What Philosophy Might be About: Some Socio-philosophical Speculations

The most important sources of contemporary American literary theory are neither the linguistics-based movement of French structuralism, as the term 'poststructuralism' implies, nor a 'modernity' that has been superseded, as the term 'postmodernism' implies, but rather a modernist tradition of aesthetics shaped by eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century German romanticism and idealism, movements that culminated in the work of Heidegger during the Weimar period between the World Wars and afterward, exercising an increasingly dominant influence on French theorists after World War II, from Sartre through Derrida, and subsequently on the development of poststructuralism and postmodernism during the 1970s and 1980s in the United States. This essay strives to put well-accepted facts and issues within what Wittgenstein called a 'perspicuous' perspective. Although it is common to observe that deconstruction shares with Romanticism certain very general features, the same judgment is not often applied to deconstruction's semiotic account of language as a system of arbitrary signs without positive values. The essay's claim, by contrast, is that romanticist, especially German influences, operating in complementary relation with influences from the English and French Enlightenments, provided the cultural and conceptual milieu in which literary theory's distinctively modern, characteristically ontological, and anti-metaphysical view of language developed.     

险些发生的人命案

杀生祭旗,古来有之,留传至今,并非绝迹,说是吉利,无法考证。杀生之事屡见不鲜,尤其是在大年除夕之夜,砍掉猪头祭神灵者,在我们这一带还颇盛行呢！这叫实际的罪恶,更有一种罪恶是虚妄的,这就是闻声摄魂,还真有活人被勾去魂魄的。     

Existential Graphs: What a Diagrammatic Logic of Cognition Might Look Like

This paper examines the contemporary philosophical and cognitive relevance of Charles Peirce's diagrammatic logic of existential graphs (EGs), the ‘moving pictures of thought’. The first part brings to the fore some hitherto unknown details about the reception of EGs in the early 1900s that took place amidst the emergence of modern conceptions of symbolic logic. In the second part, philosophical aspects of EGs and their contributions to contemporary logical theory are pointed out, including the relationship between iconic logic and images, the problem of the meaning of logical constants, the cognitive economy of iconic logic, the failure of the Frege–Russell thesis, and the failure of the Language of Thought hypothesis.     

What is to be done in the history of philosophy

Because the History of Philosophy is a branch of both History and Philosophy, it faces tasks which are Historical, tasks which are Philosophical, and tasks which overlap both. As Philosophy typically flourishes by incorporating and assimilating ideas and bodies of text which have either not previously been part of its stock in trade or have been forgotten, the main task facing the History of Philosophy today is that of developing serious scholarship in areas that have been largely neglected, such as Philosophy in Arabic and Persian as well as in Sanskrit and Chinese.     

They Might as Well be in Bolivia: Race,Ethnicity and the Problem of Solid Organ Donation

Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics -     

What should be expected of psychologists in education reform?

Psychologists should and can assume roles beyond those of college teacher, school counselor, and psychometrist since the reforms needed lie within their proper demesne, the fields or learning-motor, verbal, and social. Many schools first require renovation to enter the twentieth century. Some are now ready for possible innovations. The barbarous grading and marking system must be replaced by ungraded grouping and by criterion-instead of norm-referenced marking. Teaching roles must be differentiated as explaining, coaching, and discussion-leading. And the best methods and media must be employed for each in order to adapt to individual differences in the attainment of specific educational objectives.     

不经意间背离了科学的严谨——从“香河肉身“谈起

专家座谈会 　　1992年11月24日,一位83岁的普通农村妇女在北京因病去世.殊不料半年之后,竞变成一时非常轰动的“奇迹“.在未经处理的情况下,她的尸体没有腐败,自然风干“演化“成为木乃伊.许多报刊曾争相转载了这一奇闻.在老人的三周年忌日,我被邀请到香河,在她的故居参加了一个有二十多人的专家座谈会,从中了解到一些鲜为人知的情节.……     

Individual Differences Associated with Emotional and Behavioral Responses to Ambiguous Social Situations in which Rejection Might be Inferred

This study sought to examine the extent to which undergraduates' experiences with and attitudes relevant to rejection may be associated with their emotional and behavioral responses to ambiguous social situations in which rejection might be inferred. Undergraduate students completed questionnaires that assessed their experiences with and attitudes relevant to being rejected. Next, each participant read six hypothetical scenarios that described various situations that could be interpreted as interpersonal rejection. Following each scenario, participants completed questionnaires that assessed their emotional and behavioral responses to the hypothetical situation. Analyses revealed that the participants' experiences with rejection (and, to a lesser extent, their rejection-relevant attitudes) were associated with a negative emotional response and some negative behavioral responses. In sum, when another individual's interpersonal behavior has an uncertain intent, undergraduates' prior experiences with rejection may be especially important in determining the extent to which they feel and act as if they have been rejected.