The Sentient Reflexivity of Buddha Nature:Metaphorizing Tathagatagarbha

佛性或如来藏(梵文tathagatagarbha)是佛教哲学体系和教义里一个具争议的核心内容.自古以来,“谁或什么具有佛性”、“佛性是怎样显现的”,以及“佛性在佛教解脱论里起到怎样的作用”等问题在佛教实践中及佛学研讨里是一系列持续的论题.本文作者基于自己对佛教文献的解读希望表达三个有关佛性的论点.首先,佛性与其所谓的反面“众生”(sentience)是不分离的.第二,佛性不是一样具型的东西,或是某个过去的或隐藏的精神状态,而是一个当下的、持续的生命神识状态.第三,佛性在经文里是一类使用隐喻和譬喻的启发式(heuristic)辩术方式,其目的是激起佛教徒或任何对佛家哲学思想有兴致的人对自身的生命状态进行内在视觉上的观想作用.     

The Perks of Being Relational: Reviewing The Perks of Being a Wallflower

This article reviews The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Halfon, Smith, Malkovich, & Chbosky, 2012), a coming-of-age film about 3 high school students attempting to survive school, find themselves, and connect with others. The authors provide a synopsis of various portions of the film and identify important aspects of relational-cultural theory (RCT) within its plot, such as growth-fostering relationships, controlling images, and relational images. Various characters’ plotlines are discussed in relation to what RCT identifies as paramount tenets of human development and mental health. The authors also briefly discuss other counseling issues touched on within the film (i.e., affectional identity, sexual assault, and relational violence).     

The Power of Being Positive: The Relation Between Positive Self-Concept and job Performance

Most managers would probably agree that positivity is something they value in employees, yet selection research has virtually ignored the relation between employee positivity and job performance. This article suggests that a broad personality trait, labeled positive self-concept or core self-evaluations, is a potentially important personality trait in the prediction of job performance. Positive self-concept consists of four specific traits previously studied in isolation: self-esteem, generalized self-ef- ficacy, locus of control, and (low) neuroticism or emotional stability. Data analyzed from 12 samples revealed that these specific traits are strongly correlated and comprise a common factor. Drawing from four motivation theories, we argue that the principal reason positive self-concept is linked to job performance is because positive employees are more motivated to perform theirjobs. We also argue that, in some jobs, positive self-concept may be an ability factor. Finally, we discuss various implemen- tation issues involved in using positive self-concept in selection decisions. Overall, this article suggests that positive self-concept is a trait deserving of more attention in selection research and practice.     

Power that Builds Others and Power that Breaks: Effects of Power and Humility on Altruism and Incivility in Female Employees

Building on the approach/inhibition theory of power and the situated focus theory of power, we examine the roles of positional and personal power on altruism and incivility in workplace dyads. Results from a field study in daycare centers showed that legitimate power (a dimension of positional power) was positively associated with incivility. In contrast, personal power—referent power and expert power—was positively associated altruism and was negatively associated with incivility. Referent power was a stronger predictor of both altruism and incivility for individuals with low humility than those with high humility. Coercive power was a stronger predictor of incivility for individuals with high humility than those with low humility.     

On Being a Whistleblower: The Needleman Case

We believe that members of the scientific community have a primary obligation to promote integrity in research and that this obligation includes a duty to report observations that suggest misconduct to agencies that are empowered to examine and evaluate such evidence. Consonant with this responsibility, we became whistleblowers in the case of Herbert Needleman. His 1979 study (Needleman et al., 1979), on the effects of low-level lead exposure on children, is widely cited and highly influential in the formulation of public policy on lead. The opportunity we had to examine subject selection and data analyses from this study was prematurely halted by efforts to prevent disclosure of our observations. Nevertheless, what we saw left us with serious concerns. We hope that the events here summarized will contribute to revisions of process by which allegations of scientific misconduct are handled and that such revisions will result in less damage to scientists who speak out.     

The Power of Being Vulnerable in Christian Soul Care: Common Humanity and Humility

Journal of Religion and Health - Soul caregivers often hesitate to be vulnerable in their pastoral practices. Jesus, however, embraced his vulnerabilities as a human to redeem humanity even though...     

