“吾生也有涯，而知也无涯”

中国传统四大学派即道、儒、墨和法家的思想不仅直接影响推动中国文化,而且流转到世界各国各地使异国学者也悟到中国传统哲学思想的深奥。其中,道家学派代表性著作《庄子》有很大的实际作用。有的人认为庄子的思想只是很复杂的哲学概念而已,它的实际作用并不是很大,读《庄子》的最大的作用是锻炼古文而内容方面对现代的人没有可以学到东西了。还有些人把《庄子》这一部著作当作有浓厚的文学色彩的中国浪漫主义杰作。但是,从《庄子》这一部著作的内容来考察现存的一切问题或者从这位先秦的思想家的哲学观念来切入、分析并揭开现代世界任何一…     

Grassroots spirituality: What it is,why it is here,where it is going,by Robert K. Forman

Among Asian Americans, particularly within immigrant communities, religious leaders are respected and sought out for support and guidance. There is a need to examine how religious leaders, especially within non-Christian faiths, identify persons and ascribe meaning and attributions to mental health concerns. The aim of this paper was to address this knowledge gap by exploring the perceptions of five Vietnamese American Buddhist leaders in regards to mental illness. Using qualitative analytic techniques we identified appearance, behaviours, and cognitive impairments that leaders interpreted as indicators of a mental health condition. Religious leaders cited messy and overly adorned outer appearance, aggressive and violent behaviours, and abnormal cognitive functioning as indicative of mental health problems. They attributed mental illness to a variety of causes: daily stressors, mind-body imbalance, karma, virtuous deeds, and spiritual possession. Findings inform strategies for faith-based initiatives and mental health service delivery to religiously affiliated Asian Americans.     

Where there's life,There's hope,and where there is hope,there is...

Using the Hearth Hope Index, we describe the level of hopefulness among hospital patients and compare it to that reported by community persons and family members in a surgical waiting room. We also correlate these results with depression and self-esteem scores. As measured by these selected instruments, the results suggest that the level of hopefulness is not significantly different among the three samples, that it is positively correlated with self-esteem and negatively associated with depression, and that, among the demographic variables, only the respondent's age and frequency of attendance at worship significantly influence hope scores. The results suggest that pastoral caregivers can encourage hopefulness among those under their care by bolstering self-esteem and giving attention to depressive symptoms. They also suggest that those who need the most pastoral support are younger adults with limited education. Pastoral caregivers can use these results, we think, to inform their work in giving pastoral care.     

When organizational climate is unambiguous, it is also strong

Several recent studies have addressed the topic of climate strength--the degree to which there is agreement among an organization's members regarding the practices and policies as well as the shared values that characterize the organization. To further investigate antecedents of climate strength, the authors used data from the GLOBE Project, totaling 3,783 individuals from 123 organizations. The authors hypothesized that they would find greater climate strength in organizations with climates reflecting mechanistic as opposed to organic organizational forms. Although the authors did in fact find such a trend, they also unexpectedly uncovered significant and strong nonlinear effects, such that climates that are clearly mechanistic or clearly organic have strong climates, with weaker climates emerging for organizations with more ambiguous climates. These findings provide interesting new avenues to pursue in understanding the origins of climate strength.     

Hesperus is Phosphorus, Indeed

Tobias Hansson Wahlberg argues in a recent article that the truth of “Hesperus is Phosphorus” depends on the assumption that the endurance theory of persistence is true. I argue that the premise Wahlberg’s conclusion is based upon leads to absurd consequences, therefore, nothing recommends it. As a consequence, “Hesperus is Phosphorus” has to be true, if it is true, regardless of which theory of persistence one is committed to.     

