FROM PESSIMISM TO HOPE: A NATURAL PROGRESSION

Mutual critique by scientists and religious believers mostly entails the pruning of untenable religious beliefs by scientists and warnings against scientific minimalism on the part of believers. John F. Haught has been prominent in formulating religious apologetics in response to the challenges posed by evolutionary theory. Haught's work also resonates with a parallel criticism of the conventional scientific metaphysics undergirding neo‐Darwinian theory. Contemporary systems ecology seems to indicate that nothing short of a complete reversal of the Enlightenment assumptions about nature is capable of repositioning science to deal adequately with the origin and dynamics of living systems. A process‐based alternative metaphysics substantially mitigates several ostensible conflicts between science and religion.     

COSMOLOGY FROM ALPHA TO OMEGA: RESPONSE TO REVIEWS

I gratefully acknowledge and respond here to four reviews of my recent book, Cosmology from Alpha to Omega. Nancey Murphy stresses the importance of showing consistency between Christian theology and natural science through a detailed examination of my recent model of their creative interaction. She suggests how this model can be enhanced by adopting Alasdair MacIntyre's understanding of tradition in order to adjudicate between competing ways of incorporating science into a wider worldview. She urges the inclusion of ethics in my model and predicts that this would successfully challenge the competing naturalist tradition in contemporary society. John F. Haught weighs the alternatives of viewing divine action as objective versus subjective and of divine action at one level in nature or at all levels. He asks whether physics is fundamental to nature, arguing instead that metaphysics should be considered as fundamental. Michael Ruse assesses occasional versus universal divine action, the problems raised to divine action when it is related to quantum mechanics, and the way these relations exacerbate the challenge of natural theodicy. As an alternative he suggests viewing God as outside time and acting through unbroken natural law. Willem B. Drees discusses my use of the bridge metaphor for the relation between theology and science, the implications when science is inspired by theology, the role of contingency and necessity in the anthropic principle/many-worlds debate, and the challenge of cosmology to eschatology with the ensuing problem of theodicy.     

Adult temperament and childbearing over the life course

Emerging evidence suggests that temperament may predict childbearing. We examined the association between four temperament traits (novelty seeking, harm avoidance, reward dependence and persistence of the Temperament and Character Inventory) and childbearing over the life course in the population‐based Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns study (n = 1535; 985 women, 550 men). Temperament was assessed when the participants were aged 20–35 and fertility history from adolescence to adulthood was reported by the participants at age 30–45. Discrete‐time survival analysis modelling indicated that high childbearing probability was predicted by low novelty seeking (standardized OR = 0.92; 95% confidence interval 0.88–0.97), low harm avoidance (OR = 0.90; 0.85–0.95), high reward dependence (OR = 1.09; 1.03–1.15) and low persistence (OR = 0.91; 0.87–0.96) with no sex differences or quadratic effects. These associations grew stronger with increase in numbers of children. The findings were substantially the same in a completely prospective analysis. Adjusting for education did not influence the associations. Despite its negative association with overall childbearing, high novelty seeking increased the probability of having children in participants who were not living with a partner (OR = 1.29; 1.12–1.49). These data provide novel evidence for the role of temperament in influencing childbearing, and suggest possible weak natural selection of temperament traits in contemporary humans. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

人的本质:从费尔巴哈到马克思--对《关于费尔巴哈的提纲》中一个重要观点的理解

把人的本质界定为“社会关系的总和”,并认定这只是马克思的观点,这并非是对马克思的《关于费尔巴哈的提纲》的准确解读。其实费尔巴哈已经从社会关系来界定人的本质了。与费尔巴哈不同,马克思自己首先是从人与自然之间的实践关系来规定人的本质的。由此出发,才能正确认识马克思所说的社会性的真实含义及其在自然生态问题空前严重的当今世界的深刻意义。     

哈纳克的《论马克安》

哈纳克是德国教会史家和神学家,自由主义新教神学的主要代表;而马克安是使徒之后奥古斯丁之前最重要的教会史人物。哈纳克学术研究的一个重心所在就是马克安,他穷一生心力研究马克安的结晶就是《论马克安》。本文从哈纳克的学术地位、马克安在灵知思想和基督教会历史中占据的独特的位置,以及《论马克安》的所阐述的义理等三个方面为中译本的《论马克安》作引介。     

'The repression and the return of bad objects': W. R. D. Fairbairn and the historical roots of theory

One of the seminal, if solitary, figures of the British Object Relations School was the Scotsman W. R. D. Fairbairn. In this paper the author relates some of the distinctive features of Fairbairn's thinking to traumatic aspects of his country's history, especially the harsh, repressive traditions of Scottish Presbyterianism, which were magnified in confusing ways by his sexually puritanical parents. The two World Wars are shown to have played an important role in liberating Fairbairn from these constraints, influencing both his choice of career and, notably, the evolution of his ideas.     

Der Vergleich als Brücke zwischen Wissenschaftsgeschichte und Wissenschaftstheorie

Comparisons as a Bridge between History and Philosophy of Science. Both in history and philosophy of science, comparisons are looked upon with considerable skepticism. A widespread syndrome of casuitis, i.e., the tendency of historians of science to produce extremely narrow and local studies that do not present a case for any broader thesis of interest to philosophers, has widened the gulf between history and philosophy of science.This may be somewhat surprising to sociologists, philosophers, or general,legal and cultural historians, who have been using comparisons successfully for a long time–albeit not always without controversy. In the first part of this paper, I assess the status of comparisons in science studies, in order to explain why their systematic use is not nearly as natural as might elsewhere be expected. This critical section is followed by a very brief outline of the prerequisites for fruitful comparison as formulated by general and sociological historians in their detailed methodological discussions. To these are added some necessary conditions from the perspective of modern history of science. In the third part I present four examples of such systematic comparisons taken from my own research. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

历史在马克思哲学中是如何作为本体而存在的

马克思主义哲学本体论意义上倡言的历史性不等于历史主义,马克思主义哲学必须放弃康德式近代认识论的思路,打造出一种历史本体论来,方可尽显马克思主义社会历史理论的真义。本体论在马克思哲学中的首要可能性就是历史本体论,历史作为本体,其指示词就是历史性,并以生产方式作为其对存在的超越性解释,而生产方式作为存在则体现为历史的一种“缺席的原因”,因此是以不在场的方式现身的。我们的当务之急是重新解读出马克思哲学中的历史本体论,并说明其与马克思哲学方法论的关系,而不是直接去奢谈一般哲学本体论。     

自然概念语义特征提取的范畴效应

本研究采用概念特征自由列举实验范式,考察三类范畴(动物、自然食物、人造物)自然概念的语义特征提取反应时间的范畴效应。结果表明,⑴语义特征提取的反应时间存在范畴效应:提取动物特征的时间显著短于提取自然食物特征的时间,提取自然食物特征的时间显著短于提取人造物特征的时间;⑵三类范畴的特征提取时间模式表现出相同的规律:先是显著降低(第1到第2个特征),然后持续升高(第2到第10个特征)。语义特征提取的范畴效应反映了语义记忆组织的范畴特异性,有必要进一步分析特征提取时间与特征类型、关联特征、独有特征之间的关系,以深入揭示语义特征提取范畴效应的产生机制。     

关于中国教育心理学史研究的几个问题

全文讨论三个问题:什么是中国教育心理学史?为什么要研究中国教育心理学史?怎样研究中国教育心理学史?以便了解中国心理学史的对象与范围,目的与意义,指导思想、原则与方法。