THE VARIETIES AND REVISIONS OF ATHEISM

Abstract. The philosopher Antony Flew has argued for decades that theistic arguments cannot meet criteria of truth. In this essay I respond to Flew's recent announcement that research into the emergence of DNA provides grounds for rational belief in an intelligent orderer, a “God.” Flew's theistic turn is important for philosophers of religion and the wider science‐and‐religion dialogue. It becomes apparent, however, that Flew's “conversion” is not as decisive as one might imagine. While he admits growth in scientific and philosophical understanding, he rejects the idea of growth in religious understanding. Further, he endorses a version of “theoretical theism” while denying the practical importance of belief. Such denial of practical conviction is part of a modernist mindset that separates freedom from the embeddedness of human beings in the natural world. I conclude by noting that the entanglement of human action and wider physical processes, an entanglement seen emblematically in the environmental crisis, requires not only considering the importance of intelligence and order in the emergence of life but also the significance of human agency in claims about the divine and the natural world.     

中小学生及其教师、家长的"可交流集体责任"观的研究

以小学5年级和初中3年级的71名学生、他们的78名家长和71名教师为对象,以“声誉损害”、“财物损坏”、“人身伤害”三类内容为故事刺激材料。设置“不知道犯过者”、“不揭发犯过者”两种背景,从公正判断和理解判断两方面比较考察了他们的可交流集体责任观。结果表明,在可交流集体责任的公正判断上教师明显较少;在可交流集体责任的理解判断上教师和学生更为能够理解接受;两种背景和三类内容对可交流集体责任观会有一定的影响。     

广州医学院校中医学生与西医学生对中西医结合认识的调查报告

建国以来,我国大力致力于培养中西医结合型人材,然而到目前为止,关于中西医结合的概念在医学层面上仍达不到统一的共识,对于当今的医学生们,他们对中西医结合了解有多少,他们如何看待中西结合,中西医结合课程所起的作用有多大等等,这些都非常值得我们关注。为此,2005年6月份期间对广州市五所医学院校的学生进行了有关问卷调查。     

任务、年龄和性别对幼儿情绪理解成绩的影响

以69名3-6岁幼儿为被试,考察了在简单面部表情识别任务、基于愿望的情绪理解任务、基于信念的情绪理解任务和冲突情绪理解任务四种条件下幼儿情绪理解的表现。结果表明:1)幼儿的情绪理解能力随年龄发展不断提高,各层次的情绪理解上存在先后顺序,情绪理解性别差异不显著;2)幼儿在情绪类型识别上表现出一定的偏好;3)幼儿在情绪理解任务上的表现总体上存在潜在的认知一致性,在不同层次上又具有显著的任务特异性。     

小学中高年级儿童情绪理解力的特点研究

对640名小学中高年级儿童情绪理解力的测查表明,儿童能够理解抽象的情绪概念和简单的情绪词汇;会依赖表情、言语及副言语和身体动作线索识别他人的情绪;会依赖内部心理活动、表情和身体动作线索识别自己的情绪;儿童已理解情绪与事件/行为间的因果联系,对积极情绪事件/行为的理解具有社交性和亲社会性的特点,对消极情绪事件/行为的理解具有攻击性和破坏性的特点;在理解自己和他人情绪隐藏能力时存在明显差异。     

From understanding others' needs to prosocial action: Motor and social abilities promote infants' helping

In the present study, we test the main hypothesis that infants' understanding of others' needs translates into helping behavior, when critical motor and social competencies have emerged, early in the second year. We assessed the understanding of others' needs in an eye‐tracking paradigm and the helping behavior of 10‐ (n = 41) and 16‐month‐olds (n = 37). Furthermore, we assessed the motor and social abilities of 16‐month‐olds. Critically, while infants understood others' needs already at 10 months, fine motor and social interaction skills moderated the link between infants' prosocial understanding and helping behavior at 16 months. This provides first evidence that infants' helping behavior relates to their understanding of others' needs. Furthermore, we found that fine motor, gross motor, and social interaction skills predicted early helping behavior by themselves. These findings highlight that the emergence of infants' helping behavior is the result of a developmental system that includes infants' understanding of others' needs and also their motor and social competencies. The link between infants' understanding of others' needs and their early helpful actions provide further support for the prosocial nature of early helping behavior.     

Parent-carer awareness and understanding of dyspraxia: Implications for child development support practices

Dyspraxia manifests as difficulty in thinking, planning, and executing planned movements or tasks. Dyspraxia affects roughly 5–6% of school aged children. This study aimed to explore parent-carer’s awareness and understanding of dyspraxia and the resources they self-perceived to need to manage their children with dyspraxia. Informants were 15 parents from the Cape Peninsula, South Africa. They completed semi-structured interviews on their knowledge of and indicators of dyspraxia in their children and resources they presently utilised or could seek to use. Thematic analysis of the data suggested the parent-carers to be aware of motor rather than cognition oriented limitations. Additionally, parent-carers accessed or sought educator assistance from the school system. Health professionals and educators working with parents of children with dyspraxia can expect them to report reliably on behavioural characteristics of their children’s abilities important for treatment support interventions.     

Is knowledge of causes sufficient for understanding?

According to a traditional account, understanding why X occurred is equivalent to knowing that X was caused by Y. This paper defends the account against a major objection, viz., knowing-that is not sufficient for understanding-why, for understanding-why requires a kind of grasp while knowledge-that does not. I discuss two accounts of grasp in recent literature and argue that if either is true, then knowing that X was caused by Y entails at least a rudimentary understanding of why X occurred. If my defense is successful, it would cast doubt on an influential account of the epistemic value of understanding.     

33-month-old children succeed in a false belief task with reduced processing demands: A replication of Setoh et al. (2016)

A recent low-inhibition false belief task showed a high success rate with 33-month-old children when response-generation demands were reduced [Setoh, Scott, & Baillargeon (2016). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(47), 13360–13365]. We found correct responding in 74% of N = 58 33-month-old children, replicating the original findings. Within the same sample, we compared this performance with performance in a concurrent measure of false belief understanding which has previously produced competence in children below the age of 3 years [Hughes & Ensor (2007). Developmental Psychology, 43(6), 1447–1459]. Contrasting sharply with findings from the low-inhibition false belief task, we found partial competence in 15%, and full competence in only 5% of the same sample. These results show that the paradigm by Setoh and colleagues generates reliable findings in a different lab and a different language. We discuss this pattern of results in relation to theoretical considerations of early false belief understanding.     

Toward Cyber-Systemic Thinking in Practice

This article is an invitation to be reflexive; reflexivity is a second-order process or reflection on reflection. The possibility that a reader might experience a reflexive moment is sought by avoiding a narrative trap: to believe the “coming to” of the issue title implies a state to arrive at, carefully planned, a purposeful journey, pursued by an enlightened individual devoid of all social relations. The author thus begins situated in a social system. Following Maturana, a social system is explained, as is what constitutes, or triggers, change, in a social system. An example of granting rivers sentience in law as an expansion of the social is explored