All Against All: How Beliefs about Human Nature Shape Foreign Policy Opinions

Although the American public's increasingly cynical views about human nature have drawn considerable attention from scholars, existing research says little about how interpersonal trust shapes mass foreign policy opinions. This study analyzes survey data to test the claim that citizens use their beliefs about human nature to reason about international affairs. The results indicate that cynical citizens are more likely than trusting citizens to endorse the principle of isolationism and to oppose cooperative forms of intervention in other nations' problems. Citizens' use of interpersonal trust as an information shortcut helps them to make inferences regarding a topic about which they typically know little, but such inferences are not necessarily realistic ones.     

临床医学与人文素质

遗传研究已经测定出人类基因序列,人的克降技术如此完备,克隆人呼之欲出。但是,人类并没有因为高科技而摆脱身心的负担,反而更为焦虑。人类受自身生物结构的限制,对世界的了解借科学的发展而发展,因而对世界的认识既受限制,又无止境,临床医学更加需要人文主义精神,要求医生把病人更多地看作是社会的人,有着非常复杂的心理需要,而不仅仅是生物学意义上的人。临床医生的人文素质培养和要求是当务之急。     

"旧人"的否弃和"新人"的形塑--论马克思对人的价值形象的设计

任何关于人的理论都有自己理想的人的价值形象。它既是观察和评价现实生活的标准,也是实践活动所追求的目标。本文旨在将马克思所设计的人的价值形象从他复杂的理论构造中剥离出来。马克思关于人的理论以批判性的建构为鲜明特色,他对理想的人的价值形象的设计跟他对人的实际生活状况的否定是相辅相成的,亦即对“旧人”的否弃和对“新人”的塑形是同时进行的。这个“新人”的主要内涵如下：人应该是民主制度下的人。应该是追求现实幸福的人,应该是自由地自觉地活动的人,应该是全面发展的人。     

Joint Commitments

I question the adequacy of Margaret Gilbert's account of collectivefeelings of guilt as collective judgments which do not necessarilyhave any phenomenological components. I question whether joint commitment theory in its present form helps us to understand orresolve social conflicts.     

International Human Rights and National Discretion

This paper argues that the EuropeanCourt of Human Rights couldserve as a model for an international court ofhuman rights to be builtupon the United Nations Committee on HumanRights. It argues that theconcerns states might have over the surrenderof a significant portion oftheir national sovereignity might be lessenedif such an internationalcourt were to incorporate the margin ofappreciation doctrine employed bythe European Court of Human Rights. Thisdoctrine is intended to respectthe customs and traditions of sovereign statesin dealing with humanrights issues, while maintaining that somerights such as the right not tobe tortured will be considered as basic andwill stand independently ofthe customs and traditions of sovereignstates.     

关于克隆人试验与伦理学的三原则

由于克隆人试验的对象是人的活细胞,不是人的胚胎;并且由于人只能有限地决定自己的未来,根本无法决定自己的出生;同时由于基因诊断和修复有助于新生儿的健康,因而克隆人试验既不会伤害任何人的生命体,也不会侵犯任何可能出现的克隆人的自主权和平等权,进而不会违反伦理学的三原则。     

Do beliefs about aggression predict physical aggression to partners?

Three hypotheses concerning the association between instrumental (I) and expressive (E) beliefs about aggression and physical aggression were assessed among a sample comprising students (n=40), women from a domestic violence shelter (n=29), and male prisoners (n=46), all of whom had committed at least one act of physical aggression to a partner. Participants completed an adapted version of the EXPAGG [Archer and Haigh (1997a): British Journal of Social Psychology 35:1–23] to measure I and E beliefs about aggression, the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS) [Straus (1979): Journal of Marriage and the Family 41:75–88] for themselves and their partner, and measures of fear and injuries resulting from partner violence. I beliefs predicted self‐reported physical aggression to the partner, most CTS acts of physical aggression, and injuries to the partner, with only minor and limited associations for E beliefs. Correlations for the student and prisoner samples, and for men and women, showed different strengths. The findings supported a general link between I beliefs and aggression but offered no support for the predictions that the link would be restricted to men or to men who showed a persistent pattern of violence to their partners. Aggr. Behav. 29:41–54, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Self-efficacy and successful school-to-work transition: A longitudinal study

A successful school-to-work transition is a precursor of promising career development. In the present longitudinal study we investigated whether academic self-efficacy beliefs and grades in school at the ages of 12-15 would be associated with unemployment and job satisfaction at the age of 21. We found that individuals with high self-efficacy beliefs and better grades were less likely to become unemployed and more likely to be satisfied with their jobs. The relationship between high self-efficacy and unemployment was mediated by higher career-related motivation and by less perceived application stress, measured at the time of vocational training at the age of 18. The relationship between self-efficacy and job satisfaction was primarily mediated by higher vocational congruence and less application stress. We conclude that school-based interventions targeted at increasing academic capabilities and self-efficacy would help prepare adolescents for a successful school-to-work transition.     

Spinoza on the Conditions that Nominally Define the Human Condition

ABSTRACT

In ‘Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person,’ Harry Frankfurt argues that a successful analysis of the concept ‘human’ must reveal something that distinguishes humans from non-humans, as well as indicate something informative about ‘those attributes [of ourselves] which are the subject of our most humane concern.’ In this paper, I present an analysis of Spinoza’s concept of ‘human’ as it is employed within his Ethics. I show that Spinoza’s concept of ‘human’ satisfies Frankfurt’s desiderata because I show that Spinoza’s concept of ‘human’ is, at core, a version of Frankfurt’s own. I argue that Spinoza’s account of human bondage and human freedom indicate that Spinoza sees humans as beings that possess higher-order volitions, and that comments Spinoza makes throughout his corpus shows that he views beings that lack higher order desires to be, in an important sense, non-human. The analysis here sheds light upon the community of entities that Spinoza’s Ethics is written for, as well as upon issues concerning the nature of Spinoza’s Free Man.