Computational theories of vision

This exciting and original book describes the work of David Marr and his colleagues at MIT on the computational theory of vision, particularly the early stages of shape analysis. Although much of the theorising is frankly speculative and not certain to survive without major modification, it sets new standards of rigour in its formal approach and is certain to have a stimulating effect upon the field. Sadly, Marr's death from leukaemia at the age of 35 means that he will not himself be able to take part in the further development of his ideas, but the book itself will exert an important influence for some time to come. The first point to make, for those who may already have attempted Marr's lengthy and difficult research papers, is that the book is clearly and entertainingly written: It can be tackled by the non-specialist who wishes to see why Marr's work has caused such interest in the vision community. Despite the very difficult circumstances in which the book must have been written, it is carefully put together and gives a fascinating insight into the way in which the author's ideas developed.     

《周易》中“交感”思想的哲学意涵

《周易》非常重视“交”和“感应”,咸卦很好地体现了《周易》当中的“交感”思想．我们认为“交感”思想具有丰富的哲学内涵：天地交感化生万物就是一种宇宙生成论,讲述了世界上万事万物是如何产生的;男女交感始有人伦是一种社会伦理学,凸显了社会伦理在中国古代社会的重要作用;而圣人感人心而天下和平则很好地体现了中国古代的政治哲学．是占代知识分子的理想境界。“交感”的思想在中国哲学上有重要的价值．对宋初周敦颐和二程的道学思想产生了重要的影响。     

《管子》人才思想及其现代解读

《管子》是我国古代著名的一部子书,其中蕴涵着丰富的人才思想。它提出了一整套关于人才的培养、选拔、任用和激励等方面的措施和思想。对其包含的人才思想进行现代解读,对于现代人力资源管理具有积极的借鉴意义。     

On <Emphasis Type="Italic">The Social Construction of Reality</Emphasis>: Reflections on a Missed Opportunity

The paper recalls my response to Berger’s and Luckmann’s book on reading it shortly after its initial publication. It seeks to convey why it was that I failed to make use of the book at that time, even though I recognised it as an outstanding contribution to my intended field of research, and how later I came to see that this may have been a lost opportunity. The story touches upon diverse important issues including the relationship between epistemology and the sociology of knowledge; the epistemic authority of the natural sciences; the relevance of causal accounting as topic and resource in sociology; the importance of Durkheim in the sociology of knowledge; and the great value of Berger’s and Luckmann’s book as a corrective to the undue individualism that has long been a feature of the social sciences in the English-speaking world. Even so, the paper is more recollection than analysis, and unreliable recollection at that, after many decades in which there has been time to forget, or even to reconstruct, a very great deal.     

When the Common Good Takes the Grand(est) Stage The Cosmic Common Good: Religious Grounds for Ecological Ethics,Daniel P. Scheid,Oxford University Press, 2016 (ISBN 978‐0‐19‐935943‐1), xvi + 248 pp., hb £19.99

Rooting itself in Catholic social teaching rather than theology of creation, this book develops a novel approach to Catholic ecological ethics. It argues that the traditional conception of the social common good should be fully broadened to encompass all creation, including abiota. Furthermore, the book suggests a comparative‐theological approach to ecological ethics through careful conversations with Buddhist, Hindu, and American Lakota conceptions and practices. While its vision of the cosmic common good at times appears too inclusive and perhaps ‘too good to be true’, this book is a valuable contribution to Christian ecological ethics and includes a fresh comparative‐theological take on ecological questions.     

Jesus, Historians, and the Psychology of Historiography: A Response to My Respondents

It is remarkable to me that my book became a part of the SBL Dissertation Series. For this I thank Walter Wink who brought the work to the attention of, Wayne Rollins. And I am thankful to Wayne Rollins for bringing the book to the attention of the right people at the SBL, most particularly Rex D. Matthews and Mark Allan Powell. I am grateful to Mark Allan Powell for promoting the process of publication so we would have a book in hand at the Psychology and Biblical Studies book review session, now over two years ago. I am very appreciative of Lewis Rambo, editor of this journal, and J. Harold Ellens, special editor of this issue, for making possible the continued discussion of these ideas.     

Playing Chamber Music at a Rock Festival? <Emphasis Type="Italic">The Social Construction of Reality</Emphasis> in US Sociology

Starting from the metaphor of “playing chamber music at a rock festival” used by Peter L. Berger in 1992 to describe the impact of The Social Construction of Reality on US sociology, this article works out how the book’s somewhat puzzling legacy as a bestseller and a classic with remarkably rare direct follow-ups in the US discourse can indeed be conceived. I argue that one needs to take into account the theoretical-historical context in which Berger and Luckmann developed their ideas, including the specific forms of knowledge production in US sociology at the time, the institutional background of the book’s emergence at the New School for Social Research and the author’s biographical trajectories. On this basis, on can explain why Berger and Luckmann’s reformulation of the sociology of knowledge both perfectly met the 1960s Zeitgeist (which made it a bestseller) and at the same time remained theoretically marginal.     