The Emergence of Human Altruism:Preschool Children Develop a Norm for Empathy-based Comforting

ABSTRACT

The study examined whether preschool children conceive of empathy-based comforting as being an obligatory reaction toward others in emotional need. We presented 3- and 5-year-old children with three scenarios in which protagonists showed different reactions toward an agent who has hurt herself. One protagonist reacted antisocially by laughing at the agent, one ignored the agent, and one demonstrated empathy-based comforting. The 3-year-olds only protested against the antisocial protagonist. In contrast, the 5-year-olds protested against the protagonists who either acted antisocially or ignored the needy other while they selectively affirmed the protagonist who showed empathy-based comforting. The findings indicate that a norm for empathy-based comforting develops in the preschool years. Overall, our study demonstrates the emergence of a normative concern with the well-being of others, a central aspect of human altruism.     

社会生物学伦理观评介

威尔逊通过社会生物学的研究,指出动物的社会行为有其生物学的基础。他认为人类的利他主义伦理也同样有着生物学基础,从而提出了以生物行为科学解释伦理本质的伦理观。社会生物学伦理观,是一座联接伦理学与自然科学的桥梁。当今时代,进一步深入研究社会生物学伦理观,对于完善伦理学的科学基础,对于如何恰当地开展社会伦理教育都具有重要的意义。     

The Social Production of Altruism: Motivations for Caring Action in a Low-Income Urban Community

Contemporary social science paints a bleak picture of inner-city relational life. Indeed, the relationships of low-income, urban-residing Americans are represented as rife with distress, violence and family disruption. At present, no body of social scientific work systematically examines the factors that promote loving or selfless interactions among low-income, inner-city American individuals, families and communities. In an effort to fill that gap, this ethnographic study examined the motivations for altruism among a sample of adults (n = 40) who reside in an economically distressed housing community (i.e., housing project) in New York City. Content analyses of interviews indicated that participants attributed altruism to an interplay between 14 motives that were then ordered into four overarching categories of motives: (1) needs-centered motives, (2) norm-based motives deriving from religious/spiritual ideology, relationships and personal factors, (3) abstract motives (e.g., humanism), and (4) sociopolitical factors. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Committing Altruism under the Cloak of Self-Interest: The Exchange Fiction

Two field studies tested the hypothesis that people's willingness to help a charitable organization is greater when the act is presented as an economic transaction than when it is presented as an act of charity. In Study 1 participants donated more money to a charity when offered a product in exchange for their donation, even though the product itself held little appeal for them. Participants' donation rates were also more responsive to the level of need of the victim group when they were offered a product in exchange for their donation, consistent with the idea that the exchange provided psychological cover for their act of compassion. In Study 2 participants' willingness to purchase a product from a charitable organization increased the more of a bargain the price was purported to be, but only when the victims' need was high. The source of people's desire to not reveal or even to recognize the full extent of their prosocial motivation is discussed, as are the implications of the exchange fiction for charity appeals.     

亲缘利他的不对称性：进化视角的分析

内含适应性理论是进化生物学和进化心理学中最重要的理论之一。该理论假设, 个体的亲属是其适应性的载体, 但亲属们的价值有所不同。大量研究发现, 亲属的利他行为表现出不对称性, 即遗传相关系数相同的亲属表现出不同的利他倾向。如祖父母对孙辈的投资中, 外祖母往往投入最多, 外祖父和祖母次之, 祖父投入最少。研究者用内含适应性理论来解释这种亲缘利他差异, 进而提出了“父亲身份不确定性”等具体的进化假设。未来研究中, 国内研究者应在正确理解内含适应性理论的基础上, 更多关注亲缘利他的不对称性, 采用多种数据采集方法和统一的评定指标。     

The Origination of a Human Being: A Reply to Oderberg

Recently David S. Oderberg has tried to refute three arguments that have been advanced in favour of the view that a human being does not begin to exist at fertilization. These arguments turn on the absence of differentiation between the embryoblast and trophoblast, the possibility of monozygotic twinning, and the totipotency of the cells during the first days after fertilization. It is here contended that Oderberg fails to rebut these arguments, though it is conceded that the first two arguments are not conclusive. They do, however, make it at least as reasonable to deny this early origination as to affirm it. It should be noticed that this is all that is needed by those who have used these arguments to dispute that something with a special moral status exists right from fertilization. Nonetheless, it will be seen that the third argument could be developed to the point of giving a conclusive reason to believe that a human being does not begin to exist at fertilization.