Foucault and the Imperatives of Education: Critique and Self-Creation in a Non-Foundational World

This article outlines Foucault’s conception of critique in relation to his writings on Kant. In that Kant saw Enlightenment as a process of release from the status of immaturity in that we accept someone else’s authority to lead us in areas where the use of reason is called for, it is claimed in this article that Foucault’s notion of critique reveals his own conception of maturity. Whereas Kant sees maturity as the rule of self by self through reason, Foucault sees it as an attitude towards ourselves and the present through an historical analysis of the limits, and the possibility of transgression, of going beyond. Critique is thus a permanent interrogation of the limits, an escape from normalization, and a facing-up to the challenges of self-creation while seeking to effect changes in social structures on specific regional issues of concern. The article concludes by suggesting that the problem of historical and epistemological relativism, which a conception of total critique gives rise to, may not be as insurmountable as some critics of Foucault have claimed.     

On Paulo Freire's Debt to Psychoanalysis: Authority on the Side of Freedom

Paulo Freire's major work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, owes adebt to psychoanalysis. In particular, as this paper argues,Freire's account of teacher authority needs to be understoodthrough psychoanalytic sensibilities. Paulo Freire maintains thatteacher authority can be ``on the side of freedom.' This is ahighly charged claim given that liberalist traditions generallycast authority as the enemy of freedom. Breaking with liberalunderstandings of authority, Freire's ``authority on the sideof freedom' is a matter of maintaining the delicate psychicbalance that leads neither to domination nor to submission.This paper investigates how such an authoritative balance functions.     

My brain's running slow today – The preference for “things ontologies” in research and everyday discourse on human thinking

The focus of the article is toreflect on the tendency of research traditionsin the areas of human learning, development,and communication, to use metaphors andanalogies that construe human mental activitiesand resources in terms of physical objects.This is evident, for instance, in moderncognitive science where computer metaphors(information processing and informationstorage) have been foundational for thediscipline. However, this tendency to reifyhuman activities can be found in many othertraditions, and it goes back to ancient Greekthinking. It is argued that the consequences ofthis tradition of reification are significantfor the human sciences. One important elementof these types of metaphors is that theydescribe people and their capacities in static,rather than developmental, terms.     

Can Traditional Ethical Theory Meet the Challenges of Feminism, Multiculturalism, and Environmentalism?

This paper aims to evaluate thechallenges posed to traditional ethical theoryby the ethics of feminism, multiculturalism,and environmentalism. I argue that JamesSterba, in his Three Challenges to Ethics,provides a distorted assessment by trying toassimilate feminism, multiculturalism, andenvironmentalism into traditional utilitarian,virtue, and Kantian/Rawlsian ethics – which hethus seeks to rescue from their alleged``biases.' In the cases of feminism andmulticulturalism, I provide an alternativeaccount on which these new critical discourseschallenge the whole paradigm or conception ofethical inquiry embodied in the tradition.They embrace different questions, goals, toolsof analysis, and wider audiences, typicallyignored or marginalized by traditionalethicists.I illustrate my argument through briefinterpretations of writers such as Susan Okin,Catharine Mackinnon, Sandra Bartky, JohnStoltenberg, Richard Wasserstrom, AnthonyAppiah, Charles Mills, Will Kymlicka, CharlesTaylor, and Martha Nussbaum. In many of thesecases, I suggest that they provide us with newways of being ethicists.In the case of environmentalism, I defend amore conservative and negative assessment.Sterba embraces authors such as Peter Singer,Tom Regan, and Paul Taylor in order to advancean environmentalist ethic of ``speciesequality/impartiality' and ``biocentricpluralism.' Here I argue that the traditionalKantian/Rawlsian ethics – which Sterba hopesto accommodate – actually provides compellingmoral reasons for rejecting his principles of``species impartiality' and biocentricpluralism. Moreover, Rawlsian ethics canprovide a more coherent, consistent, andplausible account of environmental issues thanSterba's brand of environmental ethics. Iargue that in practice, his ethics concedeswhat it denies in theory – namely, the specialvalue which inheres in human beings.As such, environmental ethics, unlike feminismand multiculturalism, poses very little in theway of a credible challenge or alternative totraditional ethics.     

The Perry Scheme: Across Cultures, Across Approaches to the Study of Human Psychology

This paper presents a series of five studies conducted between the year 1994 and the year 2000. A common goal shared by all five studies is to validate the Perry scheme as measured by the Zhang Cognitive Development Inventory. Involved in the studies were 2,269 (937 males, 1321 females, and 11 did not indicate gender) students from 12 universities in three cultures. All research participants responded to the Zhang Cognitive Development Inventory. Participants from one of the studies also responded to the Study Process Questionnaire. Still, participants from another one of the studies also responded to the Thinking Styles Inventory. Three of the major findings are: (1) the Zhang Cognitive Development Inventory has reasonably good reliability and good internal and external validity, (2) the cognitive-developmental pattern of the mainland Chinese students was opposite to that described by Perry, and (3) the cognitive-developmental pattern described by Perry was not identified in either of the two U.S. samples. Recommendations were made as they relate to future studies using the Zhang Cognitive Development Inventory.     

全面建设小康社会与思想道德教育的重点

在全面建设小康社会的历史实践中 ,思想道德教育对培育社会主义先进文化和建立社会主义道德体系 ,具有举足轻重的作用。当前 ,思想道德教育的重点环节应放在以下三个方面 :加强对广大农村居民的思想道德教育 ;围绕依法治国和以德治国相结合的治国方略有效开展法治、德治教育 ;在方法论上实现由以义务为起点的思想道德教育转变为以权利为起点的思想道德教育 ,由单纯的思想道德教育转变为以利益赏罚为载体的思想道德教育。     

中学生思维风格发展特点的研究

采用心理测验法与横断法相结合的综合性研究方法,利用自行修订的《Sternberg—Wagner思维风格量表》对826名中学生被试进行了测试。结果发现:(1)在解决问题的过程中,初中生比高中生具有更为明显的执法、司法、等级制、寡头统治、外向性和开放性等思维风格;高中生比初中生具有更为明显的整体性思维风格。(2)男生比女生具有更为明显的内向性思维风格,而女生比男生具有更为明显的等级制和寡头统治思维风格。     

"白痴学者"之谜的哲学思考

提出解释白痴学者之谜的"左右脑发育不平衡假说".假说认为,白痴学者的独特思维特征源于左右脑的不平衡发育--白痴学者的左脑发育不全,偿补性地促使右脑得到充足发育,在一定环境条件下,诱发产生了白痴学者这一异常思维现象.根据假说,文章对白痴学者所表现的种种事实特征逐一加以解析说明.     

《周易·说卦传》中的类问题

论文通过对<说卦>中纷繁的类现象的讨论,旨在说明周易观象取类思维的规律,从而接通中国学术中类思维的规律,指出类思维是贯穿在古代思想学说中最一般的规则.     

Interfaith Dialogue

The modern ecumenical movement initially sprang from the missionary movement. This led to considerable struggle within the ecumenical movement over embracing interfaith dialogue as a main focus of its ministry. This focus was eventually accepted, and since then the ecumenical movement has done much to promote interfaith relations at the local, national, and global level; to struggle with the theological issues such dialogue presents for the Christian faith; and to collaborate with other religions to reflect on common issues faced by the global community. Current Dialogue has played a major role in promoting the dialogue concern.