The unity of moral attitudes: recipe semantics and credal exaptation*

Abstract

This paper offers a noncognitivist characterization of moral attitudes, according to which moral attitudes count as such because of their inclusion of moral concepts. Moral concepts are distinguished by their contribution to the functional roles of some of the attitudes in which they can occur. They have no particular functional role in other attitudes, and should instead be viewed as evolutionary spandrels. In order to make the counter-intuitive implications of the view more palatable, the paper ends with an account of the evolution of normative judgments as exaptations of the cognitive structures that underlie beliefs.     

未来心理时间的新取向：集体未来思考

集体未来思考是指想象一个尚未发生的群体事件,其与集体记忆之间存在着复杂的相互作用。目前对集体未来思考的研究发现它的记忆基础更多为语义记忆。而有关集体未来思考的脑机制研究则相对较少,但在遗忘症患者中发现个体未来思考和集体未来思考是可分离的,并且非海马依赖的未来场景构建与集体未来思考可能存在重要联系。未来研究应该注重不同文化背景下的集体未来思考,探讨其产生条件及影响因素,并加强在正常人群中神经机制的研究,以更好地揭示集体未来思考的实质。     

Training the removal of negative information from working memory: A preliminary investigation of a working memory bias modification task

Rumination in depressed adults is associated with a bias toward retaining negative information in working memory. We developed a task designed to modify this cognitive bias by having subjects repeatedly practice removing negative words from working memory, thereby enabling them to retain positive and neutral words. To assess the efficacy of this task, we recruited 60 adults who reported elevated repetitive negative thought (RNT) and randomly assigned them to receive a single administration of either the working memory bias modification (WMBM) task or a control task. Subjects in the WMBM condition exhibited greater reduction in proactive interference for negative information than did those in the control condition. These results suggest that the WMBM task reduces biased retention of negative information in working memory and, thus, may be useful in investigating the possible causal role of this cognitive bias in RNT or depression.     

Ideas of justice and reconstructions of Confucian justice

Confucianism tends to play only a marginal role in current theorizing about justice, which is a global pursuit dominated by Western theory and its strong tendency to assume that justice refers to some substantive conception of distributive, socioeconomic justice. This article examines and compares reconstructions of Confucian justice by Joseph Chan, May Sim, and Fan Ruiping. Each reconstruction makes reference to both classical and modern Western justice theory and thus each involves a comparative approach; indeed, each reconstruction seeks ultimately, in its own distinctive fashion, to present a version of Confucian justice that is comparable with modern Western justice theory. In this article we assess, critically and comparatively, the tertium comparationis and the arguments in each reconstruction. While our analysis does not wholly endorse any of the reconstructions, it shows that there is a richness and vitality to Confucian justice theory that merits proper consideration in justice theory conceived as a truly global and cosmopolitan discipline.     

当代中国临床医学伦理准则建设论纲

我国当代临床医学伦理准则亟待出台，建设时机现已水到渠成，为积极参与这项重要的建设工程，本文提出了找准现实生长点为根本课题的基本建设思路，并以病人中心准则为核心探索性地设计出了准则体系。     

Perceptual consciousness plays no epistemic role

It is often assumed that perceptual experience provides evidence about the external world. But much perception can occur unconsciously, as in cases of masked priming or blindsight. Does unconscious perception provide evidence as well? Many theorists maintain that it cannot, holding that perceptual experience provides evidence in virtue of its conscious character. Against such views, I challenge here both the necessity and, perhaps more controversially, the sufficiency of consciousness for perception to provide evidence about the external world. In addition to motivating and defending the idea that unconscious perception can and does often provide evidence, I observe that whether or not perceptual phenomenology is relevant to the evidentiary status of perception depends on the nature of consciousness. And I argue that a well‐supported theory of consciousness—higher‐order thought theory—invites a striking conclusion: that perceptual phenomenology is not on its own sufficient to provide for evidence of the external world.     

Joining the Transformation of Nature—The Post-Natural and Confucian Perspective on Earth Stewardship in the Anthropocene

The emergence of the Anthropocene creates a new set of conditions for understanding the relationship between human power and the natural world. These conditions include an increasingly humanized and de-natured natural world, and greater responsibilities of stewardship for human beings. In current literature, there are diverse views on the meaning of the Anthropocene and the role of modern technology in future earth stewardship. Post-natural thought regards the Anthropocene as representing the end of nature, and thus appeals to disenchantment with respect to the idea that nature is an external moral norm. Although this approach correctly addresses the significance of locality and the mutuality between humans and the environment, it fails to provide us with adequate normative boundaries for preventing the endless artificialization of nature. Alternatively, this article defends the position that Confucianism is a more plausible philosophical ground for earth stewardship in the context of the Anthropocene. The Confucian approach is an inclusive humanism which is established on the cosmological ideal of realising the virtue of shengsheng 生生 (life generation) in all beings. Moreover, Confucian ethics draw much attention to the self-regulation of human beings as virtuous persons. This is indeed what is needed in the age of the Anthropocene.     

西方观念与道家思想的亲和--严复道家研究剖析

严复以西方的进化论和民主、自由等观念对道家的某些思想作了阐发。他作的这种阐发,实际上是以老庄著作为载体,会通中西思想文化,形成了独特的“以西释中的解读方式,这种解读方式,为近代道家思想的研究开辟了一条新的途径。     

Books received

Analytical Psychology
Thomas Singer, (ed) The Vision Thing: Myth, Politics and Psyche in the World
Erel Shalit, The Hero and his Shadow. Psychopolitical aspects of Myth and Reality in Israel
J. Hollis, The Archetypal Imagination
Psychoanalysis
A. Ferro, The Bi-Personal Field – Experiences in Child Analysis
M. Parsons, The Dove that Returns, The Dove that Vanishes–Paradox and Creativity in Psychoanalysis
Miscellaneous
J. W. Ciarocchi, & R. J. Wicks, Psychotherapy with Priests and Protestant Clergy and Catholic Religious: A Practical Guide
Chopra Deepak, How to Know God. The Soul's Journey into the Mystery of Mysteries
Rachel Charles, Your Mind's Eye. How to heal yourself and release your potential through creative visualisation
Joyce Rockwood Hudson, Natural Spirituality. Recovering the Wisdom Tradition in Christianity
Zerka T. Moreno, Leif Dag Blomkvist, & Thomas Rützel, Psychodrama, Surplus Reality and the Art of Healing
Ann Ulanov, & Barry The Healing Imagination. The Meeting of Psyche and Soul     

On sensation, perception and thought: A reply to Rönnberg

A traditional partition of cognitive phenomena into sensation, perception and thought is reintroduced in response to recent arguments (Rönnberg, 1990) for conditions that must be met in order to distinguish between perception and cognition. The suggested division seems grossly compatible with Ronnberg's basic aim and receives support from several different lines of inquiry, including single cell recordings in the brain, neurospsychology, computational studies of vision and experimental psychology.