Assisted death and martyrdom.

Against the backdrop of ancient, mediaeval and modern Catholic teaching prohibiting killing (the rule against killing), the question of assisted suicide and euthanasia is examined. In the past the Church has modified its initial repugnance for killing by developing specific guidelines for permitting killing under strict conditions. This took place with respect to capital punishment and a just war, for example. One wonders why in the least objectionable instance, when a person is already dying, suffering, and repeatedly requesting assistance in dying, there is still such widespread condemnation of assisted suicide and euthanasia. In a Gedankexperiment, I suggest that certain stories of martyrdom in the history of the Christian Church shed some light on the role of taking one's life, or putting one's life in danger out of love. I further suggest that requesting assisted suicide and/or euthanasia from the motive of love of one's family or care givers might possibly qualify as one instance of justifiable euthanasia, although I acknowledge that the Church will not be making changes in its stance any time soon.     

Critical Consciousness: An Alternative Pathway for Positive Personal and Social Development

This paper presents a conceptual model of the integrative psychological construct of critical consciousness (CC), defined as a moral awareness which propels individuals to disembed from their cultural, social, and political environment, and engage in a responsible critical moral dialogue with it, making active efforts to construct their own place in social reality and to develop internal consistency in their ways of being. The ontogeny of CC is analyzed in terms of the synergistic interaction between its two main components, structural developmental and moral motivation. The paper describes the cross-cultural interview research which allowed the elaboration of the CC developmental pathway. It posits the dimension of moral motivation as distinguishing the CC pathway, and illustrates the continuum between predominantly moral and expediency motivation through brief case vignettes. The paper differentiates three developmental macrolevels of CC, and illustrates through case vignettes two alternatives of social consciousness at the level of conventional morality—CC and non-CC. Some possible sources of moral motivation in personal history and biography are discussed.     

On the Special Logic Thesis in Chinese Philosophy

I address the problem of whether philosophy can be international by its claim to represent rationality, hence universality. I argue in favor of this claim by focusing on the special logic thesis in Chinese philosophy. This thesis holds that a different type of logic must be used when studying the Chinese texts. I argue at length against the special logic thesis by examining the problem of human nature in the Confucian philosophers Mencius, Hsün Tzu and Kao Tzu. I show how their arguments can be reconstructed as inductive analogical arguments and as deductive argument. I then broaden the notion of the logic of argumentation into a discussion of metaphysical anti-essentialism and underdetermination in order to resolve the problem of human nature and also to show how the same types of logical analysis (more generally construed) can be applied to the arguments from these Confucian philosophers. Under my treatment, Kao Tzu, somewhat surprisingly, turns out to provide the most insight.     

论医学创新中的灵感思维

灵感是一种奇妙的创新思维方式。通过对古今中外医学史上运用灵感思维完成创新的实践过程进行考察、说明灵感思维可以划分为酝酿－－顿悟－－验证在阶段基核心是顿悟阶段。在此阶段中有自悟型和外引整两大类,主要是十种形式。人类即将进入２１世纪,与之相适应的医学领域地出现惊人的创新,研究医学创新中的灵感思维,有助于我们探讨和认识新思维的机制和规律,用以启迪和培养全民族的创新能力,为人类飞向未来插上金翅。     

医疗纠纷处理中若干伦理问题的思考

医疗纠纷的增势和处理难已成为众所周知的事实。但是,在医疗纠纷处理中存在着医患关系的信任性、医疗事故鉴定的公正性和经济裣的合理笥是思考的伦理问题。只要医患双方、乃至社会对诸如医疗行为是否等同于一般的服务行为、病人权益是否等同于消费者权益、医疗事故鉴定是不是医医相护、经济裣能不能实行等价赔偿原则、医疗差错要不要给予经济补偿等有效为统一的认识,就会有利于医疗纠纷的处理,有利于维护医患双方的合法权益,有利     

Influence and development: Two basic paradigms of education

The article discusses two basic paradigms of western educational theory, namely the concept of influence and the concept of development. Two historical contextes are analyzed, John Locke's theory of human learning and Jean-Jacques Rousseau's theory of natural development. Both theories are rejected in favour of a position beyond influence and development. This position of a theory of education (Erziehung) is marked with the term moral communication.An earlier and slightly different version of this article was presented to the International Symposion The Crisis of Schools (Corsendonck/Belgium, March 1992). It was translated from the german original by Annette Roeder. The final draft is my own.     

Thought experiments and conceptual revision

The idea that claims about the physical world might be arrived through a priori reasoning has a long history in physics. But it is clear that empiricist notions of the nature of science, and in particular the empirical nature of physics, have held sway in this century. Yet, in the idea of thought experiments in science, we might find the survival of earlier a priori reasoning to the truth of claims about the physical world. This paper challenges the notion that science can be understood as a purely empirical endeavor and points out what reforms would be necessary for teaching the image of science to our young.     

Humanity and Paternal Eros: The Father-Son Relationship in Comparative Perspective

This paper examines the human relational patterns presented in the philosophical writings of the Confucian thinker Dai Zhen (戴震1724–77) and the Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas’s (1906–95) Totality and Infinity to uncover the ethical significance of the father-son relationship. I argue that for both thinkers the father-son relation is not just one type of human relationship among other social dyads, but rather, of greater significance, serves as the paradigmatic model of the ethical human relationship in bringing to light the idea of the ethical self as a responsible being in relation to others.     

我国维果茨基心理学思想研究的历史与现状

维果茨基堪称心理学的巨人,在现代心理科学中享有崇高的地位。迄今为止我国对维果茨基的研究已经有半个世纪的历史,期间走过了由不重视到重视,由分散研究到有计划有组织研究的道路。全国维果茨基研究会自1998年成立以来,我国学者对维果茨基心理学思想的研究无论是在理论方面,还是在应用和实证方面均取得了显著的成果。