Spatial integration in Glass patterns

The extraction of a global orientation structure presumably has a different neural mechanism from that of the analysis of its local features. We investigated spatial integration within these two mechanisms using stimulus patterns composed of dot pairs (dipoles). The stimuli targeted local feature detection, contained no global configuration, but rather contained randomly oriented dipoles of a fixed length (the distance between the dots in a pair). For the detection of a global orientation structure, local dipole orientations were arranged in a concentric Glass pattern. Thresholds as a function of a stimulus area were determined by measuring the minimum proportion of dipoles among random-dot noise (signal-to-noise ratio) required for the detection of dipoles (features), as well as for the detection of an orientation structure. Thresholds for feature detection were significantly higher than those for the detection of the global structure--regardless of the stimulus size. Spatial integration, however, did not differ between the two tasks: the exponents of the power functions fitted to data for six observers were -0.48 +/- 0.07 for random dipole orientations and -0.62 +/- 0.1 for Glass patterns.     

Information-seeking dialogues: Some of their logical properties

The dialogical games introduced in Jaakko Hintikka, Information-Seeking Dialogues: A Model, (Erkenntnis, vol. 14, 1979) are studied here to answer the question as to what the natural logic or the logic of natural language is. In a natural language certain epistemic elements are not explicitly indicated, but they determine which inference rules are valid. By means of dialogical games, the question is answered: all classical first-order rules have to be modified in the same way in which some of them are modified in the transition to intuitionistic logic. (Furthermore, in some cases quantificational rules have to be modified further.) The rules that are left unmodified by intuitionists are applicable only to the output of certain game rules, but not to others. In. this sense, neither classical nor yet intuitionistic logic is the logic of natural language. We need a new type of nonclassical logic, justified by our information-seeking dialogues.     

How Not to Criticise Scientism

This paper argues that the main global critiques of scientism lose their punch because they rely on an uncharitable definition of their target. It focuses on epistemological scientism and divides it into four categories in terms of how strong (science is the only source of knowledge) or weak (science is the best source of knowledge) and how narrow (only natural sciences) or broad (all sciences or at least not only the natural sciences) they are. Two central arguments against scientism, the (false) dilemma and self-referential incoherence, are analysed. Of the four types of epistemological scientism, three can deal with these counterarguments by utilizing two methodological principles: epistemic evaluability of reliability and epistemic opportunism. One hopes that these considerations will steer the discussion on scientism to more fruitful pastures in the future. For example, there are interesting methodological considerations concerning what evaluability or reliability and epistemic opportunism entail.     

Bioethics—Eleven Approaches

Abstract:  Using a case study, the author reviews 11 different approaches to bioethics, examining both their implications in clinical practice and their importance for clergy. In addition to the popular stress on patients' rights and principles in bioethics, the approaches include perspectives drawn from feminist ethics, phenomenology, ethnography, covenant views, virtue ethics, postmodernism, and casuistry. Lebacqz shows that each perspective may be important for stressing something different in the clinical setting, and suggests that clergy should be prepared to extend the range of views that may be operating in a given case.     

Theology is not Mere Sociology: A Theological Reflection on the Reception of the Christian Religion in Mainland China

Abstract :  Post‐Maoist China retains its loyalty to Marxist principles; yet voices are being heard that interpret religion much more positively. Both government spokespersons and Religious Studies scholars measure the value of religion according to its social function. Such a criterion of evaluation fails to take account of what is essential to Christian theology, namely, appeal to divine transcendence. Yet, Christian theology in the tradition of the Lutheran Reformation begins with transcendence and turns toward human responsibility for the world through loving the neighbor. This may mark a common cause between Chinese sociology of religion and Christian commitments to social well‐being.     

Hearts Set to Obey

Abstract : Caught in the tension between the reality of our sin and the reality of God's forgiveness and grace, how are we to obey the commandments of God and strive for a holy life? Many have argued that the Lutheran tradition has undermined the ethical imperative of the Christian walk. While it is true that Lutheran theology in some modes has denied the sort of linear moral progress emphasized by some other traditions, it affirms the reality of genuine transformation in the Christian life, which moves us beyond the static Sisyphean tension in which we are simultaneously sinners and saints. Though emphasizing grace as pardon and righteousness as relational, Lutheran theology also has place for a grace that empowers believers for growth in discipleship. The terms ‘justification’ and ‘sanctification’ point not to different works of God but to two different angles—pardon and power—from which to describe the one work of God in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. In light of this, we need not sever ethics from theology to understand how our hearts may be set to obey the commandments of God.