What Game Is Being Played? The Need for Clarity about the Relationships Between Scientific and Theological Understanding

This paper investigates the relationship between theology and the natural sciences by considering four realist and five nonrealist interpretations of theological understanding. These are that theology expresses biblical affirmations, the faith of the community, revelatory declarations, or a prioriconclusions, and that it is reducible to expressions of feelings, attitudes, naturalism, liberating praxis, or moral convictions. Because these views are unsatisfactory, the author calls for an imaginative form of natural theology that shows how faith's understanding of the purpose, value, and meaning of reality fits how the world is actually found to be.     

Finding a home: Developmental and neurobiological perspectives on cultural models

This article looks at cultural models in the light of human development, and neurobiological findings in motivation, learning, and cognition. It is argued that at the individual level, the acquisition of cultural models relies on several innate, neurobiologically based motivational, learning, and cognitive systems. These are: (a) a primary motivation to form social bonds which is driven by affect; (b) highly specialized social learning circuits, involving, but not limited to, mirror neuron systems, that facilitate the encoding of social information through implicit, embodied, imitational learning processes; and (c) the formation of culturally based templates for behavior and cognition centered around structures, collectively known as the “default mode network,” which is essential to self‐understanding, autobiographical memory, social cognition, prospection, and theory‐of‐mind. Cultural models, it is argued, are acquired through innate motivational processes that tie the individual emotionally to a secure base of familiar people and customs. This instinctual desire for proximity to others facilitates the efficient, largely implicit, patterning of knowledge and expectations. Shared knowledge and expectations, in turn, create a common, mostly implicit or unconscious, experience of subjectivity within groups. This allows each individual to automatically and effortlessly interact with similarly enculturated others.     

普世伦理如何可能

本文是我对同一主题探究的继续：关于建构普世伦理的方法论问题。基于一种“弱伦理模式”或低度普世化的立场,我主张通过由多元文化对话到公共理性共识的文化解释一理性推理之二维平行求证方式,寻求道德共识,从而建构一种低限度的可行的普世伦理。我承认并重视多元宗教作为普世伦理之文化价值资源的重要意义,但质疑任何以宗教作为普世伦理之基础的“强伦理模式”,甚至也不相信通过“弱宗教模式”来建立普世伦理的实际可行性。在文化多元、政治多极和经济利益主体多样化的实际条件下,建立一种“弱伦理模式”的普世伦理是惟一可以合理期待的。     

Moral Testimony and its Authority

A person sometimes forms moral beliefs by relying on another person's moral testimony. In this paper I advance a cognitivist normative account of this phenomenon. I argue that for a person's actions to be morally good, they must be based on a recognition of the moral reasons bearing on action. Morality requires people to act from an understanding of moral claims, and consequently to have an understanding of moral claims relevant to action. A person sometimes fails to meet this requirement when she relies on another person's moral testimony, and so there are moral limits on such reliance.     

冯友兰先生的《中国哲学史》：“同情之了解”与新儒学

冯友兰先生先以中国哲学史家名于世。两卷本《中国哲学史》是其成名的代表作。《中国哲学史》有很多特点,其中最主要的即是"同情之了解"与"新儒学"。"同情之了解"不仅是冯先生成功写作《中国哲学史》的原则和方法,而且也是我们今后弘扬中国优秀传统文化所不可或缺的原则与方法。冯先生后来又成了一位著名的新儒家。作为中国现代学术思潮中新儒家的一位典型代表,冯先生本人以及一般论者都公认为应以其"贞元六书"的"新理学"哲学体系为代表。文章赞同这个共识,但想补充一点,即广而言之,似乎也可以包括冯先生所著的两卷本《中国哲学史》在内。文章从其目录、内容、审查、批评、自觉与自白和"贞元六书"多方面进行了探索与论述。     

Stacking of blocks by chimpanzees: developmental processes and physical understanding

