《尼各马科伦理学》中阐述的不自制理论,西方学者历来都有诸多争议,特别是亚里士多德在此书第七卷第三章对苏格拉底不自制理论的最后"承认",激发了后世学者持续的激烈争论。但这些争论很多建立在对亚里士多德表述的错误理解之上。亚里士多德对苏格拉底理论的态度与其说是"承认",不如说是"反讽";以此"反讽"为基点,我们能在亚里士多德伦理学体系中把握他关于不自制的圆通理论,并进而发现建立在错误理解之上的种种争论得以产生的根源及其问题所在。     

苏格拉底的反证法简论

我这里所讲的苏格拉底,是柏拉图早期对话中的苏格拉底。依我看来,柏拉图在对话中重建了这个历史人物的哲学方法和哲学学说。这里,我将着重谈谈我认为是苏格拉底从事哲学研究的主要方法,我把它称之为“标准反证法”。这个名称有别于R.鲁滨逊等人的“间接反证法”。他们之所以称它为“间接反证法”,是因为在反证时,驳斥的论点可能被用作对此论点进行反驳的前提。在这里,苏格拉底不受所提出之前提真理性的束缚,而由它推出     

Together – apart: in touch in a time of separation

This paper explores the experience of working as a Jungian analyst through the various phases of the global COVID-19 pandemic, examining the importance of the physical containing space alongside the analyst’s internal mind and how technology can both help and hinder understanding. A number of clinical vignettes illustrate the challenge of communicating over a distance, paying particular attention to the way countertransference phenomena can become re-attuned. Reference is made to mythology and symbols of hope, and consideration given to the meaning and purpose of the pandemic.     

Language,politics and dreams: the challenges of building resilience in refugees

This paper describes a case study of a 60-year-old Peruvian refugee in some detail, focusing on the importance of building emotional resilience in a patient in Spanish in order to create a space for learning the English language – the patient did not speak English after 20 years of living in Britain. The work was carried out with an interpreter and some of the literature on working with interpreters is referred to. The paper also briefly outlines the refugee journey in broad terms, which is a journey from the culturally known to the culturally unknown. The question of how well the literature on resilience, which sits firmly within a Western developmental perspective, can be applied to refugees, most of whom come from group and family-based cultures dominated by ideas of honour and shame, is discussed. The paper also touches on the importance of the receiving country enabling or not, as the case may be, a transitional space for refugees who have lost their home and are seeking to find a safe haven in a strange culture.     

The Possibility of Meaning in Human Evolution

Science undermines the certitude of non-naturalistic answers to the question of whether human life has meaning. I explore whether evolution can provide a naturalistic basis for existential meaning. Using the work of philosopher Daniel Dennett and scientist Ursula Goodenough, I argue that evolution is the locus of the possibility of meaning because it has produced intentionality, the matrix of consciousness. I conclude that the question of the meaning of human life is an existentialist one: existential meaning is a product of the individual and collective tasks human beings undertake.     

When is it time to stop? When good enough becomes bad enough

This article draws on Winnicott’s concept of the good enough mother to discuss how to know whether a therapeutic situation is good enough to continue or bad enough to end. This dilemma is explored in terms of clinical syndromes, such as anorexia and pathological gambling, but focuses mainly on analyst-initiated endings, which are termed the ‘Casablanca dilemma’, based on an amplification of the ending of the film Casablanca. The author goes on to discuss such one-sided endings, drawing on interviews with 40 analysts and therapists about their clinical experience. A typology of bad enough endings is presented. The psychological differences between a good enough analysis as opposed to a bad enough one are explored through the ideas of Winnicott and Neumann.     

The transcendent function in Spitteler’s Prometheus and Epimetheus

In August 2020, John Beebe and Steve Myers met via Zoom to discuss their differing interpretations of psychological typology and the different sources within Jung’s writings that influenced their books: Integrity in Depth: Energies and Patterns in Psychological Type (Beebe), and Myers-Briggs Typology vs Jungian Individuation (Myers). The discussion centred on Spitteler’s epic poem Prometheus und Epimetheus, which forms the basis of chapter V of Psychological Types. This is both the largest chapter and one of two chapters that Jung highlighted in the Argentine foreword as containing the essence of the book. Jung’s book is primarily about the transformation of personality rather than the categorization of people. Although it contains a critical psychology that deconstructs the nature of consciousness, that is only one half of the book and a stepping-stone to the other half, which is the reconciliation of opposites with particular emphasis on the relation of consciousness and the unconscious. Jung assumed that readers were already familiar with Prometheus und Epimetheus, an understanding of which sheds light on the nature of the transformation that Jung described – the development of a new attitude towards attitude itself.     

Kann Es Ein Argument Für Den Skeptizismus Geben? Das Epistemische Problem Der Irrtumsmöglichkeit

Summary  Is there any argument for scepticism? The epistemic problem of the possibility of error. Arguments for scepticism rest on the assumption that knowledge claims are fallible. For this reason the concept of knowledge appears to be questionable. Since it is necessary to distinguish doubts from possible doubts, the arguments for scepticism appear to be unconvincing. If we take it into account that we know something that is immune to doubt, we should draw the conclusion that, contrary to scepticism, knowledge claims have to be compatible with being fallible. Thus any knowledge claim is capable of being doubted.     

Chapter 6: Biblical Foundations for a Practical Theology of Aging

SUMMARY

This article reviews Biblical sources pertaining to the elderly, particularly the frail elderly. Founded on these sources, implications for elderly with Alzheimer's Disease and other forms of dementia are addressed through a personal perspective informed by writings of Christian mystics.     

Mythological Underpinnings of Feminine Development

In the manner of Oedipus Rex, the myth of Myrrha—a story about a daughter's initiation of sex with her father—promises to divulge insights about feminine development. Given parallels between these two myths, the author asks why Jung identified Electra rather than Myrrha as the feminine counterpart to Oedipus, and revisits Freud's and Jung's differing interpretations of the incest theme in personality development. To break open the metaphor of Myrrha's incest, the author analyzes a similar account of incest in the Old Testament story of Lot and his wife and finds that they share a theme of female bitterness related to wounding of the mother and its arresting effect on the daughter's maturation. The article then considers the Demeter-Persephone myth, a tale not of incest but rape in Persephone's initiation into womanhood. In contrast to Myrrha, Persephone's development unfolds with strong maternal support tempered by the opposing claims on her by the masculine. The article draws these stories together to illuminate the archetypal forces that drive feminine development as well as the human affairs that resist and complicate them. The article concludes with a case study of a client whose developmental “stuckness” follows the contours of the Myrrha myth.     

Contribution de la neuropsychologie développementale à l'étude des sujets à haut potentiel : une revue de questions

Developmental neuropsychology studies cognitive development in relation with brain maturation and cerebral plasticity. Some authors have reported physiological correlates of intellectual precocity with the purpose of demonstrating neural basis of intelligence. A part of the literature also reports various cognitive profile and specific talents in information processing in the clinical population of gifted children. Thus, the study of exceptional performances may contribute to our knowledge of functional brain organization taking into consideration individual differences.