Revisiting the university front

The article argues that the most important trends in the recent metamorphosis of higher education, especially of university teaching and research, cannot be understood without placing them in the context of general developments in political life. Both processes reveal alarming features and there is a link between them. In recent decades a religion has established its dominance in the public policy field. Its dogmas are called “liberalization”, “economic man”, “individual preference”, “the free market”, “competition” and “efficiency”. The consequences of the progressive imposition of this doctrine on the universities—including on the relation between teaching and research—are well documented but not always well understood. It is argued that the “commercialization” of higher education and research means in reality their hyper-bureaucratization, via the imposition of so-called evaluation, assessment and accreditation schemes, the latest avatars of the managerialist ideology. Might the final result be the disintegration of the university as an institution?     

Revisiting the Cultural Dope

This essay focuses on the ??cultural dope,?? an ironic reference in Harold Garfinkel??s Studies in Ethnomethodology to the rule-following actor in conventional sociological theories. In the nearly half-century since the publication of that book, the ??cultural dope?? has been incorporated into numerous criticisms of ??models of man?? in the human sciences. Garfinkel??s account appeals to many writers because it seems to present an alternative picture of the actor: an individual who is self-aware, reflective, and skilled in the conduct of daily affairs. A problem with such a generalized picture of the actor is that it may seem to encourage uncritical acceptance of whatever ??the public?? (or a broad segment of the public) happens to believe or support. This paper revisits Garfinkel??s account of the cultural dope, and contrasts ??conservative?? and ??radical?? readings of what Garfinkel does with that figure. The ??conservative?? reading leaves the edifice of a social-structural model largely intact, and provides an alternative, more complex, picture of individual action than that of a cultural dope. The ??radical?? reading places relevant social structures in a dependent relation to the contingencies of action, and thus destabilizes the very theoretical edifice that sets up the problem of how to integrate individual actions with stable social structures. In line with the ??radical?? reading, this paper suggests that Garfinkel creates serious difficulty for any generalized ??model of man,?? regardless of whether it portrays the individual as active or passive, well-informed or ignorant, or reflexive or not.     

Revisiting the Notion of Hierarchy

The traditional definition of hierarchy in terms of power has rendered the image of the hierarchical therapist a fit subject for constructionist critiques. This essay uses an alternative definition of hierarchy, cast in temporal and developmental terms, as the basis for a revised understanding of the role of hierarchy in the therapeutic process. It is argued that when therapy is constructed as a “framing-developing hierarchy,” rather than as a “power hierarchy,” then constructionist aspirations to create a therapy that is nonjudgmental, nonpathologizing, and noncontrolling are realized.     

Revisiting the shop of confucius

The East Asian Region: Confucian Heritage And Its Modern Adaptation. Gilbert Rozman, 1990 Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 1990 v‐x + 235 pp., $29.95     

Spatial construction skills of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and young human children (Homo sapiens sapiens)

Spatial construction tasks are basic tests of visual‐spatial processing. Two studies have assessed spatial construction skills in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and young children (Homo sapiens sapiens) with a block modelling task. Study 1a subjects were three young chimpanzees and five adult chimpanzees. Study 1b subjects were 30 human children belonging to five age groups (24, 30, 36, 42, 48 months). Subjects were given three model constructions to reproduce: Line, Cross‐Stack and Arch, which differed in type and number of spatial relations and dimensions, but required comparable configurational understanding. Subjects’ constructions were rated for accuracy. Our results show that: (1) chimpanzees are relatively advanced in constructing in the vertical dimension; (2) Among chimpanzees only adults make accurate copies of constructions; (3) Chimpanzees do not develop in the direction of constructing in two dimensions as human children do starting from age 30 months. The pattern of development of construction skills in chimpanzees partially diverges from that of human children and indicates that spatial analysis and spatial representation are partially different in the two species.     

