INTERRELATING NATURE, HUMANITY, AND THE WORK OF GOD: SOME ISSUES FOR FUTURE REFLECTION

Abstract. This essay suggests some future items for an agenda about human viability, defined as survivability with meaning and purpose, by exploring interrelations between nature, humanity, and the work of God. It argues for intrinsic and creative value in nature, so there is a value kinship, as well as a factual kinship, between humans, nature, and God-working. It considers humans as "webs of culture, life, and cosmos" and suggests some implications of this notion of human nature for viability. And it asks what human fulfillment can be in light of the awesome creative-destroying-recreative activity that seems to be the ground of an evolving universe.     

Selective information processing and schematic content related to eating behavior

An adaptation of the Stroop color-naming task was used to investigate selective information processing related to eating behavior in 90 undergraduate women. This study differed from previous studies by (a) treating eating behavior as a continuous variable and (b) looking at five separate categories of words including color, neutral, food, body shape, and other emotionally salient words. We did not find a strong pattern of relation between the Stroop task and eating and body image measures. Results suggest that in a nonclinical population, direct methods of accessing cognitions related to eating may be more fruitful than indirect measures.     

Broken-Backed Naturalism

Willem Drees's stated purpose in Religion, Science and Naturalism is to maintain the continuing importance of religion in human life while being honest to the sciences. His preferred way of doing that is an example of what John Dewey once called "broken-backed naturalism." In contrast, Deweyan humanism accomplishes Drees's purpose in a more thoroughly naturalistic way. It does not bifurcate the world into the domain of the sciences—the natural world—and the domain of religion—the provider of answers to limit questions about the world as a whole, which fall outside the scope of the sciences.     

Cognitive Science: What One Needs to Know

Cognitive science is a new paradigm that informs and involves several disciplines, including artificial intelligence, neuroscience, cognitive psychology, cognitive ethology, and the philosophy of mind. Cognitive science studies the mind as an information processor, with the computer often operating as a metaphor for the operations of the mind. Developments in the cognitive sciences stand to affect tremendously how we think of the mind and, consequently, how we think of theological and religious claims that concern the human subject. The unity of self, claims of human uniqueness, the relation of mind and body, human nature, and the personal agency of God are all areas of religious import in which the cognitive sciences need to be taken into account.     

Current and vestigial effects of overweight among women: Fear of fat,attitudinal body image,and eating behaviors

College females completed multiple, standardized measures of their fear of fat, attitudinal body image, and binge eating and dieting. Situational weigh-in measures were taken, including latency to get on the scale and anxiety while being weighed. Based on current weight and a structured weight history questionnaire, three groups were constructed: normal-weight subjects without an overweight history (NW; n=24), normal-weight subjects who were formerly overweight (FOW; n=16), and those currently overweight (OW; n=24). Group comparisons revealed, as expected, that OW females, relative to their NW peers, had more weight-related anxieties, more negative body experiences, and more frequent past-year dieting. Consistent with Stunkard's original proposition, the FOW group regarded their bodies as fatter and less affectively satisfying and expressed more weigh-in anxiety than NW participants. Currently normal-weight FOW subjects seldom differed from the currently OW individuals. Clinical and research implications are considered, particularly with regard to the psychological sequelae of weight loss.     

A note on monotone polygons fitted to bivariate data

The monotone regression function of Kruskal and the rank image function of Guttman and Lingoes were fitted to bivariate normal samples and their statistical properties contrasted.This paper was written while the author was a Visiting Professor in the Department of Psychology, University College, London.     

