"Blue and seven phenomena" among Japanese students

To investigate color and number preferences in Japan, 586 university undergraduates (239 men and 347 women; M age = 20.9 yr.) were asked to name a color (Question 1), to name their preferred color (Question 2), and to name their preferred number between zero and nine (Question 3). The results showed that Japanese students chose blue (33.5%) or red (26.0%) when asked to name a color but that red was not chosen as frequently as blue as a preferred color (red: 11.1%, blue: 37.1%). Sex differences were found on both Questions 1 and 2 by chi-squared test. Black was chosen more by men, while pink was selected more by women. 22.5% subjects also selected the number seven, supporting Simon's observation of the "blue-seven phenomenon." The reasons given for the choice showed that seven was "a lucky number" and "represented happiness" among Japanese students. Four colors (blue, red, white, and black) accounted for 76.8% and 65.1% of responses to Questions 1 and 2, respectively, and odd numbers 68.4% for Question 3.     

Memories of "Bad" Days Are More Biased Than Memories of "Good" Days: Past Saturdays Vary, but Past Mondays Are Always Blue

In a survey of 202 participants, Monday was cited most frequently as the worst morning (65%) and evening (35%); whereas Friday (43%) and Saturday (45%) were the best evening and morning, respectively. Test–retest reliability was higher for worst morning (.89) and evening (.83) judgments, compared to best morning (.44) and evening (.61) judgments. In a second survey of 353 participants, ratings of typical moods were lowest on Monday, rising to a peak on Saturday, but actual momentary moods showed little or no variation by day. Remembered moods from the previous Monday were more strongly related to typical moods than to actual moods, but the reverse was true of remembered moods from the previous Friday and Saturday.     

Between Abduction and the Deep Blue Sea

Stathis Psillos and James Ladyman et al. have recently joined battle over Bas van Fraassen's account of abduction and inference to the best explana-tion (IBE), and while van Fraassen makes many interesting criticisms, Psillos has had the best of the exchange. In part I of this paper I aim to extend Psillos' criticisms by suggesting that van Fraassen's critique of IBE is at odds, not only with The Scientific Image but also with his later work. Part II uses some of van Fraassen's ideas to suggest a third way between realist IBE and outright abductive scepticism.     

The Family and Partisan Socialization in Red and Blue America

How do competing social influences shape individual partisanship over the course of the life cycle? People enter and exit a host of environments over the course of the lifespan, and these environments provide social pressures that can conflict or reinforce early socialized attitudes. Socialization could be an agent for either opinion change or opinion stability. Using the Youth‐Parent Socialization Study and constructing partisan environmental measures at the county level, I explore this question. The findings demonstrate that environments exert significant socializing influence over the lifespan, moderating the persistence of early forces. This helps us understand when early socialized pressures persist and when they do not. When environments throughout life provide reinforcing social pressures, parental influence endures over time. However, when early socialized influence is challenged over time by the political environment that citizens reside in, the influence of early parental socialization is offset and nullified.     

How Red,Blue, and Green are Affectively Judged

The present study aimed at examining how the colors red, blue, and green were affectively judged through three variables: dominance, arousal, and pleasure. All participants were exposed to red, blue, green, and white (control condition), which were created using the hue–saturation–value color model. Then, participants were invited to rate their perceptions using the self‐assessment manikin. Results showed that (a) red was strongly associated with dominance and arousal; (b) blue was moderately and slightly associated with dominance and arousal, respectively; (c) green was slightly associated with arousal; and (d) blue and green were slightly more pleasurable than red. These results provide initial insights into how people perceive colors through the notions of dominance, arousal, and pleasure. Important practical implications for the use of colors are discussed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Kind of Borrowed,Kind of Blue

In late 2014, the jazz combo Mostly Other People Do the Killing released Blue—an album that is a note‐for‐note remake of Miles Davis's 1959 landmark album Kind of Blue. This is a thought experiment made concrete, raising metaphysical puzzles familiar from discussion of indiscernible counterparts. It is an actual album, rather than merely a concept, and so poses the aesthetic puzzle of why one would ever actually listen to it.     

