REDUCTIONISM AND HOLISM,CHANCE AND SELECTION,MECHANISM AND MIND

Abstract. Despite its rich and deepening panoply of empirical support, evolutionary theory continues to generate widespread concern. Some of this concern can be attributed to misunderstandings of the original concept, some to unfamiliarity with its current trajectories, and some to strongly held fears that it strips the human of cherished attributes. In this essay I seek to deconstruct such misunderstandings, lift up current concepts of what evolution entails, and address some of the existential issues it generates.     

在家庭自由游戏和智力任务游戏中亲子交往行为特征

本研究采用家庭录像观察,考察了53名4岁儿童及其父母在自然的家庭环境中的两个情境———自由游戏和完成拼图任务的智力游戏情境中儿童与其父母交往的行为特征和互动类型。结果发现:(1)在儿童4岁时,在家庭自由游戏情境中母亲的各种行为均显著多于父亲的各种行为,这表明在游戏过程中,母亲是儿童主要的交往对象。在拼图游戏情境中,除了父亲和母亲在商量和交流行为上没有显著差异之外,母亲的其他行为显著多于父亲的其他行为。儿童在这两个游戏情境中均表现出较多的顺从行为。(2)在自由游戏情境中,亲子互动类型包括四种:父母交流-儿童不交流型、母亲高控-儿童顺从型、父亲控制-儿童不顺从型和母亲不交流-儿童交流型。拼图游戏情境中,亲子互动类型有四种:父母放任-儿童独立型、父母控制-儿童顺从型、母子交流型和父亲控制-儿童顺从型。     

Category clustering calculator for free recall

The free recall measure is one of the most popular measures in memory research. Using this measure, researchers can assess not only the amount of recall but also the strategy participants used to recall the material. Category clustering is a strategy participants often use when the input list is categorized. Unfortunately, computing category clustering measures is laborious. The present paper introduces a calculator that computes these measures for each participant using a platform that is accessible to most researchers in an attempt to make these measures more user-friendly.     

Philosophy and Science Dialogue: Free Will

In this dialogue Derk Pereboom and Marcel Brass discuss the free will problem from the perspective of philosophy and cognitive neuroscience. First, they give their opinion on how the two disciplines contribute to the free will problem. While Pereboom is optimistic regarding the contribution of science, Brass is more pessimistic and questions the usefulness of an empirical approach to the question whether free will exists or not. Then they outline their position on the free will problem. The idea of a transcendental agent is discussed in more detail. Furthermore, it is discussed whether free will scepticism is a politically, socially, psychologically viable position. Pereboom argues that promoting the idea of free will scepticism can have a positive impact on retributive emotions and the political practice regarding retributive punishment. Brass argues that retributive emotions are deeply rooted in evolution and therefore difficult to change via high-level beliefs about free will. Finally, the future of the free will debate is discussed. Both agree that the dialogue between philosophy and psychology should be intensified. Philosophy can benefit from taking empirical research more seriously. Psychology and neuroscience can benefit from philosophy by appreciating the sophistication and conceptual clarity of the philosophical debate. Both have to find a common language and define common problems that can be tackled from both perspectives.     

Philosophy and Science Dialogue: Mental Causation

This paper is a dialogue between Thalia Wheatley and Terence Horgan. Horgan maintains that philosophy is a broadly empirical discipline, and that philosophical theorizing about how concepts work treats certain intuitions about proper concept-usage as empirical data. He holds that the possibility of strong multiple realizability undermines the psychophysical identity theory. He holds that the concept of causation is governed by implicit contextual parameters, and that this dissolves Kim’s problem of “causal exclusion.” He holds that the concept of free will is governed by implicit contextual parameters, and that free-will attributions are often true, in typical contexts, even if determinism is true. Thalia Wheatley holds that the concept of multiple realizability hinges on the level of abstraction discussed and that neuroscientific data does not yet support multiple realizability of mental states from specific, high resolution brain states. She also holds that compatibilism redefines the concept of free will in ways that bear little resemblance to the common understanding―that of being free to choose otherwise in the moment. She maintains that this folk understanding is incompatible with the brain as a physical system and is not rescued by concepts of context and capacity.     

