THE ESSENTIAL AND THE ACCIDENTAL

The distinction between the essential and the accidental is nearly always understood in modal terms. After criticizing some recent writings by Kit Fine that question that understanding, I develop a theory according to which whether a given feature of a thing is essential turns on whether it is explained by other features of that thing. The theory differs from the modal view by leaving room for features that are accidental even though their bearers cannot exist without them. The theory has the additional advantage of being open to the results of scientific theory.     

WOMB TRANSPLANTATION AND THE INTERPLAY OF ISLAM AND THE WEST

In Saudi Arabia in 2000 the world's first human uterus transplant was attempted with some success. In 2011 the second successful human uterus transplant took place in Turkey. Doctors in the United Kingdom have recently announced that uterus transplants will be carried out in the UK if doctors can raise enough funds to complete their research. As scientists continue to make progress in this domain this is anticipated to be the next breakthrough in the arena of assisted reproductive technologies. The procedure is designed to restore fertility in women unable to gestate due to an abnormal, damaged, or absent uterus. At present, the only other option for such women to achieve genetic motherhood is via surrogacy, which in Islam is widely regarded as haram or forbidden. This article examines the benefits of this technology so as to facilitate discourse between Islam and the West. It argues for Islamic scholars to consider these advances so as to ensure Muslims living as minorities in Western countries, such as the United Kingdom, are able to utilize such technology (if indeed regarded as permissible) should the government move to enact legislation to permit this procedure.     

PARENTS AND THEIR CHILD AND THE ANALYST IN THE MIDDLE

The first part of this paper explains how the transgenerational mandate influences the mental activity of the child. When a child acts the denied suffering of the parental couple, the analyst risks being imprisoned by the transgenerational mandate. Frequently the analyst is unconsciously asked by the parents to cure without curing because the child's psychological birth, still in the making, threatens the defensive equilibrium of the parents. The analyst is thus caught between the parents and the child and must find his/her own way forward in order to free the child from the burden of the mandate. In the second part of the paper, an analysis of a 5-year-old child is presented. The author shows how a transgenerational mandate may hold a traumatic potential because it can impair heavily the child's capacity to think. The author also describes the way in which she works with the parents and how she manages the setting and the style of the interpretation. She insists in particular on the need to sustain the child's perceptions in order to gradually allow the child to take roots in his/her experiences and therefore develop his/her own identity.     

THE ONTOLOGICAL ARGUMENT AND THE DEVIL

The 'parody objection' to the ontological argument for the existence of God advances parallel arguments apparently proving the existence of various absurd entities. I discuss recent versions of the parody objection concerning the existence of 'AntiGod' and the devil, as introduced by Peter Millican and Timothy Chambers. I argue that the parody objection always fails, because any parody is either (i) not structurally parallel to the ontological argument, or (ii) not dialectically parallel to the ontological argument. Moreover, once a parody argument is modified in such a way that it avoids (i) and (ii), it is, ironically, no longer a parody – it is the ontological argument itself.     

THE LINK AND THE OTHER1

The author begins by drawing attention to the current crisis in psychoanalysis, in which, following the great initial discoveries, he considers a certain solipsistic trend inimical to the role of the other and of the acceptance of innovation this entails has come to hold sway. This situation can in his view be overcome by the introduction of new applications and practices, as in the past with the acceptance of Klein's ideas in the field of child analysis. Theory is in the author's opinion always the product of clinical practice in our field, a thesis he illustrates by an account of his own work with couples and families, where the patient is deemed to be not any one individual in the group but the group itself considered as a nexus of links. The implications and theoretical repercussions of this link‐based conception are discussed at length and some novel terms are introduced ‐ for example, the link between subjects, imposition, the social subject, the subject relationship and the multiple subject. Alienness and the ‘other’, and presence and absence, are shown to be important concepts and are distinguished from object relations. The author concludes with a reference to a new resistance, namely to linking, and its implications in relation both to personality and to phenomena such as ethnic and religious conflict.     

MORALITY AND THE LAW: BOWERS AND THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY

This article examines the right of privacy with emphasis on the Supreme Court’s ruling in the case of Bowers v. Hardwick, as this case illustrates issues that arise in the context of government interference with citizen’s actions and with the broader context of morality and the law. I argue specifically that the Supreme Court erred in its ruling on the Bowers case by failing to recognize that the moral value of autonomy in this case outweighs the right of a state to establish statutes based on the perceived moral attitudes of its constituencies. I argue generally that moral principles can inform decisions about the ordering of the right of privacy and the moral claims that aim to limit the right.     

笔画复杂性和重复性对笔画和汉字认知的影响

采用笔画识别和词汇决定的方法 ,对汉字笔画认知和笔画在汉字认知中的作用作了考察。实验一探讨了汉字笔画自身的复杂性对笔画认知的影响。结果表明 ,笔画自身的复杂性对笔画认知无显著影响 ,识别简单笔画和识别复杂笔画的反应时与错误率无显著差异。实验二考察了笔画的重复性对汉字认知的影响。结果表明 ,汉字认知中存在笔画重复性效应。笔画重复较多的汉字比笔画较少重复的汉字识别时间短 ,错误率亦低。整个实验结果支持笔画是汉字加工的基本单元的假设     

THE WAY, THE RIGHT, AND THE GOOD

This article argues that Kongzi's religious ethics suggests an alternative way of understanding the relationship between the right and the good, in which neither takes clear precedence in terms of being more foundational for ethics. The religious underpinnings of Kongzi's understanding of the Way are examined, including the close relationship between tian ("Heaven") and the Way. It is shown that following the Way is defined primarily by the extent to which one's actions express certain virtues, and not whether one's actions are conducive to the best overall outcome or whether they are inherently right irrespective of consequences. It is then argued that the Way is seen as constitutive of both the right and the good, and that this understanding of the right and the good has important implications for contemporary virtue ethics, religious ethics, and political philosophy.