The Manifestation Range of Innately Good Knowledge and Ability,and the Danger of Separation: On Zhuzi’s Question about Understanding Words

Zhuzi (Zhu Xi), Zhang Nanxuan and Lü Donglai continued a discussion begun by Hu Wufeng and his disciples on the subject of “knowing the form of benevolence,” and “seeking for a true mind in an absent one.” One result of their discussion was to make people realize that innately good knowledge and ability are not only manifested in loving one’s parents and respecting one’s elders, but also in the simple acts of drinking when thirsty and eating when hungry. This generated the idea of “manifestation range of innately good knowledge and ability.” However, another conclusion of this discussion claimed that if the desire to drink and eat or the king of Qi’s grudging an ox are included in this range, there would be a danger of viewing innately good knowledge and ability merely as inborn human nature or instinct. This discussion reveals an unsteady relationship between innately good knowledge and ability and the feeling of commiseration, which are sometimes united and sometimes separate.     

A mental number line in human newborns

Humans represent numbers on a mental number line with smaller numbers on the left and larger numbers on the right side. A left‐to‐right oriented spatial–numerical association, (SNA), has been demonstrated in animals and infants. However, the possibility that SNA is learnt by early exposure to caregivers’ directional biases is still open. We conducted two experiments: in Experiment 1, we tested whether SNA is present at birth and in Experiment 2, we studied whether it depends on the relative rather than the absolute magnitude of numerousness. Fifty‐five‐hour‐old newborns, once habituated to a number (12), spontaneously associated a smaller number (4) with the left and a larger number (36) with the right side (Experiment 1). SNA in neonates is not absolute but relative. The same number (12) was associated with the left side rather than the right side whenever the previously experienced number was larger (36) rather than smaller (4) (Experiment 2). Control on continuous physical variables showed that the effect is specific of discrete magnitudes. These results constitute strong evidence that in our species SNA originates from pre‐linguistic and biological precursors in the brain.     

Yesterday’s Child: How Gene Editing for Enhancement Will Produce Obsolescence—and Why It Matters

Despite the advent of CRISPR, safe and effective gene editing for human enhancement remains well beyond our current technological capabilities. For the discussion about enhancing human beings to be worth having, then, we must assume that gene-editing technology will improve rapidly. However, rapid progress in the development and application of any technology comes at a price: obsolescence. If the genetic enhancements we can provide children get better and better each year, then the enhancements granted to children born in any given year will rapidly go out of date. Sooner or later, every modified child will find him- or herself to be “yesterday’s child.” The impacts of such obsolescence on our individual, social, and philosophical self-understanding constitute an underexplored set of considerations relevant to the ethics of genome editing.     

市场化与人际信任变迁

在中国的市场化进程中, 我们正在面对一个确定的事实：人际信任逐年衰落。虽然已有研究一致证明信任可以促进经济发展, 然而, 很少有文献阐明市场经济发展对信任的影响。整合近年来各种新获得的宏观和微观证据可以发现, 市场化对信任存在抑制作用。具体来说, 我国的市场化进程中, 市场的动力属性充分彰显, 鼓励人们逐利和竞争, 激活了人们的创富热情, 但也造成经济人信念的流行, 破坏了信任者对人性的乐观预期; 然而, 相应的市场规则和社会规则发育不足, 无法充分保护信任者。最终, 市场化在消蚀经济赖以发展的基础——信任, 致使信任下滑。因此, 建立基于规则的、诚信的市场经济是阻遏信任衰落乃至重建信任的必要路径。     

Becoming who you are: An integrative review of self‐determination theory and personality systems interactions theory

One of the enduring missions of personality science is to unravel what it takes to become a fully functioning person. In the present article, the authors address this matter from the perspectives of self‐determination theory (SDT) and personality systems interactions (PSI) theory. SDT (a) is rooted in humanistic psychology; (b) has emphasized a first‐person perspective on motivation and personality; (c) posits that the person, supported by the social environment, naturally moves toward growth through the satisfaction of basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. PSI theory (a) is rooted in German volition psychology; (b) has emphasized a third‐person perspective on motivation and personality; and (c) posits that a fully functioning person can form and enact difficult intentions and integrate new experiences, and that such competencies are facilitated by affect regulation. The authors review empirical support for SDT and PSI theory, their convergences and divergences, and how the theories bear on recent empirical research on internalization, vitality, and achievement flow. The authors conclude that SDT and PSI theory offer complementary insights into developing a person's full potential.     

A Contemporary Re-Examination of Confucian Li 禮 and Human Dignity

In modern Western liberal discourse, human dignity has been cast as an important component of basic human rights, while so-called human rights have been generally understood as certain inborn, inherent and inalienable properties of every human being. In this understanding, human dignity is just a natural endowment rather than a historically constructed social-cultural phenomenon. Based on this premise, liberalism is justified for the reason that under a social condition of complete freedom, individuals will spontaneously exercise their rights thus to secure their dignity. However, from a Confucian point of view, human dignity is socially defined and exists in concrete forms in social-cultural contexts. Dignity is not an abstract, universal, minimal standard that can be applied to all people at every time; it refers to individuals’ decency and grace under various given social contexts, and it corresponds to particular roles, statuses and even ages and genders of individuals in their respective societies. The full realization of human dignity relies on certain social-cultural or institutional arrangements. Confucian li is precisely this kind of arrangement, which designs a whole set of regulations and norms in order to maintain human dignity in general, as well as to maintain different people’s dignity in varying situations. Therefore, according to Confucianism, behaving appropriately according to the norms and regulations of li is just a way to preserve dignity.     

人类胚胎的不完全性与伦理问题

人类胚胎伦理地位的道德两分法不具有合理性,应该从人类胚胎是“人的不完全态”着手分析他的发育连续性,并相应的考虑他的伦理地位。胚胎伦理学包含着内在的伦理悖论,所以道义论和效果论都不能很好地解决。考虑“人的不完全态”的连续统,提出了中庸主义的解决方案。     

医院人力资源管理职能的哲学分析

医院人力资源管理是医院管理的一个重要命题,人力资源管理职能的认识有待于深化。试从哲学的角度对医院人力资源管理职能的基本出发点和其核心职能进行分析,以提高对人力资源职能内涵的认识和把握,为医院管理者在激烈的医疗市场竞争中经营好医院提供一些思路。     

科学研究的DNA共享与协作精神

DNA序列承载着生命的遗传信息,是20世纪最伟大的科学发现之一。DNA序列信息的共享是全人类的利益之所在,也可以说发展了一种新的科学精神。通过对DNA及人类基因组计划进行分析,揭示了当代科学研究的DNA精神,即共享与协作精神。科学研究的DNA,即共享与协作精神,不仅是自然科学长期发展的积淀,更是人类文明的结晶。