DIGGING IT: ON UNDERSTANDING THEOLOGY AS BRICKLAYING

The connections Stanley Hauerwas draws between his theological work and the craft of bricklaying, which he learned from his father, invites comparison with Seamus Heaney's depiction of poetry as digging. Both men understand their task of writing as hard and precise labour that pays close attention to given materials and that honours the complexities of the past. I consider how the characterisation of theology as bricklaying‐like work, integral to Hauerwas’ professional and personal self‐understanding, may shape his theological approaches and priorities, and ask how this might contrast with other possible approaches formed from other historical contexts.     

RETRACTED: UNDERSTANDING SUBJECT(S): THE SELF AS CORPORATION

This paper aims to make a contribution to work concerning the nature of the subject. The article pays special attention to the work of Parfit but will also cover the work of Hume and Locke. The article seeks to develop an ontological account of persons with important implications to the way in which we distinguish associations, groups and persons in both philosophy and moral theory.     

PET AS PART OF AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO UNDERSTANDING PROCESSES INVOLVED IN READING

Abstract— Positron emission tomography (PET) is a recently developed technology that can be used to create images of brain blood flow, which is related to brain activity. By acquiring images of brain blood flow during different task conditions, investigators can isolate activity changes related to specific types of information processing. Several examples demonstrate how regions involved in reading can be identified, and how the results are most interpretable when information from other disciplines is considered.     

ON SCIENCE AS A GUIDE TO UNDERSTANDING THE ORDER AMIDST THE DIVERSITY OF LIFE

This paper is the reprinting under a new title of the “Foreword” of Paul A. Weiss's Life, Order, and Understanding: A Theme in Three Variations, published in 1970 as volume 8 supplement of The Graduate Journal of the University of Texas (Austin, Texas, #5.00 [hardcover], #2.50 [paperback], 157 pages). We reprint this paper here for two reasons. The first is that its beautiful, scientifically grounded imagery of living systems in relation to wave dynamics provides a significant supplement to this issue of Zygon on human values in the context of thermodynamics. The second is that it is hoped this foreword will serve better than would a book review to introduce Zygon readers to the philosophical and scientific wisdom contained in Life, Order, and Understanding.–Editor.     

UNDERSTANDING THE STRUCTURE OF STEREOTYPES OF WOMEN: VIRTUE AND AGENCY AS DIMENSIONS DISTINGUISHING FEMALE SUBGROUPS

A two-part study investigated the dimensional structure of stereotypes of women. In one sample ( n = 258), participants sorted traits according to the likelihood that they would co-occur in the same woman. In a separate sample ( n = 102), participants were given the same traits and were asked to judge the traits' desirability and to judge the moral virtue, sexual liberalism/conservatism, warmth, competence, and power of a woman who possessed high levels of each trait. Results from hierarchical cluster analysis indicated that participants perceived women in terms of six subgroups: professional, feminist, homemaker, female athlete, beauty, and temptress. Large differences among these subgroups were identified based on ratings of their moral virtue and sexual conservatism (i.e., virtue) and competence and power (i.e., agency). The implications of a virtue–agency model of female subgroups for gender stereotyping research are discussed.     

WONDER AND UNDERSTANDING

Abstract. Wonder is a root of the religious experience, and the desire to understand drives science. If wonder and understanding are fundamentally opposed, religion and science will be also. But only if wonder is limited to the contemplation of magic or mysteries is religion in principle opposed to science. The aim of science is to explain how something is possible. Understanding how something is possible need not destroy our wonder at it. Recent scientific theories of the human mind—albeit based in computer technology—increase our wonder at its richness and power.     

UNDERSTANDING KNOWLEDGE TRANSMISSION

We must allow that knowledge can be transmitted. But to allow this is to allow that an individual can know a proposition despite lacking any evidence for it and reaching belief by an unreliable means. So some explanation is required as to how knowledge rather than belief is transmitted. This paper considers two non‐individualistic explanations: one in terms of knowledge existing autonomously, the other in terms of it existing as a property of communities. And it attempts to decide what is at issue between these explanations.     

