《齐物论》与竹林玄学

《庄子》作为“三玄”之一,在魏晋玄学中大行其道。阮籍和嵇康是两位在任自然的旗帜下发挥庄子思想的名士。分析发现,阮籍对庄子的理解,大致来自《齐物论》。然《齐物论》对他的意义是双重的：既排遣其对现实的不满,又给因对现实的无能为力而游戏人生的生活态度提供掩饰。嵇康学理上的表现在于,其“声无哀乐”的见解,以乐论的形式,对《齐物论》中齐是非的观点作独特的补充,同时,却又在讨论人格的公（诚）私（伪）之分时,把它同是非问题联系起来,从而显露自己无法掩饰的价值立场。阮、嵇无论是言还是行的矛盾,都与庄子齐是非的悖论有关。     

Lgbt Catholics: a paradigmatic case of intra-confessional pluralism

ABSTRACT

I will reflect on the reconciliation between “subjective” life and “objective” doctrine experienced by Catholic lgbt couples. Even though their particular experience cannot be considered as universal it can nevertheless constitute a case study for theological reflection. I will propose a theological model for the integration of lgbt Catholics into Christian communities. The case of lgbt Catholics also helps us address the theoretical difficulties of religious pluralism. Their experience of faith is an example of “lived pluralism”. In the lexicon of religious pluralism, this experience is an intra-system or intra-theistic diversity, but it also touches upon the meta-theological issue of the model of reason that is to be applied to every system. I believe that every possible case of pluralism is worth considering if we want to theorize this concept. This may lead us to consider pluralism as a premise from which to start, articulated at different levels.     

Relationship between religious characteristics and responses to vigilantism

Religious characteristics are often related to attitudes about legal issues (e.g., death penalty). This study investigated whether U.S. university students’ religious beliefs (i.e., fundamentalism, devotionalism, evangelism) and religious motivations (i.e., intrinsic, extrinsic religiosity) were associated with responses to vigilantism (i.e., whether the vigilante is justified, should be legally responsible, should receive a lighter sentence). Participants read three scenarios describing vigilantism in response to different crimes (murder, drug dealing, child molestation). More punitive responses to vigilantism were associated with being low in fundamentalism, extrinsic religiosity, and evangelism, and with being high in devotionalism and intrinsic religiosity. Motivations were more frequent predictors of responses to vigilantism than beliefs. Results are the first step in explaining relationships between religious characteristics and responses to vigilantism.     

Feeling Good,but Lacking Autonomy: Closed-Mindedness on Social and Moral Issues in New Religious Movements

According to previous research, New Religious Movements (NRMs) seem to have a positive effect on the mental health of members who join NRMs with some previous affective, cognitive or other vulnerabilities. The present study investigates the other, less positive, side of the psychology of NRMs, i.e. elements that may be an obstacle to optimal development, such as rigidity and low autonomy. In comparison to non-NRM members, members of various NRMs in Belgium (N = 120) were found to be low in quest religious orientation (Altemeyer and Hunsberger, Int J Psychol Religion 2:113–133, 1992), to privilege conservation values to the detriment of openness to change values (Schwartz, Advances in experimental social psychology (vol 25, pp. 1–65). Orlando, FL: Academic Press, 1992), to show submissiveness to authority in hypothetical situations (projective measure), and to highly moralize judgments of transgression relative to conventional domains (Turiel, The development of social knowledge: Morality and social convention. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983). Discussion points out the idea that rigidity and restriction of autonomy may be the price to be paid for the structuring role NRMs play with regard to previous vulnerabilities.

Can religious arguments persuade?

In his famous essay “The Ethics of Belief,” William K. Clifford claimed “it is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.” (Clifford’s essay was originally published in Contemporary Review in 1877; it is presently in print in Madigan (1999)). One might claim that a corollary to Clifford’s Law is that it is wrong, always, everywhere, and for anyone, to withhold belief when faced with sufficient evidence. Seeming to operate on this principle, many religious philosophers—from St. Anselm to Alvin Plantinga—have claimed that non-believers are psychologically or cognitively deficient if they refuse to believe in the existence of God, when presented with evidence for His existence in the form of relevant experience or religious arguments that are prima facie unassailable. Similarly, many atheists fail to see how believers can confront the problem of evil and still assert their belief in a benevolent, omnipotent, and omniscient Creator. In this paper, I propose to explain why religious arguments so often fail to persuade (I take the term ‘religious argument’ to include arguments whose conclusions are either assertions or denials of religious claims). In doing so, I first offer an account of persuasion and then apply it to religious arguments. I go on to argue that at least some religious arguments commit a form of question-begging, which I call “begging the doxastic question.”~An argument begs the doxastic question, on my account, when a subject would find the argument persuasive only if she antecedently believes the argument’s conclusion. This form of question begging is not, strictly speaking, a case of circularity and thus, is not a fallacy; rather, it would explain why one coming to the argument would fail to be persuaded by it unless he already accepted its conclusion. This has the effect, when applied to religious argumentation, that religious arguments are rarely persuasive, which raises the further question: what good are religious arguments? I end by suggesting some non-persuasive functions of religious argument. Finally, I suggest that a full understanding of religious argumentation should give evidentialists pause, for religious beliefs look less like belief states that are sensitive to evidentiary states and more like framework principles or fundamental commitments.     

