Reactions of African American Students to the George Zimmerman Trial: Co-Rumination and Thought Intrusions as Mediators

We document how prior experiences with racism, sequentially mediated by co-rumination about racial problems with a friend and thought intrusions, are associated with negative reactions to a racially charged event—the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman and the subsequent trial and acquittal of Mr. Zimmerman. African Americans’ prior experiences with racial discrimination predicted more co-rumination about racial problems with a friend. In turn, co-rumination was associated with more thought intrusions about the trial, leading to more negative affect and less forgiveness for Zimmerman. Co-rumination about racism and worrisome thinking about high-profile race-related events may amplify concern about racism for a frequent target of racial discrimination, lowering the threshold for negative psychological reactions to racist acts (including acts of violence) that may happen to other African Americans or to oneself.     

Paul and the Revisionists: Did Luther Really Get it All Wrong?

Abstract : After the advent of the “new perspective” on Paul as explicated in E. P. Sanders, Krister Stendahl, and N.T. Wright, we need to ask: did Luther get Paul right? In this essay, Donfried analyzes N.T. Wright along with David Brondos on whether Paul—and Luther—properly interpreted concepts such as “law” or “justification” in light of ancient Judaism(s). In contrast to the “new perspective,” Donfried argues that Paul got the Judaisms of his own era right and Luther got Paul right: we are justified or rightwised before God because of the presence of Jesus Christ in the faith of the one who believes.     

A Heideggerian Defense of Therapeutic Cloning

Debates about the legitimacy of embryonic stem-cell research have largely focused on the type of ethical value that should be accorded to the human embryo in␣vitro. In this paper, I try to show that, to broaden the scope of these debates, one needs to articulate an ontology that does not limit itself to biological accounts, but that instead focuses on the embryo’s place in a totality of relevance surrounding and guiding a human practice. Instead of attempting to substantiate the ethical value of the embryo exclusively by pointing out that it has potentiality for personhood, one should examine the types of practices in which the embryo occurs and focus on the ends inherent to these practices. With this emphasis on context, it becomes apparent that the embryo’s ethical significance can only be understood by elucidating the attitudes that are established towards it in the course of specific activities. The distinction between fertilized embryos and cloned embryos proves to be important in this contextual analysis, since, from the point of view of practice, the two types of embryos appear to belong to different human practices: (assisted) procreation and medical research, respectively. In my arguments, I highlight the concepts of practice, technology, and nature, as they have been analyzed in the phenomenological tradition, particularly by Martin Heidegger. I come to the conclusion that therapeutic cloning should be allowed, provided that it turns out to be a project that benefits medical science in its aim to battle diseases. Important precautions have to be taken, however, in order to safeguard the practice of procreation from becoming perverted by the aims and attitudes of medical science when the two practices intersect. The threat in question needs to be taken seriously, since it concerns the structure and goal of practices which are central to our very self understanding as human beings.     

The Book of Concord and Human Sexuality,Seen Through the Institution of Marriage

Abstract : Although The Book of Concord says only a few things about sexuality explicitly, by observing the distinction between law and gospel and the way the reformers correlate the law with their social situation, today's Lutheran readers may reach broader conclusions about their approach to such matters. The most important issue regarding sexuality in the sixteenth century arose from the reformers' desire to distinguish monastic celibacy from true chastity and thus to support their conviction that every‐day married life was a God‐pleasing, Christian vocation.     

Elephants painting? Selfness and the emergence of self states as illustrated in conceptual art

Abstract :  The traditional view of the self is that of a singular entity whose ground is an inherent function of the mind. The more recent conception of the self is moving toward the social constructionist concept that its ground is the discourses of the particular culture into which one is born. These two divergent views have created an irresolvable binary of inner/outer that limits their explanatory power. To resolve this dilemma I suggest that the abstract noun 'selfness', indicating a  general  state, should replace the representational noun 'self', that indicates a  specific  state. I will propose that 'selfness' is indeed the 'ground' from which our unique self states emerge. I will illustrate this with examples from conceptual art and will discuss its relevance to analytic theory and treatment.     

Beyond design: cybernetics,biological computers and hylozoism

The history of British cybernetics offers us a different form of science and engineering, one that does not seek to dominate nature through knowledge. I want to say that one can distinguish two different paradigms in the history of science and technology: the one that Heidegger despised, which we could call the Modern paradigm, and another, cybernetic, nonModern, paradigm that he might have approved of. This essay focusses on work in the 1950s and early 1960s by two of Britain’s leading cyberneticians, Stafford Beer and Gordon Pask, in the field of what one can call biological computing. My object is to get as clear as I can on what Beer and Pask were up to. At the end, I will discuss Beer’s hylozoist ontology of matter, mind and spirit. This material is not easy to get the hang of—but that is what one should expect from an unfamiliar paradigm. Presented at an international conference on the philosophy of technology, Copenhagen, 13–15 Oct 2005. Revised for submission to Synthese.