The stacking-block task has been used to assess cognitive development in both humans and chimpanzees. The present study reports three aspects of stacking behavior in chimpanzees: spontaneous development, acquisition process following training, and physical understanding assessed through a cylindrical-block task. Over 3 years of longitudinal observation of block manipulation, one of three infant chimpanzees spontaneously started to stack up cubic blocks at the age of 2 years and 7 months. The other two infants began stacking up blocks at 3 years and 1 month, although only after the introduction of training by a human tester who rewarded stacking behavior. Cylindrical blocks were then introduced to assess physical understanding in object-object combinations in three infant (aged 3-4) and three adult chimpanzees. The flat surfaces of cylinders are suitable for stacking, while the rounded surface is not. Block manipulation was described using sequential codes and analyzed focusing on failure, cause, and solution in the task. Three of the six subjects (one infant and two adults) stacked up cylindrical blocks efficiently: frequently changing the cylinders' orientation without contacting the round side to other blocks. Rich experience in stacking cubes may facilitate subjects' stacking of novel, cylindrical shapes from the beginning. The other three subjects were less efficient in stacking cylinders and used variable strategies to achieve the goal. Nevertheless, they began to learn the effective way of stacking over the course of testing, after about 15 sessions (75 trials).     

审美概念理解对审美感性水平影响的实验探索

通常认为审美理性对审美感性有消极影响。这至少对认知心理学和人工智能的研究与发展形成了一种障碍。本研究以审美概念理解作为审美理性活动的典型式,对二者的实际关系进行探索。实验对象分为A类普通被试和B类艺术专业被试。结果表明：无论是否通过专门的审美概念学习训练,实验组和对照组的审美概念理解与审美感性水平的发展都呈共同上升趋势：通过学习训练,审美概念理解程度有显著提高,且显著有助于AB两类被试审美感受总水平提高;审美概念理解的“合理性”（正确性与精确性）是对审美感性各因素影响的显著因子,而其“事实例举”对于审美感性中的审美感知、审美联想、审美情感等是显著因子。A类小学5年级被试的审美感知和审美情感、B类大学美术专业2年级被试的审美感知,实验前后无显著差异,这表明审美理性对审美感性所具有的积极影响,在一定条件下是有限的。     

幼儿对生气和伤心情绪倾向同伴的接受性比较

本研究通过生气-伤心两可情景,考察了116名4~6岁幼儿对生气和伤心倾向同伴的认知偏好,并通过二选一的封闭式访谈考察幼儿对生气和伤心情绪结果的理解,以反映幼儿的偏好原因。结果表明:①从认知上看,相比生气倾向的同伴,幼儿更偏好伤心倾向的同伴。②5岁、6岁组幼儿比4岁组幼儿更偏好伤心倾向的同伴。③在情绪结果理解上,幼儿认为生气引发他人更多的远离,伤心引发他人更多的目标恢复、道歉和趋近。可见,生气倾向的幼儿比伤心倾向的幼儿更不被同伴接受。     

儿童心理理论能力中特质理解的研究

特质是可以概括、预测和解释行为的稳定的内部特征,包含了人的理智、情绪和社会方面的特征。特质理解是心理理论研究中的一个重要研究领域,它对于社会能力的促进和发展具有重要意义。文章概述了国内外该研究领域的主要研究成果及研究动态,包括儿童自由描述中特质词的使用、特质稳定性的理解、特质心理因果性的理解及与特质理解相关的其他方面的理解的研究。     

Predicting short-term outcome in well-being following suicidal behaviour: the conjoint effects of social perfectionism and positive future thinking

This study investigated an integrative, psychological model of suicidality involving the relationship between perfectionism and future thinking to predict short-term outcome in well-being following a suicidal episode. Two hundred and sixty-seven adults hospitalized following a self-harm episode completed a range of clinical and psychological measures in hospital and were followed up approximately two months after discharge. Hierarchical regression analyses confirmed that, among the suicidal self-harmers who had a history of repetitive self-harm (n=65), outcome among low social perfectionists changed as a function of positive future thinking such that outcome was better for those high on positive thoughts compared with those low on positive future thoughts. There was no such positive change in outcome among the high social perfectionists. There were also no significant interactive effects evident among the non-repetitive self-harmers (n=61). These findings extend recent research to suggest that socially prescribed perfectionism and positive future thinking (but not negative future thinking) are implicated in outcome following repetitive suicidality. Implications for theory and clinical practice are discussed.