Ideas that handicap therapy with young people

A review is done of ideas that handicapped therapists, particularly therapists of young people defined as schizophrenic, and were abandoned over the last twenty years. It is suggested that therapists currently seek theories that lead to success and avoid theories that lead to failure. The criteria for an effective theory of therapy are offered. Past ideas and theories are described in terms of meeting the criteria. Included in the review of unfortunate ideas for the therapy of mad young people are the organic theory, the psychodynamic theory, and those aspects of systems theory and double bind theory which were not helpful. How therapists recovered from these ideas is discussed. A contemporary theory of family oriented theory which meets more of the criteria of an effective theory of therapy is suggested.This paper, in a somewhat different form, was presented at the meeting Beyond the Double Bind in March, 1977. It will also appear as a chapter in a forthcoming book on the therapy of disturbed young people.     

How Pierre Janet used pathological psychology to save the philosophical self

According to traditional French historiography, French scientific psychology was born when it differentiated itself from philosophy. This split between the two disciplines is attributed to Taine and Ribot, who, consequently, are considered to be the "founding fathers" of French psychology. In this paper we shall examine the case of Pierre Janet, who, at the turn of the century, was recognized worldwide as the most important French psychologist. It is generally said that he was the follower of Ribot and of Charcot. However, he was also Paul Janet's nephew. Paul Janet was a very well known and influential philosopher of the so-called French "spiritualistic" school, for which psychology was central to philosophy. In 1889, Pierre Janet published his doctoral dissertation, L'Automatisme psychologique, which was immediately considered to be a classic in psychology. We shall argue that this book is as much indebted to the old spiritualistic psychology, which claimed the substantial unity of the self, as to the new psychology at the time, which questioned it. With Pierre Janet, the split between psychology and philosophy in France was reconsidered. It would be more accurate to speak in terms of a compromise between philosophy and the "new" physiological and pathological psychology.     

《管子》宏观经济思想的合理内核及现代价值

《管子》在中国经济思想史上占有重要地位。其突出特点是宏观经济思想极为丰富。本文从轻重论、财政收支理论及对外贸的宏观调控等三个方面简单剖析了其宏观经济思想的合理内核,并结合今天的市场经济建设,力图阐明其现代价值。     

A tribute to Max Wertheimer: Three stories of three days

Summary The development of Max Wertheimer's ideas about productive thinking is presented as a fable, taking its form from his own fable, A Story of Three Days. This development is traced from his early study of the thinking of tribal peoples to his paper of 1920 on the syllogism, and it draws on his book, Productive Thinking. In a final fable, the author very briefly surveys current work in the field of productive thinking.This paper was presented as a Centennial Lecture at the 1980 convention of the American Psychological Association in Montreal. It was part of APA's observance of the Centennial of experimental psychology and also presented in observance of the Centennial of Max Wertheimer's birth, April 15, 1880     

Suttie's influence on Fairbairn's object relations theory

It is suggested here that Ian Suttie influenced W. R. D. Fairbairn directly through a 1939 reprint of his The Origins of Love and Hate, a heavily underlined copy of which was found by the author in Fairbairn's library in the University of Edinburgh Library Special Collections in October 2009. Underlined sections of the book are compared with significant aspects of Fairbairn's post-1940 theorizing, and the similarities are argued to be due to Fairbairn's adopting many of the underlying attitudes and ideas that Suttie developed. This leaves Fairbairn's structural theory, which he began to develop as a rational reconstruction of Freud's structural theory as early as 1927, dependent in part on such theory but independent of direct influence by Suttie. It is argued that Suttie's importance vis-à-vis British object relations thinking needs to be reassessed.     

THE SCOPE AND IMPLICATIONS OF MORALS NOT KNOWLEDGE

I greatly appreciate the opportunity provided by the editor of Zygon to further develop the ideas in my book Morals Not Knowledge: Recasting the Contemporary U.S. Conflict between Religion and Science in conversation with four critical commentaries. It is an honor to have one's work focused upon so intently, and I greatly appreciate the time and effort of the critics. The book was quite intentionally written as a provocation, an attempt at agenda setting, and as a call for changing the thinking of the entire religion and science academic community. In my previous writings I have kept close to the data, allowing myself at best mid‐level conclusions, but this book is a foray into the abstraction and inevitable lack of precision required for high‐level generalization. I hope that it continues to be generative of debate.     

From being motivated to motivating oneself: A Vygotskian perspective

Conclusion The aim of this paper has been to draw attention to the non-cognitive aspects of Vygotsky's theoretical heritage. We hope that we have succeeded in presenting here his principal ideas on motivation and volition in the present-day problem context. It should be noted that the problem of human freedom and self-determination was of great importance for Vygotsky, though the explicit discussion of this problem is not common in his writings. Approaching this problem both as a philosopher and as a psychologist, Vygotsky inevitably had first to get some idea of the general psychological regularities which could serve as a concrete-psychological basis for the constructive paradigm in the explanation of the phenomena of human freedom and non-freedom. It is highly probable that he planned to discuss this problem at length in his last uncompleted book,Doctrine of Affects. However, even the existing texts provide a weighty and insightful basis not only for scientific research but also for creating applied methods of enhancement of human will-power, or, more exactly, the talent to will. Some of the possibilities, revealed by the Vygotskian approach, are presented in the last section. Many other of Vygotsky's brilliant ideas still await an unbiased reading in the contemporary, rather than merely historical, context.     

