The controversy over retrospective moral judgment

The mandate of the U.S. Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments required that the Committee take a position on the validity of retrospective moral judgments. However, throughout its period of operation, the Committee remained divided on the question of whether sound judgments of individual culpability and wrongdoing should be included in its Final Report. This essay examines the arguments that various committee members marshalled to support their opposing views on retrospective moral judgment and explains the significance of the controversy.     

拉比犹太教探源

拉比犹太教是一个阶段性宗教,这一课题在国内鲜有人问津。由于资料缺乏等原因,它起源于何时,何时终结,至今在学术界争论不断。本文在总结国内外学者观点的基础上,意在对拉比犹太教的源头进行详细探讨,同时对拉比犹太教的内涵进行简单梳理。     

The controversy over pastoral care of parents after a stillbirth

Studies published in the last few years have suggested that the current practice in hospital obstetric units of encouraging parents to spend time with, hold, and even care for their stillborn fetus or baby may be deleterious to them. Rather than helping to allay grieving and successfully bring mourning to closure, mothers who had increasing levels of contact with the body of their stillborn baby were incrementally more likely to suffer depression and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in their next pregnancy and to have difficulty with attachment to their next child. These findings parallel observations from meta-analyses that question the efficacy of single-session debriefing (Critical Incident Stress Debriefing) after psychological trauma in preventing the later emergence of symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Although not conclusive, these initial studies support the urgent need for further research to allow evidence-based pastoral care for those whose pregnancies end in stillbirth and loss. Given this much uncertainty about the risks posed by contact with her stillborn baby, mothers who do not chose to see their dead infants should not be persuaded to do so on the grounds of beneficence.     

Hume and cognitive science: The current status of the controversy over abstract ideas

In Book I, Part I, Section VII of the Treatise, Hume sets out to settle, once and for all, the early modern controversy over abstract ideas. In order to do so, he tries to accomplish two tasks: (1) he attempts to defend an exemplar-based theory of general language and thought, and (2) he sets out to refute the rival abstraction-based account. This paper examines the successes and failures of these two projects. I argue that Hume manages to articulate a plausible theory of general ideas; indeed, a version of his account has defenders in contemporary cognitive science. But Hume fails to refute the abstraction-based account, and as a result, the early modern controversy ends in a stalemate, with both sides able to explain how we manage to speak and think in general terms. Although Hume fails to settle the controversy, he nevertheless advances it to a point from which we have yet to progress: the contemporary debate over abstract ideas in cognitive science has stalled on precisely this point.     

The Priest and the Rabbi Meet in a Bar: The Dialectic between Merger and Recoil in Psychoanalysis

The tension between union and separation is a leitmotif in all social relations and cuts a swath across psychoanalytic theories. I am proposing that the interplay, between merger and recoil is an oscillating and enduring rhythm throughout the life cycle and characterizes an ongoing pattern in relatedness. Awareness of this repetitive cadence in the transference/countertransference as a reflection of the human drama can alert the analyst to a pattern that prompts clinical interventions and expands the potential of deepening the dyadic relationship and its mutative effects.     

The controversy around the concept of archetypes

The paper reviews the course of the controversy surrounding Jung's theory of archetypes beginning in the mid 1990s and continuing to the present. Much of this controversy was concerned with the debate between the essentialism of the evolutionary position of Anthony Stevens as found in his 1983 book Archetypes: A Natural History of the Self, and the emergence model of the archetypes proposed in various publications by Hogenson, Knox and Merchant, among others. The paper then moves on to a consideration of more recent developments in theory, particularly as derived from an examination of the philosopher Gilles Deleuze, who introduces Bergson's somnambulistic unconscious into the discussion of Jung's theories. It is suggested that this largely unexamined influence on Jung may provide answers to some of the unanswered questions surrounding his theorizing. The paper concludes by suggesting that the notion of the somnambulistic unconscious may resemble Atmanspacher's argument for a dual‐aspect monism interpretation of Jung.     

