CHINESE AND WESTERN INTERPRETATIONS OF JENb (HUMANITY)1

The concept of jen (humanity, love, humaneness; pronounced ren ) is a central concept of Confucian thought and has gone through a long evolution of more than 2000 years. The story of that evolution has been told elsewhere. The purpose here is to see how the Chinese have understood the concept and how the West has interpreted it. We shall discuss the Chinese understanding under seven headings.     

A Type of Non-Causal Explanation1

There is a type of explanation frequently employed in the sciences, particularly the quantitative ones, that I intend to focus on. It seeks to understand some phenomenon or regularity that occurs in a type of system S by deriving an equation describing that phenomenon or regularity from a set of equations that govern S. I want to propose a way of understanding such explanations.     

THE OBLIGATION TO GIVE: A REPLY TO TANNER1

Divine giving, Kathryn Tanner suggests in her recent Jesus, Humanity and the Trinity, generates an obligation to give to the needy. This duty, she argues, is a duty to those in need, but not to God. This essay compares Tanner's proposal for the structure of human obligation with two other theological models, and suggests a revised version of her analysis. The obligation to give is reconceived as an obligation to God and self, as well as the needy neighbor. This account removes such charitable giving from the realm of purely supererogatory acts, but does not thereby eclipse the appropriateness of gratitude on the part of the recipient.     

A QUANTIFIED APPROACH TO MEASUREMENT OF JOB CONTENT: PROCEDURES AND PAYOFFS1

Procedures used for developing a quantified job analysis system for 1710 exempt employees in a power utility firm are described. Factor analysis of these data yielded 60 job dimensions which were used to describe position and job profiles. These job profiles then served as the basic input into the development of job clusters, defined as jobs at the same organizational level which have similar job content. The usefulness of information in this format for selection, promotion, transfer, compensation and training decisions is discussed.