Mind Perception Is the Essence of Morality

Mind perception entails ascribing mental capacities to other entities, whereas moral judgment entails labeling entities as good or bad or actions as right or wrong. We suggest that mind perception is the essence of moral judgment. In particular, we suggest that moral judgment is rooted in a cognitive template of two perceived minds—a moral dyad of an intentional agent and a suffering moral patient. Diverse lines of research support dyadic morality. First, perceptions of mind are linked to moral judgments: dimensions of mind perception (agency and experience) map onto moral types (agents and patients), and deficits of mind perception correspond to difficulties with moral judgment. Second, not only are moral judgments sensitive to perceived agency and experience, but all moral transgressions are fundamentally understood as agency plus experienced suffering—that is, interpersonal harm—even ostensibly harmless acts such as purity violations. Third, dyadic morality uniquely accounts for the phenomena of dyadic completion (seeing agents in response to patients, and vice versa), and moral typecasting (characterizing others as either moral agents or moral patients). Discussion also explores how mind perception can unify morality across explanatory levels, how a dyadic template of morality may be developmentally acquired, and future directions.     

Out of Sight Is Not Out of Mind: Developmental Changes in Infants' Understanding of Visual Perception During the Second Year

Three experiments investigated 14-, 18-, and 24- month-old infants' understanding of visual perception. Infants viewed films in which a protagonist was either able to view the location of a hidden object (Visual Access condition) or was blindfolded when the object location was revealed (No Visual Access condition). When requested to find the object, the protagonist pointed either at the correct location or at the incorrect location. Across experiments, 18-month-olds looked longer at the unexpected action (e.g., person pointing at the incorrect location in the Visual Access condition). By 24 month of age, infants could infer the correct search behavior from gaze alone. These findings suggest that by the middle of the second year of life, infants understand the psychological relation between an observer and an object, even if the object is no longer visible.     

藏象本质与白马非马

针对藏象本质研究的哲学误区,围绕脏器非藏象、藏象纯功能、藏象指标与白马非马进行藏象本质研究的哲学反思.脏器非藏象、藏象纯功能类似白马非马,藏象指标类似白色是马.探讨藏象本质研究的正确思维方法和技术方案,推动藏象本质研究的进一步深入发展.     

Mind Perception and Individual Differences: A Replication and Extension

Mind perception involves attributing higher functional abilities to others (e.g., saying a dog feels pain). The relationships between mind perception and psychopathology—autism, psychopathy, and schizotypy—have been revealed by K. Gray, Jenkins, Heberlein, and Wegner (2011 Gray, K., Jenkins, A. C., Heberlein, A. S., &; Wegner, D. M. (2011). Distortions of mind perception in psychopathology. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108, 477–479. doi:10.1073/pnas.1015493108[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]); however, mind perception has yet to be correlated with personality. Participants (N = 180) completed measures of personality, psychopathology, and mind perception. The psychopathology results were consistent with Gray et al. (2011 Gray, K., Jenkins, A. C., Heberlein, A. S., &; Wegner, D. M. (2011). Distortions of mind perception in psychopathology. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108, 477–479. doi:10.1073/pnas.1015493108[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). The Big Five captured mind perception virtually as much as the three psychopathologies captured mind perception. Mind perception is not solely relevant to psychopathology; it is also relevant to everyday personality.     

精神控制是一种病态文化现象

邪教是一种普遍的病态社会文化现象。综观世界各国的邪教,其存在的共同基础之一就是有目的、有计划地实施精神控制,不出现精神控制或及时消除了精神控制,邪教就失去了存在的基础。所以,应该实施避免和预防精神控制战略以根治和预防邪教的发生。除了邪教的精神控制,还有其他类型的精神控制,如,准邪教,会道门,巫术迷信,非法传销等。预防精神控制可以收一箭双雕之效。 何谓精神控制     

Perception,Body, and the Sense of Touch: Phenomenology and Philosophy of Mind

In recent philosophy of mind, a series of challenging ideas have appeared about the relation between the body and the sense of touch. In certain respects, these ideas have a striking affinity with Husserl’s theory of the constitution of the body. Nevertheless, these two approaches lead to very different understandings of the role of the body in perception. Either the body is characterized as a perceptual “organ,” or the body is said to function as a “template.” Despite its focus on the sense of touch, the latter conception, I will argue, nevertheless orients its understanding of tactual perception toward visual objects. This produces a distorted conception of touch. In this paper, I will formulate an alternative account, which is more faithful to what it is like to feel.

---

本体论哲学批判是马克思哲学变革的实质

马克思主义哲学与“本体论”的关系问题 ,自 2 0世纪 80年代后期以来 ,一直是中国哲学界争论很大的焦点性问题之一。特别是在关于马克思主义哲学体系改革的讨论中 ,“本体论”成为一个各派都不能绕开的“结”。论争中学者们对马克思哲学实质的理解存在着很大的差异 ,但在作为争论核心的“本体论”概念上 ,人们似乎意见一致。一些学者坚持“哲学就是本体论” ;大多数学者虽然觉得这种说法太绝对了 ,但也仍然肯定“哲学必有本体论”。在这样的语境下 ,本文题目所给出的观点一定显得既突兀又费解。因此 ,为了使本文的论点和论证的展开有一个较…     

Science and Morality: Mind the Gap, Use Happiness as a Safe Bridge!

