Epicurean Equanimity Towards Death

This paper assesses two reformulations of Epicurus' argument that "death … is nothing to us, since while we exist, death is not present; and whenever death is present, we do not exist." The first resembles many contemporary reformulations in that it attempts to reach the conclusion that death is not to the disadvantage of its subject. I argue that this rather anachronistic sort of reformulation cannot succeed. The second reformulation stays closer to the spirit of Epicurus' actual position on death by attempting to reach the conclusion that it is inappropriate to fear or dread or have any other negative affective response towards death. I raise a plausible objection to this argument, suggesting that dissatisfaction is sometimes an appropriate response to the approach of death. I then go on to consider the possibility that Epicurus was partly right in that it may always be inappropriate to dread death.
Death is nothing to us. For while we are still alive, death is not present; and when death is present, we are not.
Epicurus ¹     

Towards a Theological Metaphysics of Death

Death is an inescapable event. It defines our existence as mortal. It is both a marker of our finitude and a portal to a deeper mystery: what awaits us in, through, and beyond this moment of ending? In thinking about death in the context of a theological dialogue, I identify two key questions: the phenomenological ‘What is death?’ and the philosophical ‘What is the meaning of death?’ as the beginning points of reflection. In general, it is the function of religion to provide some sort of answer to these questions, to give death both coherent definition and adequate understanding. The primary religious response is to articulate appropriate beliefs. But in their intellectual formation and construction, beliefs draw on metaphysics—the structures of logic, language, conceptuality and general worldview presuppositions by which we render all things intelligible and communicable. In this article I shall undertake an exploration of Christian viewpoints on death, which will require noting antecedents and corollaries in Judaism, then discuss possible metaphysical readings of death, that is, philosophical understandings of death that lie within and under, as it were, the otherwise stated religious beliefs about death. The aim of this article is not to present a fully developed ‘theological metaphysics of death’ as such; rather, in the context of an inter-religious dialogical engagement, to raise issues and perspectives from a Christian point of view that might contribute to a wider, more encompassing, theistically oriented understanding of death.     

The Black Foe: Being Towards Death1

The ontology of death is universal, hence archetypal. Nowhere do we witness any organic creature escape its talons. Analytical psychology has had an intimate relationship to death for the simple fact that it contemplates the soul, the numinous, and an afterlife. From Hegel to Heidegger, Freud and Jung, death was an existential force that sustained and transformed life, the positive significance of the negative. Rather than merely a destructive phenomenon, death informs Being, the power of nothingness that dialectically drives life. In this paper, I will introduce the notion of what I call the omega principle, the psychological orientation and trajectory of our being towards death, which we may say is a universal preoccupation and recapitulation of the collective unconscious that subsumes our personal relation to death, an eternal return of the objective psyche constellated as esse in anima.     

Attitude Towards Persons with Intellectual Disability Scale: Further Development

The purpose of this study is to revise and further develop an attitude towards person with intellectual disability scale (APIDs). The further development of this scale was mainly based on Community Living Attitude Scale (CLAS) and Attitude towards Intellectual Disability Questionnaire (ATTID). The study examined the psychometric properties of the proposed measuring instrument in terms of its factorial validity and internal consistency reliability. The confirmatory factor analysis showed that the proposed five-factor model did not fit the data well. Exploratory factorial analysis was then conducted to re-examine the structure. The results suggested a three-factor structure, i.e. sociality, capacity, and protection. The internal consistency reliability was good for sociality and capacity but needs further improvement for protection. The cultural and social landscape within a population affects the factorial structure an attitude scale. The use of APIDs was also discussed.     

情绪调节内隐态度对个体情绪调节的影响

研究使用内隐联结测验,序列递减任务以及中国情绪图片系统(CAPS)中的情绪图片为实验材料,比较了负性情绪诱发情境下,不同情绪调节内隐态度个体的情绪体验差异.研究结果表明,对情绪调节持积极内隐态度的个体,在负性情绪诱发情境下,会自动化的调节和控制自己的情绪;而对情绪调节持消极内隐态度的个体,则未对自已的情绪进行自动化的控制和调节.     

Attitude Towards Premarital Sex among Rural College Youth in Maharashtra,India

Little is known about the risky sexual behaviour, misconceptions and attitudes regarding sexuality and sexual health among rural youth in India. In order to understand these aspects, quantitative data were collected among 1,500 rural college students (800 male and 700 female) in the age group 15–24 years in the Thane district of Maharashtra, India, during 2004. Analysis of variance and regression analysis were performed using the total mean score of attitude towards sexuality as the dependent variable to determine the association and relationship, respectively, with background and familial characteristics. The results clearly showed that the majority of the students in the study expressed conservative attitudes towards premarital sexuality. Many students not only disagreed with casual sex but also considered it immoral. Gender bias i.e. permitting premarital sex for males and not for females, was reflected in their attitudes to some extent. Mean score indicated that male students had higher mean scores compared with their female counterparts and senior students compared with junior students, indicating more liberal attitudes towards sexuality. Bivariate analysis showed positive association between age; peer interaction; erotic exposure; habits of gutaka, tobacco, smoking and alcohol consumption; and knowledge about reproductive health issues with attitudes towards various sexuality issues. Multivariate analysis showed that female students studying in the commerce and science faculties were more liberal in attitude towards sexuality when compared with female students from the arts faculty. Male students with high erotic exposure (odds ratio 2.3); habits of gutaka, tobacco, smoking and alcohol consumption (odds ratio 2.7); and high peer interaction (odds ratio 2.3) had higher attitudinal scores indicated more liberal attitudes. Overall, the majority of the students expressed conservative attitudes towards premarital sex. The programme on sexuality education and responsibility for in-school adolescents should be launched early in secondary schools/college at an early stage of the perception process and formulation of attitudes towards sexuality. This would provide students with more scientific information and deter them from gathering incomplete information through sources such as pornography and peers.     