Revisiting the Antecedents of Interreligious Dialogue

This article looks critically at the trend to connect contemporary interreligious dialogue with certain events and developments that took place in Europe and India during the 19th and early 20th centuries: (i) the comparative study of religion, (ii) the 1893 World Parliament of Religions in Chicago, (iii) three World Missionary Conferences in the first half of the 20th century, (iv) renascent Hinduism in India, and (v) Indian Christian efforts for inculturation. These events/developments are often perceived as the formative factors of dialogue. But this essay argues that they had their own complexities, agendas, and targets and rarely had interreligious dialogue as their objective or focus. Uncritical reading of the history of interreligious dialogue ignores how colonialism and imperialism have shaped these “antecedents.”     

Revisiting the perception of upside-down faces

In two experiments, the effect of orientation on face perception was assessed. Using a scale from 1 ( normal ) to 7 ( bizarre ), participants rated normal, unaltered faces and faces in which changes had been made to spatial-relational properties (eyes and mouth inverted or relative position of the eyes and mouth altered) or to component properties (eyes whitened and teeth blackened). For unaltered and component-distortion faces, bizarreness ratings increased linearly as orientation increased from 0° to 180°. For spatial-distortion faces, a discontinuity in the function relating orientation and bizarreness was in evidence between 90° and 120°. The results provide support for the view that there is a qualitative difference in the processing of upright and inverted faces due to the disproportionate effect of inversion on the encoding of spatial-relational information.     

Revisiting the Rorschach of Sirhan Sirhan

The published Rorschach (Kaiser, 1970) of Sirhan Sirhan, the man who assassinated presidential aspirant Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, was studied. Psychostructural and psychodynamic analyses were conducted using, reliable and valid methodology that was unavailable at the time of examination. In contrast to the defense experts at trial who diagnosed paranoid schizophrenia, the data suggest a depressed and suicidal individual organized at a borderline level of personality. Character pathology is hysterical, paranoid, and dependent. When the Rorschach findings are compared to the developmental history of Sirhan and the behavior around the time of the assassination, the data are somewhat consistent with the theme of psychic trauma, are very consistent with the theme of recurrent loss and pathological mourning, and validate a characterological distrust and hatred of, yet hysterical dependence on, the object world. Rorschach indices of predatory violence (Meloy, 1988a) in relation to the planned and purposeful assassination are also discussed.     

Revisiting the simple view of reading

Background Reading component models such as the Simple View of Reading (SVR; Gough & Tunmer, 1986 ; Hoover & Gough, 1990 ) provide a concise framework for describing the processes and skills involved when readers comprehend texts. According to the Independent Review of the Teaching of Early Reading ( Rose, 2006 ) strong evidence for the SVR comes from Factor Analysis of datasets on different measures of reading showing dissociation between decoding skills and comprehension. To the best of our knowledge, only two such published studies exist to date. Of these, only one of is in English and this explores children between the age of 7 and 10 years. Aims To explore the SVR in English‐speaking children aged 4 and 6 using Factor Analysis. Samples 116 4 ‐year‐olds and 116 6 ‐year‐olds in the US; 103 6 ‐year‐olds in Canada. Methods All children were administered a battery of decoding and comprehension related measures. Results Factor Analysis of the diverse measures undertaken independently by two research teams in different countries demonstrated that listening comprehension and decoding measures loaded as distinct factors in both samples of young English‐speaking children. Conclusions The present findings provide important support for the generality and validity of the SVR framework as a model of reading.     

重叠共识理念再检讨

基于合乎情理的多元主义的事实,罗尔斯意识到《正义论》中的正义观念缺乏稳定性。在《政治自由主义》中,他通过公共辩护这一概念处理稳定性问题,目的是通过公共辩护,由合乎情理的公民所拥有的合乎情理的整全性主张来最终形成关于正义观念的重叠共识。这一处理是否成功的关键就在于重叠共识的可欲性和可能性。在可欲性上,重叠共识所面临的主要考验在于正义观念之间的冲突所导致的分歧,但这是一个得以在政治自由主义理论框架内解决的问题。在重叠共识的可能性问题上,正义观念的初步辩护和充分辩护之间可能存在着难以轻易填补的理论间隙,这需要对政治自由主义中的前提性条件做出更为仔细的辩护。     

Revisiting the Censure Theory of Punishment

This paper is a rejoinder to Thaddeus Metz’s article “Censure Theory Still Best Accounts for Punishment of the Guilty: Reply to Montague.” In his article, Metz attempts to answer objections to censure theory that I had raised previously. I argue in my rejoinder that Metz’s defense of censure theory remains seriously problematic despite what he says in his reply.