In 2002 Sissela Bok re-published her book “Common Values”, first published in 1995, about her search for a minimal set of values to be respected all over the world. In her view such a set of values is needed to facilitate international communication and cooperation. Values already recognized in every society can be included as a starting point. In her book “Exploring happiness”, published in 2010, she explains why she finds happiness unfit to be included. She observes that there are discordant claims about what happiness is. Any particular vision can lead to practical choices that either adhere or violate the values she prefers. In my view subjective happiness should be included, because there are no discordant claims about the meaning of subjective happiness, and subjective happiness is simultaneously attractive as a moral value and as an object of scientific research. Subjective happiness can function as a bridge between science and morality. The only discordant claims are about ‘objective’ happiness, as a wider interpretation of well-being in the context of some specific morality or ideology.     

附:古代风水的本质是人与自然的和谐

“风水”是一种传统文化,古称堪舆,是人们对居住环境进行理性选择的行为规范,体现着一种哲学意义上的精神追求。汉代刘熙《释名》曰:“宅,择也,择吉处而营之也。”而“择”、“吉”的实现,则意味着对自然环境与社会环境的认同。作为一门古老的环境文化,它源于先民对自然的敬畏和对美好生活的向往,虽然由于历史条件的限制,其中不乏一些迷信的成分,但就整体而言,古代风水文化更多的是倡导人与自然的和谐相处,蕴涵着丰富的哲学、美学、地理、历史、人类学、民俗等方面的文化,其本质就是“天人合一”的理想境界。先民们在漫长的生产、生活过程中…     

从动物权利的讨论看道德的交互性本质

道德的交互性是人类道德生活的基本特征之一。有关动物权利的讨论能为我们清楚地揭示出这一点。它主要指向收益和负担之间的某种程度的均衡,对人类的道德实践提出了真正的挑战。     

数学心理观:21世纪心理本质观的新解读

1　我国关于心理本质问题的研究已经沉寂许久了。人们对于心理本质问题似乎已经感到一种无奈的漠然。实际上 ,自2 0世纪 5 0年代以来 ,我国哲学界域下的反映论仅仅在“形而之上”就其“质”的属性做出了定性的概括和描述。面对需要不断发展的中国心理科学 ,面对国际上轰轰烈烈的脑科学、认知科学、生命科学、智能信息科学所取得的长足进步和丰硕成果 ,我们仅仅做出“心理是客观现实的主观的能动反映”这样的简约描述 ,已经不能适应我国蓬勃发展的心理科学的务实需要。我们认为 ,在反映论视界里对心理本质做出“上之上”学的同时 ,还必须拓展…     

From Mind Perception to Mental Connection: Synchrony as a Mechanism for Social Understanding

Connecting deeply with another mind is as enigmatic as it is fulfilling. Why people “click” with some people but not others is one of the great unsolved mysteries of science. However, researchers from psychology and neuroscience are converging on a likely physiological basis for connection – neural synchrony (entrainment). Here, we review research on the necessary precursors for interpersonal synchrony: the ability to detect a mind and resonate with its outputs. Further, We describe potential mechanisms for the development of synchrony between two minds. We then consider recent neuroimaging and behavioral evidence for the adaptive benefits of synchrony, including neural efficiency and the release of a reward signal that promotes future social interaction. In nature, neural synchrony yields behavioral synchrony. Humans use behavioral synchrony to promote neural synchrony, and thus, social bonding. This reverse‐engineering of social connection is an important innovation likely underlying this distinctively human capacity to create large‐scale social coordination and cohesion.     

The Essence of Essence

Despite its appeal and popularity, the view that membership in a natural kind is essential to an individual is unsupported by the logic of essences and has no compelling reflective support. While the view has strong intuitive and empirical support this is insufficient to establish it. There are advantages to abandoning the view that kind membership is essential to individuals. One of these advantages is that it allows for a reconfiguring of the problem of material constitution in a way that removes much of the paradox.     

Colored-Speech Synaesthesia Is Triggered by Multisensory, Not Unisensory, Perception

ABSTRACT— Although it is estimated that as many as 4% of people experience some form of enhanced cross talk between (or within) the senses, known as synaesthesia, very little is understood about the level of information processing required to induce a synaesthetic experience. In work presented here, we used a well-known multisensory illusion called the McGurk effect to show that synaesthesia is driven by late, perceptual processing, rather than early, unisensory processing. Specifically, we tested 9 linguistic-color synaesthetes and found that the colors induced by spoken words are related to what is perceived (i.e., the illusory combination of audio and visual inputs) and not to the auditory component alone. Our findings indicate that color-speech synaesthesia is triggered only when a significant amount of information processing has occurred and that early sensory activation is not directly linked to the synaesthetic experience.