THE CONTEMPORARY SIGNIFICANCE OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY

By Chinese philosophy I mean the main streams of traditional Chinese philosophy such as Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism and the contemporary reconstruction of the philosophical insights of these schools. Are they still meaningful for us today? Before I can answer the question, first of all I would like to give a very brief review of the conditions that led to our present situation, and then we may find ourselves in a position to give a proper assessment of the contemporary significance of Chinese philosophy in our journey towards the post-modern era.     

EVOLUTION IN THERMODYNAMIC PERSPECTIVE: A HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL ANGLE

Abstract. The recently suggested reformulation of Darwinian evolutionary theory, based on the thermodynamics of self-organizing processes, has strong philosophical implications. My claim is that the main philosophical merit of the thermodynamic approach, made especially clear in J.S. Wicken's work, is its insistence on the law-governed, continuous nature of evolution. I attempt to substantiate this claim following a historical analysis of beginning-of-the-century ideas on evolution and matter-life relationship, in particular, the fitness-of-the-environment-for-life theory of the Harvard physiologist L.J. Henderson. In addition, I point to an epistemological common ground underlying the studies of the “thermodynamics school” and other currently active research groups focusing on the emergence and evolution of biological organization.     

中澳两国儿童社会观点采择能力的跨文化对比研究

本研究以中国寓言图画故事为刺激材料,通过个别询问,探查了中澳4至7、8岁儿童的社会观点采择能力及对个性特征的认知发展。结果表明,尽管两国被试来自不同的文化和社会背景,但显示出大致相同的发展顺序和认知特点,在发展水平上,中国儿童高于澳大利亚儿童,这可能跟刺激材料的内容和性质有关。     

A MODEL OF CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS

Abstract: In this article I identify the conceptual tools needed to establish claims for the existence of conceptual ties, along with the principles governing the use of those tools, and present a model of conceptual analysis. I identify and justify those principles in the light of the conditions for the meaningfulness of expressions in language, which I extract from an analysis of the concept of meaning. The conclusions of this analysis are organized into a schematic model of the workings of a language. According to this model, the meaning of every word in any language is determined by its role in the systematic mapping of all possible states of affairs included in its conceptual scheme.