电影《传染病》对消除社会恐慌与道德危机的启示

社会恐慌与道德危机是疾病传播所产生的两个重要社会效应。《传染病》虽是一部虚构电影作品,但其中对于疾病与恐慌以及私利与道德冷漠的严肃探讨,能够为现实提供警醒和反思借鉴。从疾病传染到恐慌的社会性传播,从社会恐慌到道德危机的产生,恐慌事实上成为了疾病传染与道德危机之间的一个关键反思节点。因疾病而引发的社会恐慌虽然源自知识领域,但其社会效应却作用于道德领域,因此,疾病恐慌的消除既有赖于知识的进步,也依赖于信息的公开。

     

Nietzsche on morality as a “sign language of the affects”

Abstract

This article argues that Nietzsche’s meta-ethics is basically a form of sentimentalism (as opposed to cognitivism), but a form of sentimentalism that includes cognitive components in the sentiments that are involved. The article also ascribes to Nietzsche the more original position that the moral sentiments in question vary dramatically between historical periods, cultures, and even individuals, sometimes indeed to the point of becoming inverted between one case and another. Finally, the article also attributes to Nietzsche a hermeneutic insight into certain problems that this situation causes for the accurate interpretation of other people’s (moral) viewpoints. Along the way, the article in addition argues that Nietzsche’s positions on all these issues were molded not only by such well-known influences as Paul Rée and Hume, but also, and indeed more strongly, by Herder (and Hegel), and it develops some grounds for thinking that the positions in question are highly plausible ones.     

FAITH,BELIEF, AND THE COMPATIBILITY OF RELIGION AND SCIENCE

Recent attacks on the compatibility of science and religion by the “militant modern atheists” (Jerry Coyne, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens) have posed serious challenges for anyone who supports the human importance of religious faith (particularly their identification of “faith” with “believing without evidence”). This article offers a critical analysis of their claims compared with those who do not equate faith with belief. I conclude that (i) the militant modern atheist interpretation of faith undervalues transformative religious experiences, (ii) that more people of faith hold it for this reason than their opponents acknowledge, and (iii) that meaningful dialogue between religion and science is both possible and desirable.     

Introduction: Egoism,Altruism and Impartiality

The distinction between egoistic and altruistic motivation is firmly embedded in contemporary moral discourse, but harks back too to early modern attempts to found morality on an egoistic basis. Rejecting that latter premise means accepting that others’ interests have intrinsic value, but it remains far from clear what altruism demands of us and what its relationship is with the rest of morality. While informing our duties, altruism seems also to urge us to transcend them and embrace the other-regarding values and virtues constitutive of a good life. This rather wide conception of morality may strike us today as too demanding. At the same time, however, currently popular impartialist accounts of morality can disrupt much everyday altruism in their insistence that each person’s interests are weighed precisely equally. Having sketched this problematic of altruism, the second half of this Introduction outlines the arguments of the four papers and review essay in this collection, each of which, in a different way, negotiates the difficult relationships between egoism, altruism, morality and impartiality. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

新颖语义联结形成的右半球优势效应

新颖语义联结形成是创造性思维的重要加工过程。采用谜题型歇后语为材料,直接操控语义联结的新颖性,通过两个实验考察汉语新颖语义联结形成的神经机制。实验1采用fMRI记录谜题型歇后语阅读理解过程的神经活动,结果显示相对于寻常语义关联条件,新颖语义关联条件更强地激活了右侧颞上回,该脑区可能与新颖语义信息的激活有关。实验2采用ERP技术在语义关联性判断任务中考察新颖语义联结形成神经加工的时空特征,结果显示相对于寻常语义关联条件,新颖语义关联条件在右侧颞区和右侧额区诱发了更正的晚期正成分,可能分别反映了新颖语义信息的激活以及选择与整合。研究结果支持了新颖语义联结形成的右半球加工优势效应。     

人为什么要有道德?(上)

本文从道德哲学的角度提出“人为什么要有道德?”的问题,并尝试给出某种解答。通过“善(好)生活”、“利益(关系)”和“人性(潜能)”三个核心概念,作者力图阐明道德之于人类生活的内在性,并从人类的生活目的、行为方式和人性潜能三个基本方面,揭示人类道德生活所内含的美德一目的论与规范一道义论之双重维度。     

为“金规则”辨

学界近年在对“己所不欲,勿施于人”这个中国式的“金规则”的议论中,存在不少误读、误解。择要言之,一是将“金规则”之“金”理解为“道德价值最高”;二是用“知道做不到”质疑、贬低“金规则”;三是以“不同”的存在否证“金规则”：四是认为“金规则”不适合现代社会。然而经过仔细辨析可以发现,这些其实都是不确之语。     

天儒冲突——中西方家庭伦理的初次冲撞

明末清初,以利玛窦为首的西方传教士们以“学术传教”为手段,在中国社会进行化交流和传教活动,由于两种明中在对待父子、夫妻以及仪礼规制等的价值取向上的差异,从而导致了西方伦理同中国传统社会的家庭伦理的剧烈碰撞。中国传统家庭伦理中的父权至上、男尊女卑和祭祖孝亲等伦常规范同天主教的伦理要求格格不入,互不相容,最终导致了两种不同化交流的中断。     

论道德的本真形态与派生形态

道德的本真形态是“天理”和“良心”,即普遍的、至高无上的实践法则及其在人心中的体现。道德要通过人的理论和实践体现出来,就需要实现道德的学理化和规范化,从而形成道德理论与社会规范两种道德的派生形态。     

Buddy Christ and Jesus Action Figure

Two diminutive, mass produced statues of Christ, Buddy Christ and Jesus Action Figure seem intended as postmodern anti-Christs to offend Christian sensibilities and mock the image of Christ. I suggest, however, that the statuettes have an excess of meaning that is remaindered as a residual respect for Christ as a spiritual guide, whose enduring political leadership subverts religious hypocrisy. An atheistic/Marxist defence of Christology provides my theoretical base to explore the statuettes, the cult of the Sacred Heart provides an historical example of subversive piety and an editor of the Gay Times' supplies an urgent challenge to reclaim the Christ of Faith as a spiritual and cultural inheritance from the religious right.