Self-reported Attitude Towards Speeding and Its Possible Consequences in Five Different Road Contexts

Driving above the permitted speed limit is a common violation on the roads of Great Britain. Moreover, speeding is associated with negative consequences in the form of damage, injury and fatal road traffic accidents. The aim of this study was to assess, by means of self-report, the prevalence of this social problem across five different contexts: a residential road, a busy shopping street, a dual carriageway, a winding country road, and a motorway. The extent to which speeding was perceived to be associated with negative consequences was also assessed. Results suggest that most drivers make judgements about the type of road on which they are driving and the degree of speeding that is acceptable, and that their intentions to speed vary accordingly. Some drivers reported a consistent intention to speed, however, and these people were characterized by greater general deviance on the road (e.g. high violation score), rather than by a stronger tendency to underestimate the negative consequences. In general, however, younger people and those with less regard for negative consequences reported stronger intentions to speed. These results are discussed with reference to strategies for addressing the problem of speeding. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

捐献骨髓的态度及对白血病人的移情反应的研究

本研究采用AB两种问卷测查在职员工和大学生对骨髓捐献的态度以及对白血病患者的情感反应,AB卷的差异主要在于：B卷中增加了骨髓移植和骨髓捐献的一些基本知识。研究结果显示,捐献骨髓的意向在AB卷、男女性、在校学生和在职员工等几个方面均无显著差异;但在捐献检测费意向上,A卷和B卷、男性和女性之间存在显著差异,从捐献骨髓和捐献检测费的各种原因中可以了解到骨髓捐献中遇到的一些问题。此外,人们在不同故事情境中所唤起的移情反应的程度是不同的,研究结果显示,对幼儿和青少年主人公,人们的情感反应的程度更高些。     

Attitude of Medical School Students in China Towards Genetic Testing and Counseling Issues in FXS

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is the most common form of inherited intellectual disability. However, genetic testing protocols and genetic counseling guidelines for FXS are not yet established in mainland China. In the present study, we conducted a comprehensive analysis using a self-administered questionnaire among students at the Xiangya medical school to investigate their attitude towards genetic testing and counseling issues of FXS. We have gained a general understanding of the attitudes of medical students towards these FXS issues in China. This information is of immense importance to develop appropriate genetic tests and to train counselors for FXS. As the medical school students surveyed are prospective physicians who will be a part of the Chinese health system, our survey was focused on the basic knowledge of FXS, population-based FXS screening, confidentiality and reproductive options for mutation carriers. The study demonstrated that only less than one third of the participants had heard about FXS. 94.6 % of participants were in favor of FXS screening for women in their reproductive age who had a genetic history of FXS. Furthermore, only half of the participants would inform their families about their genetic status in case of positive test results, and more than half of the participants supported natural conception and prenatal diagnosis for FXS mutation carriers. Additional findings and research implications are also discussed. This survey targeting potential doctors provides important information for the development of FXS genetic test and counselor training for the Chinese health system.     

大学生对个人未来的规划和态度及其与抑郁的关系

采用青少年未来取向问卷(中文版)、Beck抑郁量表-Ⅱ对723名大学牛进行调查,考察大学生对未来的规划和态度及其与抑郁的关系.结果发现:大学生对个人未来教育、职业和婚姻/家庭的探索和投入水平处于中等程度以上,并对未来持积极乐观的态度;大学一年级处于对未来发展进行探索和投入的过渡阶段;男大学生对未来婚姻/家庭的投入更多、态度更乐观;大学生对未来主要发展任务的积极规划和乐观态度能够负向预测抑郁.     

The Relationship Between Turkish Nursing Students' Perceptions of Spiritual Care and their Attitudes Towards Death

Journal of Religion and Health - This study aimed to examine the relationship between nursing students' perception of spiritual care and their attitudes towards death. This cross-sectional...     

Attitude Strength and Perceived Prevalence of Attitude Positions

Two studies are reported that evaluate the hypothesis that people with involved or extreme (as opposed to moderate) attitudes on an issue will tend to overestimate the extent to which others' attitudes are polarized toward both extremes (cf. Judd & Johnson, 1981). Unlike previous tests of this hypothesis, the present studies included a complete range of subject attitude groups and target categories, obtaining prevalence estimates on a variety of nuclear-related issues. However, support for the hypothesis was limited, being clearest for pronuclear subjects' estimates of pronuclear positions but almost nonexistent for other subjects and target categories. It is suggested that the cognitive mechanism proposed by Judd and Johnson needs to be supplemented by broader social, functional, and knowledge-based considerations.     

论先秦时期的死亡态度——以儒墨道法为例

人无论是在面对自己的即将死亡还是他人的死亡时,都会产生复杂的心理活动和情感表达,从而形成各自不同的死亡态度.先秦时期以儒、道、墨、法为代表的诸子各家在对待死亡上也都表现出了各自不同的情感态度,儒家是哀伤和理性,道家是顺化与旷达,墨家是轻生重死,法家是冷酷刻薄,他们的死亡态度对后世产生了重要影响.     

态度强度对内隐-外显态度关系的调节作用研究

本研究探讨了态度强度对个体的内隐一外显年龄态度间关系的调节作用。研究发现,随着态度强度的增强,内隐——外显态度间一致性随之增大,随着态度强度的减弱,内隐——外显态度间一致性随之减少,支持了态度强度的调节作用。这一研究为解决Fazio和Bargh关于态度自动激活效应的争论提供了新的视角。本研究支持了Fazio的观点。