Neo-Naturalism: A Fresh Paradigm in International Law

Dhall (2010 Dhall, Amar. 2010. On the philosophy and legal theory of human rights in light quantum holism. World Futures: The Journal of General Evolution, 66: 1–25. [Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) posited that quantum holism can provide an alternate justification for human rights. This article explores how such a foundation challenges aspects of international law and assertions of cultural relativism that have stymied the ongoing development of a universal human rights culture.     

SUSTAINABILITY SEEN THROUGH AN INTEGRAL LENS

The call to create a sustainable society includes many ideas that are consonant with Integral Science, including its conception of humans as part of nature, emphasis on healthy communities as fundamental building blocks, and emphasis on collaborative social organization. Integral Science expands the sustainability discussion by adding an ecological view of growth, and fractal structures to explain resilient structure. It describes the new society as a collaborative learning society that adapts appropriately to accurate signals. It also shows that the new society is already emerging.     

Socialization values of mothers of Estonian preadolescents

The present study addressed socialization values of 187 mothers of preadolescent children. The Child-Rearing Goals Questionnaire consisted of item rating and item-choosing tasks. The study found mothers to be similar in emphasizing the values of self-direction and self-expression in their children, whereas conformity values were stressed more by the mid-SES mothers and mothers of sons. In the item-choosing task the first choice of all mothers was the same — for their children to be happy — despite their SES and the child's gender. Independence was the second choice of the high-SES mothers and the third choice of the mid-SES mothers whose second favourite value was to be hard working. The results demonstrate that all Estonian mothers were likely to emphasize such characteristics as independence and self-expression desirable for meeting the demands of a rapidly changing society while they varied in the extent of supporting conformity values in their children.     

Explanatory models of illness: a study of within-culture variation

The current studies explore causal models of heart attack and depression generated from American healers whom use distinct explanatory frameworks. Causal chains leading to two illnesses, heart attack and depression, were elicited from participant groups: registered nurses (RNs), energy healers, RN energy healers, and undergraduates. The domain-specificity hypothesis predicted that psycho-social and physical causes would not interact in illness models. Across illnesses, RNs and undergraduates rarely cited interactions between mental and physical causes, consistent with the domain specificity hypothesis. In contrast, energy healers frequently mentioned interactions. Study 2 showed that these differences were not due to salience. These results suggest that domain-specificity theory is supported for groups with extensive exposure to western medicine but does not explain energy models of illness. Implications for other cultural models of illness are discussed.     

The Deadly Sins and Saving Virtues: How They Are Viewed Today by Clergy

In 1992 the results of a survey on clergy attitudes toward the traditional deadly sins and the schedule of virtues formulated by Erik H. Erikson were published in Pastoral Psychology (D. Capps, 1992). This study reports the results of a similar survey conducted a decade later. It also compares the results of this clergy survey with the findings of our laity survey published in 2000 in Pastoral Psychology (D. Capps & A. H. Cole, 2000). Clergy were asked to rank order the sins (from most to least destructive), to identify one sin with which they were personally struggling, and to indicate whether they consider a given sin to be more characteristic of men, of women, or of both genders equally. Similar questions were asked concerning the virtues, but from a positive rather than a negative perspective. While the results were generally similar to the earlier clergy survey, there were some modest changes in the way respondents ranked the sins and virtues, indicated their personal identification with them, and viewed their gender relatedness. While the number of women respondents to the 2002 survey was small, differences in the way that clergymen and clergywomen responded to the survey questions are noted. We particularly note that clergy view anger as a much more deadly sin than do laity, and also the consistent finding that respondents tend to struggle personally with sins they consider among the least destructive.