Intransitivity and Future Generations: Debunking Parfit's Mere Addition Paradox

ABSTRACT Duties to future persons contribute critically to many important contemporaneous ethical dilemmas, such as environmental protection, contraception, abortion, and population policy. Yet this area of ethics is mired in paradoxes. It appeared that any principle for dealing with future persons encountered Kavka's paradox of future individuals, Parfit's repugnant conclusion, or an indefensible asymmetry. In 1976, Singer proposed a utilitarian solution that seemed to avoid the above trio of obstacles, but Parfit so successfully demonstrated the unacceptability of this position that Singer abandoned it. Indeed, the apparently intransitivity of Singer's solution contributed to Temkin's argument that the notion of “all things considered better than” may be intransitive. In this paper, I demonstrate that a time‐extended view of Singer's solution avoids the intransitivity that allows Parfit's mere addition paradox to lead to the repugnant conclusion. However, the heart of the mere addition paradox remains: the time‐extended view still yields intransitive judgments. I discuss a general theory for dealing with intransitivity (Transitivity by Transformation) that was inspired by Temkin's sports analogy, and demonstrate that such a solution is more palatable than Temkin suspected. When a pair‐wise comparison also requires consideration of a small number of relevant external alternatives, we can avoid intransitivity and the mere addition paradox without infinite comparisons or rejecting the Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives Principle     

Self-reported mental health problems and performance in mathematics and reading in children across Europe

ABSTRACT

The study examines the associations of specific self-reported internalizing and externalizing problems and performance in mathematics and reading in school-aged children across Europe. Data were drawn from 5,842 children between 6 and 13 years of age participating in the School Children Mental Health in Europe study and a large cross-sectional survey in France. Self-reported child mental health was assessed using the Dominic Interactive, academic performance was reported by teachers. Across Europe, controlling for key sociodemographic factors associated with achievement including maternal education, performance in mathematics was more often associated with the presence of externalizing and internalizing problems as compared to performance in reading. In addition, the findings point to significant sex differences in the associations of internalizing problems and academic achievement. Considering the impact of early academic difficulties in terms of later internalizing and externalizing problems and academic attainment, school-based interventions interrupting the cycle as early as possible are warranted.     

THE CLASSICAL CONFUCIAN POSITION ON THE LEGITIMATE USE OF MILITARY FORCE

Focusing on the thought of Mencius and Xunzi, this essay reconstructs and examines the classical Confucian position on the legitimate use of military force. It begins by sketching historically important political concepts, such as types of political leaders, politics of the kingly way versus politics of the hegemonic way, and the controversial role of lords‐protector. It then moves on to explore Confucian criteria for justifying resort to the use of force, giving special attention to undertaking punitive expeditions to interdict and punish aggression and tyranny. Following this discussion, the essay then attends to important Confucian moral constraints on how military force is properly employed, including prohibitions on attacking the defenseless, indiscriminate slaughter of enemy forces, destruction of civilian infrastructure, prisoner abuse, and non‐consensual annexation of territory. The essay concludes by first discussing an illustrative case from Mencius and then comparing its reconstruction of the Confucian position to those offered by other scholars.     

Reasons for Living Among Chinese Adolescents in Hong Kong

Two hundred and seventy-nine secondary school students in Hong Kong responded to the Chinese version of the Reasons for Living Inventory. The importance of these reasons could be adequately described by five dimensions interpreted as Positive Values and Self-Efficacy, Optimism, Family Concerns, Concerns for Social Disapproval, and Suicidal Fears. These dimensions corresponded closely to the original subscales of the inventory. Implications of the importance of gender and age group differences in endorsing coping beliefs, rather than fears, in time of crisis are discussed.     

恩格斯《论原始基督教的历史》对宗教研究的方法论启示

《论原始基督教的历史》是恩格斯运用唯物史观研究和阐述宗教问题的重要著作,蕴含着丰富的宗教研究方法。恩格斯运用历史分析法把原始基督教作为一种特定的社会现象和社会事实,将其放在人类历史的过程中考察其产生的历史根源及演变过程;运用阶级分析法将宗教视为一种带有阶级属性的特殊社会现象,揭示原始基督教的社会阶级属性及其本质;运用比较分析法指出原始基督教同现代工人运动二者之间既有值得注意的共同点又存在本质区别;运用实证分析法阐明马克思主义理论的抽象逻辑建构是以具体案例分析为基础的。这些方法在其宗教研究的过程中并不是割裂独立的,而是综合运用、交叉并存的。