WHAT EPISTEMIC VALUES SHOULD WE RECLAIM FOR RELIGION AND SCIENCE? A RESPONSE TO J. WESLEY ROBBINS

Abstract. Postmodernism in science rejects and deconstructs the cultural dominance of especially the natural sciences in our time. Although it presents the debate between religion and science with a promising epistemological holism, it also seriously challenges attempts to develop a meaningful relationship between science and religion. A neopragmatist perspective on religion and science is part of this important challenge and eminently reveals the problems and reduction that arise when pragmatist criteria alone are used to construct a holism that renounces any demarcation between different areas of rationality. In this pragmatist vision for a holist culture, the cognitive resources of rationality are bypassed in such a way that a meaningful interaction between theology and science becomes impossible.     

RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES ON THE HOME PLANET

Abstract. Earth is the home planet, right for life. But rights, a notable political category, is, unfortunately, a biologically awkward word. Humans, nonetheless, have rights to a natural environment with integrity. Humans have responsibilities to respect values in fauna and flora. Appropriate survival units include species populations and ecosystems. Increasingly the ultimate survival unit isglobal; and humans have a responsibility to the planet Earth. Human political systems are not well suited to protect life atglobal ranges. National boundaries ignore important ecologicalprocesses; national policies do not favor an equitable distribution of sustainable resources. But there are signs of hope.     

Civil Ethics and the Validity of Law

This paper aims to clarify the nature and contents of 'civil ethics' and the source of the binding force of its obligations. This ethics should provide the criteria for evaluating the moral validity of social, legal and morally valid law. The article starts with observing that in morally pluralist Western societies civil ethics already exists, and has gradually started to play the role of guiding the law. It is argued that civil ethics should not be conceived as 'civic morals' which is in fact rather 'state ethics', nor as 'public ethics' which is said to reach its perfection when it becomes law, nor as ethics applicable primarily to the basic structure of a society (political liberalism), but instead as a citizens' ethics. Subsequently the paper attempts to show what the contents of this ethics are, and which ethical theory would be able to ground its obligations.     

Religiosity and the value of being moral: Understanding the meaning of morality through a personal values perspective

We demonstrate how religiosity predicts relationships between personal values and perceptions of morality in four studies across two cultures (Jews in Israel and mainly Christians in the US). In Studies 1A (N = 337) and 1B (N = 200), we explored the commonalities and differences between religious and non-religious participants in the association between values and the importance of being moral. In Studies 2A (N = 131) and 2B (N = 250), we tested the role of religiosity in the association between values and evaluations of others’ morality. Power (negatively) and Benevolence (positively) were associated with morality across levels of religiosity. The associations with Conservation were more positive for more religious participants; the associations with Universalism were more positive for less religious participants. Finally, the associations with at least one of the Openness-to-change values were more negative if a person was more religious. Studies 2A and 2B showed these associations existed over and above differences in personal values.     

儒家文化与中国人健康心理的交互建构

中国传统文化的主体是儒家文化,文化与健康心理之间存在着相互作用、相互建构的关系。儒家文化与中国人的健康心理的交互建构作用主要表现在三个方面:一是心理问题躯体化,即文化心理与躯体症状的交互建构; 二是心理问题道德化,即文化心理与德行标准的交互建构; 三是心理问题生活化,即健康心理与伦理规范的交互建构。它们既是中国人健康心理与行为的典型表现特征,也是儒家文化与中国人的健康心理和行为交互建构的结果。心理健康、道德健康、伦理健康三者之间是一个相互作用、相互建构、协调发展的完整体系。中国心理健康服务要充分发挥心理健康理论的建构特性和行动特征,促进心理健康服务理论与实践协调发展。     