UNDERSTANDING INTER-BRASIAN CONFLICT

The phenomenon of Sikh and Muslim conflict has been largely analysed in anthropological and sociological works in terms of a product of angry youth or ethnic hatred or religious passions. This paper explores the main ways in which the increasing tensions between Sikhs and Muslims have been articulated in the landscape of postcolonial Britain. It investigates the most prominent explanations provided both in academic and popular literature to understand the various causes seen to fuel this type of conflict, that is ethno-religious causes, multicultural issues and as the symptom of youth delinquency. The paper offers a critique of such accounts and moves towards an ontological understanding of conflict, that is, to elaborate the central role of conflict and its relationship to the political as the site for contestation between ‘friends and enemies’. This reading of Inter-BrAsian conflict enables us to open up a new space to re-evaluate the nature of Sikh and Muslim tensions within the diasporic context.     

SCIENCE AND RELIGION AS LANGUAGES: UNDERSTANDING THE SCIENCE–RELIGION RELATIONSHIP USING METAPHORS,ANALOGIES, AND MODELS

Many scholars often use the terms “metaphors,” “analogies,” and “models” interchangeably and inadvertently overlook the uniqueness of each word. According to recent cognitive studies, the three terms involve distinct cognitive processes using features from a familiar concept and applying them to an abstract, complicated concept. In the field of science and religion, there have been various objects or ideas used as metaphors, analogies, or models to describe the science–religion relationship. Although these heuristic tools provided some understanding of the complex interaction, they failed to address the broad nature of science and religion as well as the multifarious relationship between the two in a sociocultural context. Unlike the previous candidates, the concept of language, including the notions of linguistic worldview, linguistic identity, dialects, power, and bilingualism, offers a unique and comprehensive window through which science, religion, and the relationship between the two are seen with clarity.     

学前儿童对生物衰老的认知

按照“朴素理论”的要素设计研究任务,研究一探查学前儿童能否以衰老这一生命特征为标准做出生物和非生物的本体区分,以及能否对衰老做出生物性而非意图的因果解释;研究二进一步探查学前儿童对生物衰老特性（普遍性和不可逆性）的认知。结果显示,4、5、6岁学前儿童在分类作业中的认知成绩随年龄逐渐提高,而在因果解释中,各年龄组儿童都不用心理意图作为衰老的原因;他们对衰老的认知与其对生长的认知密不可分;学前儿童对衰老两个特性的认知不同步;由研究结果可以推论,6岁儿童在衰老维度上具有了较稳定的朴素生物理论。     

UNDERSTANDING GRADUATE WOMEN'S REENTRY EXPERIENCES

This multiple case study describes the experiences of reentry women in psychology doctoral programs at a major Midwestern research university and illustrates the usefulness of the qualitative case-study method in exploring women's experiences. Semistructured interviews were conducted with four women who were purposefully selected as information-rich participants. Observations and informal interviews were also conducted over a period of up to 2½ years. Eight themes emerged from the data and have been labeled: the decision to return, expectations versus reality, measuring up, frustrations and difficulties, changing family relationships, the necessity of organization, do it and get on with life, and rewards. This article illustrates that case-study research can be a powerful tool for feminist researchers to document women's experiences.     

幼儿对条件许诺的理解

通过给4、5、6岁儿童呈现一系列图片,分别代表孩子、妈妈以及双方违反约定的不同情况,考察了幼儿对条件许诺形式的社会约定的理解。结果表明：幼儿对条件许诺的认知表现出明显的发展趋势,绝大多数幼儿都能指出孩子违反,随年龄增大能指出妈妈违反、双违反的人次百分比逐渐增多,其中4岁组没有人能指出妈妈违反,5岁组没有人能指出双违反;幼儿对条件许诺中不同角色违背的检测存在“角色效应”和“同侪违背优先检测效应”;多数幼儿还没有将条件许诺理解为双条件规则。     

自然语言理解的方法和途径

本文结合汉语处理的问题,叙述和讨论了国外有关计算机理解自然语言的某些主要的方法和途径。作者认为,从语言理解研究的发展过程来看,计算机理解自然语言的研究,已由最初的主要是属于语言学的问题,逐渐成为主要是认知心理学的问题。因而,只有深入了解人类理解语言的实际过程,才能建造出有效的理解自然语言的计算机系统。