Faith schooling: implications for teacher educators. A perspective from Northern Ireland

The separate and parallel systems of schooling in Northern Ireland that largely reflect Protestant/Catholic divisions have been much criticised on the grounds that they have failed to promote social cohesion. These divisions are also evident in teacher education provision and attempts to offset the negative effects of this separation have made only a limited impact. By means of a brief survey of the relationship between two de facto religiously separated teacher education institutions, from the early twentieth century to the present day, this article considers the issues for teacher educators and argues that separateness at this level has been disadvantageous in relation to the challenges of preparing student teachers to work in a diverse, plural society.     

For heaven’s sake follow the rules: pedestrians’ behavior in an ultra-orthodox and a non-orthodox city

The present study focuses on the effect of the elements of religiosity and faith on pedestrian behavior. The sample consisted of 1047 pedestrians who were observed at two busy urban intersections. The observations were conducted in three separate intervals at two busy intersections in Ramat-Gan (secular area) and Bnei-Brak (ultra-orthodox area) during the afternoon hours. Five activities were the focus of the observation: running a red-light, crossing where there is no crosswalk, walking along the road, failing to check for traffic prior to crossing, and taking a child’s hand when crossing. A Chi square test for independence was used to estimate the effect of location, gender and age. In the case of two-by-two cross-tabulation, Φ, the non-directional measure of association for categorical variables, was calculated. Findings indicate that males committed significantly more violations than females, and there is a negative correlation between age and frequency of violations. The younger the individual, the more frequently s/he commits a violation. Beyond age and gender as behavioral determinants, pedestrians in the orthodox environment committed violations about three times more frequently than those in the secular environment. Part of the robust difference found between the secular and the ultra-orthodox pedestrians, may be due to the fact that the age-related trend does not exist in Bnei-Brak. Age was related to the violation rate in Ramat-Gan, but not in Bnei-Brak. The following discussion relates to ideological, psychological and practical explanations of these findings.     

Religious Faith and Substance Problems in Undergraduate College Students: A Replication

The present study examined the relations between religious faith and alcohol and drug problems in undergraduate college students at a large public university in the Southeastern United States. The Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire—Short Form and the Alcohol Problems and Drug Problems scales of the Personality Assessment Inventory were given to 303 undergraduate students. Findings indicated that religious faith was inversely associated with drug and alcohol problems in both males and females. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Why study A Level Religious Studies? Qualitative perspectives from two English Midlands sixth forms

Religious Studies (RS) is expected to impact students’ personal development as well as enabling acquisition of knowledge and understanding of religious and philosophical traditions. But to what extent does this actually occur? As part of a larger quantitative investigation of the effects of A Level RS in students’ beliefs, values and worldviews through a large-scale questionnaire survey of AS students, a small-scale, in-depth piece of qualitative research was undertaken with A Level RS students in two Midlands sixth forms. Through semi-structured interviews and classroom observation, it explores students’ motivations for studying A Level RS, the value they see in the subject and how far they perceived themselves changed as a result. Students appreciated the scope to discuss and debate, and the potential wider applicability of the subject. All students felt they had their own stance both challenged and confirmed, although there also appeared to be limiting factors as to how far understanding of, and empathy for, the beliefs, values and worldviews of others was possible.     

How are religious concepts created? A form of cognition and its effects

Science that needs logical demonstration has failed to eliminate religious concepts. It is as if they have own validity that cannot be broken by scientific knowledge we trust the most at present. In this paper, I will attempt to establish a new cognitive theory to help explain the basis of belief in religious concepts. This form of cognition will be named simply unifying-induction or unifying-inductive cognition. As illustrations, I will consider some typical religious discourses involving concepts such as “all-in-one” or “one is everything.” It is these typically religious discourses that science has not been able to easily sweep away by its logical scientific proofs. In the end, although we perhaps cannot know if the religious beings such as gods really exist or not, we may understand these concepts are very the creation of human cognition. It also has important implications for other disciplines such as robotics, developmental psychology, cognitive archaeology, the history of science, the study of religion and so on.