Christian missionary views of Islam in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

Protestant Christian mission to Muslims began in earnest in the nineteenth century with the rise of the evangelical movement. In this, the ‘great century’ of missionary outreach, theologians generally denied the hope of salvation to anyone outside of the Christian faith. Missionary treatises dealing with Islam were written mainly for the purposes of helping foster the work of conversion, of proving the superiority of Christianity in comparison with Islam, and of criticizing the Oriental churches. A few were forerunners of the more tolerant attitude that would characterize much of the more recent missionary reflection on Islam. The twentieth century has seen a change from early predictions of the imminent demise of Islam to a generally greater appreciation for Islam and even for the role of the Prophet Muhammad, although the main theme of evangelical literature is still hope for the ultimate conversion of all Muslims to Christianity. Recent missionary literature on Islam has exhibited a clear tension between the approaches of dialogue and of witness.     

Mission as Factor of Change in Turkey (nineteenth to first half of twentieth century)

This article explores the complex role Protestant missionaries played in late Ottoman Asia Minor. For several generations they were important, even if today almost forgotten, actors of social and mental change. They succeeded in establishing autonomous schools, hospitals and factories not only in the capital, but also in the provinces. They had a vision of integrating minorities into an egalitarian pluralist society which was diametrically opposed to the ideas of the ruling groups and the nationalists. Instead of homogenizing society and strengthening its (Turco-)Muslim unity, missions were differentiating society in religious, ethnic and social terms. Protestant missions supported religious minorities such as the Armenians and Assyrians, heterodox groups such as the Alevis and Yezidis and the poorer classes, but could not win over the state, which was based on the support of the Sunn I majority and saw the missions' successful puritan and liberal modernity as a threat. Even if during and after World War I the missionaries' human networks and social visions tragically broke down, their strong contribution to modern education in Turkey remained.     

Footedness in parrots: three centuries of research, theory, and mere surmise

In contemporary debates about laterality in animals, the parrot (Psittaciformes) is often cited as an exemplar--possibly unique--of laterality in limb function at the population level comparable in kind and strength to handedness in man. This conclusion rests on just two reports (Friedman & Davis, 1938; Rogers, 1980) that most species of parrots are left-footed, that is, that they preferentially perch on the right foot and hold food with the left. In fact, speculation about and scientific study of laterality in parrots go well beyond these two investigations. The question itself dates from at least the 17th century, after which, beginning in the 1860s, it became the subject of broad interest and debate. In our own time, it also has continued to occupy the attention of at least a small number of ornithologists and field biologists whose work, like that of their predecessors, is not cited in the current neuropsychological literature on this topic. To fill out the historical as well as contemporary record for consideration by neuropsychologists today, these other observations and theoretical analyses are reviewed, and new questions about laterality in parrots raised by this work are presented.     

The importance of theory: response to Brenner (2000)

L. Brenner's (2000) critique of I. Erev, T. S. Wallsten and D. V. Budescu (1994) focuses on their (a) use of a model to explain the paradox of the same data appearing to suggest over- and underconfidence, depending on how they are analyzed; (b) definitions of true judgment and error; and (c) specific use of judgments transformed to log-odds and a model formulated in those terms. The authors of the present article strongly disagree with the first point and discuss the importance of using models to interpret data. With regard to the second, the authors admit that the constructs of true judgment and error are poorly named but dispute L. Brenner's specific criticisms. Concerning the third, the authors had not claimed that the log-odds metric has any special status in judgment research and thus agree with L. Brenner's basic point.     

Action control according to TEC (theory of event coding)

The theory of event coding (TEC) is a general framework explaining how perceived and produced events (stimuli and responses) are cognitively represented and how their representations interact to generate perception and action. This article discusses the implications of TEC for understanding the control of voluntary action and makes an attempt to apply, specify, and concretize the basic theoretical ideas in the light of the available research on action control. In particular, it is argued that the major control operations may take place long before a stimulus is encountered (the prepared-reflex principle), that stimulus-response translation may be more automatic than commonly thought, that action selection and execution are more interwoven than most approaches allow, and that the acquisition of action-contingent events (action effects) is likely to subserve both the selection and the evaluation of actions.