Religion is natural, atheism is not: On why everybody is both right and wrong

After discussing evidence of irreligion and the rise of the so called “New Atheism”, the authors refute the claim that this poses a problem for the cognitive science of religion and its hypothesis that religion is natural. The “naturalness hypothesis” is not deterministic but probabilistic and thus leaves room for atheism. This, the authors maintain, is true of both the by-product and adaptationist stances within the cognitive science of religion. In this context the authors also discuss the memetic or “unnaturalness” hypothesis, i.e. that religion is a “virus of the mind”. The authors criticize accounts of atheism offered by cognitive scientists of religion as being based on unfounded assumptions about the psychology of atheists, and object to the notion that the natural aspects of religion by corollary make atheism unnatural. By considering human cognition in a semiotic framework and emphasizing its natural ability to take part in semiotic systems of signs, atheism emerges as a natural, cognitive strategy. The authors argue that to reach a fuller account of religion, the cognitive (naturalness) and memetic (unnaturalness) hypotheses of religion must be merged. Finally, a preliminary analysis of the “New Atheism” is offered in terms of semiotic and cognitive dynamics.     

Religion is natural,atheism is not: On why everybody is both right and wrong

After discussing evidence of irreligion and the rise of the so called “New Atheism”, the authors refute the claim that this poses a problem for the cognitive science of religion and its hypothesis that religion is natural. The “naturalness hypothesis” is not deterministic but probabilistic and thus leaves room for atheism. This, the authors maintain, is true of both the by‐product and adaptationist stances within the cognitive science of religion. In this context the authors also discuss the memetic or “unnaturalness” hypothesis, i.e. that religion is a “virus of the mind”. The authors criticize accounts of atheism offered by cognitive scientists of religion as being based on unfounded assumptions about the psychology of atheists, and object to the notion that the natural aspects of religion by corollary make atheism unnatural. By considering human cognition in a semiotic framework and emphasizing its natural ability to take part in semiotic systems of signs, atheism emerges as a natural, cognitive strategy. The authors argue that to reach a fuller account of religion, the cognitive (naturalness) and memetic (unnaturalness) hypotheses of religion must be merged. Finally, a preliminary analysis of the “New Atheism” is offered in terms of semiotic and cognitive dynamics     

Yes,Safety is in Danger

In an essay recently published in this journal (“Is Safety in Danger?”), Fernando Broncano-Berrocal defends the safety condition on knowledge from a counterexample proposed by Tomas Bogardus (Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 2012). In this paper, we will define the safety condition, briefly explain the proposed counterexample, and outline Broncano-Berrocal’s defense of the safety condition. We will then raise four objections to Broncano-Berrocal’s defense, four implausible implications of his central claim. In the end, we conclude that Broncano-Berrocal’s defense of the safety condition is unsuccessful, and that the safety condition on knowledge should be rejected.     

Prevention,not treatment,is the only hope

If our goal is the reduction or elimination of emotional disorders in our country, or in the world, a major social revolution is required. Individual psychotherapy is available to a small number only. No mass disorder has ever been eliminated by treating one person at a time. Psychotherapy is useful in teaching the possibility of unlearning damaging habits and thus it contradicts the organic-brain disease model advanced by political conservatives. Organic explanations of mental disorder find causes inside the person and ignore or deny the pathological environments of poverty, racism, sexism and exploitation. The organic model is supported by corporate power and conservative citizens' groups. It is time for radicals to come together to expose the power elite for its control of invalid ruling ideas.     

说造就人的好话

言语是人一生当中用来表达自己的情感和心思意念的工具。在人际关系中,人们是和睦相处,还是冷眼相对,往往与他们说的话紧密关联,因为有其人必有其言。同样,在我们基督徒的信仰生活中,上帝特别看重我们所说的话,因为我们所说的话能反映出我们内心的景况。在圣经当中记载了许多关于言语的教训,上帝将这么多有关言语的教导摆在我     

We ARE Darwinians,and this is what the fuss is all about

Evolutionary accounts of human behavior often involve constructing the past from the present. For this reason, such accounts are highly susceptible to ideological biases and cultural blinders. Sociobiology is a variant of competitive individualism that also underlies many economic and psychological models. These assumptions must be tested against competing models of human sociality if evolutionary psychology is to be science rather than dogma.Nonbelief, when rigorous, systematic, and searching was considered a threat to all orthodoxy; no institution is safe if people simply stop believing in the assumptions that justify its existence.Margaret C. Jacob,The Cultural Meaning of the Scientific Revolution Adapted from a symposium presentation given at the annual meeting of the Society for Experimental Social Psychology, October 13, 1990, Buffalo, New York.