Structuring Reality: The Metaphysics of Harmony in Zhang Zai’s Zhengmeng Philosophical System

The essay aims to analyze the concept and the paradigm of harmony in the metaphysical system of the Neo-Confucian philosopher Zhang Zai. It argues that Zhang Zai’s concept of Great Harmony not only inherits the traditional centrality of this idea within the Confucian tradition, but actually presents the most advanced idea of harmony up to his time. In Zhang Zai’s philosophy, harmony becomes the Way itself, which includes the realm of principles and the outward and functional manifestations of reality. This essay will deal with harmony in two ways: first with Zhang Zai’s direct use of the concept in the Zhengmeng and second, applying the paradigm of harmony to other of Zhang Zai’s key concepts such as qi 氣, void (xu 虛) and natural dispositions (xing 性).     

Human physical aggression as a function of alcohol and threat of harm

The present study investigated the effect of threat of physical harm on the aggressive behavior of intoxicated and nonintoxicated subjects. Forty male undergraduates competed in a reaction time task in which they could deliver shock to an increasingly provocative opponent. In the threat condition, subjects could be hurt by the opponent (they wore a shock electrode), while in the no-threat condition, they could not be hurt by the opponent (the electrode was removed prior to the competition). The results indicated that under conditions of low provocation, the intoxicated subjects behaved more aggressively than the nonintoxicated subjects in both the threatening and nonthreatening condition. However, under conditions of increasing provocation, only the intoxicated subjects in the threatening condition increased their shock settings.     

关系型人力资源管理实践对受益人利他行为的影响：基于道德补偿的视角

关系型人力资源管理实践在众多组织和机构中十分普遍,其对社会、组织及个人的负面影响也备受学者们关注,但以往研究却忽视了关系型人力资源管理实践的另一面。本文从道德补偿视角探究关系型人力资源管理实践对关系受益人利他行为的积极影响,通过4个实验研究设计对研究假设进行了验证。结果发现,关系型人力资源管理实践会促使关系受益人出于弥补而做出利他行为,关系受益人的道德自我形象和内疚情绪中介了关系型人力资源管理实践与利他行为之间的关系(研究1和2),且关系受益人与非受益同事的关系亲密度正向调节上述链式中介效应(研究3)。相比于低水平的关系亲密度,高水平关系亲密度下关系型人力资源管理实践通过道德自我形象和内疚影响利他行为的间接效应更强。本文有助于拓展关系实践的研究视角,且为企业管理者平衡关系型HRM实践的消极影响提供建议。     

Rights and Morals, Issues, and Candidate Integrity: Insights into the Role of the News Media

In recent American political discourse, elections and debates tend to be presented by the news media as collisions of basic principles, with opposing parties advancing beliefs about what is right and what is wrong. When news coverage of an election campaign focuses on issues that emphasize rights and morals, voting behavior may be affected in two ways: Citizens become likely to form and make use of evaluations of the integrity of the candidates, and citizens become motivated to seek an issue-position "match" with candidates on those issues for which discourse is ethically charged (particularly when they hold a similar interpretation of the issue). These ideas were tested in an experiment in which labor union members and undergraduate students were presented with news stories about the contrasting positions of fictional candidates for elective office. Across three political environments, all information was held constant except for systematic alteration of a different issue in each environment. These three issues (abortion, gun control, and health care) vary in the types of value conflicts emphasized in news coverage. The results shed light on how individuals process, interpret, and use issue coverage in choosing among candidates.     

Embracing Ambiguity: Transpersonal Development and the Phenomenological Tradition

This article offers a perspective on transpersonal development that has been inspired by the phenomenological tradition. This philosophical movement as exemplified by Husserl, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty may provide a non-dualistic vision in which human beings participate in both development and no development. Some implications of this paradox are taken forward to indicate a basic open and non-deterministic dimension of our depths which enters ‘nature’ and ‘time’ in unknown ways. In this view, the tension between the ‘personal’ and the ‘transpersonal’ functions in any moment and forms a deep motivation and creative tension in the human heart. How is this tension resolved?     

年幼儿童人物画结构变化及其影响因素

儿童人物画突出的结构特点是比例不协调。该研究考察了三百多名４．５－６．５岁幼儿的人物画,发现４．５岁到６．５岁幼儿自由画人躯干面积和头的面积的比值平均为１．３０,头的面积稍小于躯干的面积;自由画人躯干与头的面积的比值在４．５到６．５岁之间,变化曲线呈“Ｎ＂字形;这一比值的变化是和幼儿对于人体结构的认知发展有关的;临摹标准比例范画对于幼儿人物画的结构有显著影响,但是除了４．５－５岁之外,临摹画人与自由画人躯干／头的比值变化趋势基本一致;改变绘画顺序以及身体部位的功能性夸大对于幼儿人物画结构都有显著影响。     

意图信息在物权判断和道德判断中的作用

意图会影响人们的道德判断,但尚不清楚意图在物权判断中的作用。本研究以266名非法学专业的大学生为被试,通过包含不同意图（恶意/善意/无意）的故事情境,考察了在损失求偿和获益分享情境中人们的物权判断和道德判断。结果发现,在损失求偿情境中,不管是出于善意、恶意还是无意,被试均判断行为者应当赔偿他人损失,但不认为无意的行为者应受谴责。在获益分享情境中,被试认为善意的行为者应分享给他人带来的收益且应受赞扬,但恶意的行为者不应分享收益和受赞扬。综合来看,物权判断比道德判断较少受意图信息的影响,反映人们的物权判断具有领域特异性。     

FOCUS INTRODUCTION: TOWARD SHARING VALUES ACROSS CULTURES AND RELIGIONS

The contributors to this focus issue participated in a unique gathering of over sixty scholars in Lukenya, Kenya in January 2009, organized by Globethics.net. The three contributions here by Sumner B. Twiss, Shanta Premawardhana, and Ariane Hentsch Cisneros are not the outcome of the deliberations and discussions there; however, they led to the idea of this focus issue. Each essay incorporates major aspects of the general themes discussed in different groups at the Lukenya meeting: (1) defining global ethics; (2) ensuring a successful interreligious dialogue on ethics; (3) integrating means and methods of sharing values in a human to human approach; (4) balancing power relations, inducing a real transformation; and (5) sharing values in the Kenyan and East‐African contexts.     

FEMINIST APPROACHES TO RELIGION AND TORTURE

Feminists look critically at any infliction of pain on others, usually requiring that it be consensual, and often both consensual and for the benefit of the person afflicted. Most torture of women is not recognized under official definitions of torture because it is not performed by or with the consent of (government) officials. Women are, however, also victims of torture under official definitions as military or civilian prisoners or as members of defeated populations in war, and are more often subjected to sexual torture, which until recently has not been understood either as torture or even a war crime. Rape, especially serial gang rape, it is argued, should be understood as torture, as the essence of torture is the use of severe pain to obscure or obliterate the victim's sense of agency.     

Aquinas and the Natural Law

Recent decades have seen a shift away from the traditional view that Aquinas's theory of the natural law is meant to supply us with normative guidance grounded in a substantive theory of human nature. In the present essay, I argue that this is a mistake. Expanding on the suggestions of Jean Porter and Ralph McInerny, I defend a derivationist reading of ST I‐II, Q. 94, A. 2 according to which Aquinas takes our knowledge of the genuine goods of human life and their proper ordering to one another to be self‐evident only to the wise who are able to discern the truth about our God‐given human nature. I then show that this reading provides a better account of Aquinas's view than two recent alternatives: John Finnis's brand of inclinationism and Daniel Mark Nelson's virtue‐based interpretation.