The problem of mind in Confucianism

This essay explores the Confucian theory of mind. Doing so, it first examines the early Confucian concept of the human mind as a substance that has both moral and cognitive functions and a universal nature. It then explores the neo-Confucian concept of the human mind, the original mind, and the relationships between the human mind and human nature, as well as between the human mind and the human body. Finally, it explores the Confucian concept of cultivation of the mind.     

Fishapod in the Rocks: Fossils and Biblical Creation Texts

Abstract

Genesis 1:20–25 speaks of God creating water and land creatures. The fossil record suggests that vertebrates on land evolved from vertebrates of the water. In this article about creation through evolution, the author discusses a progression of fossil discoveries pertinent to the evolution of tetrapods, keeping in view the detractions of a Young Earth creationist, and finishing with a biblical-theological perspective on the evolution of tetrapods. The author's work grows out of his interest in exploring how a specific science (paleontology)—as viewed through specific discoveries and a specific evolutionary lineage—might engage actively with biblical creation passages.     

Figures of Time in Evolution of Complex Systems

Owing to intensive development of the theory of self-organization of complex systems called also synergetics, profound changes in our notions of time occur. Whereas at the beginning of the 20th century, natural sciences, by picking up the general spirit of Einstein's theory of relativity, consider a geometrization as an ideal, i.e. try to represent time and force interactions through space and the changes of its properties, nowadays, at the beginning of the 21st century, time turns to be in the focus of attention. It turns to be possible to represent space through time, because synergetics shows that historical and evolutionary stages of development of a complex structure can be found now, in its present spatial configuration. A whole series of paradoxical notions, such as “the influence of the future upon the present”, a “possibility of touching of a rather remote future today”, “availability of the past and the future now, in praesenti”, “irreversibility and elements of reversibility in the course of evolutionary processes in time”, “discrete unites, quanta of time”, appear in synergetics.     

The Enhanced Agentic Diversity Perspective (EADP): An appeal for Co-creating an accommodative social space so that diversity unlocks innovativeness rather than problems

We propose in this article an Enhanced Agentic Diversity Perspective (EADP), which is derived from the concept of agentic resources in social relational theory. EADP recognizes that all human beings are equally agents, that agentic expressions differ due to variation of individual access to power resources (individual, relational and cultural) and that the current social conditions serve to promote agentic diversity by enhancing all the three domains of power resources. In addition, EADP comprises a proposal for the development of accommodative social spaces. We argue that only in an accommodative social space can diversity unlock innovation; otherwise, it serves as a source for conflict. A constructive, nonhierarchical account of diversity, such as EADP is needed under current social conditions for the optimal becoming of idiosyncratic human agents as well as human society as a whole.     

From Inexactness to Certainty: The Change in Hume's Conception of Geometry

Although Hume's analysis of geometry continues to serve as a reference point for many contemporary discussions in the philosophy of science, the fact that the first Enquiry presents a radical revision of Hume's conception of geometry in the Treatise has never been explained. The present essay closely examines Hume's early and late discussions of geometry and proposes a reconstruction of the reasons behind the change in his views on the subject. Hume's early conception of geometry as an inexact non-demonstrative science is argued to be a consequence of his attempt to discredit geometrical proofs of infinite divisibility of extension by anchoring the meaning of geometrical concepts in inherently inexact qualitative measurement procedures. This measurement-based attack on the exactness and certainty of geometry is analyzed and shown to be both self-refuting and inconsistent with the general epistemological framework of the Treatise. The revised conception of geometry as a demonstrative science in the first Enquiry is then interpreted as Hume's response to the failure of his earlier attempt to discredit geometrical proofs of infinite divisibility of extension. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Gleaning in the field of dual scaling

Some historical background and preliminary technical information are first presented, and then a number of hidden, but important, methodological aspects of dual scaling are illustrated and discussed: normed versus projected weights, the amount of information accounted for by each solution, a perfect solution to the problem of multidimensional unfolding, multidimensional quantification space, graphical display, number-of-option problems, option standardization versus item standardization, and asymmetry of symmetric (dual) scaling. Contrary to the common perception that dual scaling and similar quantification methods are now mathematically transparent, the present study demonstrates how much more needs to be clarified for routine use of the method to arrive at valid conclusions. Data analysis must be carried out in such a way that common sense, intuition and sound logic will prevail.Presidential Address delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Psychometric Society, Banff Centre for Conferences, Banff, Alberta, Canada, June 27–30, 1996. The work has been supported in part by a grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. I am grateful to Ira Nishisato for his comments, Ingram Olkin and Yoshio Takane for important references, and Liqun Xu for computational help.     

