Is Living Longer Living Better?

abstract Some day, perhaps soon, we may have genetic enhancements enabling us to conquer aging. Should we do so, if we can? I believe the topic is both interesting and important, and that it behoves us to think about it. Doing so may yield important insights about what we do care about, what we should care about, and how we should seek to live our lives, both individually and collectively. My central question is this: Is living longer, living better? My paper does not offer a sustained argument for a single, considered, thesis. Rather, it offers a number of snippets of often‐unconnected thoughts relevant to the issues my question raises. The paper contains seven sections. Part one is introductory. Part two comments on some current longevity research. Part three indicates the attitudes towards death and science with which I approach these questions. Parts four and five, respectively, discuss some worries about immortality raised by Leon Kass and Bernard Williams. Part six points to some practical, social, and moral concerns that might arise if society's members lived super long lives. Part seven concludes by suggesting that we should favour living well over living longer, and ongoing reproduction over immortality; correspondingly, I suggest that we should think long and hard before proceeding with certain lines of longevity research.     

无债的生活

我们认为,拒绝饶恕某人是我们与某人扯平或是惩罚某人的手段,这真是疯狂。当我们不愿饶恕别人时,实际上,我们也是在惩罚自己。所以,饶恕他人也是自我解脱。     

Living with diabetes

Management of diabetes can be affected by emotional distress in two ways: directly, via the effect of stress on glycemic control, and indirectly via effects on self-care routines. Rational-emotive therapy, along with a number of other cognitive, emotive, and behavioral tools, is an important intervention for patients who have diabetes-related distress. The authors describe personal and professional examples of the application of these tools to living rationally with diabetes.Richard R. Rubin, Ph.D. is a staff member of the Diabetes Center and the Pediatric Diabetes Clinic at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. In addition, he has a private psychotherapy practice, substantially devoted to counseling and coping skills training for people with diabetes.Susan R. Walen, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology, Towson State University and Director of the Baltimore Center for Cognitive Therapy. She is the coauthor ofA Practitioner's Guide to Rational-Emotive Therapy.Albert Ellis, Ph.D. is the founder of Rational Emotive Therapy and president of the Institute for RET in New York City. He is the author of more than 50 books and 600 journal articles on psychotherapy topics.     

A Living Conversation

Abstract: Experiencing strong differences regarding Christian faith in his family of origin, Paul Sponheim came to stress the content of Christian faith as something to be explicated and defended. The framework for that work has been the distinction and relationship between self and world in relation to God. S. Kierkegaard and A.N. Whitehead are seen as major influences (self, world; respectively) and as needing each other in faith's appropriation. Five decades of theological work constitute a conversation, including teaching and writing. In closing the question of the efficacy of such a conversation is raised and appeal is made to the transformative power of genuine conversation in which all participants are fully present.     

Community Living Skills

Persons with chronic mental health problems are frequently found living in the community at varying quality of life levels. Though rehabilitation programs are suitable for patients with acute exacerbations of mental health pathology, these programs are necessary but not sufficient to meet the needs of the chronic person. Long-term reliance on biomedically-based rehabilitation can produce dependence on the system and maintain reliance on the "sick role" which is counterproductive for current trends related to deinstitutionalization and "least restrictive environment." The intent of this article is to focus on an one alternative service delivery model- psychoeducation. The potentials for this mode to normalize or maximize independence is discussed and two community living skills programs for the chronically mentally ill are described to exemplify the application of psychoeducation.     

活体肝移植供体伦理学思考

器官移植,特别是活体供体器官移植,面临着许多伦理、道德和社会方面的难题.一方面要鼓励人们为挽救他人生命贡献自己的器官,另一方面社会又要求医学技术保证"健康人"的绝对安全.作为活体供体,既冒着生命危险和承受健康损害,又特别关注自身器官是否能有效挽救指定患者的生命.根据我们开展临床活体肝移植的体会,从供体的知情同意权、自愿原则、风险和利益对等、优先考虑供体利益、供体的健康和经济风险、保护精神病人和青少年利益以及捐献者的骄傲感和光荣感等方面探讨伦理学的基本原则.     

谈中医认知方式及中医理论体系的构建

提出开箱式思维和闭箱式思维的概念,并以此为基础对中医认知方式和中医理论体系的构建进行初步的探讨.整体上,中医认知方式是一种宏观性闭箱式思维,中医学是一种闭箱式理论体系.     

Cooking Living Beings:

Bodies play important and diverse roles in Buddhist ethics. Drawing upon an Indian Mahāyāna Buddhist compendium of bodhisattva practice, this paper explores the role bodhisattva bodies play in the ethical development of other living beings. Bodhisattvas adopt certain disciplinary practices in order to produce bodies whose very sight, sound, touch, and even taste transform living beings in physical and moral ways. The compendium uses a common South Asian and Buddhist metaphor to describe a bodhisattva's physical and moral impact on others. Bodhisattvas are said to “cook living beings.” The paper considers how this metaphor suggests ways of nuancing modern Western conceptions of ethical self‐cultivation, particularly as articulated by Michel Foucault in his studies of the technologies of the self.