对世界反理性主义的挑战--介绍《从历史的角度考察世俗人文主义者的前景》一文

美国的世俗人文主义委员会(Council for Secular Humanism简称CSH)主席、美国纽约 州立大学荣誉教授、哲学家保罗·库尔兹(Paul Kurtz),以他30多年推动人文主义运动发展的经 验,敏锐地观察到了一种逆向态度的增长,终于 2003年在《自由探索》 (Free Inquiry)杂志 第23卷第四期冬季卷发表了长文《从历史的角度 考察世俗人文主义者的前景》。文章对我们认识今 天世界的宗教、科学和道德等问题,以及如何在世 界宗教高涨的背景下坚持科学理性的人义主义,有 很大的启发作用。     

库尔茨：捍卫科学理性的英雄和榜样——纪念库尔茨逝世一周年

美国著名伦理学家、纽约州立大学哲学教授、国际人文主义和伦理学学会主席库尔茨于2012年10月20日逝世，今年是他逝世一周年。他长期致力于世俗人文主义研究、传播和教育工作；坚决捍卫科学理性，孜孜以求的追求真理和正义，为推动世界世俗人文主义运动贡献了他全部的智慧。他一生著作颇丰、获奖多多，为人类文明宝库，留下巨大财富。     

理性与信仰相融共生——美利坚启蒙运动时期神学思想的历史嬗变

美利坚启蒙运动的重要特质之一是宗教热忱与世俗学识的结合,以及理性、科学和宗教在美利坚社会中的共存与相融。这一历史时期启蒙理性与宗教信仰之间的关联互动具有复杂性和生产性,由此形成了自然神论、惟一神论、普救论等神学观念和信仰形态。这些融合理性和启示的理性宗教反对加尔文主义的教义信条,包含了对神性、人性和人类福祉的乐观信念。启蒙运动影响下的神学思想和宗教实践同时也为美国早期的社会变革、道德思考以及共和政体的构建提供了助力。     

《自由思想者:美国世俗主义历史》

<正>在美国,政教分离一度饱受攻击。那么,"政"与"教"何去何从?作者揭示了二百多年的世俗运动,有力地护卫了美国世俗主义精神。这种精神是"美国第一届政府馈赠予美国人民的财富",它不是来自于宗教的权威,而是奠基于人的理性。该书好评如潮,《纽约时报》认为"富有热情,又有洞见";《华立顿邮报》认为"最大的优     

寻找入世的真理——以章太炎、太虚与欧阳竟无的观点为例

近代佛教复兴运动中,从入世担当角度重视理性研究,与佛教内外学者对佛法、佛学与哲学关系的看待有关。文章通过比较章太炎、太虚、欧阳竟无三位著名学者对同一问题的不同看法,指出,代表世俗理性的哲学,与佛教的理性,对自然宇宙、社会人生,虽都采取说理的方式,但仍有不同。更重要的是,佛教理性与改变人生、改变社会的实践、体验必然相关。欧阳竟无警示,佛教理性使学佛之人学会自觉批评自身狭隘的执著,哲学理性则有可能致哲学家太过自信,而放弃对自己局限性的自觉批判,拒绝对他人的理解。何为有担当意义的真理?这个问题至今仍没有彻底解决。     

宗教、法律和政治——论文化多元的世界社会中的政治正义

各交往领域和经济的全球化正在产生出一个"世界社会",而这个世界上恰恰存在着由各大文化传统影响而成的多重现代性格局。要考察这个格局,系统理论的视角和文化主义的视角都有局限:前者忽视了文化的作用,后者则把世俗现代性简单地等同于诸种文化之一。通过把社会理论的普遍化视角和文明比较研究的多样化视角结合起来,彼此遭遇的不同文明与它们所共享的全球现代社会之间的互动,则成为关注的焦点。为克服这种遭遇和互动导致分裂和冲突,必须就世界社会中的政治正义原则展开文化间商谈以寻求共识。为成功进行这种商谈,必须从各自传统中发掘出一种自我反思能力。这种能力与世俗理性颇为相似,但对理性的世俗理解不同于对理性的世俗主义理解。世俗理性只承认原则上可以说服任何人的论证,但它必须如罗尔斯主张的那样对宗教传统和整全学说保持中立,而不必否定这些传统和学说的本身的有效性主张。非但如此,世俗理性还应该一如既往地向宗教传统借鉴与现代社会的正义观念相一致的思想资源,与各大宗教传统一起参与彼此互补的学习过程。     

寻找人世的真理——以章太炎、太虚与欧阳竟无的观点为例

近代佛教复兴运动中，从入世担当角度重视理性研究，与佛教内外学者对佛法、佛学与哲学关系的看待有关。文章通过比较章太炎、太虚、欧阳竞无三位著名学者对同一问题的不同看法，指出，代表世俗理性的哲学，与佛教的理性，对自然宇宙、社会人生，虽都采取说理的方式，但仍有不同。更重要的是，佛教理性与改变人生、改变社会的实践、体验必然相关。欧阳竞无警示，佛教理性使学佛之人学会自觉批评自身狭隘的执著，哲学理性则有可能致哲学家太过自信，而放弃对自己局限性的自觉批判，拒绝对他人的理解。何为有担当意义的真理？这个问题至今仍没有彻底解决。     

