EXPOSURE TO INDUSTRIAL AND URBAN ENVIRONMENTS AND FORMAL SCHOOLING AS FACTORS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL DIFFERENTIATION

The influence on psychological differentiation exerted by exposure to industrial and urban environments and to formal schooling was investigated with the help of Story-Pictorial EFT administered on 240 7–10-year-old children belonging to the Santhal tribe residing in and around an industrial city in Bihar. A 2 × 2 × 2 ANOVA performed on differentiation scores revealed significant main effects of industrial and urban exposures, and of schooling. Significant 3-way interaction effect indicated that the impact of urbanization in the industrial and non-industrial settings varied with exposure to formal schooling, and that the main effects in spite of their being statistically significant have to be taken with caution. Impact of the three factors on psychological differentiation is interpreted in terms of changes induced through acculturation that alter the experiential base of the individual as well as cultural characteristics of this environment.     

SCIENCE AS SALVATION: GEORGE LAKOFF AND STEVEN PINKER AS SECULAR POLITICAL THEOLOGIANS

This article critically analyzes two leading cognitive scientists, George Lakoff and Steven Pinker, as competing secular political “theologians”. The idea of Science as savior is at the heart of the set of stories modernity tells about itself. The modern world, it is assumed, has left the age of religion and reached the age of Science. Lakoff and Pinker, who advocate opposing moral and political worldviews, make their claims on the basis of their scientific work, but it is implicit narratives and ontologies that give force to their broader views about morality and politics.     

SLAVERY AND DOMINATION AS POLITICAL IDEAS IN AUGUSTINE'S CITY OF GOD

The purpose of this article is to explore the meaning of domination and slavery in the political philosophy of Augustine of Hippo (354–430), particularly in the major work of his later years, the City of God. It offers an exploration of this aspect of Augustine's thought in the light of relatively recent scholarship on the meaning of these terms for political philosophy (in particular, the work of Quentin Skinner and Philip Pettit). It finds that, in Augustine's eyes, the nature of domination or slavery in the political sphere differed from its nature in the domestic sphere.     

POLITICAL EQUALITY IN JUSTICE AS FAIRNESS

Philosophical Studies -     

PATRIOTISM AND POLITICAL OBLIGATION

Arguments aimed at undermining certain accounts of the grounds of political obligations—no matter how successful they may be—fall far short of demonstrating that there are no such obligations. Doubts about the efficacy of these arguments in this latter regard seem even more justified when it is recognized that parallel lines of reasoning can be developed in the area of filial obligations (and probably obligations of friendship and others as well), which arguments provide rather less than conclusive reasons for denying that there are filial obligations (obligations of friendship, and so forth). Furthermore, we have good reason to believe that there are political obligations if patriotism is a virtue, and also that patriotism is indeed a virtue. We therefore have a basis on which to affirm the existence of political obligations—a basis whose soundness is independent of the acceptability of particular accounts of the grounds of political obligation. Hence, even if standard accounts of the grounds of political obligations are problematic in certain respects, we should not regard this consideration as capable by itself of establishing that there are no such obligations.     

文化常模和目标调节模型:两种幸福感文化观

随着世界经济的发展,人们物资生活水平的提高,如何提高生活质量这一问题引起了越来越多的关注。20世纪60年代后期,主观幸福感(SWB)的研究逐步在全世界范围内形成热潮。近年来,幸福感属性中的文化差异引起了跨文化研究者的极大兴趣。文章通过比较SWB跨文化研究中新近出现的两个理论模型——文化常模模型和目标调节模型,探讨了文化在SWB产生过程中的作用,并在此基础上分析了情绪性幸福感和生活意义之间的关系。     

RELIGIOUS REASONS AND POLITICAL ARGUMENTATION

In Evangelium Vitae Pope John Paul II calls for a renewal of culture to combat the culture of death. He criticizes various aspects of a pluralistic, liberal society—a type of society that he claims is based on moral relativism and a view of democracy that becomes a substitute for moral law. He maintains that such a view trivializes moral choice. In this essay I argue that John Rawls's notion of a liberal society as an overlapping consensus of comprehensive doctrines can avoid relativism while allowing for reasonable debate among opposed positions. While Rawls maintains that comprehensive doctrines, including religions, should employ a form of public reason that is not a unique feature of any one comprehensive doctrine, I argue that this requirement is too strong. One is often justified in appealing to features of comprehensive doctrines other than one's own, features that are unique to the doctrines themselves. Such an appeal does not pretend to be neutral as public reason would seem to be. In the final section of the paper I discuss some suggestions made by the Pope regarding actions in civil society that are independent of debates about legal change and suggest some ways in which they might contribute to desired cultural transformation.     

GENDER ROLE AND POLITICAL OFFICE

Women are less represented in prestigious national political offices than they are in state and local offices. How this underrepresentation may be related to perceived characteristics of office and candidate are explored in the two studies described here. In Study 1, the masculinity/femininity of local, state, and national offices was analyzed; all levels of office were rated as more masculine than feminine. In Study 2, the sex as well as the gender role of a hypothetical presidential candidate was varied. Masculine and male candidates were evaluated as being more competent on presidential tasks such as dealing with terrorism; feminine and female candidates were rated higher on tasks such as solving problems in our educational system. Men, regardless of gender role, were perceived as being more likely to win a presidential election, and masculine tasks were evaluated as being more important than feminine presidential tasks. Implications for future female politicians are discussed.     

THE MEDIA AND POLITICAL VIOLENCE

The meanings of violence, political violence, and terrorism are briefly discussed. I then consider the responsibilities of the media, especially television, with respect to political violence, including such questions as how violence should be described, and whether the media should cover terrorism. I argue that the media should contribute to decreasing political violence through better coverage of arguments for and against political dissidents' views, and especially through more and better treatment of nonviolent means of influencing political processes. Since commercial pressures routinely conflict with media responsibility, I argue that society should liberate substantial amounts of culture from such pressures.     

POLITICAL OBLIGATION AND THE PARTICULARITY PROBLEM

Natural duty theorists of political obligation try to base a moral duty to obey the law on some natural duty, such as the duty to promote justice. Their critics say they confront an insurmountable obstacle in the particularity problem: Since natural duties do not bind us to some persons and institutions more strongly than to others, they cannot support a duty to one particular state or society. I solve the particularity problem, by developing a version of the political obligation thesis, giving a natural duty argument for it and showing that the particularity problem does not arise for the argument. I reply to some likely objections to my view.     

THE SCHOLAR-OFFICIAL AS A MODEL FOR ETHICS

Ignorance has its advantages. When philosophy has a comparative dimension, for instance, and a philosopher from one culture considers a philosophy from another, the philosophy attains a life of its own somewhat freed from its cultural context. In this circumstance the philosopher's ignorance of the cultural ground and consequences of the ideas allows an unusual freedom for appropriating the ideas to new contexts.     

RAWLS AND THE STATUS OF POLITICAL LIBERTY

Abstract:  In his late work, Rawls makes strong claims about the status of political liberty. These claims, if accepted, would have significant implications for the content of "justice as fairness." I discuss the nature of these claims, clarifying Rawls's fair value guarantee of the political liberties and critically discussing the arguments that he and others have given for assigning special importance to the political liberties. I conclude that justice as fairness, properly understood, is not a deeply democratic conception of justice.