Institutional consequentialism and global governance

Elsewhere we have responded to the so-called demandingness objection to consequentialism – that consequentialism is excessively demanding and is therefore unacceptable as a moral theory – by introducing the theoretical position we call institutional consequentialism. This is a consequentialist view that, however, requires institutional systems, and not individuals, to follow the consequentialist principle. In this paper, we first introduce and explain the theory of institutional consequentialism and the main reasons that support it. In the remainder of the paper, we turn to the global dimension where the first and foremost challenge is to explain how institutional consequentialism can deal with unsolved global problems, such as poverty, war and climate change. In response, following the general idea of institutional consequentialism, we draw up three alternative routes: relying on existing national, transnational and supranational institutions; promoting gradual institutional reform; and advocating radical changes to the status quo. We evaluate these routes by describing normatively relevant properties of the existing global institutional system, as well as by showing what institutional consequentialism can say about alternatives to it: a world government; and multi-layered sovereignty/neo-medieval system.     

The indeterminacy failures of moral cosmopolitanism and liberal nationalism

Much of the discussion on cosmopolitanism and nationalism has focused on their different normative views. The purpose of this article is to shift the attention away from the normative debate to the metatheoretical argument about how we determine moral and political principles independently of each other. I argue that the discussion among proponents of cosmopolitanism and contextualist models boils down to latent methodological and metatheoretical assumptions about what selection of facts are considered politically relevant. In the article, I explore what I call ‘the indeterminacy failure’ of moral cosmopolitanism, that is, the view according to which moral principles fail to determine what political-institutional level might be preferable; and the ‘indeterminacy failure’ of liberal nationalism, that is, the view according to which national identity fails to determine moral principles. In opposition to dichotomist cosmopolitan models (including various nonideal types of moral cosmopolitanism) and alternative contextualist approaches (including the practice-dependence thesis and liberal nationalism), I promote a ‘split-level’ model that is set to avoid the difficulties in the other approaches. The split-level corrects the indeterminacy failures of cosmopolitanism and contextualism by distinguishing clearly between the level of moral theorising and the level of political theorising.     

弈棋风格的fMRI证据

为了探寻弈棋风格大局观维度存在的生理证据,研究使用1.5T功能型磁共振仪,采用被试间设计,记录并比较不同风格的围棋业余棋手在思考围棋问题时脑区激活情况。结果表明：大局观高分组被单独激活的Brodmann区有右BA1、右BA6、右BA17、右BA19,而低分组被试被单独激活的Brodmann区是左BA7、左BA9、右BA25、右BA37、右BA46、左BA47。这种差异为弈棋风格大局观维度的存在提供了生理性证据。     

Local rather than global processing of visual arrays in numerosity discrimination by pigeons (Columba livia)

A series of experiments investigated which stimulus properties pigeons use when they discriminate pairs of visual arrays that differ in numerosity. Transfer tests with novel stimuli confirmed that the birds’ choices were based on relative differences in numerosity. However, pigeons differed from other species in the non-numerical cues that affected their choices. In human and non-human primates, numerical discrimination is often influenced by continuous variables such as surface area or overall stimulus brightness. Pigeons showed little evidence of using those cues, even when summed area and brightness had been correlated with numerosity differences and reward outcome. But when array-element sizes were asymmetrically distributed across numerosities, the birds readily utilized information about item sizes as an additional discriminative cue. These novel results are discussed in relation to pigeons’ tendency to focus on local, rather than global dimensions when they process other non-numerical complex visual stimuli. The findings suggest there may be inter-specific differences in the type of perceptual information that provides the input stage for mechanisms underlying numerical processing. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Averting the Tragedy of the Commons: Using Social Psychological Science to Protect the Environment

ABSTRACT— Many local and global environmental challenges are tragedies-of-the-commons dilemmas in which private and collective interests are frequently at odds. Recent developments in social psychological theory and research suggest that in such commons dilemmas people are not just motivated by narrow (economic) self-interest but that they also consider the broader implications of their decisions for others and for the natural environment. Based on a core-motives analysis, I identify four necessary components for designing interventions to protect the environment: (a) information, (b) identity, (c) institutions, and (d) incentives, and discuss their utility and the feasibility of incorporating them.     

21世纪新发传染病--非典型肺炎

传染性非典型肺炎 (SARS)是全球人类健康非常严重的威胁 ,是由一种新病毒———SARS冠状病毒引起的新发传染病。具有全球大流行的潜在可能。面对一种新发传染病做好宣传教育工作 ,动员全社会参与尤为重要 ,信息发布要选择合适的途径、合适的对象、合适的信息和合适的时间。即使暴发过去了 ,详细的流行病学及环境调查分析 ,会丰富我们的认识 ,并可防止疫情的蔓延和再次暴发。控制新发传染病不是局部问题 ,是超越地域及政府界限的 ,需要全球支持 ,国际合作与协调 ,共同努力把疾病控制在萌芽之中。     

论儒家全球伦理金律

“儒家全球伦理金律”是儒家思想内所包含的或从中发展出的能够作为全人类共同遵守奉行的基本的伦理原则、价值观和行为规范。它可初步归纳为“十大金律”,其特点为普适性、基础性、悠久性、系统性、针对性、智慧性和简洁性,它的本质是人道主义、合理主义与和平主义。全球伦理的构建不能缺少儒家伦理,儒家全球伦理是中华民族文化对人类文明作出的独特贡献。     

The Prospect of a Global Ethic on HIV/AIDS: The Religions and the Science–and–Religion Dialogue

This article introduces essays from a 2001 symposium on a global ethic and the issue of the spread of HIV/AIDS. The symposium began with the assumption that we can determine the possibility for such a global ethic if we both explore the potential of an interreligious dialogue and do so in the context of a science–and–religion dialogue. I argue that while the possibilities for a global ethic, in particular addressing the issue of HIV/AIDS, may be debated, the results of this symposium suggest that the dialogue ought to be continued and that there is significant potential in the interfaith dialogue for creating models for both an ethic and specific strategies for action.     

Leibniz Filters Revisited

Leibniz filters play a prominent role in the theory of protoalgebraic logics. In [3] the problem of the definability of Leibniz filters is considered. Here we study the definability of Leibniz filters with parameters. The main result of the paper says that a protoalgebraic logic S has its strong version weakly algebraizable iff it has its Leibniz filters explicitly definable with parameters.     

Attention level and negative priming in hierarchical patterns1

Abstract: This study explored object processing associated with attention level dependent on task, using a paradigm of negative priming. Participants were required to identify target characters that appeared at either the global or local level in hierarchically structured patterns. Two experiments were conducted to examine how the global and local characters were processed in the attended and unattended levels. In the results of Experiment 1, where stimuli were presented for 10 ms, negative priming was observed in a local‐directed task, but not in a global‐directed one. These results suggested that the inhibition of local characters in the unattended level did not occur during global attention. The results of Experiment 2 revealed that negative priming was observed in both global‐ and local‐directed tasks in the 500 ms presentation, showing that inhibition in the unattended level occurred. As a result, the exposure duration influences inhibition in the unattended, especially the local level. At short exposure duration, the local characters are not inhibited when one directs attention to the global characters, whereas these are inhibited at long exposure duration.