WHY IS CONFUCIANISM NOT A RELIGION? THE IMPACT OF ORIENTALISM

This study attempts to answer the question why Confucianism, the dominant “teaching” among the Three Teachings, is not a religion in contemporary China, unlike the other two “teachings,” Buddhism and Daoism. By examining this phenomenon in the social‐historical context, this study finds its origin in Orientalism. The Orientalist conceptualization of religion became part of the New Culture discourse at the turn of the twentieth century. While China has undergone tremendous social changes over the past century, the old discourse remains.     

THE NELSON‐DENNY READING TEST AS A PREDICTOR OF COLLEGE GRADES

ABSTRACT

This report studied the predictive validity of the Nelson‐Denny Reading Test (NDRT). Using a sample of over 12,000 college students, the ability of the NDRT was compared to the ability of the Scholastic Aptitude Verbal Tests (SAT‐V) in predicting freshman grade point average and grades in English composition. For each test regression equations were calculated using a calibration group and then crossvalidated with a test group of the sample. The effectiveness of each test was compared applying three evaluation indices: multiple correlation coefficient, mean absolute error of prediction, and the proportion whose predicted grade was within 0.20 units of their actual grade. Essentially, the NDRT and SAT‐V were of equal value in predicting the criteria     

‘THE TURBAN IS NOT A HAT’: QUEER DIASPORA AND PRACTICES OF PROFILING

This article examines two facets of post 9–11 South Asian organizing in the US – that of South Asian queer diasporics and of Sikh Americans. Ironically, South Asian queer diasporic subjects are under even greater duress to produce themselves as exceptional American subjects, not necessarily as heteronormative but as homonormative, even as the queernesses of these very bodies are simultaneously used to pathologize populations of terrorist look-a-like bodies. As contagions that trouble the exceptionalisms of queer South Asian diasporas, male turbaned Sikh bodies, often mistaken for Muslim terrorist bodies, are read as patriarchal by queer diasporic logics and placed within heteronormative victimology narratives by Sikh American advocacy groups focused on redressing the phenomenon of ‘mistaken identity’. Both the queer diasporic and Sikh American logics are indebted to visual representations of corporeality. Hence, I re-read these bodies as affectively troubling – generating affective confusion and indeterminancy – in terms of ontology, tactility, and the combination of organic and non-organic matter. Reading turbans through affect challenges both the limits of queer diasporic identity that balks at the non-normativity of the turbaned body (even as it avows the pathological racial-sexual renderings of terrorist bodies) while simultaneously infusing the ‘mistaken identity’ debates with different methods of comprehending the susceptibility of these bodies beyond heteronormative victimology narratives.     

WHEN IS A FAILURE TO REPLICATE NOT A TYPE II ERROR?

Zentall and Singer (2007) challenge our conclusion that the work-ethic effect reported by Clement, Feltus, Kaiser, and Zentall (2000) may have been a Type I error by arguing that (a) the effect has been extensively replicated and (b) the amount of overtraining our pigeons received may not have been sufficient to produce it. We believe that our conclusion is warranted because (a) the original effect has not been replicated despite multiple attempts to do so and (b) the statement that more extended overtraining may be needed itself suggests that the original effect is not reliable.     

IS THERE A FUTURE FOR THE DIALOGUE?

The title question was raised by Philip Hefner in an editorial in the March 2007 issue of Zygon, and answered in various ways in sixteen guest editorials in the June, September, and December 2007 issues. In this article, after defining some pertinent concepts, I comment on these essays. I review critical statements made by the guest editorialists and survey their proposals for further dialogue topics. I conclude with my own views on the future of the dialogue and the role of Zygon therein.     

WITHIN‐TRIAL CONTRAST: WHEN IS A FAILURE TO REPLICATE NOT A TYPE I ERROR?

Vasconcelos, Urcuioli, and Lionello-DeNolf (2007) report the results of five experiments that fail to replicate the results of our within-trial contrast study (Clement, Feltus, Kaiser, & Zentall, 2000) and suggest that our results may represent a Type I Error. We believe that this conclusion is not warranted because (a) there is considerable evidence in support of the effect and (b) the amount of training that they gave to their pigeons prior to test may not have been sufficient to observe the effect reliably. We suggest that when sufficient training is provided, reliable contrast can be found.     

IS THERE A CONSERVATIVE SOLUTION TO THE MANY THINKERS PROBLEM?

On a widely shared assumption, our mental states supervene on our microphysical properties – that is, microphysical supervenience is true. When this thesis is combined with the apparent truism that human persons have proper parts, a grave difficulty arises: what prevents some of these proper parts from being themselves thinkers as well? How can I know that I am a human person and not a smaller thinker enclosed in a human person? Most solutions to this puzzle make radical, if not absurd, claims. Recently, however, Michael Burke and Howard Robinson proposed conservative solutions that, according to them, do not have such undesired consequences. This paper argues that the conservative solutions tacitly assume at least one of the radical ones, and therefore they provide no alternative to the extreme solutions.     

IS THE SELF-CONCEPT A HABITUAL REFERENT IN JUDGMENTS OF SIMILARITY?

