Skiing and its Discontents: Assessing the Turist Experience from a Psychoanalytical,a Neuroscientific and a Sport Philosophical Perspective

Abstract

This article addresses the question whether skiing as a nature sport enables practitioners to develop a rapport with nature, or rather estranges and insulates them from their mountainous ambiance. To address this question, I analyse a recent skiing movie (Turist, 2014) from a psychoanalytical perspective (skiing as a quest for self-knowledge and as therapy) and from a neuro-scientific perspective (ski resorts as laboratory settings for testing physical and psychic responses to a variety of cues). I conclude that Jean-Paul Sartre’s classical but egocentric account of his skiing experiences disavows the technicity involved in contemporary skiing as a sportive practice for the affluent masses, which actually represents an urbanisation of the sublime, symptomatic for the current era (the anthropocene).     

The Relatively Infinite Value of the Environment

Some environmental ethicists and economists argue that attributing infinite value to the environment is a good way to represent an absolute obligation to protect it. Others argue against modelling the value of the environment in this way: the assignment of infinite value leads to immense technical and philosophical difficulties that undermine the environmentalist project. First, there is a problem of discrimination: saving a large region of habitat is better than saving a small region; yet if both outcomes have infinite value, then decision theory prescribes indifference. Second, there is a problem of swamping probabilities: an act with a small but positive probability of saving an endangered species appears to be on par with an act that has a high probability of achieving this outcome, since both have infinite expected value. Our paper shows that a relative (rather than absolute) concept of infinite value can be meaningfully defined, and provides a good model for securing the priority of the natural environment while avoiding the failures noted by sceptics about infinite value. Our claim is not that the relative infinity utility model gets every detail correct, but rather that it provides a rigorous philosophical framework for thinking about decisions affecting the environment.     

Impact of induced joy on literacy in children: does the nature of the task make a difference?

This research examined whether induced joy influences fifth graders’ performance in literacy tasks. Children were asked to recall a joyful experience, used as a joy induction, before completing either a grammar (Study 1) or textual comprehension task (Study 2). The grammar task involved understanding at the surface level and retrieval of appropriate declarative and procedural knowledge, but limited elaboration unlike the textual comprehension task, which tackled inference generation. By differentiating tasks based on depth of processing required for completion we aimed at testing the validity of two concurrent hypotheses: that of a facilitating effect and that of a detrimental effect of induced joy. Compared to controls, joy induced children showed better performance on the grammar task – specifically children with lower language ability. No differences across groups emerged as a function of joy induction on the text comprehension task. Results are discussed with respect to emotion effects on cognition.     

HOW SCIENCE CAN HELP RELIGION BENEFIT SOCIETY

Abstract. Modern science has given us a revolutionary new understanding of the close interrelationship and interdependence of humans not only with all other humans but with all other living species and with the nonliving elements of the geosphere and the rest of the universe. This new understanding can provide a basis for new understandings of (1) the basic nature of religion, (2) the basic principles of major world religious traditions, and (3) the basic principles of religious ethics. The new understanding of religious ethics will involve a better understanding of our rights and responsibilities, as individuals and groups, with respect to other individuals and groups of humans, other living species, and the nonliving universe. This improved understanding will benefit not only human individuals and human societies, local and global, but also local and global ecosystems.     

临床医生应具有很高的哲学修养

人体的复杂性和人命关天的特殊性决定了临床工作具有持久的挑战性.无论是病因的诊断,治疗方案的选择,还是治疗效果的判断都给临床医生的哲学思维提出很高的要求.因此,临床医生不仅要注重积累自己的专业知识和临床经验,而且要努力提高自己的哲学修养.     

Environmental Refugees: What Rights? Which Duties?

It is estimated that there could be 200 million‘environmental refugees’ by the middle of this century. One major environmental cause of population displacement is likely to be global climate change. As the situation is likely to become more pressing, it is vital to consider now the rights of environmental refugees and the duties of the rest of the world. However, this is not an issue that has been addressed in mainstream theories of global justice. This paper considers the potential of two leading liberal theories of international justice to address the particular issues raised by the plight of potential and actual environmental refugees. I argue that neither John Rawls’s ‘Law of Peoples’ approach nor Charles Beitz’s `cosmopolitanism' is capable of providing an adequate account of justice in this context. Beitz’s theory does have some advantages over Rawls’s approach but it fails to take proper account of the attachment that some people have to their own ‘home’. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

关系复杂性对关系类别间接性学习中选择性注意的影响

以大学生为被试,使用关系复杂性逐渐变化的实验材料——4特征复杂关系的虚拟外星生物、6特征复杂关系加二阶同功能简单关系的虚拟外星生物和6特征复杂关系加二阶异功能简单关系的虚拟外星生物,采用类别的间接性学习范式——个人功能预测的关系类别的间接性学习条件和参照性交流的关系类别的间接性学习条件,通过三个实验任务（功能预测、自由分类和维度选择）,探讨材料关系复杂性对关系类别间接性学习中选择性注意的影响。结果发现：随着关系复杂性的逐渐增高,被试的选择性注意水平不存在显著差异,但选择性注意的指向性存在极其显著差异,选择性注意的集中性（对无关维度的抑制）不存在显著差异;参照条件下被试选择性注意水平极其显著地高于个人条件,这种差异主要表现在选择性注意的指向性方面,而不表现在选择性注意的集中性（对无关维度的抑制）方面。     

The influence of relational complexity and strategy selection on children's reasoning in the Latin Square Task

The present study focused on children's deductive reasoning when performing the Latin Square Task, an experimental task designed to explore the influence of relational complexity. Building on Birney, Halford, and Andrew's (2006) research, we created a version of the task that minimized nonrelational factors and introduced new categories of items. The results of two experiments conducted with school-aged children yielded an apparent dilution of complexity effects and suggest that specific inferential strategies can reduce the relational complexity that children need to process. A theoretical account is proposed emphasizing the influence of adaptive selection of strategies that mediate processing capacity constraints in reasoning development.     

智力和元认知技能在发现学习中的作用:任务复杂性的影响

采用自编的计算机模拟发现学习任务,以49名大学生为被试,探讨了在简单和复杂发现学习任务中,智力、元认知技能和学习成绩三者之间的关系。结果发现:在简单任务中,三者关系基本符合混合模型;进行过多的元认知活动,并不能提高学习效果。在复杂任务中,智力对学习成绩起主要预测作用。随着任务复杂性的增加,智力对学习的影响也随之变化,符合难度阈限理论的假设。任务复杂性不同时,智力、元认知技能和发现学习成绩之间的关系也不同,在一定程度上验证了难度阈限扩展理论。