Book reviews

The Pravargya Brāhmana of the Taittiriya āranyaka: An Ancient Commentary on the Pravargya Ritual. Jan E. M. Houben, 1991 Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass xv + 147 pp., Rs.125

The Cavern Mystery Transmission: A Taoist Ordination Rite of AD 711. Asian Studies at Hawaii Series No. 38 Charles D. Benn, 1991 Honolulu, HI, University of Hawaii Press ix + 227 pp.

The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience F. J. Varela, E. Thompson & E. Rosch, 1991 Cambridge, MA, MIT Press £22.50     

Kung‐sun lung on the point of pointing: The moral rhetoric of names

Graham compares Kung‐sun Lung's “White Horse not Horse” [Graham, A.C. (1990) Studies in Chinese Philosophy and Philosophical Literature (Albany, SUNY Press)] loith the use of a synecdoche in English, “Sword is not Blade”. The Blade as part stands in here for the whole which is the Sword. But just as Sword as ‘hilt plus blade’ is more than blade, then via analogia, White Horse as ‘white plus horse’ is more than the part that is just ‘horse’. Graham had taken over this Part/Whole argument from Chad Hansen who argues that since Chinese does not require the word ma for ‘horse/horses’ to be used with prefixed articles or numerals, ma is a ‘mass‐noun’ similar to certain English mass‐nouns like ‘sand’ which also has no plural form unlike the count‐noun ‘horse’ [Hansen, Chad, (1983) Language and Logic in Ancient China (Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press)]. Hansen then equates “White Horse is not Horse” to the Mohist argument for “Ox Horse is not Horse”. Ox‐Horse is a ‘mixed herd’ of Ox and Horse that is not (just) that part that is Horse. The same it is with the mass‐sum that is White Horse. It is like saying in English “White Sand is not Sand”. Sand being this spread of sand on the beach, it is more than just a patch of that beach that is white. But this attribution of a Part/Whole logic to Kung‐sun Lung runs up against a basic dictum stated in his thesis on ‘Pointing and Thing’. There it is noted how all things can be pointed out except thing itself because the word “thing” leaves nothing to exclude for it to be stand out. Since that thesis is derived from the law of the excluded middle where a thing is either X or not X, it is not possible for Kung‐sun Lung to subscribe to a Part/Whole logic which basically argues for a thing being both X and not X.     

Book Reviews

Ibn Rushd (Averroes). Arabic Thought and Culture Series. DOMINIQUE URVOY, 1991. London, Routledge. 156 pp.

Logic and Aristotle's Rhetoric and Poetics in Medieval Arabic Philosophy Vol. VII. Islamic Philosophy and Theology Texts and Studies. DEBORAH L. BLACK, 1990. Leiden and New York, E. J. Brill. 290 pp.

Philosophy and Science in the Islamic World. C. A. QADIR, 1990. London, Routledge 1990. 218 pp.

Understanding the Chinese Mind: The Philosophical Roots. ROBERT E. ALLINSON, 1989. Hong Kong and Oxford, Oxford University Press. 316 pp.

On Justice: An Essay in Jewish Philosophy. L. E. GOODMAN, 1991. New Haven, Yale University Press. 288 pp.     

Book reviews

Facets of Buddhism Shotaro Iida, 1991 Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass 166 pp., Rs. 150 hb

Li Ao: Buddhist, Taoist, or Neo‐Confucian? T. H. Barrett, 1992 London Oriental Series, Vol. 39 Oxford, Oxford University Press x + 178 pp. £20

Spirituality & Emptiness Donald W. Mitchell, 1992 New York, Paulist Press, xvi + 224 pp. $12.95     

国内十个地区7—12岁儿童数学概念和运算能力发展的初步研究

本文综合了对我国十个地区959名7—12岁儿童的协作研究结果。探讨了儿童在认数、数序和系列、数的组成、运算和应用等四个方面的发展情况,并对儿童数学概念和运算能力发展中知识学习与数概念发展的关系、发展的过程、环境的影响、发展的阶段性等方面进行了讨论,也谈到了协作方法问题。     

Enhanced Hippocampal CA1 LTP but Normal Spatial Learning in Inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate 3-kinase(A)-Deficient Mice

