Sacrificing one to save many

Attempts to solve the Trolley Problem by means of a single principle have proved unpersuasive. Nor can the intuition about Transplant be adequately grounded in the hypothetical dissent of rational contractors. It is explained by the initial liability principle, that loss should lie where it falls unless there is sufficient reason to shift it. If we did not think we should accept misfortune in such cases and thought that minimising loss of life was sufficient reason to shift the loss we should not be according others the minimum respect and treatment we feel is their due. The intuition about Trolley is explained by the affinity of that case to the pure case where the choice is between saving many and saving fewer, where minimising misfortune is the only credible option. But these considerations are not yet enough to accommodate the cases that lie between the extremes of Trolley and Transplant. We can handle the intermediate cases by attempting to assimilate them to one or other paradigm and to one another with a sensitivity to morally relevant and irrelevant differences that seeks initially to be faithful to the values reflected by our moral intuitions. Those intuitive judgements are unlikely to survive such an examination wholly unmodified.     

Telling stories: metaphors of the Human Genome Project

Scientists of the Human Genome Project tend to rely on three metaphors to describe their work, each of which implicitly tells much the same story. Whether they claim to interpret the ultimate “book,” to fix a flawed “machine,” or to map a mysterious “wilderness,” they invariably cast the researcher as one who dominates and exploits the Other. This essay, which explores the ways such a story conflicts with feminist values, proposes an alternative.     

开放的中国──封闭的中国

禁地,亦即指由于地形原因而不可进入的地区,尤其是指出于政治、宗教或其他动机而作出的决策所禁止入内的区域（场所、城市、国家）。禁地往往蒙上了一种神秘的气氛．几乎必然会引起人们的好奇。到达拉萨曾是几代探险家的梦想。这一地区不仅对外人封闭,而且对“内部人”也封闭：任何人不得离开“外出”。德川幕府对日本实行的隔绝就是这样一种双向隔离。当然．地理条件也有助于这种隔离,因而使之轻易地付诸实行。有人指出（或许这种说法不够严肃）．举世闻名的中国长城不仅意味着防范匈奴入侵,更意味着防止中国人逃离。史料也表明中国过…     

Children's capacity to agree to psychological research: knowledge of risks and benefits and voluntariness

A series of studies investigated the capacity of children between the ages of 7 and 12 to give free and informed consent to participation in psychological research. Children were reasonably accurate in describing the purpose of studies, but many did not understand the possible benefits or especially the possible risks of participating. In several studies children's consent was not affected by the knowledge that their parents had given their permission or by the parents saying that they would not be upset if the children refused. In contrast, other studies found that children were much more likely to stop their participation if the experimenter said explicitly that she would not be upset if they stopped. We suggest that experimenters should pay more attention to describing the possible risks and benefits of participation in research, and that they should also make it clearer to children that they are free to stop once they have begun.     

Orienting the finger opposition space during prehension movements

Two experiments are reported that examined the act of prehension when subjects were asked to grasp with their thumb and index finger pads an elongated object resting horizontally on a surface and placed at different orientations with respect to the subject. In Experiment 1, the pad opposition preferences were determined for the six angles of orientation examined. For angles of 90 degrees (object parallel to frontal plane) or less, no rotation of the wrist (pronation) was used; for angles 110 degrees or greater, pronation was systematically employed to reorient the finger opposition space. Only one angle, 100 degrees , produced any evidence of ambiguity in how to grasp the object: Approximately 60% of these grasps involved pronation and 40% did not. Using the foregoing grasp preference data, in Experiment 2 we examined the kinematics of the wrist and elbow trajectories during prehension movements directed at an object in different orientations. Movement time, time to peak acceleration, velocity, and deceleration were measured. No kinematic differences were observed when the object orientation either required (110 degrees ) or did not require (80 degrees ) a pronation. By contrast, if the orientation was changed at the onset of the movement, such that an unpredicted pronation had to be introduced to achieve the grasp, kinematics were affected: Movement time was increased, and the time devoted to deceleration was lengthened. These data are interpreted as evidence that when natural prehension occurs, pronation can be included in the motor plan without affecting the movement kinematics. When constraints are imposed on the movement execution as a consequence of a perturbation, however, the introduction of a pronation component requires kinematic rearrangement.     

卢卡奇的批判思想

G·卢卡奇是20世纪最权威的和最具有独创性的马克思主义思想家之一。说他是一个真正意义上权威的马克思主义者是因为,他的理论是以实践为导向或面向实践的,而且致力于改变世界。当然,这一理论包含着一个内容丰富的理论中介系统——从确立最抽象的方法论和人类学的基础到勾画彻底重建个体社会和共同体的具体方案。但是,对一种理论来说,以实践为导向,首先意味着它必须是批判性的。社会结构、政治制度、社会行为方式、文化领域,都不应被视为可孤立地思考、公正地描述、不考虑价值判断的分析和解释,或可作纯粹理解的既定对象。整个社会领域,包括已经被改造成为我们最接近的环境的那部分自然界,都必须看作是一种人的产品。因此,作为历史的一个阶段,它是满足且也破坏人类渴望的一项未完成的工作。对于任何有意义的人类未来来说,这些生活方式都是不可缺少的。与此同时,它们也有着显著的局限性,即削弱人类所付出的巨大努力,给人类带来连续不断的痛苦和苦难,因此是有待克服的。在辩证的扬弃,(Aufhebung)的这个意义上说,卢卡奇是一位第一流的批判思想家。