The Virtues in their Place: Virtue Ethics in Medicine

Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics - We are currently in the midst of a revival of interest in thevirtues. A number of contemporary moral philosophers havedefended a virtue-based approach to...     

论罗尔斯的政治义务理论

政治义务是政治哲学的核心问题。哈特首先用“相互限制原则”来解释政治义务,这一原则为罗尔斯所继承并加以修正。鉴于该原则存在的诸多问题,罗尔斯在《正义论》中削减了它在政治义务的道德证明中的作用,而诉诸正义的自然责任原则。这个原则仍然受到来自多方面的批评,许多罗尔斯的追随者对这些批评作了回应。罗尔斯从公平游戏原则到自然责任原则的转变反映了他对契约论不同的态度。     

董仲舒"元"概念新解

关于董仲舒哲学体系中“元”的概念,先贤及时贤有不同的理解.元有本原之义,但不能理解为宇宙本原或者元气,也不能简单地理解为时间概念的开始.元具有开始、开端的意思,但如果仅仅停留在开始、开端这一点上,就丧失了董仲舒元哲学的本来含义,而这一点恰恰被学者所忽略.元是存在于天地之前的一种本原性的秩序,它强调“始”、“微”、“正”,强调君主在天人体系中的地位和作用,重视道德动机.元囊括了整个天人体系,天人体系的本原是元,元同时又涵盖了一切秩序.     

项目等距呈现过程中的系列位置效应

以中国汉字为材料,利用刘英茂提出的向前和向后联想的方法,证明在不同呈现时间和不同间隔时间条件下,系列位置曲线中首因效应和近因效应性质的分化过程。结果说明,系列位置曲线的近因部分对时间变化更为敏感,表现为绝对记忆的性质。系列位置曲线中首因效应和近因效应性质的分化,取决于项目呈现时间、项目间隔时间和系列包含的项目数。     

Are there True Contradictions? A Critical Discussion of Graham Priest's, Beyond the limits of thought

The present article critically examines three aspects of Graham Priest's dialetheic analysis of very important kinds of limitations (the limit of what can be expressed, described, conceived, known, or the limit of some operation or other). First, it is shown that Priest's considerations focusing on Hegel's account of the infinite cannot be sustained, mainly because Priest seems to rely on a too restrictive notion of object. Second, we discuss Priest's treatment of the paradoxes in Cantorian set-theory. It is shown that Priest does not address the issue in full generality; rather, he relies on a reading of Cantor which implicitly attributes a very strong principle concerning quantification over arbitrary domains to Cantor. Third, the main piece of Priest's work, the so-called “inclosure schema”, is investigated. This schema is supposed to formalize the core of many well-known paradoxes. We claim, however, that formally the schema is not sound. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The educational pyramid: A model for community intervention

Urban adolescents represent a group who are at special risk for a variety of psychological and behavioral problems. A life skills program was implemented with middle and high school students, using an educational pyramid approach to maximize the ecological appropriateness of the intervention and to increase the likelihood that the program will be continued with progressively lessened university facilitation. Additionally, the educational pyramid offers the opportunity for all participants—university faculty, graduate students, collaborating professionals in the community, and high school leaders—to be both teachers and learners.     

