陌生的邻居:东正教之于中俄相互认知上的障碍性角色

在中俄战略协作伙伴关系的框架下,双方的确没有出现如中美或中国与欧盟之间那样的纷争和冲突,但也缺乏中美、中欧之间相互深刻影响对方的社会进程、经济发展和生活方式变革等积极成果。造成这种矛盾现象的因素固然复杂,但俄罗斯东正教作为远远超出宗教领域的巨大存在,影响着后苏联社会进程的每个方面,却不能被中俄战略协作伙伴关系所考虑,这在客观上必然影响俄中关系,应该是这种战略实施后果不很理想的重要原因。本文探讨两个问题:俄罗斯东正教之于后苏联的超常重要性,以及,中国对俄国的认知绕开东正教因素和无神论政策是不可能的。     

Variability in Adaptive Behavior in Autism: Evidence for the Importance of Family History

Adaptive behavior in autism is highly variable and strongly related to prognosis. This study explored family history as a potential source of variability in adaptive behavior in autism. Participants included 77 individuals (mean age = 18) with average or better intellectual ability and autism. Parents completed the Family History Interview about the presence of broader autism phenotype symptoms and major psychiatric disorders in first degree relatives. Adaptive behavior was assessed via the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS). Based on family history variables, age, and intelligence quotient (IQ), 87% of participants were correctly classified as having impaired or average VABS scores. Family history of depression and shyness accounted for the most variance in VABS scores, and they had the greatest influence on VABS Socialization scores in particular. Possible underlying mechanisms include genetics, psychosocial factors, and social resources. This study provides initial evidence of the importance of family history to adaptive behavior in autism and has implications for genetics and treatment.     

“When Strangers Meet”: John Bowlby and Harry Harlow on Attachment Behavior

From 1957 through the mid-1970s, John Bowlby, one of the founders of attachment theory, was in close personal and scientific contact with Harry Harlow. In constructing his new theory on the nature of the bond between children and their caregivers, Bowlby profited highly from Harlow’s experimental work with rhesus monkeys. Harlow in his turn was influenced and inspired by Bowlby’s new thinking. On the basis of the correspondence between Harlow and Bowlby, their mutual participation in scientific meetings, archival materials, and an analysis of their scholarly writings, both the personal relationship between John Bowlby and Harry Harlow and the cross-fertilization of their work are described.

Harry Harlow: From the Other Side of the Desk

On the basis of her personal reminiscences the author provides a picture of Harry Harlow’s personality. Harlow emerges as an unassuming and witty person. Dr. Frank C.P. van der Horst (fhorst@fsw.leidenuniv.nl) of Leiden University stands as the person to address correspondence to.

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Rigorous Experiments on Monkey Love: An Account of Harry F. Harlow’s Role in the History of Attachment Theory

On the basis of personal reminiscences an account is given of Harlow’s role in the development of attachment theory and key notions of attachment theory are being discussed. Among other things, it is related how Harlow arrived at his famous research with rhesus monkeys and how this made Harlow a highly relevant figure for attachment theorist Bowlby.

Gene Concepts and Genethics: Beyond Exceptionalism

The discursive explosion that was provoked by the new genetics could support the impression that the ethical and social problems posed by the new genetics are somehow exceptional in their very nature. According to this view we are faced with special ethical and social problems that create a challenge so fundamental that the special label of genethics is needless to justify. The historical account regarding the evolution of the gene concepts could serve us to highlight the limits of what we know about genes and what we can do with genes. The widespread notion about the exceptionality of genetic knowledge and its applicative possibilities is hardly justifiable and leads to misunderstandings regarding the conceptualization of the ethical and social problems we might face. Following a more realistic interpretation of the role of genes in human life we might avoid a whole set of fictive dilemmas and counterproductive regulatory efforts in bioethics. Bioethical discourse should move from the gene-centered scientific discourse toward the more sophisticated and complex discourses where human development represented as a matter of complex interactions between genomes and environments, between genes, educational factors, nutritional regimes, and other different developmental resources. If a gene is seen as one among the different developmental resources that are shaping a given human trait then both genethics and genetic exceptionalism could hardly be represented as a justified approach in discussing the ethical and social problems of genetics.     

Comments on ‘On “Bettering Humanity” in Science and Engineering Education’

The object of this communication is to reflect on the recent article by James Stieb in relation to an earlier article by Selvan.     

The pedagogical imperative of values education

Recent research has exposed the potential of quality teaching to exercise a positive influence on student achievement. Extending beyond surface and factual learning, quality teaching has posited conceptions of ‘intellectual depth’, ‘communicative competence’ and ‘self‐reflection’ as being central to effective learning. Implicit in these conceptions are values dimensions reflected in notions of positive relationships, the centrality of student welfare, school coherence, ambience and organisation. The influences of these on student learning, welfare and progress have been observed across public, private and religious sectors, thus confirming earlier studies of similar phenomena in religious schools. Evidence from the Australian Government's Values Education Good Practice Schools Project indicates the benefit to all schools of reflecting on, re‐evaluating and rethinking the implications of values education for curricula, classroom management and school ethos in the interests of student wellbeing and progress. This indicates a pedagogical imperative for values education which extends beyond boundaries of personal or systemic interests and ideologies.     

Catholic Reflections for an Updated Donum Vitae Instruction: A New Catholic Challenge in a Post-Christian Europe

On February 22, 1987, the Congregation for the Doctrine of theFaith published the Donum Vitae Instruction. Twenty years later,on February 22, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI asked for an updateof this Instruction. According to the Donum Vitae Instructionof 1987, the principle of the holiness of life imposes respectfor human persons from the very beginning of human life. Inthese past 20 years, new medical techniques have raised freshethical issues that are to be addressed by the Roman CatholicChurch Magisterium. The Roman Catholic Church, in its updateof the Instruction planned for 2007, will have to explain howcivil law is to be regulated according to the fundamental normsof the moral law. The moral message of the new Donum Vitae (justas in the 1987 version) will be to affirm the substance of humanjustice: respect for human life, as expressed in the resolvenot to infringe on, or to protect such life. Even in a post-ChristianEurope, this theological message can be understood if it istrue that Europe is marked by the principle of the absoluteprotection of human life.     

Unpacking the relation between extraversion and volunteering in later life: The role of social capital

This study tested the hypothesis that the relation between extraversion and volunteering by older adults is fully mediated by social capital (participation in clubs and organizations, church attendance, and contact with friends). Data for this study come from 888 adults between the ages of 65–90 years old who participated in the Later Life Study of Social Exchanges (LLSSE). In support of our hypothesis, structural equation modeling revealed that extraversion exerted: (a) a significant total effect on volunteering (0.122), (b) significant indirect effects on volunteering via contact with friends (0.042), church attendance (0.034), and clubs and organizations (females only: 0.042), and (c) a non-significant direct effect on volunteering (0.010). These findings suggest that social capital provides a viable explanation for the association between extraversion and volunteering.