Revisiting Harmless Discrimination

In a co-authored piece with Adam Slavny, I argued that any promising account of the wrongness of discrimination must focus not only on the harmful outcomes of discriminatory acts but also on the deliberation of the discriminator and in particular on the reasons that motivate or fail to motivate her action. In this brief paper, I defend this conclusion against an objection that has recently been pressed against our view by Richard Arneson. This task is important not only because Arneson’s objection is an intriguing one, but also -- and more importantly -- because my response sheds further light on the content and structure of an attractive theory of wrongful discrimination, as well as on more fundamental ideas in moral philosophy.

     

Revisiting Sartre on the question of religion

Jean-Paul Sartre's position on religion has traditionally been reduced to variations of his well-known atheism. This is a result of collapsing the distinction between religion and theism, as both critics and supporters of Sartre have commonly done. Consequently, attention to Sartre's persistent and pervasive concern with religious ideas, symbols, and experiences has been neglected. While the religious implications of Sartre's thought have mostly been considered in relation to Christian theology, other newer areas of religious studies suggest additional avenues for considering Sartre. Sartre's possible connections to four such areas are discussed: 1) Eastern religions; 2) Jewish studies; 3) feminist theology, and 4) the psychoanalysis of religion.     

Revisiting the Rorschach of Sirhan Sirhan.

The published Rorschach (Kaiser, 1970) of Sirhan Sirhan, the man who assassinated presidential aspirant Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, was studied. Psychostructural and psychodynamic analyses were conducted using reliable and valid methodology that was unavailable at the time of examination. In contrast to the defense experts at trial who diagnosed paranoid schizophrenia, the data suggest a depressed and suicidal individual organized at a borderline level of personality. Character pathology is hysterical, paranoid, and dependent. When the Rorschach findings are compared to the development history of Sirhan and the behavior around the time of the assassination, the data are somewhat consistent with the theme of psychic trauma, are very consistent with the theme of recurrent loss and pathological mourning, and validate a characterological distrust and hatred of, yet hysterical dependence on, the object world. Rorschach indices of predatory violence (Meloy, 1988a) in relation to the planned and purposeful assassination are also discussed.     

Revisiting the argument from fetal potential

One of the most famous, and most derided, arguments against the morality of abortion is the argument from potential, which maintains that the fetus' potential to become a person and enjoy the valuable life common to persons, entails that its destruction is prima facie morally impermissible. In this paper, I will revisit and offer a defense of the argument from potential.     

Revisiting the Right to Do Wrong

Rights to do wrong are not necessary even within the framework of interest-based rights aimed at preserving autonomy (contra Waldron, Enoch, and Herstein). Agents can make morally significant choices and develop their moral character without a right to do wrong, so long as we allow that there can be moral variation within the set of actions that an agent is permitted to perform. Agents can also engage in non-trivial self-constitution in choosing between morally indifferent options, so long as there is adequate non-moral variation among the alternatives. The stubborn intuition that individuals have a right to do wrong in some cases can be explained as stemming from a cautionary principle motivated by the asymmetry between the risk of wrongly interfering and that of refraining from interfering.     

Revisiting the dimensional structure of the emotion domain

Recent research has claimed that a novelty dimension is needed to represent the cognitive emotion structure over and above valence, power and arousal. Novelty emerged when student samples evaluated the meaning of 24 emotion terms on 142 emotion features. This claim is debatable, however, because to date novelty has never been found in similarity sorting studies. It is possible that novelty emerged because sophisticated student samples evaluated emotion terms on emotion features. The current research identified a large, representative set of emotion terms using a free-listing task in a middle childhood up to early adulthood sample (N = 5071). Children, adolescents, students and adults (N = 1184) then evaluated the similarity between these emotion terms using a similarity rating task without priming any emotion feature. Novelty robustly emerged as the fourth dimension. The existence of novelty is thus confirmed with a different method across a wide variety of participants.