世俗人文主义概述（一）

是否存在能够支撑不信教者的道德价值和道德原贝4呢？抛弃了宗教信仰。人类生命有何含义？其意义何在？世俗人文主义以科学的、哲学的和伦理的视角,用能与人类的生命激情和科学发现相共鸣的方式来回答这些问题。世俗人文主义强调运用理性思维和批评性思考解决人类遇到的问题。对人类运用科学和技术手段为本身谋福充满信心,它质疑超自然、神秘的、超现实现象的存在。在人类民主进程和为全球人类谋福方面,它从不妥协。为了人类自由和最高实现人类自身价值,它提出了一个新的范例来指导人类文明进程。     

世俗人文主义概述（二）

是否存在能够支撑不信教者的道德价值和道德原则呢？抛弃了宗教信仰。人类生命有何含义？其意义何在？世俗人文主义以科学的、哲学的和伦理的视角,用能与人类的生命激情和科学发现相共鸣的方式来回答这些问题。世俗人文主义强调运用理性思维和批评性思考解决人类遇到的问题。对人类运用科学和技术手段为本身谋福充满信心,它质疑超自然、神秘的、超现实现象的存在。在人类民主进程和为全球人类谋福方面．它从不妥协。为了人类自由和最高实现人类自身价值,它提出了一个新的范例来指导人类文明进程。     

Extremes of self-esteem and narcissism and the experience and expression of anger and aggression

This study examined the level of self-esteem and narcissism as personality variables involved in the disposition to experience and express anger. Three hundred thirty-eight subjects were sampled across two higher education centres and one student teaching programme in the United Kingdom. It was reasoned that individuals with both high self-esteem and narcissism would report especially high tendencies to experience and express anger and aggression and that those with high self-esteem and low narcissism would report the lowest. These predictions were influenced by theories that emphasise the role of threats to high self-esteem in the production of aggression and violence. Results indicate that groups defined by their extreme scores on self-esteem and narcissism scales produced levels of anger expression in the predicted direction. The importance of considering extreme levels of self-esteem and narcissism (in conjunction with other factors) in an analysis of anger is discussed with reference to currently influential theories in the field. Aggr. Behav. 24:421–438, 1998. © 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Social and Personal Determinants of Adolescent Use and Abuse of Alcohol and Marijuana

This article summarizes research on social and personal determinants of adolescent use and abuse of alcohol and marijuana to aid practitioners when designing interventions.     

Cognitive and Personality Characteristics of Masculinity and Femininity Predict Wayfinding Competence and Strategies of Men and Women

Bem (1974) reconceptualized masculinity and femininity as independent and orthogonal constructs that both men and women possess to varying degrees. This perspective was used as a starting point to investigate whether the contributions of gender-typed characteristics can help to account for commonly observed gender differences in wayfinding (the ability to identify one’s current location and successfully navigate to an unseen location in the environment) favoring men. We further divided gender-typed characteristics into cognitive and personality characteristics to assess their separate influence on wayfinding and explored whether gender-typed characteristics predicted self-reported use of masculine wayfinding strategies (i.e., orientation strategies) and self-reported wayfinding competence. Participants were 452 college women and men in a southern U.S. public university. They completed the Gender-Stereotypic Characteristics questionnaire (Diekman and Eagly 2000), a social comparison questionnaire (created by the authors), a wayfinding strategy questionnaire (Lawton 1994), and a wayfinding competence questionnaire (Hegarty et al. 2002). For both men and women, higher masculine cognitive characteristics significantly correlated with greater use of orientation wayfinding strategies typical of men. For men, both higher masculine and feminine cognitive characteristics predicted better overall wayfinding competence whereas for women, only higher masculine cognitive characteristics predicted better overall wayfinding competence. For both men and women, higher feminine personality characteristics predicted poorer wayfinding competence. These results demonstrated the importance of considering cognitive and personality characteristics of masculinity and femininity in explaining individual differences in wayfinding.     

Self-ratings of positive and negative affect and retrieval of positive and negative affect memories

Abstract

Based on analysis of self-ratings of mood, positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) have been proposed as basic, orthogonal mood dimensions (Watson & Tellegen, 1985). The present study asked subjects (N = 61) to not only provide self-ratings of PA and NA terms but also to retrieve personal memories associated with those terms. Self-rated PA was associated with latency to retrieve PA- but not NA-related memories; self-rated NA was associated with latency to retrieve NA- but not PA-related memories. Self-ratings of PA and NA were not significantly correlated, nor were retrieval latencies for PA and NA memories. Individual item correlations also revealed a strong direct relationship between self-ratings and retrieval latency. The dissociations involving a non-self report measure strengthen the distinction between PA and NA, and the individual item correlations are interpreted as showing that self-ratings of affect are based upon the ease of retrieval of personal memories.