中国上古中古史研究的宗教维度--评钟国发《神圣的突破--从世界文明视野看儒佛道三元一体格局的由来》

魏晋以后中国人精神世界中儒释道并存的格局早已为治学者所熟知,然而对常识的习焉不察往往阻碍了我们对该问题的进一步探询与反思.钟国发先生的新作<神圣的突破--从世界文明视野看儒佛道三元一体格局的由来>(四川人民出版社2003年10月版)不囿于成见,提出儒佛道三元一体的命题,并且对这一命题从宗教内部及其与社会历史之间关系进行了阐释.尤为可贵的是,这种阐释是在世界文明视野下,在对中华文明的起源、发展历程作出整体性的把握之后展开的,因此,这种阐释本身就是对中国上古中古史的一种气势恢宏而又不失严谨缜密的书写,体现了作者对中国历史追本溯源、富有洞察力而又自成体系的理解.故而,该书的关怀已远远超出了宗教领域,而深入到中国历史的思想、知识、信仰、社会组织、政治形态等诸多层面的研究,对上古史、中古史多有贯通之解.下面就该书的若干观点作一简单评介.     

An essay on resolution logics

This paper discusses the resolution principle in the context of non-classical logics.Research supported by the grant from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.     

Relational diagnosis: An essay review

A review ofHandbook of relational diagnosis and dysfunctional family patterns. Florence W. Kaslow, Ed. 566 pages. $55. Cloth. ISBN # 0471-08078-0. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1996.     

An essay on time and the phenomenology of imprisonment

Social philosophy and sociological theory have determined time to be central to human reality. In particular, phenomenolo‐gists have argued that space and time is essential to human being. Thus, alterations in the nature of experienced time are significant areas for sociological investigation. One such case is present in the experience of imprisonment. The structure of time in prison is very different from that of everyday life. Prison time is, most importantly, futureless. Prisoners have developed several ways of adjusting to, and even resisting, the unique nature of prison time. These include, most consequentially the use of reverie. None, however, completely avoids the dehumanizing affects of the prison life‐world.     

An essay on psychotherapy and religion

Cultural innovation by thinkers of the early twentieth century created an intellectual impasse between competing understandings of religion. Religion was understood as either transcendence and the sacred (e.g., Otto) or as fantasy and projection (e.g., Freud). Whether a cooperative symbiosis of these orientations toward religion can be achieved is the central and unresolved issue of this paper. “Examined experience” is considered within religious studies and psychotherapy. Although not conclusive, the argument is that examined experience is a means by which the desired symbiosis can be achieved. The essay is personal in that it reflects the author's struggle for understanding, especially as Western (e.g., Christian) and Eastern (e.g., Zen) experiences are examined.     

The value of a liberal education: An essay on the power of knowing

Conclusion It is not easy to summarize what has been suggested in this essay. But in greatly simplified terms, something like this may serve.The understanding which comes through education increases the power of man over himself and his world; it increases his awareness, his capacity to influence, to accept and to enjoy. Everybody knows these things, but an explanation of how this power arises has been attempted. To do this, understanding, was said to be a process, a dynamic act, and four perspectives on this act, each showing one of the ways in which power is created have been presented.First, it was suggested that thought is the process of discriminating the field of feeling. This implies a much closer connection between thought and feeling than is ordinarily held. The particular power here is expressed in terms of the idea that the form of thought both expresses and limits at the same time. Due to this you get clear elements not only expressed in their own right, but deriving part of their clarity and individuality because of their explicit exclusion from other elements of the same field. Second, the power of knowing was explained as due to the tension between levels of significance It was suggested that concepts are fields of meaning composed of mutually constituting levels or particularity and generality.Third, it was suggested that the power of knowing comes through the extension of the range of significant feeling through the use of imagination.Finally, the double aspect of consciousness, which allows man both to do something consciously and to guide such doing self-consciously, was indicated as of major importance to the power and practice of a liberal education because it constitutes the power which frees man from himself.No one can liberate another person by organizing his experience for him. That he must do for himself; it is his life. But educators are in the business of disciplining the student in the truly human fashion which includes the organization of our experience in terms of dynamically interacting levels of generality and significance, the objectifying and clarifying of the field of feeling through thought, the broadening and deepening of that range of feeling through the imaginative projection of possibilities for feeling, as well as the steady consciousness of self that frees man from himself.These four aspects constitute the power which man's nature gives to him alone. It is because of this power that man has been called a rational animal. And along side of this power any others which he may be said to possess are as nothing. Indeed, it is open to question whether there are any other separate powers. Someone may want to mention the power of human love, but a moment of reflection should show that all we consider of most value in human love is an expression of the powers of which we have spoken. A liberal education is of value precisely because it is aimed at the development of those qualities of truly human activity which characterize man at his best. We may have to accept something less than this due to human frailty, but we need not be content to aim at anything less.