Boehme's mysticism

David Walsh, The Mysticism of Innerworldly Fulfilment: A Stud.)' of Jacob Boehme. Gainesville, University of Florida Humanities Monographs, 53. x + 139 pp.     

On the Importance of the Setting in the Psychoanalytic Situation

In this article, we explore the process of psychoanalytical listening in the context of language. We demonstrate through a clinical example how listening may act as a facilitator of a person's linguistic style, but also how the defence of negation blocks the same process. Guided by the modern speculations on the function of metaphor, we show how listening has been expressed in various metaphors and other “tropes” of language by psychoanalysts, and also how useful metaphors can be in our listening to patients.     

The Use of Rituals in Grieving for a Miscarriage or Stillbirth

Abstract

Preparation for their changing roles in family and society, as well as readying their intimate space for the arrival of an infant, totally engage expectant parents. Miscarriage or stillbirth may bring on a grief storm that strips away many tender roots and branches of new life in the community that the parents have been nurturing. Creation and participation in a grief ritual can bring the grieving parents to a healing resolution. This article describes the healing efficacy of ritual, its elements, and how a compassionate therapist can create one in collaboration with grieving clients.     

The Contribution of Common Principles of Canon Law to Ecclesial Communion in Anglicanism

An important recent development in worldwide Anglicanism is the emergence over recent years of a project to articulate the principles of canon law common to the churches of the Anglican Communion. This project seeks to express the juridical character of Anglicanism from a global perspective, not only to underscore the many fundamental values that Anglicans share in terms of their polity, ministry, doctrine, liturgy, rites and property, going to the very roots of Anglican identity but, also, as a concrete resource for other churches in ecumenical dialogue with Anglicans. This article traces the development of the so-called ius commune project, describes the methodological challenges which it faces and, the process of producing a draft. It also seeks to compare the project with the juridical experiences of other international ecclesial communities and, briefly, to place the project in the context of the debate about the adoption of an Anglican Covenant, an initiative proposed by the Lambeth Commission in 2004.     

Debating the Theological Implications of New Technologies

In a recent report on focus group discussions of GMOs in Britain, Celia Deane Drummond et al. observed that public anxieties about emerging biotechnologies often reflect concerns that are ultimately theological in nature. Such concerns (whether in relation to biotechnology or other areas of technological development) may be easily dismissed as peripheral or irrelevant to the core secular issues of health, safety, environmental impacts, the politics of commercialization and research integrity. However, I shall argue that theological questions are actually integral to the ongoing development of technology and that there is a need for a public discourse that enables such questions to be articulated and debated.     

Probabilities on Sentences in an Expressive Logic

Automated reasoning about uncertain knowledge has many applications. One difficulty when developing such systems is the lack of a completely satisfactory integration of logic and probability. We address this problem directly. Expressive languages like higher-order logic are ideally suited for representing and reasoning about structured knowledge. Uncertain knowledge can be modeled by using graded probabilities rather than binary truth values. The main technical problem studied in this paper is the following: Given a set of sentences, each having some probability of being true, what probability should be ascribed to other (query) sentences? A natural wish-list, among others, is that the probability distribution (i) is consistent with the knowledge base, (ii) allows for a consistent inference procedure and in particular (iii) reduces to deductive logic in the limit of probabilities being 0 and 1, (iv) allows (Bayesian) inductive reasoning and (v) learning in the limit and in particular (vi) allows confirmation of universally quantified hypotheses/sentences. We translate this wish-list into technical requirements for a prior probability and show that probabilities satisfying all our criteria exist. We also give explicit constructions and several general characterizations of probabilities that satisfy some or all of the criteria and various (counter)examples. We also derive necessary and sufficient conditions for extending beliefs about finitely many sentences to suitable probabilities over all sentences, and in particular least dogmatic or least biased ones. We conclude with a brief outlook on how the developed theory might be used and approximated in autonomous reasoning agents. Our theory is a step towards a globally consistent and empirically satisfactory unification of probability and logic.     

Sensitivity of the Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline: An Application of Item Response Theory

ABSTRACT

The Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline (IQCODE) is a formal informant report instrument, originally developed by Jorm and Jacomb (1989 Jorm, A. F. and Jacomb, P. A. 1989. The Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly (IQCODE): Socio-demographic correlates, reliability, validity and some norms. Psychological Medicine, 19(4): 1015–1022. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Psychological Medicine, 19(4), 1015). The goal of the present study was to evaluate the range of cognitive decline in which the IQCODE is most sensitive, using item response theory (IRT). Existing data (N = 740) from a sample of community-dwelling older adults was used for this purpose. A 2-parameter model estimating item difficulty and discrimination fit the data best. Additionally, the IQCODE provided the most psychometric information in the range of ?0.5 < θ < 1.5, with peak information obtained at approximately θ = 0.4. Based on individuals' latent score (θ) estimates, items on the IQCODE are adequate for use as a screening tool for dementia. Results of the item calibration may be useful for targeted assessment needs, such as the development of short forms.     

Teachers' Gender Stereotypes in South Africa: A Case Study

The study investigated Teachers' gender stereotypes in the Eastern Province of South Africa. Participants were 65 Junior Secondary school teachers (females= 40 and males = 25) who assembled together at a seminar organized by the Department of Education. They completed a ten-statement questionnaire on gender stereotypes that would apply to school boys and girls. Data were analysed by means for differences in proportions endorsing stereotypes in relation to school activities. Gender stereotypes were apparent in the pattern of activities endorsed for males and females.     

Consensus collaboration enhances group and individual recall accuracy

We often remember in groups, yet research on collaborative recall finds “collaborative inhibition”: Recalling with others has costs compared to recalling alone. In related paradigms, remembering with others introduces errors into recall. We compared costs and benefits of two collaboration procedures—turn taking and consensus. First, 135 individuals learned a word list and recalled it alone (Recall 1). Then, 45 participants in three-member groups took turns to recall, 45 participants in three-member groups reached a consensus, and 45 participants recalled alone but were analysed as three-member nominal groups (Recall 2). Finally, all participants recalled alone (Recall 3). Both turn-taking and consensus groups demonstrated the usual pattern of costs during collaboration and benefits after collaboration in terms of recall completeness. However, consensus groups, and not turn-taking groups, demonstrated clear benefits in terms of recall accuracy, both during and after collaboration. Consensus groups engaged in beneficial group source-monitoring processes. Our findings challenge assumptions about the negative consequences of social remembering.     

从帛书《易传》考察“文言”的实义

根据对帛书《易传》的考察,“文”的实义,是指外柔内刚的德性,而表现为谦德。这种意义的德性,称为“文德”,是就政治人格而言的德性。故“文言”是“‘文’之言”的意思,义为“有关为政者（或从政者）德性的言说”。