康德哲学与企业文化

本文分析了中国当前企业文化的三种类型即官商、儒商和佛商,指出佛商流行于华南一带,是目前最有生机活力的一种企业文化,但这种生机活力是由于解构一切规范带来的,具有投机性,不具有积极建设性,对市场经济规律没有自觉意识,尤其对于赚钱的目的性不明确,背后受本能欲望的支配;康德哲学和西方基督教文化在这方面的启示是能够提供一种终极关怀,实践理性的道德自律为人的生存指明了一种理想目标。因此,当代企业文化的发展前景依赖于个人自由意志的确立和建立理性的规范,赚钱的目的应归结到完成自由人格。     

QUANTUM INTERACTIVE DUALISM: AN ALTERNATIVE TO MATERIALISM

Abstract. René Descartes proposed an interactive dualism that posits an interaction between the mind of a human being and some of the matter in his or her brain. However, the classical physical theories that reigned during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are based exclusively on the material/physical part of Descartes' ontology, and they purport to give, in principle, a completely deterministic account of the physically described properties of nature, expressed exclusively in terms of these physically described properties themselves. Orthodox contemporary physical theory violates this condition in two separate ways. First, it injects random elements into the dynamics. Second, it requires psychophysical events, called Process 1 interventions by John von Neumann. Neither the content nor the timing of these events is determined, even statistically, by any known law. Orthodox quantum mechanics considers these events to be instigated by choices made by conscious agents. This quantum conception of the mind‐brain connection allows many psychological and neuropsychological findings associated with the apparent physical effectiveness of our conscious volitional efforts to be explained in a causal and practically useful way. According to this quantum approach, conscious human beings are invested with degrees of freedom denied to the mechanistic automatons to which classical physics reduced us.     

Modern racism and neo‐liberal globalization: the discourses of plausible deniability and their multiple functions

Recently, considerable energy has been focused on extending the mandate of anti‐racism. Modern (or symbolic) racism and discursive psychology have argued that racism has taken on more covert forms. A longitudinal examination of newspaper coverage of two important race‐related newsprint stories in New Zealand (involving Winston Peters, Tuku Morgan and New Zealand First) identified discourses of ‘plausible deniability’ involved in warranting or defending statements about minorities against accusations of racism. We discuss implications of symbolic politics for minorities who are perceived to have violated societal norms, and show how nationalism is used as a framework for denying racist intent. Analyses of historical context show how ‘race’ forms only one lens from which to view issues of intergroup relations. While the press was sensitive to issues of racism, they demonstrated little awareness of concurrent issues of neo‐liberal economics, or market fundamentalism. Anti‐racism may be motivated not only by the ideals of egalitarianism, but also by underlying dynamics of economic power in a global economy. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Retelling Is Not the Same as Recalling: Implications for Memory

ABSTRACT— In contrast to laboratory free recall (which emphasizes detailed and accurate remembering), conversational retellings depend upon the speaker's goals, the audience, and the social context more generally. Because memories are frequently retrieved in social contexts, retellings of events are often incomplete or distorted, with consequences for later memory. Selective rehearsal contributes to the memory effects, as does the schema activated during retelling. Retellings can be linked to memory errors observed in domains such as eyewitness testimony and flashbulb memories; in all of these situations, people retell events rather than engage in verbatim remembering.     

自由基与脑卒中治疗决策的系统思维

脑卒中是神经系统疾病中最常见的危重急症,为全世界人口死亡的三大原因之一。脑卒中的早期治疗及其细节正确与否直接决定患者的预后。近年来,自由基在脑卒中后继发性脑损害的作用日益受到重视,自由基损害贯穿于脑卒中早期治疗的整个过程,脑卒中的治疗决策有必要着眼于机体内自由基的系统特征,从系统整体出发进行最优化的科学思维。