The ego dilemma and the Buddhist experience of enlightenment

The author examines the core problem of existence, the dread of nonbeing, from the standpoint of object-relations theory and subsequently demonstrates that the experience of enlightenment, emerging from religious mysticism, may be seen as the resolution of this basic human problem. The investigation of the experience of enlightenment is pursued from the perspective of Buddhism, a subject with which the author is most familiar.Ashok Kara, Ph.D., is a psychologist at the Southeast Memphis Mental Health Center and is also in part-time private practice.     

Complicity and the responsibility dilemma

Philosophical Studies - Jeff McMahan famously defends a moral inequality of combatants, where liability to be attacked and potentially killed in war, should be grounded in the individual...     

The give-or-take-some dilemma: An empirical investigation of a hybrid social dilemma

We describe and empirically investigate a hybrid social dilemma that merges give-some and take-some dilemmas by allowing individuals to choose to either give or to take resources from a shared resource pool. Study 1 finds that (a) group size increases the inequality among group members and the likelihood of creating the public good, while reducing the amount of wasted resources; (b) larger bonuses increase provision rates; and (c) asymmetry in the wealth distribution of the group members induces higher levels of inequality of the final outcomes. Following the logic of appropriateness, players with high (low) endowments were more likely to give toward (take from) the shared resource. Study 2 finds that the tendency of the players with high (low) endowments to give (take) is amplified as the difference between endowment levels increased, and the players’ behavior is correlated with, and predictable from, independent judgments of what is perceived as appropriate.     

A dialogue on Zeno's paradox of Achilles and the tortoise

The five participants in this dialogue critically discuss Zeno of Elea's paradox of Achilles and the tortoise. They consider a number of solutions to and restatements of the paradox, together with their philosophical implications. Among the issues investigated include the appearance-reality distinction, Aristotle's distinction between actual and potential infinity, the concept of a continuum, Cantor's continuum hypothesis and theory of transfinite ordinals, and, as a solution to Zeno's puzzle, the distinction between infinite and indeterminate or inexhaustible divisibility.