The Fechnerian idea

From the principle that subjective dissimilarity between 2 stimuli is determined by their ratio, Fechner derives his logarithmic law in 2 ways. In one derivation, ignored and forgotten in modern accounts of Fechner's theory, he formulates the principle in question as a functional equation and reduces it to one with a known solution. In the other derivation, well known and often criticized, he solves the same functional equation by differentiation. Both derivations are mathematically valid (the much-derided "expedient principle" mentioned by Fechner can be viewed as merely an inept way of pointing at a certain property of the differentiation he uses). Neither derivation uses the notion of just-noticeable differences. But if Weber's law is accepted in addition to the principle in question, then the dissimilarity between 2 stimuli is approximately proportional to the number of just-noticeable differences that fit between these stimuli: The smaller Weber's fraction the better the approximation, and Weber's fraction can always be made arbitrarily small by an appropriate convention. We argue, however, that neither the 2 derivations of Fechner's law nor the relation of this law to thresholds constitutes the essence of Fechner's approach. We see this essence in the idea of additive cumulation of sensitivity values. Fechner's work contains a surprisingly modern definition of sensitivity at a given stimulus: the rate of growth of the probability-of-greater function, with this stimulus serving as a standard. The idea of additive cumulation of sensitivity values lends itself to sweeping generalizations of Fechnerian scaling.     

The idea of human science

Abstract

Difficulties in the attempt to apply the natural science approach to human beings are exemplified through the history of psychology. Then, the genuine scientific problems that gave rise to the research setting of the laboratory, the concept of causality, and the procedure of measurement are addressed freshly in light of the characteristics of human subject matter. The logical grounds of a uniquely “human” science are thereby elaborated.     

潜在思想论略

本文厘定了潜在思想,深入分析了其产生的原因,并做了类型划分,指出了把握潜在思想的重要意义。     

潜在思想再论

思想是行为的先导,行为反映思想。然而实然思想与外显行为不匹配、不一致的现象却时有发生,究其缘由乃潜在思想使然。因此,从潜在的层面把握思想,进而分析思想与行为的辨证统一关系不失为一个好的路径选择。     

论性道德教育的基本理念

性道德教育的基本理念是:道德调控的理念、以人为本的理念、终身教育的理念。道德调控的理念表明性道德教育的客观性和必然性;以人为本的理念表明性道德教育的重要性和必要性;终身教育的理念表明性道德教育的长期性和复杂性。三个理念相辅相成有机结合,构成了性道德教育的基本理念框架,为当代性道德教育奠定了理论和观念基础,确立了正确的思想和价值导向。     

The very idea of a social science

In The Idea of a Social Science Winch, argues that, sociology is more properly conceived as a branch of philosophy than of empirical science. Winch falls victim here to the Humean assimilation of the empirical to the generalizable. He notes that much of our talk about social practice is in terms of conventions, so that explanations of social action can be given without recourse to statistical or experimental findings. But such talk depends nonetheless on the accuracy and detail with which the situations in which actions occur are‐ recorded, and this is surely an empirical enterprise. It is the misleading conception of sociology as a discipline, characterized by common procedures, that leads Winch to espouse the assimilation of sociology to conceptual inquiry. We need to see instead that sociology embraces a group of questions and subjects so loosely connected that it would be mistaken to speak of, and idle to project, a procedure common to all of them.     

Preface to Opicinus de Canistris: concluding lecture by C.G. Jung,Eranos, Ascona, 1943 and Further studies on Jung's Eranos seminar on Opicinus de Canistris

In 1943, Jung held a seminar at Eranos for a limited number of students dedicated to ‘solar myths’, which were exemplified specifically in the cartographic art of Opicinus de Canistris (c. 1296–1352). This seminar has stayed out of print until a few years ago. Notes taken during the seminar by one of Jung's students, Alwine von Keller (1878–1965), were discovered in the Eranos archives and published. Now, for the first time ever, the notes of another of his students, Rivkah Schärf Kluger, taken during the same seminar, are being published. This second series of notes are more extensive. They complete the first series by adding many features and so allow us to put together a more complete picture of Jung's seminar. James Hillman, who received these notes from William McGuire in 1976, firmly believed that they were important enough to be published. Now, seventy years after this seminar, thanks to the support of the Stiftung der Werke von C. G. Jung, the Eranos Foundation and the Journal of Analytical Psychology, these notes are finally being published.