Concept empiricism: a methodological critique

Thanks to Barsalou's, Damasio's, Glenberg's, Prinz' and others' work, neo-empiricism is gaining a deserved recognition in the psychology and philosophy of concepts. I argue, however, that neo-empiricists have underestimated the difficulty of providing evidence against the amodal approach to concepts and higher cognition. I highlight three key problems: the difficulty of sorting out amodal predictions from neo-empiricist predictions, the difficulty of finding experimental tasks that are not best solved by imagery and the difficulty of generalizing findings concerning a given cognitive process in a given context to other cognitive processes or other contexts. Finally, solutions to these three problems are considered.     

The responsive order: A new empiricism

The uniqueness of logic is upheld and contrasted with twenty roles of a wider responsive order that includes us and our procedures. Empirical responses are precise, but different in different approaches. Procedures and findings are independent of (not separable from) their concepts. Two-way feedback obviates a top-down derivation of findings from assumptions, hypotheses, history, or language. The postmodern problems of interpretation, conditions of appearances and relativism involve the ancient error of making perception the model-instance of experience. Instead, bodily interaction functions in language and precedes perception and interpretation. Logic, space time locations and individuated referents involve positional relations derived from comparing. Beyond Kuhn, Feyerabend, Newton and Einstein, if we can give interaction priority over comparing, the responsive objectivity of both can be upheld. A new empiricism, neither naive nor constructivist, uses the words order, explication, truth, and exactly to build on Wittgenstein and on Dilthey's hermeneutic. Natural language is metaphor-like, originally crossed. Logic must ignore its assumptions. It must render everything as a machine and drop humans and animals out. A new discipline is proposed, to move between the logical and the responsive orders, to deal with the machine/human interface and the social uses of science such as bioengineering.     

具身认知:佛学的视角

作为现代认知科学的新兴研究范式,具身认知强调身体在认知的实现中发挥着关键作用。但对于身体是什么以及身体如何影响认知等问题,有关各方的研究者却都未能给予很好的说明。佛教在漫长的历史发展过程中,藉由禅修实践积累了大量的基于身体方案的"准"具身认知的素材;其"心色不二"的蕴积身体观,"根"、"尘"、"识"相互缘起的认知观以及独到的"第一人称研究方法"(禅观)等,对于当前具身认知研究的进一步深入具有重要的启发意义。     

The co-instantiation thesis

The co-instantiation thesis is pivotal to a significant solution to the problem of causal exclusion. But this thesis has been subject to some powerful objections. In this paper, I argue that these difficulties arise because the thesis lacks the necessary metaphysical framework in which its claims should be interpreted and understood. Once this framework is in place, we see that the co-instantiation thesis can answer its critics. The result is a rehabilitated co-instantiation solution to the troubling problem of causal exclusion. But questions remain concerning the viability of certain of its applications.     

中国化的佛教绘画艺术以宋代画僧为中心的考察

中唐以后,随着中国化的佛教宗派——禅宗的影响逐渐扩大, “悦禅之风”不但在佛教僧人中广为盛行,在文人士大夫阶层也流传甚广.到了宋代,禅宗和净土宗更是成为当时佛教的主流宗派.在此阶段,佛教与中国传统的儒家、道教文化进一步融合,极大推进了佛教中国化的进程. 这一思想潮流也表现在当时的佛教艺术之中,直观地体现在宋代画僧的作品...     

Rationalism and empiricism: A new perspective

Though classical and twentieth-century versions of empiricism and rationalism fail in their aims, as does the Kantian attempt at a compromise between those views, there are residues of those views that play important roles in the scientific enterprise. Those residue, and their scientific roles, are examined in this paper.     

Equivocations on knowledge systems theory: An actor-oriented critique

Knowledge systems theory, in our view, tends to obscure rather than illuminate an understanding of the fundamentals of knowledge processes in society. This tendency occurs primarily because both the theory, and the methodologies that are derived from it, fail to recognize that knowledge processes are social processes, and thereby that knowledge itself has to be envisaged as a social construction. As a result of this omission, knowledge systems theory and methodology can only deal poorly with issues of power and social conflict, and, at the same time, tend to make use of several inappropriate teleological and reifying notions. According to our view, the understanding of knowledge processes will benefit greatly from a more actor-oriented perspective. In such an approach, emphasis is accorded to human agency and the concept of multiple knowledge networks. Central purposes of actor-oriented methodologies then, are to clarify how actors attempt to create space for their own ‘projects’ and to determine which elements contribute to or impede the successful creation of such space for maneuver. Norman Long is a member of the Department of Rural Sociology of the Tropics and Subtropics at Wageningen Agricultural University, P.O. Box 8130, 6700 EW, Wageningen, The Netherlands. He is known for his work in the sociology of rural development. Magdalena Villarreal recently acquired her M.S. in “Management of Agricultural Knowledge Systems” at Wageningen Agricultural University. She is presently working on a Ph.D. proposal on issues of power, gender, and intervention.     

印度佛教医学概论

佛教医学的研究方兴未艾,本文首先对其定义进行了探讨,界定了佛教医学与印度佛教医学各自范围。从基础理论、临床实践、医用咒语、养生保健等方面,概述了印度佛教医学的主要内容,并归纳出它的四个特点。又大体略述了佛教律藏药事的构成内容,最后概括了律藏医药的五大特点以及律藏药事戒律的四个特征。     

Transcendental empiricism: Deleuze''s response to Hegel

Funding for the research leading to this article was generously provided by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Post-Doctoral Fellowship. I would like to thank Andrew Irvine and Steve Savitt for criticisms of an earlier version of this paper, as well as the anonymousMan and World referee.     

佛教节日

佛教在中国传播过程中,一些宗教仪式与传统的民间风俗相结合,逐渐形成名目繁多的宗教节日。每逢这些节日,寺院和民间通常要举行各种纪念活动。这些民族化的佛教节日,主要有佛诞节、盂兰盆节、佛成道节等。