To Be or Never to Have Been: Anti-Natalism and a Life Worth Living

David Benatar argues that being brought into existence is always a net harm and never a benefit. I disagree. I argue that if you bring someone into existence who lives a life worth living (LWL), then you have not all things considered wronged her. Lives are worth living if they are high in various objective goods and low in objective bads. These lives constitute a net benefit. In contrast, lives worth avoiding (LWA) constitute a net harm. Lives worth avoiding are net high in objective bads and low in objective goods. It is the prospect of a LWA that gives us good reason to not bring someone into existence. Happily, many lives are not worth avoiding. Contra Benatar, many are indeed worth living. Even if we grant Benatar his controversial asymmetry thesis, we have no reason to think that coming into existence is always a net harm.     

To Be is to Be the Object of a Possible Act of Choice

Aim of the paper is to revise Boolos’ reinterpretation of second-order monadic logic in terms of plural quantification ([4], [5]) and expand it to full second order logic. Introducing the idealization of plural acts of choice, performed by a suitable team of agents, we will develop a notion of plural reference. Plural quantification will be then explained in terms of plural reference. As an application, we will sketch a structuralist reconstruction of second-order arithmetic based on the axiom of infinite à la Dedekind, as the unique non-logical axiom. We will also sketch a virtual interpretation of the classical continuum involving no other infinite than a countable plurality of individuals.     

资本主义:被抗拒的与被利用的——从毛泽东早期的视角看

该文通过梳理毛泽东早年对资本主义的认识,试图阐明他在早期对资本主义所进行的现实和价值的双重批判,直接影响甚至决定了他后来对资本主义的种种态度,进而从这种考察中提出了两个既体现毛泽东独特的理论和实践品格同时又有助于我们理解并思考中国马克思主义的现状及其未来的重要问题。     

让科学为理想扬帆

我们知道,正确的理想是建立在科学的基础之上的,没有科学作支撑,理想的风帆是高扬不起来的。 在批判李洪志“法轮大法”的斗争中,我们更进一步体会到:科学不仅关系到经济建设的速度和     

Wishing to Be White: Begging to Be Black

With race in mind, in this response the author draws on her own experiences of exilic consciousness, racial melancholia, whiteness, dissociation, and self-censorship to dialogue with Yvette Esprey. The author explores the issue of voice and how this is affected by context. The notions of the normative unconscious, K (nots), and the anti-analytic third are differentiated from one another. The relative weight given in the literature to unconscious processes such dissociation as opposed to more conscious self-censorship is explored in theory and with reference to Esprey’s case studies.     

Let There Be Variance: Individual Differences in Consecutive Self‐control in a Laboratory Setting and Daily Life

The large body of research used to support ego‐depletion effects is currently faced with conceptual and replication issues, leading to doubt over the extent or even existence of the ego‐depletion effect. By using within‐person designs in a laboratory (Study 1; 187 participants) and an ambulatory assessment study (Study 2; 125 participants), we sought to clarify this ambiguity by investigating whether prominent situational variables (such as motivation and affect) or personality traits can help elucidate when ego depletion can be observed and when not. Although only marginal ego‐depletion effects were found in both studies, these effects varied considerably between individuals, indicating that some individuals experience self‐control decrements after initial self‐control exertion and others not. However, neither motivation nor affect nor personality traits such as trait self‐control could consistently explain this variability when models were applied that controlled for variance due to targets and the depletion manipulation (Study 1) or days (Study 2) as well as for multiple testing. We discuss how the operationalization and reliability of our key measures may explain these null effects and demonstrate that alternative metrics may be required to study the consequences of the consecutive exertion of self‐control. © 2019 European Association of Personality Psychology     

做一个得胜者

在约翰福音第13章第1节中提到主耶稣爱门徒到底。“到底”是到最后,到终点、到末了的意思。主耶稣爱我们到底,我们要纪念他的大爱,我们也要以到底的态度来对待我们的救主耶稣基督。 希伯来书第3章第14节提到“我们若将起初确实的信心坚持到底,就在基督里有份了。”“起初确实的信心”是指真实的信心,是建造在主耶稣复活之上的信心,是建造在磐石之上的信心,这样的信心才是正确的,实实在在的信心。对于我们每一个相信耶稣的人来说,必须要     

“迷信占卜风”何时休

愈刮愈烈的“占卜风”最近在中国的许多大中城市,很多青少年都喜欢用星座、纸牌和“笔仙”来“追问”自己的运程。并争相传阅、购买一些占卜类书籍。浙江省科学技术协会与浙江省城市经济调查局不久前开展的一次相关联合调查结果显示,16．23%的人表示相信“星座预测”,其中绝大多数是以高中生、大学生为主体的青少年。杭州市科协在10所中学进行了一项调查则显示,85%的学生算过命。     

Be All That You Can Be: Enhancing Human Performance1

Key findings and conclusions from a landmark study conducted by a National Research Council Committee are discussed. The 12‐year study was divided into 4 phases that covered topics of individual, small group, and organizational performance. Concentrating primarily on techniques with strong claims for enhancing performance, the committee found little support for some (e.g., sleep learning, meditation, parapsychological techniques, hypnosis, total quality management) and stronger support for others (e.g., mental practice, expert modeling, cooperative learning, team training, practice to optimize transfer of cognitive and social skills). Insights were also obtained about the roles of expectancy effects, belief perseverance, emotions, thought suppression, and organizational cultures. The article highlights the continuing contributions made by committee members in such areas as transfer, expert modeling, self‐efficacy, mental practice, organizational design and enhanced performance, and conflict resolution.