Life and Death Matters: Losing a Sense of the Value of Human Beings

The essay combines a specific and a more general theme. In attacking ‘the doctrine of the sanctity of human life’ Singer takes himself thereby to be opposing the conviction that human life has special value. I argue that this conviction goes deep in our lives in many ways that do not depend on what Singer identifies as central to that ‘doctrine’, and that his attack therefore misses its main target. I argue more generally that Singer’s own moral philosophy affords only an impoverished and distorted sense of the value of human life and human beings. In purporting to dig below the supposedly illusion–ridden surface of our thinking about value, Singer in fact often leads us away from the robust terrain of our lived experience into rhetorical, and sometimes brutal, fantasy.     

Kant and Wittgenstein: Common Sense,Therapy, and the Critical Philosophy

Kant’s reputation for making absolutist claims about universal and necessary conditions for the possibility of experience are put here in the broader context of his goals for the Critical philosophy. It is shown that within that context, Kant’s claims can be seen as considerably more innocuous than they are traditionally regarded, underscoring his deep respect for “common sense” and sharing surprisingly similar goals with Wittgenstein in terms of what philosophy can, and at least as importantly cannot, provide.

Crossing the Divide Within Continental Philosophy: Reconstruction, Deconstruction, Dialogue and Education

In this article I explore some points of convergence between Habermas and Derrida that revolve around the intersection of ethical and epistemological issues in dialogue. After some preliminary remarks on how dialogue and language are viewed by Habermas and Derrida as standpoints for departing from the philosophy of consciousness and from logocentric metaphysics, I cite the main points of a classroom dialogue in order to illustrate the way in which the ideas of Habermas and Derrida are sometimes received as well as the actual relevance of ethical and epistemic concerns within educational settings. I claim that such concerns cannot be sidestepped without cost and that they can be approached by combining rather than rigidly separating Habermas and Derrida. Beyond the consolidated polemics, emancipatory politics and Enlightenment priorities of truth and justice bring Habermasian reconstruction and Derridean deconstruction closer than it is typically assumed. Attention to such a convergence can enrich the teaching material of higher education courses which usually comprises either Habermasian or Derridean texts but rarely both. It can also stave off some of the risks involved in some versions of constructivism as they occur in school practice.     

中医和中国哲学中身体的意义:以梦为中心

对梦这个精神现象的考察可从多个角度进行,中国医学和哲学范围内的几种释梦思路反映出对精神状态的一贯重视,但这种重视必须联系身体观念才构成完整的体察。中医把梦视为身体疾病的信号,道家的"至人无梦"说和宋代理学对"孔子梦周公"问题的讨论则涉及两种释梦思路间的转移,即从视梦为精神状态和精神修养的指针到兆示吉凶的征兆。脱离身体的精神化解读暴露的中国古典身体观念和崇圣传统之间的张力,是造成这一转移的主要因素。     

Perception,Body, and the Sense of Touch: Phenomenology and Philosophy of Mind

In recent philosophy of mind, a series of challenging ideas have appeared about the relation between the body and the sense of touch. In certain respects, these ideas have a striking affinity with Husserl’s theory of the constitution of the body. Nevertheless, these two approaches lead to very different understandings of the role of the body in perception. Either the body is characterized as a perceptual “organ,” or the body is said to function as a “template.” Despite its focus on the sense of touch, the latter conception, I will argue, nevertheless orients its understanding of tactual perception toward visual objects. This produces a distorted conception of touch. In this paper, I will formulate an alternative account, which is more faithful to what it is like to feel.

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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.     

Try and Catch the Wind: Dialogue,Dialectics, and Development in Kohlberg's Life and Legacy

Berkowitz focuses on the theme of dialectic, interactive growth in his relationship with Kohlberg, and as the phenomena of study in his own research. He lists future research needs.     

中医“正气存内，邪不可干”的防疫思维释义

《内经》“正气存内,邪不可干”凝聚着人类战胜疾病,尤其是疫病的哲学智慧,几千年来成为中医学指导人民战胜疫病、护佑健康的指导思想。在此次遭遇的百年来全球最严重的新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情防治过程中,中医药发挥了独特作用。当前,在新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情仍未完全遏制的背景下,阐释中医学“正气存内,邪不可干”的防疫思维,为当代公共卫生防疫贡献中医力量：一是接受人类与疫病共存的历史和现实;二是树立未病先防的中医学健康理念;三是重塑人与自然相应的生命共同体意识;四是重视身心协调在防疫中的意义。

     

脑内移植:医学的冷静哲学的忧思

脑内移植的发展历史从狂热到冷静的过程,说明科学必须是要踏实地,实事求是,过于冒进只能导致失败。我们应当从中总结经验。吸取教训。同时,脑内移植的研究存在许多社会和伦理问题有待解决。