“对的”与“好的”

什么是“对的”,和对它的证立,是道德哲学中具有争议性的核心问题,也是效用主义和道义论间的主要差异之所在。统合效用主义对于“好的就是对的”这个陈述有一套完整周延的说法。而道义论对这个问题的证立不够周延或没有足够的说服力。     

"Enmeshment" and "Fusion"

The paper examines two related concepts utilized by two different schools of family therapy. Any family seen to be "enmeshed" is also seen as "fused," and vice versa. The difference in the level of focus, on the "system containing the individuals" (structural) or the "individual in the system" (fusion), determines the difference in therapeutic approach of these two schools.     

"本体论"与"伦理学"--形而上学的两个向度

形而上学有两个密切相关的内在向度,就是本体论向度与伦理学向度.在哲学史上,哲学家们之所以在"追求形而上学"的同时,又总是"反形而上学",并非是人们的形上本性出了问题,而是因为人们总是将形而上学视为单纯的"一维性",总是用一个向度来取代或遮蔽另一个向度.而所谓的"后形而上学思想",也并不是消解了形而上学,而是指形而上学从"本体论向度"转向了"伦理学向度".     

"Us" and "Them":

Abstract: In the Aristotelian tradition, politics is a matter of public deliberation over questions of justice and injustice. The Bush administration's response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, has been uniformly hostile to this notion, and it has instead promoted a jingoistic politics of self‐assertion by an America largely identified with the executive branch of its government. This is doubly disturbing, as the executive branch has sought to free itself from international law, multinational commitments, and domestic judicial regulation, even as it has sought to validate itself by demonizing its enemies. This essay draws out the disturbing echoes here of Carl Schmitt's work of the 1920s, in particular of Schmitt's conception of the sovereign as the ungrounded ground of the law and the political as the site of mortal conflict between friend and enemy. The essay argues that Schmitt's position in the twenties, for all of its evident problems, is superior to that of Bush, Wolfowitz, and Ashcroft in at least two senses: Schmitt condemns the idea of waging war for profit and recognizes that such wars will often be disguised as moral crusades waged against the “inhuman”; and he acknowledges that claiming to fight a war for humanity denies one's enemies their humanity, leaving them open to torture and even extermination.     

盼望十六大的阳光

海灯案进入第14个年头了。尽管“海灯神话”已经破灭,尽管我已经获得全国第二届反伪科学突出贡献奖并受到有关领导部门的支持鼓励,但是,由于在海灯案诉讼中,我面对的是由金钱、权力和愚昧迷信结合起来“修炼”而成的”神功大法”,在这种“神功大法”面前,党的政策、国家的法律以及那些古今中外共有的是非标准和道德标准统统失去灵光,我仍然屡战屡败,一筹莫展。可喜的     

"石狮"、"风水"与"吉祥"

谁都知道,在古老的中国,不管是衙门、宫殿、庙宇的门前,还是豪宅、大户人家的门口,人们都能看到摆着一对石狮。据说,这对石狮子在许多中国人的心目中,它不但是一种气派的象征,而且还是一种被人认为是好的“吉祥物”。如今,旧时的衙门没有了,但遗留下来的宫殿、庙宇的门前,其中有些石狮仍有保存。然而,想像不到的是,这号称“吉祥物”的石狮今天却开始“走”进某些党政机关的大门口,它们(石狮)在那里时时都在保护着这些政府要员“平平安安”、“吉祥如意”。这不仅使我联想起一些极端的报道,有些政府官员为升迁,请算命先生定位,用风水术为政府…     

政-治、教-学与文-化——古代中国政治正当性思想的一个向度

由“教”与“治”共同托举“政”是中国“政-治”思想的主体。治的承担主体“君”与教的承担主体“师”与“士”,在命名上存在内在关联。“君”与“君子”以“群”立义,最终指向相互影响和相互作用-共同体,也就是教学的共同体,真正意义上的政治生活便在于开发这种共同体。