公孙龙和“白马非马”

解释的不确定性关于白马的反论是在《公孙龙子》一书第二章开端叙述的。这个反论是由四个字组成的语句来表述的:白马非马,即“白马不是马”。文章随后又以对话形式来论证这个反论是可以被肯定的。因此,阐明和解释这个反论已经成了学者们十分感兴趣的问题。现代对这个反论已经有了许多解释性的理论,这些理论几乎全都是采用西方哲学传统中形而上学的、精神的、抽象的或语义学的概念。但问题在于阐明为什么公孙龙认为这个反论是可以被肯定的。在此,根据我的哲学观点对这个反论以及随后的对话进行唯名论的说明。我坚决主张,我们不需要把马当作“马的性质”;也不     

布洛赫——中间世界的思想家

说出把共产党人和布洛赫分开的东西是容易的。这里我指的不是老年布洛赫对“苏联的官僚主义”所作的动情感的、不恰当的指责,不是他对“社会主义的畸形发展”和现实的社会主义国家中“没有自由”的指责,如此等等。这不仅是因为他的明确的和富有战斗性的政治态度同上述言论是对立的,他在反对帝国主义的威胁时基本上始终是站在社会主义阵营一边的,而首先是因为这样一个问题:布洛赫的哲学对于马列主义到底具有什么意义。这个问题十分尖锐,因为布洛赫认为自己是一位进一步贯彻了马克思、恩格斯和列宁的思想的哲学     

西方资产阶级哲学的现时状况

3.试图克服非历史的和反进化主义的基本立场西方哲学的主要流派都持有反形而上学的立场,并固有着所谓的“现象学内在论”。这种内在论以各种方式断定人和世界的融合性或世界对人的直接赋予性;与以上两个特点密切相联系的是这些流派的其他一些基本原则和原理,特别是它们所共有的非历史的和反进化的研究方法,它们就是用这种方法来解释人的全部问题,解释文化生活和社会生活问题、认识的理论和方法论问题。形而上学的还原论对各种现实现象实质进行解释所依据的原则,是认为这些现象有一个外部的和     

萨特尔和他的《辩证理性批判》

萨特尔写的《辩证理性批判》(1960)实际上是他历史论的第一卷。这是一本令人兴奋而又晦涩难懂的著作,它那令人眼花缭乱的分析连接着离题万里的议论,天才的见解埋没在曲折的思路和叙述的沙漠中,人们总是无法弄清楚他是朝着哪条道路行进。在进行综合的崇高意愿背后,该书还显示了它的抱负:“对历史的认识在什么条件下才是可能的?在怎样的范围内,那些被揭示的联系是必要的?什么是辩证的理性?”(第135页,以下未注书名的均指《辩证理性批判》)这种计划表面看来是康德主义的,但它的新颖性又说明它是来自我们时代不可超越的理论——马克思主义。这本著作注意的就是这两方面要求的结合。这位战士和介     

阿尔都塞的多元决定与结构因果观

在阿尔都塞的马克思著作研究中,多元决定和结构因果性这两个概念是十分重要的。本文将通过考察阿尔都塞对这两个概念在理解马克思的“方法论”上的价值和应用的论述,来解释这两个概念。但这种研究方法并不认为在《资本论》或其他著作中,马克思实际上有一种具体的或明确的方法论。对我们来说,马克思主义中是否有方法论仍然是一个未解决的问题。对于任何的马克思方法论的探讨,这些概念都是重要的。本文的任务之一就是表明,马克思在政治经济学中的贡献和“理论革命”不能简单地用方法论来描绘。马克思对黑格尔的辩证法思     

The reliability of the Thematic Apperception Test

Controversy over the TAT's reliability may stem largely from the mis-application of traditional psychometric measures, which are inappropriate to this test. The TAT is implicitly based on a multiple regression model, for which coefficient alpha is not appropriate. Also, test-retest correlations may be adversely affected by the standard instructions to write a "creative" story. In a test-retest study, 47 high school students retook the TAT after a year with instructions designed to break the implicit set to produce a new and different story from that previously written. The test-retest correlations were r = .48 (need for affiliation) and .56 (need for intimacy), or approximately the same as those for, e.g., the MMPI, 16PF, and CPI, It was demonstrated that this high stability over time was not due to subjects' recalling and repeating previous responses. Finally, it was shown that alpha considerably underestimated the test-retest reliability, contrary to assumptions of classical psychometrics.     