表面概貌对原理运用的影响的实验研究

探讨样例与作业问题的表面概貌相似性对原理运用的影响作用。实验１扩大了Ｒｏｓｓ的研究材料中样例与测题表面概貌方面的差异程度,探讨两者的表面概貌相似性对原理运用的影响。实验２探讨样例与测题在表面概貌的事件类型方面发生改变的条件下,两者的表面概貌相似性对原理运用的影响。实验３探讨在样例与测题表面概貌有两个级别差异的条件下,两者的表面概貌相似性对原理运用的影响。３个实验均采用被试内设计,要求被试学习原理及样例后完成与样例的表面概貌有不同相似关系的测题。结果表明：（１）样例与问题的表面概貌对原理运用有影响,当两者表面概貌发生较大的变化尤其是在表面概貌的事件类型方面发生变化时,其表面概貌相似性对原理运用的影响就会明显地表现出来;（２）样例与问题的表面概貌对原理运用的影响作用,受到两者对象对应性质的制约,当对象对应相似时,其表面概貌相似就会促进解答测题时运用原理,而当两者的对象对应相反时,其表面概貌相似就会对原理运用产生干扰作用。据此可以认为,样例与作业问题表面概貌的相似性,不仅会影响原理的通达,而且也会影响原理的运用。Ｒｏｓｓ关于表面概貌相似与否不影响原理运用的结论应该予以修正。     

The ontogeny of cumulative culture: Individual toddlers vary in faithful imitation and goal emulation

The success of human culture depends on early emerging mechanisms of social learning, which include the ability to acquire opaque cultural knowledge through faithful imitation, as well as the ability to advance culture through flexible discovery of new means to goal attainment. This study explores whether this mixture of faithful imitation and goal emulation is based in part on individual differences which emerge early in ontogeny. Experimental measurements and parental reports were collected for a group of 2‐year‐old children (N = 48, age = 23–32 months) on their imitative behavior as well as other aspects of cognitive and social development. Results revealed individual differences in children's imitative behavior across trials and tasks which were best characterized by a model that included two behavioral routines; one corresponding to faithful imitation, and one to goal emulation. Moreover, individual differences in faithful imitation and goal emulation were correlated with individual differences in theory of mind, prosocial behavior, and temperament. These findings were discussed in terms of their implications for understanding the mechanisms of social learning, ontogeny of cumulative culture, and the benefit of analyzing individual differences for developmental experiments.     

利他性惩罚的动机

社会规范的维系离不开对违规者实施的利他性惩罚, 然而, 从个体心理层面来看, 利他性惩罚的动机却并不是全然利他的。除了积极维护公平原则以外, 追求良好声誉、规避潜在损失或消除负性情绪也在不同程度上驱动了利他性惩罚。此外, 对惩罚成本数量和成本形式的敏感也表明基于成本-收益原则的策略性动机在驱动利他性惩罚中占据一席之地。进一步探索在利他性惩罚实施过程中不同动机之间的相互作用是未来的重要研究方向。     

The same but different: an empirical investigation of the reducibility principle

According to classical utility theory the valuation of any lottery should depend only on its outcomes and their respective probabilities, and should not be affected by the nature, complexity and structure of the chance mechanism. Previous research has documented systematic violations of this principle. For example, most subjects prefer lotteries in which the payoffs are contingent on the joint occurrence of multiple (high probability) events to simple lotteries, and lotteries in which the earlier stages offer higher probabilities than the later stages. We review the various violations of this principle and suggest a classification into two major types associated with misunderstanding of chance mechanisms and attitude towards the chance mechanism and process. In the present study 40 subjects were presented with 30 pairs of binary gambles. In any given pair the lotteries had identical outcomes and equal ‘reduced’ probabilities (and thus equal expected values). However, the chance mechanisms varied along a variety of factors such as the size of the sample space, the number of stages, temporal ordering, order of probabilities, their transparency and time constraints. Half the subjects saw lotteries involving gains and the other half considered only losses. After choosing one lottery in each pair, the subjects were asked to explain and justify their choices. The findings revealed systematic violations of the reducibility principle: subjects displayed a preference for lotteries with larger sample spaces, and for lotteries that allow quicker resolutions in the earlier stages. A clear distinction between some patterns of preferences in the gains and loss domains was revealed. In gambles involving gains subjects preferred to have the highest probability on the first stage (and the lowest probability on the last stage), but displayed the opposite preferences for losses. A content analysis of the subjects' stated reasons for their choices identified eight major categories. The most frequently invoked were hope, fun, simplicity, stress and time. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.