竹简《文子》天道论初探

＂天道＂是中国思想史上的重要概念。在竹简《文子》中,天道不仅是对于世界万物起源的认识,也是对社会发展规律性的认识,它具有自然和社会双重属性。竹简《文子》的天道论继承了老子＂道生于有＂的思想,但否认＂有生于无＂,＂有＂是其终极。人的行为必须遵循天道。竹简《文子》中对于＂天道＂自然属性和社会属性的阐释,也为后世很多思想家所继承。     

POWER, SOCIAL CHANGE, AND THE PROCESS OF FEMINIST RESEARCH

The dismantling of a male-dominated "power-over" social structure and its manifestations in human activities and relationships lies at the center of feminist thought. For many feminist psychologists, this has meant challenging the privileged, all-knowing, objective position of the researcher; viewing the "naive subject" of study as a participant in the process of creating knowledge; and using research methods aimed at transforming an oppressive culture (Burman, 1992; Crawford & Marecek, 1989; Hollway, 1989). These goals are at the center of the Community Education Team's (this issue) article: "Fostering Relationality When Implementing and Evaluating a Collective Drama Approach to Preventing Violence Against Women." The authors use the concept of relationality to describe the process of developing interdependence and an "egalitarian, democratic research relationship" among those involved in the study. Although "sharing power" is a goal of feminist research and pedagogy, detailed accounts of the process of incorporating feminist ideas regarding power relations in U.S. psychological research are rare. The Community Education Team reminds us that those ideas most central to feminist thought—power, process, and social change—are often the very ideas that still elude U.S. feminist psychological research.     

Counseling in the classroom: interview with albert ellis

Every teacher had better be trained in counseling. Then they could teach the kids that all humans tend to have emotional problems. That's their nature. They create many kinds of nutty ideas: That theymust do well; and theymust be loved; and thehave to get what they want.In this interview Albert Ellis speaks out on counseling in the classroomrape, incest, masturbation, marital relationships, as well as common discipline problems. Teachers spend far too much time and energy with the very difficult students, and some of the average and gifted get short shrift. By counseling one student in front of the others, often those least upset and involved receive the most benefit. Far from wasting class time, teaching all students Rational-Emotive Therapy (RET) reduces the number of disturbed students, and offers teachers more time to spend in helping develop special education for the gifted. It also enables counselors and psychologists to spend more time servicing teachers. And teachers who practice RET counseling learn an effective technique for coping with even inner city stress and burnout.Joel Dames conducted this interview with Albert Ellis at the Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy in New York. He is employed by the U.S. Department of Defense Dependent Schools of Camp Zama, a U.S. Army post in Japan where he teaches literature and writing to high school students.     

WHY ARROW'S IMPOSSIBILITY THEOREM IS INVALID

In 1951, Kenneth Arrow published his now celebrated book Social Choice and Individual Values. Although not the first book to be written on social choice, Arrow's work ushered in a voluminous literature mostly produced by economists but by philosophers and political scientists as well. Arrow's chief result was a proof of the impossibility of a social welfare function (hereafter "SWF"). He showed that there could be no decision procedure for aggregating individual preference orderings into a grand, overall social preference ordering. The result has been hailed by some as a sort of Godel Theorem of economics. It has seemed to many to have, if not the complexity of the Godel Theorem, at least the same astonishing counter-intuitiveness. On the other hand, some social choice theorists, while conceding the validity of the Arrow Theorem, have challenged its soundness by quarreling with one or more of its presuppositions.     

《庄子》中的孔子形象

本文从《庄子》的有关记载中,发现《庄子》一书中的孔子既“具有道家思想的儒者形象”,又有“道家的反面形象”。进而又从书中“以重言为真”的写作方法等方面探讨了儒道两家之间既互相矛盾又互相渗透的关系。     

BUDDHISM,NATURALISM, AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

Owen Flanagan's important book The Bodhisattva's Brain presents a naturalized interpretation of Buddhist philosophy. Although the overall approach of the book is very promising, certain aspects of its presentation could benefit from further reflection. Traditional teachings about reincarnation do not contradict the doctrine of no self, as Flanagan seems to suggest; however, they are empirically rather implausible. Flanagan's proposed “tame” interpretation of karma is too thin; we can do better at fitting karma into a scientific worldview. The relationship between eudaimonist and utilitarian strands in Buddhist ethics is more complex than the book suggests. Flanagan is right to criticize incautious and imprecise claims that Buddhism will make practitioners happy. We can make progress by distinguishing between happiness in the sense of a Buddhist version of eudaimonia, and happiness in the sense of attitudinal pleasure. Doing so might result in an interpretation of Buddhist views about happiness that was simultaneously philosophically interesting, historically credible, and psychologically testable.