新冠肺炎疫情期间大学生价值观特征及变化趋势探究

社会价值观对于社会群体具有重要的导向和动力作用,而社会重大事件的发生会对社会价值观的走向产生影响。研究采用价值观类型量表,对908名大学生进行调查,其中包含144名湖北省大学生,探究新冠肺炎疫情期间大学生价值观的分布特征,对比湖北省和其他地区,以及与SARS时期的异同,并预测其在疫情后期的变化趋势。结果显示:(1)在大学生的总体样本中,实用型、社会型和科学型价值观依次占据重要地位;(2)湖北省大学生中社会型价值观占据主导地位,其他地区大学生中实用型价值观占据主导地位,两个样本的整体分布特征不存在显著差异;(3)两次疫情中,社会型和实用型价值观均占据主导地位,科学型价值观的地位显著提升。     

Uses and Abuses of Ideology in Political Psychology

Ideology is a central construct in political psychology. Even so, the field's strong claims about an ideological public rarely engage evidence of enormous individual differences: a minority with real ideological coherence and weak to nonexistent political belief organization for everyone else. Here, I bridge disciplinary gaps by showing the limits of mass political ideology with several popular measures and components—self-identification, core political values (egalitarian and traditionalism's resistance to change), and policy indices—in representative U.S. surveys across four decades (Ns ~ 13 k–37 k), plus panel data testing stability. Results show polar, coherent, stable, and potent ideological orientations only among the most knowledgeable 20–30% of citizens. That heterogeneity means full-sample tests overstate ideology for most people but understate it for knowledgeable citizens. Whether through top-down opinion leadership or bottom-up ideological reasoning, organized political belief systems require political attention and understanding to form. Finally, I show that convenience samples make trouble for ideology generalizations. I conclude by proposing analytic best practices to help avoid overclaiming ideology in the public. Taken together, what first looks like strong and broad ideology is actually ideological innocence for most and meaningful ideology for a few.     

Collective complexes--total perspectives

A much greater part of our identity than we generally believe is collectively determined. Awareness of the causal link between identity, its connected values and the influence exerted by these values on perception is therefore crucial. In the implicit personality model of Peabody and Goldberg (1989), the apparent wide variety of human characteristics is broken down into three broad dimensions: general evaluation, impulse control and assertiveness. My hypothesis is that the regulation of impulses can be equated with the Jungian concept of the mother and father complexes, and assertiveness with the relation between individualism and collectivism. I have utilized Montgomery's perspective theory and Jung's concepts of the union of opposites, the complex and the shadow in order to provide an alternative interpretation of the implicit personality model. According to my interpretation, the traditional values of any culture can be read against these three dimensions. These values can be seen as the greatest treasure of a culture but, at the same time, they can also be devastating if they become complex-like.     

Perceived change in quality of life among chinese canadian seniors: the role of involvement in chinese culture

Although much gerontological literature is focused on subjective well-being, quality of life, and life satisfaction, we know little about this concept in old age among sub-cultural groups. This paper presents empirical data on subjective well-being among Chinese seniors (age 55 and over) living in seven cities in Canada. It asks whether and to what extent traditional Chinese culture, a culture in which seniors have been historically valued as wise and contributing members to be respected, is related to their evaluation of whether or not life has improved in old age. Among a random sample of 2272 Chinese seniors, some but not all aspects of traditional Chinese culture were related to their valuation of old age. In particular, involvement in that traditional culture, return visits to the homeland, immigration due to family reunion, and ancestor worship were significant predictors but differentially depending on whether the overall scale or specific domains within that overall scale was the dependent variable. The fact that differential aspects of traditional culture contribute to a positive experience of aging suggests we must be careful in generalizing to traditional culture. Importantly, ethnocentric beliefs regarding Chinese culture were not related to any domain of quality of life.     

Agentic and communal bias in socially desirable responding

This research was designed to investigate Paulhus' communion management (CM) and self‐deceptive enhancement (SDE), socially desirable responding (SDR) scales as measures of general SDR, communal bias and agentic bias. The CM and SDE scales, as well as the Schwartz values survey (SVS), were administered to four samples drawn from different cultures and subcultures (N = 900). Participants completed the questionnaires in ‘honest’ and ‘fake good’ conditions. Although conceptions of which values were desirable varied strongly between samples and instructional sets, the CM scale was consistently related to general SDR and to communal bias. In contrast, the SDE scale was only related to general SDR. Contrary to expectations, neither scale could identify participants who ‘faked good’ under normal instructions. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.