Theory of mind and wisdom: The development of different forms of perspective-taking in late adulthood

How does perspective-taking develop over the lifespan? This question has been investigated in two separate research traditions, dealing with theory of mind (ToM) and wisdom, respectively. Operating in almost complete isolation from each other, and using rather different conceptual approaches, these two traditions have produced seemingly contradictory results: While perspective-taking has been consistently found to decline in old age in ToM research, studies on wisdom have mostly found that perspective-taking remains constant or sometimes even increases in later adulthood. This study sought to integrate these two lines of research and clarify the seemingly contradictory patterns of findings by systematically testing for both forms of perspective-taking and their potential cognitive foundations. The results revealed (1) the dissociation in developmental patterns between ToM perspective-taking (declining with age) and wisdom-related perspective-taking (no decline with age) also held – documented here for the first time – in one and the same sample of younger versus older adults; (2) this dissociation was of limited generality: It did not (or only partly) hold once the material of the two types of tasks was more closely matched; and (3) the divergent developmental patterns of ToM perspective-taking versus wisdom-related perspective-taking could be accounted for to some degree by the fact that only TOM perspective-taking was related to developmental changes in fluid intelligence.     

Casuistry and Principlism: The Convergence of Method in Biomedical Ethics

Casuistry and principlism are two of the leading contenders to be considered the methodology of bioethics. These methods may be incommensurable since the former emphasizes the examination of cases while the latter focuses on moral principles. Conversely, since both analyze cases in terms of mid-level principles, there is hope that these methods may be reconcilable or complementary. I analyze the role of principles in each and thereby show that these theories are virtually identical when interpreted in a certain light. That is, if the gaps in each method are filled by a concept of judgment or Aristotelian practical wisdom, these methods converge.     

DEVELOPMENT AND ENVIRONMENT IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

Abstract. Western-style modernization and economic development have devastated the once fertile lands of Southeast Asia and impoverished and demoralized its people. Recently, however, indigenous movements in the Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia suggest a return to a notion of development based on core values of Hinduism, classical and Zen Buddhism, and Taoism. These traditions preserve an alternative understanding of the relation between humanity and nature and promote a simpler but dignified economy and lifestyle in harmony with the environment—notions which Western nations must begin to take seriously if the "global village" is to have any real future.     

大学生智慧内隐认知的实验研究

以55名大学生为被试,采用内隐联想测验(IAT)和单类内隐联想测验(SC-IAT)测量被试对智慧的内隐认知.实验1中,被试对人慧者与良好道德人文素质属性词联结以及物慧者与良好智力思维素质属性词联结的反应速度更快,表明大学生存在人慧者更具备良好道德人文素质和物慧者更具备良好智力思维素质的内隐认知取向;实验2中,被试对智慧者与良好德智属性词联结比愚蠢者与良好德智属性词联结的反应速度更快,表明大学生存在智慧者更兼备良好道德人文素质与良好智力思维素质的内隐认知取向.两项实验中,被试智慧内隐认知效应的性别与专业差异显著.综合两项实验表明,智慧是良好道德人文素质与良好智力思维素质的有机结合;学习与经验影响大学生对智慧的内隐认知.     

On Not Three Male Gods: Retrieving Wisdom in Trinitarian Discourse

Abstract : In response to recent debates over gender and the Trinity, this essay examines how biblical texts concerning Christ as the Wisdom of God played a crucial role in developing the case for the co‐equal Trinity. The theme of wisdom not only helps us understand why trinitarian doctrine precludes a tritheism of three male gods or a hierarchy within the Trinity, but it also provides insight into what lies at the heart of the Trinity and the incarnation.     

The Spiritual Dimension of Caring: Applying a Model for Spiritual Tasks of Ageing

SUMMARY

This chapter describes a spiritual dimension of ageing using themes and a model for spiritual tasks of ageing, developed as a part of doctoral studies that examined spirituality amongst a group of independent-living older adults in Canberra and NSW. This model has been tested further and the model was confirmed through in-depth interviews of residents of nursing homes in the ACT. The first study identified six major spiritual themes from participant interviews. These were: ultimate meaning in life for each person, the way they responded to meaning, self-sufficiency versus despair, moving from provisional to final life meanings, relationship versus isolation in ageing and hope versus despair.     

论自省

自省具有双重源头:道德感情--或道德志向--和道德智慧.因此,一个人要做到经常且深刻的自省,一方面,必须提高自己的道德认识和道德智慧,树立诸如"美德乃是每个人获得幸福的必要条件"的道德信念;另一方面,必须扩充和强大"做一个有美德的人"的道德欲望、道德感情和道德志向,立志做一个君子、仁人乃至圣人.     

The Relationship Between Personality Traits and Reflective Judgment Among Female Students

Forty-three female undergraduate and graduate students preparing for careers as educators provided Omnibus Personality Inventory and Reflective Judgment Interview data. The sample included 14 seniors, 15 master's candidates, and 14 doctoral candidates. Each educational level group included participants with a range of intellectual disposition scores as measured by the Omnibus Personality Inventory. Scores on six scales of the Omnibus Personality Inventory correlated significantly with Reflective Judgment Interview scores (p < .05): thinking introversion, response bias, altruism, autonomy, complexity, and theoretical orientation. These findings support the conclusion that postformal reasoning, as described in P. M. King and K. S. Kitchener's (1994) reflective judgment model of cognitive development, is related to measurable personality traits.     

Phronesis, Poetics, and Moral Creativity

At least since Aristotle, phronesis (practical wisdom) and poetics (making or creating) have been understood as essentially different activities, one moral the other (in itself) non-moral. Today, if anything, this distinction is sharpened by a Romantic association of poetics with inner subjective expression. Recent revivals of Aristotelian ethics sometimes allow for poetic dimensions of ethics, but these are still separated from practical wisdom per se. Through a fresh reading of phronesis in the French hermeneutical phenomenologist Paul Ricoeur, I argue that phronesis should be viewed as at least in part poetic at its very core. That is, phronesis deals with the fundamentally tragic human situation of moral incommensurability, and it responds to this by making or creating new moral meaning. Such a poetics of practical wisdom helps phronesis stand up to significant and important critiques made of it by a range of modernists and post-modernists, pointing a way forward for some important contemporary moral debates.