The Seminal Contribution of Rabbi Moshe Feinstein to the Development of Modern Jewish Medical Ethics

The purpose of this essay is to show how, on a wide variety of issues, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein broke new ground with the established Orthodox rabbinic consensus and blazed a new trail in Jewish medical ethics. Rabbi Feinstein took power away from the rabbis and let patients decide their treatment, he opened the door for a Jewish approach to palliative care, he supported the use of new technologies to aid in reproduction, he endorsed altruistic living organ donation and recognized brain death (thus laying the groundwork for Orthodox Jewish acceptance of heart transplantation), he downplayed the value of social worth in triage decisions, and was a fierce defender of the rights of the fetus. I develop broader theological principles from Rabbi Feinstein's ethical positions and compare them to those of his Jewish and Christian contemporaries.     

The aborted candidacy of Rabbi Asher Ginsburg: A failed attempt at modernization

The Napoleonic edict of 1808 that established theconsistorial system for French Jewry created a new rabbinate thatwas intended to differ from the ``old' both in terms of itsauthority and its mission. When the first vacancy occurred in therabbinical triumvirate that, together with two lay leaders,constituted the Central Consistory, it afforded the leadership anopportunity to shape the future of the French rabbinate andJewish religious life. Their choice of Rabbi Asher Low Ginsburg,son of the late and distinguished rabbi of Metz (the ShaagatAryeh), signals an attempt to endow the new rabbinate withprestige and legitimacy. In addition, the consistorial leadershipmay have chosen R. Asher, a man with positive views on haskalahand secular learning, in the hope that his candidacy would helpmodernize the rabbinate and further the goal of ``regeneration'for French Jewry set by both the French government and theenlightened Jewish leadership. Seen in this light, R. Asher'sultimate rejection of the post, followed by the appointment ofRabbi Emmanuel Deutz, was a setback for the consistory and theprocess of modernization.     

The Mobilization of Elite Opinion: Rabbi Perceptions of and Responses to Anti-Semitism

One of the persistent problems facing the Jewish community is anti-Semitism, which has a long, tragic history in the United States and abroad. At the same time, anti-Semitic acts are probably at their lowest ebb in American history. Using a sample of more than 400 rabbis drawn from the four great movements of American Judaism, we investigate rabbi perceptions of anti-Semitism in the United States, as well as their attitudinal and behavioral reactions to it. We test and find evidence for the notions that Orthodox rabbis, as well as those connected to and mobilized by Jewish advocacy organizations, perceive anti-Semitism as a greater problem and concern themselves with the issue more often in their public speech.     

Rabbi and Magister: Overlapping intellectual models of the twelfth-century renaissance

Elka Klein’s writings have illuminated reciprocal and distinctive characteristics of the social and intellectual lives of Jewry in Iberia and by comparison Northern Europe during the High Middle Ages. This article honors her insights, by comparing the development of biblical hermeneutics at the Abbey of St. Victor in Paris and in the writings of Abraham ibn Ezra. Hugh of St. Victor’s introduction to the study of Scripture, Didascalicon, provides a program for the individual student to integrate all branches of human knowledge into the search for Divine Wisdom that may be found only in Scripture. The innovation in Hugh’s program is the emphasis on the “literal” or “historical” sense of Scripture as the solid basis for the development of theological study. Grammar and rhetoric were stepping stones that led the young theologians to higher levels of Divine Wisdom. The introduction to Abraham ibn Ezra’s commentary on the Pentateuch constitutes a parallel point of orientation for twelfth-century Jewish readers. A close reading of ibn Ezra’s prologue maps the hermeneutical approaches that different communities – Christian, rabbinic Jewish, and Karaite – utilized in their expositions of the Pentateuch. After critiquing each community, ibn Ezra offers his own approach that builds an overall framework for correct interpretation on the foundation of grammar and the rabbinic oral tradition. From this perspective, the article demonstrates that during this period Jews and Christians, both in Iberia and Northern Europe, focused on harmonizing reason and revelation. Both communities used grammar as the primary criterion for evaluating the accumulation of traditional sources. Both approaches intended to develop students, who were capable of understanding that “reason is the angel that mediates between God and humanity.”