Doing Ethics or Changing for the Better?

In this paper, classical pragmatism is used as a method, not as a substantial ethical theory, to develop “moral pragmatics.” Moral pragmatics offers a constructive approach for making progress where traditional ethical theories converge, and it innovates ethical deliberation. Assuming widespread agreement that real moral problems need practical solutions, the paper addresses two related problems: the missing link between ethical theories and moral practice, and the question of who is in charge of finding such solutions. It argues that “conscience” can create a link between ethical knowledge and moral practice, and that this partly discharges “the ethicist” from the task of solving problems that are not really, or not only, hers. Two specific methodological innovations are suggested that go beyond admonitions to render ethics sensitive to context. Instead, a reevaluation of “casuistry” and a sensitivity for “finding the right words” give an idea of how to achieve this goal.     

INSTABILITY AND DISSONANCE: PROVOCATIONS FROM SANDRA HARDING

Abstract. Sandra Harding's work is useful, not only as a critique of the scientific method and its epistemological constructs, but also in providing new energy and insights to the discussions about epistemology between theology and science. Feminist theory has been critical of the worldviews inherited from the Enlightenment. No longer is there one unambiguous way of knowing ourselves and the world around us, a single vision of reality. Feminist philosophers of science like Sandra Harding and Donna Haraway have redefined the scientific method and its analytic categories. They have contributed significantly to this discussion by moving the Enlightenment epistemological issues into the arena of politics and ethics. Feminist theory continues to remind us that what is important is not only how or what we know but what we do with that knowledge and how we use it.     

论《尘埃落定》中的道家文化蕴含

《尘埃落定》是藏族作家阿来的作品,长期以来人们对它的解读,往往从藏民族民间文化和宗教文化角度切入,其实如果我们把作家的文人身份和作品中弘扬的人文精神结合起来研读,就会发现在文本中有着浓郁的道家文化身影。     

21世纪医学教育的知识结构初探

在知识爆炸的今天,个人全面系统掌握医学基础知识只能是一个幻想,新世纪要求有关教育知识结构的变革。继续延用经典医学学科多平层型知识结构进行21世纪医学教育已不适应,可满足需求的应是以可持续发展的新知识为核心的核心－壳层型新知识结构。目前似应以细胞知识为核心重组医学教育知识结构体系,按应用基础、临床等知识壳层对冗杂的经典学科知识进行精炼与重组。     

语义知识神经表征的fMRI研究：通道特异性或类别特异性？

在同一实验中同时考虑类别与通道二个因素,并采用典型的语义提取任务应用功能磁共振成像技术探讨了语义知识的神经基础,结果发现不同类型的语义知识的脑激活模式（含左梭形回的激活）无论在范围还是强度上存在很大的相似性;而且,在严格的统计阈值下,不存在通道或是类别特异性激活的脑区。结果提示语义知识的神经表征分布于整个大脑皮层;在提取物体语义知识时都会同时激活该物体的视觉表象。另外,研究观察到的语义提取过程中BA9区的激活进一步证实并扩展了关于“汉语和表音文字在皮层组织上存在重要差异的观点”。     

美国临床心理学培养模式的演进及展望

受到社会、组织及自身发展因素的影响, 美国临床心理学在不同时期存在着不同的培养模式。文章选取“科学家－实践者”模式、“实践者－学者”模式、“临床心理科学家”模式、“当下的临床科学家”模式及“循证实践者”模式等五种最具代表性的经典模式, 介绍了1949年以来美国临床心理学培养模式的特点及发展规律。认为“循证实践者”模式修正了前面四种培养模式的个体主义倾向, 将单个的“科学家－实践者”, 分化成“科学家”与“实践者”两个集团, 强调实践者遵循科学家提供的最佳证据, 考虑病人的特征、文化与价值观, 在管理者协调下开展实践。这种模式代表着当代临床心理学培养模式的发展方向。     

The Meanings of the Community and of the Individual in Slovakia and in Scotland

The purpose of this paper was to examine meanings of the terms ‘individual’, ‘the community’ and ‘local community’ in Slovakia and Scotland. The social, cultural, political and economic histories of these two small European nations are quite different. Slovakia is one of the post-communist countries in which rapid changes have recently taken place. In contrast, Scotland has enjoyed a relatively stable parliamentary democracy within the UK. Two groups of respondents, 200 from Slovakia and 200 from Scotland, were presented with a word association task which included 38 political and economic terms and with two scales containing the same list of terms. They rated phenomena referring to these terms with respect to their importance for the well-being of the individual and to the well-being of the community. The results suggest that for Scots but not for Slovaks, the term ‘local community’ evokes positive associations and that local community is a meaningful concept. The data suggest that local attachments and loyalties were destroyed in Slovakia during communism. (© 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)     

The Projective Way of Knowing: A Useful Heuristic That Sometimes Misleads

For many purposes, people need a reasonably good idea of what other people know. This article presents an argument and considers evidence that people use their own knowledge as a basis for developing models of what specific other people know in particular, that they tend to assume that other people know what they know. This is a generally useful heuristic, but the assumption is often made uncritically, with the consequence that people end up assuming that others have knowledge that they do not have.     

How navigation systems transform epistemic virtues: Knowledge,issues and solutions

In this paper, we analyse how GPS-based navigation systems are transforming some of our intellectual virtues and then suggest two strategies to improve our practices regarding the use of such epistemic tools. We start by outlining the two main approaches in virtue epistemology, namely virtue reliabilism and virtue responsibilism. We then discuss how navigation systems can undermine five epistemic virtues, namely memory, perception, attention, intellectual autonomy, and intellectual carefulness. We end by considering two possible interlinked ways of trying to remedy this situation: [i] redesigning the epistemic tool to improve the epistemic virtues of memory, perception, and attention; and [ii] the cultivation of cognitive diligence for wayfinding tasks scaffolding intellectual autonomy and carefulness.