Judging scandal: Standards or bias in politics

As the number of political scandals rises, we examined the circumstances that might influence how a politician would be judged as a result of a scandal. Specifically, we hypothesized that ingroup bias theory and shifting standards theory would produce different patterns of judgements. In two studies, we found support for the ingroup bias theory, such that participants rated the fictitious politician’s public approval and perceived character as higher if the politician was a member of their own political party (i.e. their ingroup) than if the politician was a member of the another political party (i.e. their outgroup). These results may explain, in part, why people may judge politicians involved in scandal more or less harshly depending on whether they are an ingroup member or outgroup member.     

THE SENSE OF BEAUTY

This paper proposes an integrative psychoanalytic model of the sense of beauty. The following definition is used: beauty is an aspect of the experience of idealisation in which an object(s), sound(s) or concept(s) is believed to possess qualities of formal perfection. The psychoanalytic literature regarding beauty is explored in depth and fundamental similarities are stressed. The author goes on to discuss the following topics: (1) beauty as sublimation: beauty reconciles the polarisation of self and world; (2) idealisation and beauty: the love of beauty is an indication of the importance of idealisation during development; (3) beauty as an interactive process: the sense of beauty is interactive and intersubjective; (4) the aesthetic and non-aesthetic emotions: specific aesthetic emotions are experienced in response to the formal design of the beautiful object; (5) surrendering to beauty: beauty provides us with an occasion for transcendence and self-renewal; (6) beauty's restorative function: the preservation or restoration of the relationship to the good object is of utmost importance; (7) the self-integrative function of beauty: the sense of beauty can also reconcile and integrate self-states of fragmentation and depletion; (8) beauty as a defence: in psychopathology, beauty can function defensively for the expression of unconscious impulses and fantasies, or as protection against self-crisis; (9) beauty and mortality: the sense of beauty can alleviate anxiety regarding death and feelings of vulnerability. In closing the paper, the author offers a new understanding of Freud'semphasis on love of beauty as a defining trait of civilisation. For a people not to value beauty would mean that they cannot hope and cannot assert life over the inevitable and ubiquitous forces of entropy and death.     

真是"按照西方学术界的习惯用法"吗?--质疑徐崇温同志的"西方马克思主义"概念

西方马克思主义概念在西方学者那里主要有两种不同的用法。一种是梅劳一庞蒂的用法,即用它指称一种以卢卡奇的《历史与阶级意识》为代表的主要与列宁主义相对立的理论;另一种是安德森的用法,即用它指称包括从卢卡奇到阿尔都塞等13人在内的第三代马克思主义者的理论。徐崇温同志通过对这两种不同用法的一种毫无道理的综合,将他“西方马克思主义”概念定义为20世纪20年代以后在西方资本主义国家出现的一股非马克思主义思潮。这显然不是“西方学术界的习惯用法”。     

'Stream of consciousness' and 'ownership of thought' in indigenous people in central Australia

Fifteen Central Australian Aboriginal adults (8 patients, 7 colleagues) were presented with a culturally modified version of Flavell's 'stream of consciousness' experiment (pictures of persons with empty or 'busy' thought-bubbles, and an invitation to assign a picture to the mental state of a second experimenter seen reading or sitting quietly). Only 4 people assigned the empty thought bubble to the quiet experimenter. This result was at least as good as that of a sample of Stanford College students tested by Flavell. The experiment provoked detailed comments from the informants about subjectivity, suggesting great subtlety of phenomenological awareness in Central Australian Aboriginal people, and attributing a kind of subjectivity to non-human entities, including inanimate elements. We learnt that the Western Deserts dialect term watiya was reserved for the subjectivity attributed to trees and rocks. The ownership of all thought was attributed to the tjukurpa (the Aboriginal dreaming). These Aboriginal cultural attributions were compared and contrasted with reflections developed by Jung and the post-Jungian David Holt on the nature of subjectivity, and religious notions of the redemption of matter.     