To define the physiological role of IP₃3-kinase(A) in vivo, we have generated a mouse strain with a null mutation of the IP₃3-kinase(A) locus by gene targeting. Homozygous mutant mice were fully viable, fertile, apparently normal, and did not show any morphological anomaly in brain sections. In the mutant brain, the IP₄ level was significantly decreased whereas the IP₃ level did not change, demonstrating a major role of IP₃3-kinase(A) in the generation of IP₄. Nevertheless, no significant difference was detected in the hippocampal neuronal cells of the wild-type and the mutant mice in the kinetics of Ca²⁺ regulation after glutamate stimulation. Electrophysiological analyses carried out in hippocampal slices showed that the mutation significantly enhanced the LTP in the hippocampal CA1 region, but had no effect on the LTP in dentate gyrus (DG). No difference was noted, however, between the mutant and the wild-type mice in the Morris water maze task. Our results indicate that IP₃3-kinase(A) may play an important role in the regulation of LTP in hippocampal CA1 region through the generation of IP₄, but the enhanced LTP in the hippocampal CA1 does not affect spatial learning and memory.     

Justification,excuse, and proof beyond reasonable doubt

The law requires criminal guilt to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. There are two different approaches to construing this legal rule. On an epistemic approach, the rule is construed in terms of justified belief or knowledge; on a probabilistic approach, the rule is construed in terms of satisfying a probabilistic threshold. An epistemic construction of the rule has this advantage over a probabilistic construction: the former can while the latter cannot excuse the state from blame for a false conviction. This claim rests on an understanding of legal rules, legal justification for a finding of guilt and the central purpose of a criminal trial.     

特质自我控制及其策略对主观幸福感的影响

探讨特质自我控制对主观幸福感的影响机制。多重中介模型揭示自我控制策略在特质自我控制(TSC)与主观幸福感(SWB)之间的作用。对924名大学生进行问卷调查,结果表明:情境选择、注意分配、认知重评均为TSC与SWB之间的中介变量。结论:解释了高特质自我控制个体SWB高的内在机制,也为自我控制过程模型提供实证支持。     

The Impact of Affective States and Affective Shifts on Creative Ideation and Evaluation

This study aims to examine the impact of affective states and affective shifts on ideation and evaluation of creativity. Affects were induced by a two‐stage imagination procedure of recalling autobiographical experiences. Three periods of divergent thinking were measured to represent the participants’ creative ideation at different times. Creative evaluation was measured by estimating the originality of each response provided by the participants. The results indicate that (a) during the initial period of ideation, groups with positive affect obtain better creative ideation than the groups with neutral or negative affect. (b) The ideation in positive affect groups gradually decreases over time, while the ideation in negative affect groups gradually increases over time. (c) During the evaluation of originality, groups with negative affect have a higher proportion of over‐estimates and a lower proportion of under‐estimates than groups with positive affect. The viewpoints of cognitive tuning theory, which posit that the affective state influences creativity, are supported.     

The role of the psychosocial safety climate in coping with workplace bullying: A grounded theory and sequential tree analysis

Workplace bullying is a severe workplace stressor that affects both employees and organizations. Despite a wealth of research of the prevalence of workplace bullying and its correlates, little research has been done on the process of bullying. In a qualitative study, based on the grounded theory approach, we examine the role of psychosocial safety climate (PSC) in influencing employees’ coping strategies and ultimately the escalation of bullying. Interviews were conducted with 20 Malaysian workers from various organizational settings, who also completed a 12-item PSC scale. The analysis revealed that coping strategies took the form of a modified exit-voice-loyalty-neglect (EVLN) model, whereby acquiescence replaced loyalty in the matrix. In turn, five escalation patterns of bullying were identified, linked to the coping options used by employees. We found that employees tended to voice in high PSC contexts, which led to swift resolution of bullying. In low PSC contexts, employees tended to neglect or acquiesce before exiting the organization because the bullying remained unresolved, which was revealed in four different trajectories of escalation without resolution. These results emphasize the influence of the organizational climate for psychosocial safety in shaping the coping options available to bullied workers, and the likely success of these strategies.