Abstract— People typically provide higher similarity ratings in response to the question "How similar is the typical preppie to you?" than to the question "How similar are you to the typical preppie?" Observed asymmetries in comparisons of the self and person prototypes have been offered as evidence that the self-concept acts as a habitual reference point in social judgment However, such a task does not test the habitual placement of a concept in the referent position of a comparison. In this study, participants judged the similarity between the self and person prototypes in response to linguistic (forced directional) queries or to spatial (nonforced) queries in which the self was positioned above or below the person concept Participants also rated pairs of familiar and unfamiliar countries in a similar manner, to replicate and extend the work of Tversky (1977) Expected asymmetries were observed in forced comparisons. The self and the familiar country were seen as more similar to other people and less familiar countries, respectively, when the former concepts served as the referent of a comparison than when they served as the subject Asymmetries were not observed in the nonforced conditions, and mean similarity in these conditions was of the same magnitude as in the forced condition in which the more familiar stimulus was the referent of the comparison. This result provides the first direct evidence that the self serves as a habitual referent in similarity judgments     

WHAT IS EFFECTIVE IN THE THERAPEUTIC PROCESS? A ROUND-TABLE DISCUSSION

In her contribution to the Round Table Discussion in 1956, Marianne Horney Eckardt brings into focus the need to respect the unique qualities of the patient as a human being and to be cognizant of the uniqueness of each patient–therapist relationship. In discussing the subtler aspects of technique, Dr. Eckardt reminds us that there is no neutral technique and that what is effective and what brings change in treatment needs to be viewed in the specific context of the dynamic interaction of the patient—therapist dyad. She also appeals for humility in the therapist and reminds clinicians to keep in awareness the one-sidedness of the relationship.     

PROPERTY OR PERSONS: ON A “PLAIN READING” OF THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION

The views of Frederick Douglass, Thurgood Marshall, and Clarence Thomas on how the United States Constitution should be read are examined. Thomas claims that his understanding of the Constitution aligns with Douglass. I conclude that Thomas misunderstands the strategy of Douglass and fails to appreciate the honesty of Marshall.     

A DIFFERENT READING OF S. Y. AGNON'S STORY, “THE KERCHIEF”

This paper argues that effective Holocaust education involves exploring pupils' perceptions of Jews and Jewish identity. Identifying these preconceptions is necessary for combatting anti-Semitism, challenging misconceptions and facilitating a historically accurate understanding of the Holocaust. How do pupils define the Jews and what it is that makes someone Jewish? How do pupils explain the causes of the Holocaust and why it was that the Nazi regime specifically targeted Jews? The empirical basis of this paper attempts to help answer these questions. One hundred and forty seven children aged 13 and 14 took part in mixed-method research in order to explore their ideas and concepts of Jewish identity and why the Holocaust took place. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the findings for Holocaust education.     

IS THERE A PROBLEM WITH THE LPC SCORE IN LEADER MATCH?

Some problems with the use of the LPC score in the Fiedler, Chemers, and Mahar Leader Match self-teaching book were identified and examined. The cutting scores defining high and low LPC were questioned because of inadequately developed norms and the alteration of the LPC scale from 16 to 18 items. The current procedures were estimated to create a substantial bias toward being inappropriately categorized as a high LPC individual.     

WHAT IS THE SCIENCE OF THE SOUL? A CASE STUDY IN THE EVOLUTION OF LATE MEDIEVAL NATURAL PHILOSOPHY

This paper aims at a partial rehabilitation of E. A. Moody's characterization of the 14th century as an age of rising empiricism, specifically by contrasting the conception of the natural science of psychology found in the writings of a prominent 13th-century philosopher (Thomas Aquinas) with those of two 14th-century philosophers (John Buridan and Nicole Oresme). What emerges is that if the meaning of empiricism can be disengaged from modern and contemporary paradigms, and understood more broadly in terms of a cluster of epistemic doctrines concerned with the methodology of knowing, it characterizes very appropriately some of the differences between the ways in which late-medieval thinkers both understood and practised the science of psychology. In particular, whereas Aquinas thinks psychology is about reasoning demonstratively to the real nature of the soul from its evident operations (thereby assimilating psychology to metaphysics), Buridan and Oresme, both of whom doubt whether real animate natures can be known empirically, focus on giving detailed accounts of those operations themselves (thereby assimilating psychology to physics).     

IS IT ALL IN THE NUMBERS? A Case Study of Tokenism

The purpose of the present study is to explore whether the negative consequences of tokenism are the result of imbalanced proportions alone, or whether society-wide sex role stereotypes which affect male and female tokens differently are also a factor. Men working at concession stands at an amusement attraction were assigned by the experimenters to one of two work groups in which the numbers of women and men were either skewed or balanced. Unlike a token woman at the attraction, these token male workers did not experience the negative consequences of tokenism (visibility, contrast, and assimilation). In fact, token men identified with supervisors and advanced more quickly than their non-token counterparts of both sexes. The results are interpreted as indicating that underrepresentation alone cannot explain the negative effects of tokenism for women.