Of particles and fields

In The Cosmic Blueprint,1 1 Paul Davies, The Cosmic Blueprint (Philadelphia: Templeton Foundation Press, 2004). View all notes Paul Davies takes note of the unresolved philosophical issues involved in the use of “field” imagery within evolutionary biology and quantum physics. The author proposes that the metaphysical scheme of Alfred North Whitehead with its notion of “actual occasions” might be key to solving these mysteries, but only if Whiteheadian “societies” were reinterpreted as enduring structured fields of activity for the ongoing succession of their constituent actual occasions. For, implicit in this revised understanding of Whiteheadian societies is a new paradigm for the philosophical relation between the One and the Many, which would allow for genuine top-down as well as bottom-up causation in the emergence of new forms or structures within the evolutionary process.     

自我差异对消费者产品属性选择偏好的影响

自我是一个人所持有的关于自我特征的信念,不同的理想和现实自我差异可能带来不同的消费选择。本研究以在校大学生作为被试,通过阅读不同的理想与现实自我材料,启动被试的理想与现实的自我差异,考察其对消费者产品属性选择偏好的影响。结果发现：现实与理想自我差异小的被试,更偏好享乐属性强的产品;现实与理想自我差异大的被试,更偏好功能属性强的产品。     

Categories and Levels of Reality

The discussion of the relation of levels of reality to categories is important because categories have often been interpreted as constituting levels of reality. This article explores whether this view is correct, and argues it is not. Categories as such should not be understood to constitute levels of reality, although particular categories may. The article begins with a discussion of levels of reality and then turns to specific questions about categories and how they are related to these levels.