论人的脆弱性和依赖性

人类所有的脆弱性是人性的一个基本事实。人类的脆弱性与人类的德性需要是内在相关的。但是,在漫长的西方哲学史上,对于人的脆弱性以及人的依赖性这一基本的人性事实却很少有人注意。然而,人类需要承认依赖性的德性。     

Why Doomsday Arguments are Better than Simulation Arguments

Inspired by anthropic reasoning behind Doomsday arguments, Nick Bostrom's Simulation Argument says: people who think advanced civilisations would run many fully‐conscious simulated minds should also think they're probably simulated minds themselves. However, Bostrom's conclusions can (and should) be resisted, especially by sympathisers with Doomsday or anthropic reasoning. This paper initially offers a posterior‐probabilistic ‘Doomsday lottery’ argument against Bostrom's conclusions. Suggestions are then offered for deriving anti‐simulation conclusions using weaker assumptions. Anti‐simulation arguments herein use more (epistemically and metaphysically) robust reference classes than Bostrom's argument, require no Principles of Indifference, abide better by the total evidence requirement, and yet use empirically plausible priors and likelihoods. However, while Doomsday arguments are probabilistically, epistemically and metaphysically stronger than the Simulation Argument, anthropic reasoning can (and should) refrain from embracing either.     

Indicators of Self-rated Driving across 3 Years among a Community-based Sample of Older Adults

These secondary analyses were conducted to identify predictors of self-rated driving ability over three years in community-dwelling older adults. From the Staying Keen in Later Life (SKILL) study, baseline and 3-year follow-up data for 426 older drivers were analyzed. Health, visual, physical, psychological and cognitive abilities were examined as prospective predictors of self-rated driving ability over a 3-year period, controlling for baseline self-rated driving. Results indicated that lower baseline ratings of self-efficacy and a diagnosis of osteoporosis independently predicted lower self-rated driving ability at 3-year follow-up. Interestingly, functional performance, such as visual, physical and cognitive abilities, were not predictive of self-ratings of driving ability across three years. Older drivers' self-ratings are more reflective of perceived self-efficacy rather than functional abilities. Self-screening tools for older drivers may be effective in improving the correspondence between perceived ability and actual ability in order to promote better informed decisions about driving regulation.     

The Role of Women's Relationships With Their Partners in Their Adjustment Following Prenatal Genetic Testing1

This study explored how aspects of the couple relationship contributed to the adjustment of 95 women who underwent prenatal diagnostic (PND) testing because of advanced maternal age (AMA). Participants completed self‐report measures prior to genetic counseling (T1), during the waiting period for PND test results (T2), and after normal results were received (T3). At T2, distress was predicted by the degree to which women approached the PND decision jointly with their partners, and marital adjustment was predicted by women's satisfaction with the support received from their partners. Marital adjustment at T3 was predicted by earlier levels of partner agreement about PND‐related issues. Results suggest that the couple relationship has the potential to facilitate or hinder women's experience of PND testing.     

Dissociations in visual attention deficits among persons with mild cognitive impairment

Impairments in visual attention and visual information processing have been identified as part of the neuropsychological features of Alzheimer's disease (AD), even in its earliest stages. There is increasing recognition that these deficits may be selective rather than global, with some attentional subtypes being more vulnerable than others. The few studies that have investigated attentional deficits in mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a putatively prodromal phase of AD, have not satisfactorily addressed the possible selectivity in attentional deficits in MCI. This study examined potential dissociations in visual attention deficits in MCI using a measure that assesses simple, divided, and selective attention. The results indicated a hierarchy of attentional impairments, with divided attention being the most affected and simple attention the least. Among participants with MCI, 53% showed evidence of impairment in divided attention compared to 19% of controls (OR = 4.81, p < .001). Poorer visual attention was also associated with poorer overall cognitive status. The implications of these findings for early identification of MCI, prevention of functional decline in MCI, and delay/reversal of cognitive degradation in MCI are discussed.     

Line-bisectioning and obstacle avoidance: Evidence for separate strategies

Previous studies have frequently applied a combination of line-bisection tasks (in which participants indicate the middle of a line) and obstacle avoidance tasks (in which participants move their hand between two obstacles) with the aim of revealing perception–action dissociations in certain neurological disorders, such as visual form agnosia and optic ataxia. However, valid conclusions about the underlying processing pathways can only be drawn if participants apply the same strategy in both tasks (i.e. finding the middle between the obstacles). Yet, this assumption has never been tested directly. In this experiment, we investigated whether participants perform obstacle avoidance and line-bisectioning using similar strategies by manipulating the position of the obstacles and the start position of the hand relative to the obstacles. Our results indicate that the lateral hand position during obstacle avoidance does not only vary as a function of obstacle location but also strongly depends on the start position. Moreover, participants showed increased sensitivity to obstacle shifts occurring closer to the hand's start position. In contrast, during line-bisectioning the sensitivity to obstacles shifts was unaffected by the hand's start position. The findings suggest that during obstacle-avoidance the need to keep a safe distance from the obstacles is balanced with the requirement to minimise energetic demands. In contrast, the main intention during line-bisectioning is to move to the perceived midpoint as accurately as possible. The fact that very different constraints underlie trajectory planning in both tasks implies that caution has to be taken when interpreting differences in performance levels.     

Animal Rights and Animal Experiments: An Interest-Based Approach

This paper examines whether non-human animals have a moral right not to be experimented upon. It adopts a Razian conception of rights, whereby an individual possesses a right if an interest of that individual is sufficient to impose a duty on another. To ascertain whether animals have a right not to be experimented on, three interests are examined which might found such a right: the interest in not suffering, the interest in staying alive, and the interest in being free. It is argued that while the first two of these interests are sufficient to ground animal rights against being killed and made to suffer by experiments, the interest in freedom does not ground a general animal right not to be used in experimentation. Winner of the second annual Res Publica Postgraduate Essay Prize, 2006.     

The Neuropsychology of HIV/AIDS in Older Adults

Highly active antiretroviral therapy is allowing increasing numbers of adults to age with HIV. The neuropsychological effects of aging with HIV are reviewed through three types of studies. First, the separate effects of HIV and aging on cognition are examined in studies that compare younger adults with HIV with neurologically normal older adults. Second, studies examine the impact of aging within samples of adults with HIV only. Third, providing the most critical evidence, are studies that assess cognition in younger and older adults with HIV relative to younger and older adults without HIV. In general research findings are inconclusive. Large individual differences among older adults with HIV as well as co-factors (APOE4 and detectable viral load) may account for inconsistent findings in the literature. A subgroup of older adults with HIV may be at greater risk for cognitive impairment, especially in attention functioning.