From dialectic to organization: Bogdanov’s contribution to social theory

This paper situates Bogdanov in the context of social theory generally and socialist theory in particular. It outlines briefly the principal characteristics of his mature system, and assesses the strengths and weaknesses of his approach to the fundamental problems of social thought. The paper devotes particular attention to the problem of just how systems develop from less complex to more complex forms of organization, and evaluates Bogdanov’s solution to this problem against the background of populist, social democratic, and Leninist alternatives.     

Sense of Divine Involvement and Sense of Meaning in Life: Religious Tradition as a Contingency

This study examines the association between sense of divine involvement and sense of meaning in life. Then it proceeds to assess how this association varies by religious tradition. Using a random and national sample from the 2007 Baylor Religion Survey, this study finds that sense of divine involvement is associated with greater odds of having a sense of meaning in life. In addition, religious affiliation modifies this association. Specifically, the positive association between sense of divine involvement and the odds of having a sense of meaning in life is observed only among evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants, and Catholics, but not among other religionists and religious nones. I discuss how the results make contributions to knowledge about the link between religious beliefs, religious tradition, and mental health.     

Predicting Political Biases Against the Occupy Wall Street and Tea Party Movements

Accusations of hypocrisy have flown against both supporters and opponents of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) and Tea Party movements. Integrating the ideologically objectionable premise model (IOPM), a newly devised model of political judgment, with political tolerance research, we find that how the political activities of OWS and Tea Party demonstrators are described determines whether or not biases against these groups emerge among people low and high in right‐wing authoritarianism (RWA). Specifically, people low in RWA were more biased against the Tea Party than OWS regardless of whether the groups engaged in normatively threatening or reassuring political behavior, whereas people high in RWA were more biased against OWS than the Tea Party when the groups engaged in normatively threatening (and therefore objectionable), but not normatively reassuring (and therefore acceptable) behavior. These findings further support the IOPM's contention that premise objectionableness, not right‐wing orientation, determines biases in political judgment.     

The Wished‐For Always Wins Until the Winner Was Inevitable All Along: Motivated Reasoning and Belief Bias Regulate Emotion During Elections

How do biases affect political information processing? A variant of the Wason selection task, which tests for confirmation bias, was used to characterize how the dynamics of the recent U.S. presidential election affected how people reasoned about political information. Participants were asked to evaluate pundit‐style conditional claims like “The incumbent always wins in a year when unemployment drops” either immediately before or immediately after the 2012 presidential election. A three‐way interaction between ideology, predicted winner (whether the proposition predicted that Obama or Romney would win), and the time of test indicated complex effects of bias on reasoning. Before the election, there was partial evidence of motivated reasoning—liberals performed especially well at looking for falsifying information when the pundit's claim predicted Romney would win. After the election, once the outcome was known, there was evidence of a belief bias—people sought to falsify claims that were inconsistent with the real‐world outcome rather than their ideology. These results suggest that people seek to implicitly regulate emotion when reasoning about political predictions. Before elections, people like to think their preferred candidate will win. After elections, people like to think the winner was inevitable all along.     

CAN SCIENCE AND RELIGION RESPOND TO CLIMATE CHANGE?

With the challenge of communicating climate science in the United States and making progress in international negotiations on climate change there is a need for other approaches. The moral issues of ecological degradation and climate justice need to be integrated into social consciousness, political legislation, and climate treaties. Both science and religion can contribute to this integration with differentiated language but shared purpose. Recognizing the limits of both science and religion is critical to finding a way forward for addressing the critical challenges of climate change. How we value nature and human–Earth relations is crucial to this. We need a broader environmental ethics in dialogue with the science of climate change.     

The Dictionary of American Hymnology on CD-ROM

ABSTRACT

This article is an overview of a significant new reference tool, a CD-ROM index to The Dictionary of American Hymnology. The author seeks to explore the bibliographic background and history, as well as the potential utility of this CD-ROM index for scholars and religious professionals.     

Spiritual,Religious, Nonspiritual,and Nonreligious Narratives in Marginalized Older Adults: A Typology of Coping Styles

SUMMARY

Narrative therapy is an important tool in the phenomenological framing of life events with older clients. Seventy-nine older adults who lived independently in four subsidized high-rise housing facilities in Chicago were interviewed in a research project about managing life challenges. Cases represent four types in a spiritual-religious typology: religious and spiritual, religious only, spiritual only, and neither religious nor spiritual (Zinnbauer, 1997). This article explores how older adults managed adversity and maintained a sense of self-efficacy. Findings indicate that older adults use many references to religion and spirituality in their narratives, either embracing these domains or defining themselves in contrast to them. Narrative therapy suggests that the implications of religious and spiritual resources addressed in client stories may reinforce coping capacity and promote aging well.     

对个人生命权的辩护——从自由意志出发

现代医学面临的问题,诸如安乐死、生前预嘱、器官捐献等都可以归结为对生命权的支配问题,而生命权的支配又面临着个人的自由意志与伦理价值的双重考量。但二者并不是不可通约的,个人作为生命个体,自由意志是规定自身、以区别于动物的本质要素,是个人人格和尊严的体现;但人并不仅作为一个个体存在,还要通过否定自身而进入一个伦理实体,受伦理实体的制约。伦理实体并不是对自由意志的简单否定,两者是既对立又统一的关系。     

生命科学发展前沿对医学教育的影响

21世纪生命科学和生物高新技术迅猛发展,基因组学、系统生物学、组织工程与干细胞技术等生命科学发展前沿的研究成果越来越快地应用于临床,正在使人类疾病的预防、诊断、治疗手段和方式发生革命性的变化。这必将对高等医学教育产生深刻影响,这种影响主要体现在人才培养目标的设定、课程体系与教学内容的更新、生源优选与师资提升、教育资源配置等方面。生命科学的发展将促使课程体系更加开放,基础医学教学内容更前沿,临床医学教学突破传统技术纳入更多新技术,计算机等工具学科的教学更强化,并对教师素质和教学资源提出更高要求。     

On the emergence of American analytic philosophy

This paper is concerned with the reasons for the emergence and dominance of analytic philosophy in America. It closely examines the contents of, and changing editors at, The Philosophical Review, and provides a perspective on the contents of other leading philosophy journals. It suggests that analytic philosophy emerged prior to the 1950s in an environment characterized by a rich diversity of approaches to philosophy and that it came to dominate American philosophy at least in part due to its effective promotion by The Philosophical Review’s editors. Our picture of mid-twentieth-century American philosophy is different from existing ones, including those according to which the prominence of analytic philosophy in America was basically a matter of the natural affinity between American philosophy and analytic philosophy and those according to which the political climate at the time was hostile towards non-analytic approaches. Furthermore, our reconstruction suggests a new perspective on the nature of 1950s analytic philosophy.