The growth of stability: postural control from a development perspective

This study compared central nervous system organizational processes underlying balance in children of three age groups: 15-31 months, 4-6 years, and 7-10 years, using a movable platform capable of antero-posterior (A-P) displacements or dorsi-plantar flexing rotations of the ankle joint. A servo system capable of linking platform rotations to A-P sway angle allowed disruption of ankle joint inputs, to test the effects of incongruent sensory inputs on response patterns. Surface electromyography was used to quantify latency and response patterns. Surface electromyography was used to quantify latency and amplitude of the gastrocnemius, hamstrings, tibialis anterior, and quadriceps muscle responses. Cinematography provided biomechanical analysis of the sway motion. Results demonstrated that while directionally specific response synergies are present in children under the age of six, structured organization of the synergies is not yet fully developed since variability in timing and amplitude relationships between proximal and distal muscles is high. Transition from immature to mature response patterns was not linear but stage-like with greatest variability in the 4- to 6- year-old children. Results from balance tests under altered sensory conditions (eyes closed and/or ankle joint inputs altered) suggested that: (a) with development a shift in controlling inputs to posture from visual dependence to more adult-like dependence on a combination of ankle joint and visual inputs occurred in the 4- to 6-year-old, and reached adult form in the 7- to 10-year-old age group. It is proposed that the age 4-6 is a transition period in the development of posture control. At this time the nervous system (a) uses visual-vestibular inputs to fine tune ankle-joint proprioception in preparation for its increased importance in posture control and (b) fine tunes the structural organization of the postural synergies themselves.     

Reflex responses of human lip muscles to mechanical stimulation during speech

The role played by reflex pathways in the production of movement has been a significant issue for motor control theorists interested in a wide variety of motor behaviors. From studies of locomotion and chewing, it appears that gains in reflex pathways can be altered so that activity in these pathways does not produce destabilizing responses during movement. In speech production, recent experimental evidence has been interpreted to suggest that autogenetic lip reflexes (perioral reflexes) are suppressed during sustained phonation or speech production. The present study was conducted to assess the effects of phonation, direction of movement, and ongoing speech production on reflex responses of lip muscles. The present results suggest, in contrast to earlier work, that this reflex pathway is not suppressed or absent because the amplitude of the observed response depends upon the activation levels of the various muscles of the lower lip and, therefore, indirectly on the nature of the gesture the subject is instructed to produce.     

Symmetry and transitivity of conditional relations in monkeys (Cebus apella) and pigeons (Columba livia)

In Experiment 1 six monkeys were tested with discriminative relations that were backward relative to their training in a 0-second conditional (“symbolic”) matching procedure. Although there was some indication of backward associations, the evidence was generally weak, and statistical evaluations did not reach conventional significance levels. Unlike children, who show backward associations to the point of symmetry, monkeys and pigeons display at best only weak and transient backward associations. In Experiment 2 associative transitivity was assessed across two sets of conditional matching tasks. All four monkeys tested demonstrated strong transitivity. In contrast, in Experiment 3 there was no evidence of transitivity in three pigeons tested under conditions closely comparable to those of Experiment 2. These results may identify some key features of interspecies differences and contribute to analyses of serial learning in animals.     

A behavior-analytic critique of Bandura's self-efficacy theory

A behavior-analytic critique of self-efficacy theory is presented. Self-efficacy theory asserts that efficacy expectations determine approach behavior and physiological arousal of phobics as well as numerous other clinically important behaviors. Evidence which is purported to support this assertion is reviewed. The evidence consists of correlations between self-efficacy ratings and other behaviors. Such response-response relationships do not unequivocally establish that one response causes another. A behavior-analytic alternative to self-efficacy theory explains these relationships in terms of environmental events. Correlations between self-efficacy rating behavior and other behavior may be due to the contingencies of reinforcement that establish a correspondence between such verbal predictions and the behavior to which they refer. Such a behavior-analytic account does not deny any of the empirical relationships presented in support of self-efficacy theory, but it points to environmental variables that could account for those relationships and that could be manipulated in the interest of developing more effective treatment procedures.