《汉书·魏相传》与西汉易学

《汉书·魏相传》是研究西汉易学的一篇重要文献。文中云魏相“数表采《易阴阳》及《明堂月令》奏之”,反映了西汉中期易学的特点。《易阴阳》是将《易经》与阴阳数术结合的产物;以五行配八卦、中央黄帝执坤艮治下土。反映了黄帝学说对易学的影响。儒学中《易》与礼相通．魏相说《易》引《明堂月令》．正说明了这一问题。     

再论《周易》与中国画

本文对《周易》的直观意象思维和中正和谐思想与中国画的创作特点进行了深入的比较分析,表明了《周易》思维方式对中国画的深刻影响,同时,对《周易》的玩占与艺术家们的玩墨也作了比较研究,揭示了玩占与玩墨所体现的深刻文化意蕴。     

新发现西周筮数的研究

长安西仁村西周时期陶拍上的数字卦是西周存在《周易》经文的证明。西仁村采集:2上的数字卦由纵线顺箭头方向环读,共有四组筮数,转化为《周易》卦爻,依次为师、比、小畜、履四卦。而采集:1上亦纵刻筮数两行,转化为《周易》卦爻,自右迄左依次为既济、未济二卦。由师至履、既济至未济两处局部卦序,不难推想当时所用《周易》的卦序大同于今传本卦序,而且可以看出当时已存在六十四卦“非覆即变”错综关系的概念。文章还分别对陕西扶风齐家村出土的一片有字卜骨上的文字与筮数、对北京房山镇江营出土的一片卜骨上的筮数进行了识读,并对它们所采用的揲蓍法进行了推测。在对房山镇江营卜骨进行识读后,还通过对镇江营和周原西周甲骨文字刻写特点的比较,否定了字迹刻写微小者出现早、疏大者出现晚的说法,同时又指出,镇江营与周原西周甲骨文字刻写特点的相似是西周与诸侯国燕在文化上密切相关的明显证据。     

两人和三人最后通牒博弈任务中嗓音吸引力对决策的影响

本研究用两人和三人最后通牒博弈任务探究男性嗓音吸引力对决策的影响。实验1发现, 高吸引力的嗓音会提高被试对不公平分配方案的接受率。实验2发现, 即使分配方案对第三方接受者公平, 对被试不公平, 第三方接受者的高吸引力嗓音仍然会提高被试对方案的接受率。综上, 嗓音吸引力可以诱发类似面孔吸引力的“美貌津贴”效应。     

Improving calibration over texts by providing standards both with and without idea-units

This study aims at improving calibration accuracy, which is the match between estimated performance and actual performance. In our experiment, one hundred and twenty-seven university students read texts and learned definitions. The students recalled these definitions during a test and made performance judgements. After recalling their definitions half of the students received full-definition standards, stating what the correct definition should have been. The other half of the students received idea-unit standards: The correct definition was parsed into units that had to be present. Providing standards improved calibration accuracy not only on current texts, but also on new, subsequent texts. Especially the calibration of low performing students benefitted from receiving both idea-unit and full-definition standards. Furthermore, over multiple texts, students who received idea-unit standards benefitted more than students receiving full-definition standards. This study is among the first to show the effect of standards on calibration on new texts and underscores the importance of self-testing.     

Adorno and Schelling on the art–nature relation

When it comes to the relationship between art and nature, research on Adorno’s aesthetics usually centres on his discussion of Kant and Hegel. While this reflects Adorno’s own position – his comprehension of this relationship is to a large extent developed through a critical re-reading of both the Kantian and the Hegelian position – I argue that we are able to gain important insights into Adorno’s aesthetics and the central art–nature relation by reading his ideas in the light of Schelling’s conception of this relationship. The article focuses on the similarities between Schelling’s notion of nature’s productivity and Adorno’s understanding of natural beauty. It concludes with a discussion on Adorno’s re-evaluation of the reconciliatory power of the exemplary unity of the artwork in conjunction with Schelling’s comparison between artwork and organism, as well as his concept of the construction of nature.