Two Rival Interpretations of Xunzi's Views on the Basis of Morality

This essay examines the textual evidence and arguments for two rival ways of interpreting Xunzi's accounts of the origins and normative bases of ritual and the Way: a human‐centered line of interpretation which maintains that the moral order constituted by the Confucian Way and its ritual tradition was the artificial creation of a group of ancient sages, and a Heaven‐centered line of interpretation which maintains, in contrast, that those same sages based the Confucian Way and its ritual tradition on a cosmic moral order that they discovered already existing in the world. It argues that the weight of textual evidence best supports a version of the former view, and shows that three representative versions of the latter view do not withstand critical scrutiny.     

Economic Stress and Suicide: Multilevel Analyses

ABSTRACT: This paper reports the second of two studies of the hypothesis that the economy affects suicide; both studies were based in the same community during approximately the same time period. Although many aggregate-level tests have been conducted using archival measures of unemployment and suicide (the approach used in Part 1), the impact of economic climate on suicidal ideation has not been measured at the individual level. In the study reported here, aggregate economic indicators were combined with individual-level measures of stressful events, symptoms, and suicidal ideation obtained in a survey of Los Angeles from 1978 to 1982. Each of the two studies revealed small associations between economic stress and suicide or suicidal ideation, but they were inconsistent with respect to specific subgroups.