Maddening Desire: Understanding Lust in Pastoral Counseling

Christian theologians have argued that lust is a compelling sexual desire that distorts reason and judgment, leads to exploitation and injustice, and corrupts the erotic dimensions of human experience and relationships. In this article, I expand on this tradition, arguing that lust signifies the collapse or attenuation of amative space. This collapse is described as either the subjugation of the other or pseudo surrender to the other, which is accompanied by misrecognition of the other's unique and inviolable subjectivity, as well as a heightened sense of distrust. The diverse communicative actions associated with lust, which lead to the collapse of amative space, have several sources, namely, trauma, physiology, and culture. The attempt to restore amative space requires that the counselor and client join together in identifying and understanding the meanings and sources of lustful behaviors, which assists them in considering various strategies for the sake of increasing self-awareness and self-control that loosen the bonds of lust.

Spatial analysis after perinatal stroke: patterns of neglect and exploration in extra-personal space

This study was conducted to determine whether school-aged children who had experienced a perinatal stroke demonstrate evidence of persistent spatial neglect, and if such neglect was specific to the visual domain or was more generalized. Two studies were carried out. In the first, 38 children with either left hemisphere (LH) or right hemisphere (RH) damage and 50 age-matched controls were given visual cancellation tasks varying in two factors: target stimuli and stimulus array. In the second study, tactile neglect was evaluated in 41 children with LH or RH damage and 72 age-matched controls using a blindfolded manual exploration task. On the visual cancellation task, LH subjects omitted more target stimuli on the right, but also on the left, compared with controls. Children with RH lesions also produced a larger number of omissions on both the left and right sides than controls, but with poorer performance on the left. On the manual exploration task, LH children required significantly longer times to locate the target on both sides of the board than did controls. RH children had significantly prolonged search times on the left side, but not on the right, compared with controls. In both tasks, LH subjects employed unsystematic search strategies more often than both control and RH children. The search strategy of RH children also tended to be erratic when compared to controls, but only in the random arrays of the visual cancellation tasks; structure of the target stimuli improved their organization. These results demonstrate that children with early LH brain damage display bilateral difficulties in visual and tactile modalities; a pattern that is in contrast to that seen in adults with LH damage. This may result from disorganized search strategies or other subtle spatial or attentional deficits. Results of performance of RH children suggests the presence of contralateral neglect in both the visual and tactile modalities; a finding that is similar to the neglect in adult stroke patients with RH lesions. The fact that deficits in spatial attention and organizational strategies are present after very early focal damage to either the LH or the RH broadens our understanding of the differences in functional lateralization between the immature and mature brain. These results also add to evidence for limitations to plasticity in the developing brain. Our findings may have therapeutic and rehabilitative implications for the management of children with early focal brain lesions.     

肢体运动信息如何在工作记忆中存储?

肢体运动(空间位置运动与身体模式运动)是个体与环境交互作用的重要途径。以往行为学和脑成像研究分别探讨了空间位置运动信息和身体模式运动信息的工作记忆存储问题, 发现两种肢体运动信息的存储均独立于语音环、视空间画板的视觉子系统, 需要视空间画板的空间子系统的参与; 两种肢体运动信息激活的脑区(运动相关皮层)独立于语音环、视空间画板的视觉子系统和空间子系统, 并存在差异。这表明, 现有的工作记忆多成分模型不能完全解释肢体运动信息的存储。据此可推论, 工作记忆系统中可能存在一个负责处理肢体运动信息的“肢体运动系统”, 其隶属于视空间画板, 与视觉子系统和空间子系统并存; 其激活脑区因肢体运动的不同而存在差异。