RELIGION AND FRANCIS BACON'S SCIENTIFIC UTOPIANISM

Francis Bacon often is depicted as a patriarch of modernity who promotes human rational action over faith in divine Providence and as a secular humanitarian who realized that improvement of the human condition depended on human action and not on God's saving acts in history. Bacon's New Atlantis is usually described as a “scientific utopia” because its ideal order, harmony, and prosperity are the result of the investigations of nature conducted by the members of Solomon's House. I challenge these characterizations by showing that Bacon's so‐called scientific utopianism is grounded in his religious convictions that his age was one of Providential intervention and that he was God's agent for an apocalyptic transformation of the human condition. I examine the centrality of these religious themes in two of his philosophical works, The Advancement of Learning and The Great Instauration, which are well known for setting out Bacon's critique of the state of learning and for presenting the principles of his epistemology. Analysis of The Advancement of Learning demonstrates Bacon's conviction that his reform of natural philosophy was part of a Providentially guided, twofold restoration of the knowledge of nature and the knowledge of God. Examination of The Great Instauration reveals that Bacon sees his age as one of apocalyptic transformation of the human condition that restores humanity to a prelapsarian state. Analysis of the New Atlantis shows that utopian perfection can be achieved only through a combination of right religion and the proper study of nature. Moreover, when the “scientific” work of Solomon's House is recontextualized within the religious themes of salvation and deliverance that permeate the New Atlantis, the full scope of Bacon's “scientific utopianism” can be seen, and this project is not the one usually portrayed in scholarly treatments. Bacon's program for rehabilitating humanity and its relation to nature is not a secular, scientific advance through which humanity gains dominion over nature and mastery of its own destiny but rather one guided by divine Providence and achieved through pious human effort.     

Sellars's Two Images as a Philosopher's Tool

The distinction between the manifest and the scientific image of man‐in‐the‐world is widely seen as crucial to Wilfrid Sellars's philosophical work. The present essay agrees with this view. It contends, however, that precisely because the distinction is important, we should not hurry to a quick and superficial understanding of it. The essay identifies several oversimplifications that can be found in the literature on the topic and argues that they are at least partly rooted in too rigid a view of the role that the two‐image distinction plays in Sellars's philosophy. It shows that this rigid approach is quite common in the secondary literature, either explicitly or by implication. It then presents a more cautious, flexible approach to the problem of the two images and explains why this approach is fruitful on the basis of textual evidence, along with the overall advantages of interpreting Sellars's thought as a whole.     

Health-related quality of life in transgender adolescents: Associations with body image and emotional and behavioral problems

Background: Transgender adolescents who apply for treatment often experience a marked increase in body-related distress when entering puberty, accompanied by internalizing problems and poor peer relations. Although adolescence is a time of considerable psychosocial and physical change, generally associated with a decline in health-related quality of life (HRQoL), research on HRQoL in transgender youth and possible predictors is sparse. This study thus aims to explore the predictive value of body image factors and emotional and behavioral problems for HRQoL.

Methods: This cross-sectional one-group observational study was carried out at the Child and Adolescent psychiatric department (Gender Identity Service) in Hamburg, Germany. A sample of n = 126 (103 trans male and 23 trans female) adolescents, who were referred for counseling and/or treatment completed different standardized instruments before undergoing any sort of treatment. Firstly, five dimensions of HRQoL were explored in transgender adolescents and secondly, a linear regression model was applied to assess the impact of body image and emotional and behavioral problems on overall HRQoL.

Results: HRQoL was generally impaired in transgender adolescents compared to norm scores, especially with regard to aspects of psychological and physical well-being. Linear regression analysis revealed that greater internalizing problems and less body satisfaction significantly predicted lower HRQoL outcomes.

Conclusions: Impaired HRQoL may be explained by high degrees of internalizing problems and low body satisfaction. Thus, one important aim of mental health professionals working with youth should be to provide appropriate treatment and counseling options that may contribute to overall well-being in the long-term.     

自我客体化对女大学生限制性饮食行为的影响：一个有调节的中介模型

为探讨自我客体化对女大学生限制性饮食行为的影响及其内在作用机制,采用自我客体化量表、体像比较量表、限制性饮食量表和意志控制量表对487名女大学生进行调查。结果表明：（1）自我客体化、社交网站体像比较和限制性饮食两两之间均存在显著的正相关;意志控制与自我客体化、社交网站体像比较以及限制性饮食均呈显著的负相关;（2）社交网站体像比较在自我客体化对限制性饮食的影响中起中介作用;（3）自我客体化对限制性饮食影响的直接效应以及社交网站体像比较中介效应的后半路径均受到意志控制的调节,即在低意志控制群体中,这两种效应都更为显著。