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Potential performance theory (PPT): a general theory of task performance applied to morality

People can use a variety of different strategies to perform tasks and these strategies all have two characteristics in common. First, they can be evaluated in comparison with either an absolute or a relative standard. Second, they can be used at varying levels of consistency. In the present article, the authors develop a general theory of task performance called potential performance theory (PPT) that distinguishes between observed scores and true scores that are corrected for inconsistency (i.e., potential scores). In addition, they argue that any kind of improvement to task performance, whatever it may be, works by influencing either task strategies, which comprise all nonrandom components that are relevant to the task, or the consistency with which strategies are used. In the current study, PPT is used to demonstrate how task strategies and the consistencies with which they are used impact actual performance in the domain of morality. These conclusions are extended to other domains of task performance.     

The lag effect and differential organization theory: nine failures to replicate

In our first experiment, we tried to replicate and extend previous results that had provided seemingly convincing support for a differential organization explanation of the monotonically increasing lag effect in free recall. However, we failed to obtain the lag effect. Eight additional experiments also failed to replicate the lag effect. In all, we made 918 observations of performance on items repeated at each of three lags, and the mean percentage of correct free recall varied by less than one percentage point. These results suggest that there are boundary conditions limiting the generality of the monotonically increasing lag effect in free recall. In addition, caution should be exercised in accepting certain previous findings as strong evidence for a differential organization explanation of the phenomenon.     

逻辑图表的发展

长期以来,逻辑图表被逻辑学家们仅仅视为教学辅助工具;但逻辑图表从Euler图到Venn图再到存在图表和概念图表的发展表明,它已经超越出教学工具这一狭隘界限,从而获得了更为深刻,广泛的意义,实际上逻辑图表是与我们标准数理逻辑记法相区别的另一种有效的逻辑记法,而且有着更强的直观性和可应用性。     

《易》之"数""图"的文化符号学机制

从文化符号学的角度分析,在易理的传承中"数""图"主要承担了文化阐释功能,应把它们当作一种文化符号,着重把握其在文化记忆与传承中的阐释功能,了解其在文化惯习中的符码价值,以加深对易学智慧的领悟.文化符号学作为一种具有很强操作性的阐释模式,能提供一种比较超脱、明晰的视野,有利于更真确地把握并分析古代文化现象.     

A vehicular theory of corporeal qualia (a gift to computationalists)

I have argued elsewhere that non-sentential representations that are the close kin of scale models can be, and often are, realized by computational processes. I will attempt here to weaken any resistance to this claim that happens to issue from those who favor an across-the-board computational theory of cognitive activity. I will argue that embracing the idea that certain computers harbor nonsentential models gives proponents of the computational theory of cognition the means to resolve the conspicuous disconnect between the sentential character of the data structures they posit and the nonsentential qualitative character of our perceptual experiences of corporeal (i.e., spatial, kinematic, and dynamic) properties. Along the way, I will question the viability of some externalist remedies for this disconnect, and I will explain why the computational theory put forward here falls quite clearly beyond the useful bounds of the Chinese-Room argument.     

A theory of careers encounters sex: Reply to Holland (1976)

This paper is the third in a series beginning with a report (by the authors) of research on the application of Holland's theory of careers to women and men. Holland's response, “The Virtues of the SDS …” is considered, in particular, research he cites on the effect of the Self-Directed Search (SDS) on counselees and his advocacy of raw score reports of personality patterns. The widely divergent career options suggested to men and women by SDS raw scores are noted and misunderstandings concerning the implications of Holland's assessment procedures for his theory are discussed. Holland's defense of raw score reports of personality characteristics is found wanting, especially in light of the support provided for his theory by normed scores.