A causal model theory of the meaning of cause, enable, and prevent

The verbs cause , enable , and prevent express beliefs about the way the world works. We offer a theory of their meaning in terms of the structure of those beliefs expressed using qualitative properties of causal models, a graphical framework for representing causal structure. We propose that these verbs refer to a causal model relevant to a discourse and that "A causes B" expresses the belief that the causal model includes a link from A to B. "A enables/allows B" entails that the model includes a link from A to B, that A represents a category of events necessary for B, and that an alternative cause of B exists. "A prevents B" entails that the model includes a link from A to B and that A reduces the likelihood of B. This theory is able to account for the results of four experiments as well as a variety of existing data on human reasoning.     

中小学生考试成败归因的研究

从小三、初二、高二随机选择有效被试４１０名,探讨了中小学生对考试结果的归因、期望和情感反应的特点。结果发现：（１）中小学生对考试成败原因有不同的认知,年级差异显著,性别差异不显著。（２）失败后的期望显著地高于成功情境,且极显著地认为失败的结果能改变。（３）成功后学生主要产生了感激、自豪与欣慰,失败后主要产生了内疚;成功后的情感反应更强烈。     

功能性内窥镜鼻窦外科治疗析评

本世纪７０年代功能性内窥镜鼻窦外科（ＦＥＳＳ）的创立和发展,开辟了鼻窦外科的新领域,功能性鼻窦外科技术把鼻窦外科推向了崭新的阶段。但这项技术在实践应用中亦出现汪些新问题及严重的并发症本文试图用疾病治疗中的瓣证关系从三方面探讨ＦＥＳＳ的优缺点及相关问题的注意事项和解决方法。     

Francisco de Vitoria and Francisco Suárez on Religious Authority and Cause for Justified War: The Centrality of Religious War in the Christian Just War Tradition

Contrary to the received understanding that Francisco de Vitoria and Francisco Suárez ruled out religious war by grounding just cause in natural law, they supported a robust view of papal authority for war when necessary for the defense of the church against heretics, schismatics, and pagans as well as for the spread of Christianity and Christendom throughout the world. They believed that religious wars were in accord with natural law as a means to its fulfillment in Christianity, as a justification for the defense of the church as the one true faith, and as a moral obligation to provide all of humanity with the opportunity to receive Christian truth and grace. The neo‐Thomists' vigorous support for religious war was in the mainstream of the Christian just war tradition from the time of the wars against pagans in the early middle ages through their own time. This finding and the continuation into the modern era of sanctified patriotism stemming from the mixing of church and state especially during war that began in early Middle Ages, along with the historic roots of the recently prominent presumption against war, argue for a more complex understanding of the normative Christian just war tradition than that found among supporters of the classic interpretation of that tradition.     

The Question of Questions: What is a Gene? Comments on Rolston and Griffths & Stotz

If the question “What is a gene?” proves to be worth asking it must be able to elicit an answer which both recognizes and address the reasons why the concept of the gene ever seemed to be something worth getting excited about in the first place as well analyzing and evaluating the latest develops in the molecular biology of DNA. Each of the preceding papers fails to do one of these and sufferrs the consequences. Where Rolston responds to the apparent failure of molecular biology to make good on the desideratum of the classical gene by veering off into fanciful talk about “cybernetic genes,” Griffiths and Stotz lose themselves in the molecular fine print and forget to ask themselves why “genes” should be of any special interst anyway.     

The social epidemiologic concept of fundamental cause

The goal of research in social epidemiology is not simply conceptual clarification or theoretical understanding, but more importantly it is to contribute to, and enhance the health of populations (and so, too, the people who constitute those populations). Undoubtedly, understanding how various individual risk factors such as smoking and obesity affect the health of people does contribute to this goal. However, what is distinctive of much on-going work in social epidemiology is the view that analyses making use of individual-level variables is not enough. In the spirit of Durkheim and Weber, S. Leonard Syme makes this point by writing that just “as bad water and food may be harmful to our health, unhealthful forces in our society may be detrimental to our capacity to make choices and to form opinions” conducive to health and well-being. Advocates of upstream (distal) causes of adverse health outcomes propose to identify the most important of these “unhealthful forces” as the fundamental causes of adverse health outcomes. However, without a clear, theoretically precise and well-grounded understanding of the characteristics of fundamental causes, there is little hope in applying the statistical tools of the health sciences to hypotheses about fundamental causes, their outcomes, and policies intended to enhance the health of populations. This paper begins the process of characterizing the social epidemiological concept of fundamental cause in a theoretically respectable and robust way.

婴儿期外显问题行为的发生与表现及成因分析

外显问题行为是指一组表现在外的、反映了儿童对外部环境消极反应的行为。研究表明婴儿最早于8个月时便已出现外显问题行为,且婴儿期这类行为主要表现为愤怒/发脾气、不顺从/反抗、攻击、破坏性、过度活跃、注意力不集中等,其成因可从早期经验因素、遗传与环境的交互作用等方面解释。此外,外显问题行为的干预研究可从差别易感性理论入手,从而为特定气质类型以及携带可塑性基因的婴儿提高了外显问题行为的干预效果。本文在梳理上述研究的基础上,对该领域研究的局限性进行了小结并对未来研究的方向进行了展望。     

A priori causal laws

Sober and Elgin defend the claim that there are a priori causal laws in biology. Lange and Rosenberg take issue with this on Humean grounds, among others. I will argue that Sober and Elgin don’t go far enough – there are a priori causal laws in many sciences. Furthermore, I will argue that this thesis is compatible with a Humean metaphysics and an empiricist epistemology.     

不当出生损害赔偿诉析

因不当出生(wrongful birth)使父母因缺陷儿童多支付了大量的医疗、人力照顾以及特殊教育的费用,同时受到身心痛苦,如果不给予一定的救济是很不公平的,承认该类诉讼是各国共同趋势.在我国应以契约法来处理这类诉讼.