Bringing Plurality Together: Common Sense,Thinking and Philosophy in Arendt

Arendt's concept of common sense has generally been misunderstood. It is almost exclusively interpreted in light of Kant's common sense, either as an espousal of the latter or as a distortion of it. This narrow reading of Arendtian common sense has led to a problem, as her uses of the concept do not always fit its Kantian understanding. This has led to accusing her of being inconsistent, or as holding on to several, incompatible concepts of common sense. This article argues that Arendt has one complex concept of common sense, used more or less consistently throughout her writings. Rather than understanding Arendt's common sense in light of Kant's, as most readers do, I demonstrate its links to Aristotle and to the eighteenth‐century Scottish school of common sense. By doing so I turn attention to a difficulty that has thus far not been adequately treated, namely the fact that Arendt presents two, allegedly contradictory pictures of the relation between common sense on the one hand and science and philosophy on the other: a picture in which science and philosophy depend upon common sense, versus one in which they find themselves in a conflict that eventually leads to the loss or demise of common sense. The last part of the article suggests a way to settle the tension between these two pictures, by understanding the political significance Arendt ascribes to them as two distinct yet complementary ways of approaching the modern phenomenon of totalitarianism.     

Thinking about the unknown

A long tradition of research suggests that children and adults with no formal education are prone to reason only on the basis of their first-hand experience, and do not encode and reason from novel generalizations supplied by other people. However, recent research reveals that when given simple prompts, even pre-school children can reason from adults’ unfamiliar claims. A radical implication of these findings is that young children arrive at school with a pre-existing capacity for thinking and reasoning about the unknown. The assumption that early learning should be rooted in children's own empirical experience could be mistaken.     

同一与多样：现代与后现代的悖论

肯德鸡、麦当劳的霓虹灯装点着中国都市的夜生活 ,黄皮肤的女人们学着白种同类们的样子洒着法国香水 ,北京的摩天大楼与纽约的没什么两样 ,中国制造的一颗螺丝钉同样可以装配在日本产的汽车上。在都市里 ,我们直接感受到的是现代化的滚滚洪流。当人们想逃离现代性的囚笼时 ,把边远乡村想像成“世外桃源” ,是位于现代性边际之外的自由与自在。实际上 ,我们人人已经置身于世界一体化的进程之中。全球一体化的过程 ,同时就是现代性从中心向边缘渗透和推进的过程。这个过程 ,我们称之为“现代化” ,它所展演的属性 ,即为“现代性”。吉登斯认为…     

对几种临床定势思维的思考

思维定势有权威定势、从众定势、经验定势、唯书本定势、情感定势.思维定势制约我们创新思想的发展,要更好实践临床工作,必须客观评价各种思维定势,主动进行创新思维训练.本文分别对各种思维定势在临床工作中的体现、优劣进行表述,并举例说明.     

对几种临床定势思维的思考

思维定势有权威定势、从众定势、经验定势、唯书本定势、情感定势。思维定势制约我们创新思想的发展,要更好实践临床工作,必须客观评价各种思维定势,主动进行创新思维训练。本文分别对各种思维定势在临床工作中的体现、优劣进行表述,并举例说明。     

Thinking about luck

Luck looms large in numerous different philosophical subfields. Unfortunately, work focused exclusively on the nature of luck is in short supply on the contemporary analytic scene. In his highly impressive recent book Epistemic Luck, Duncan Pritchard helps rectify this neglect by presenting a partial account of luck that he uses to illuminate various ways luck can figure in cognition. In this paper, I critically evaluate both Pritchard’s account of luck and another account to which Pritchard’s discussion draws our attention—viz., that due to Nicholas Rescher. I also assess some novel analyses of luck that incorporate plausible elements of Pritchard’s and Rescher’s accounts.     

Multiculturalism And Religio-ethnic Plurality

Malaysia is regarded one of the most plural countries in Southeast Asia. The plurality and the diversified nature of the society and the ability to live in relative peace and harmony make it possible to speak about Malaysia's experience of multiculturalism and co-existence. Upon independence in 1957 and the formation of Malaysia in 1963, the various religious and ethnic groups have practically demonstrated a remarkable sense of tolerance and reciprocity when they agreed to uphold the proposed Federal Constitution, which among other things granted citizenship to the immigrants (by the principle of jus soli), the recognition of Islam and the special Malay and Bumiputra rights. This paper seeks to depict the experience and the state of multiculturalism and the pattern of reciprocity and tolerance rooted and accustomed in the Malaysian society. It also traces some of the possible factors that are helping to shape the present generation's outlook towards multiculturalism.     

Thinking about the body as subject

The notion of immunity to error through misidentification (IEM) has played a central role in discussions of first-person thought. It seems like a way of making precise the idea of thinking about oneself ‘as subject’. Asking whether bodily first-person judgments (e.g. ‘My legs are crossed’) can be IEM is a way of asking whether one can think about oneself simultaneously as a subject and as a bodily thing. The majority view is that one cannot. I rebut that view, arguing that on all the notions of IEM that have so far been successfully defined, bodily first-person judgments can be IEM.     

昙鸾的净土思想

昙鸾的净土理论是以秽净二土相待的世界观为出发点的。他指出现实世界污秽不净、苦难无边,是秽土;自此向西过十万亿佛刹土,还存在一个阿弥陀佛极乐净土,那里清净安乐、充满了美好和幸福。他极力倡导人们信仰阿弥陀佛,凭借阿弥陀佛的愿力,称念其名,往生西方净土,这是易行道;以其他任何方法修行都是难行道,不可能疾速成佛。     

胸腔镜外科的发展、现状与思考

胸腔镜手术已经有近100年的历史,经历了传统胸腔镜外科,电视胸腔镜外科,机器人辅助胸腔镜外科,远程机器人手术等阶段,目前已成为许多胸部疾病的首选治疗手段。但胸腔镜外科的发展并不一帆风顺,经历了兴起、衰落、振兴的过程。我国现处于电视胸腔镜阶段。胸腔镜外科的发展历程是生产力水平和社会需求两个要素综合作用的典型范例,随着21世纪的到来,胸腔镜外科的明天更辉煌。     

胸腔镜外科的发展、现状与思考

胸腔镜手术已经有近100年的历史,经历了传统胸腔镜外科,电视胸腔镜外科,机器人辅助胸腔镜外科,远程机器人手术等阶段,目前已成为许多胸部疾病的首选治疗手段.但胸腔镜外科的发展并不一帆风顺,经历了兴起、衰落、振兴的过程.我国现处于电视胸腔镜阶段.胸腔镜外科的发展历程是生产力水平和社会需求两个要素综合作用的典型范例,随着21世纪的到来,胸腔镜外科的明天更辉煌.     

关于医学人文关怀的几点思考

医学兼有自然科学和人文社会科学双重属性.其核心理念即人文精神决定了医疗服务必须体现人文关怀,这是高质量医疗服务和医学模式转换的必然要求,并且有助于减少医疗纠纷,提升医院的竞争力.     

Thinking about feeling historical

This essay looks at the waning of melodramatic event genres in contemporary attempts to think historical experience. It telegraphs this engagement in four passages that pursue how to write the history of the present under conditions of crisis within the ordinary: in the first instance, AIDS/IRAQ are the goads, in the second, a more generalized but not apolitical atmosphere where the contemporary is encountered not as trauma but flatness.