The Red Book from a pre-modern perspective: the position of the ego, sacrifice and the dead

This paper tries to investigate The Red Book from a pre-modern point of view especially with reference to a Japanese cultural and clinical perspective. In spite of overwhelming contents from the unconscious, the position of the ego is remarkable as a formal aspect throughout The Red Book. The ego manifests itself as a stable observing agency which results in clear images. In the case of Japan, visions are historically rare because of the much more vague position of the ego. While in Liber Primus the ego manifests itself via suffering and tragedy, in Liber Secundus it has more distance and humour, and takes the form of comedy. Mythological images are internalized as fantasy in Liber Secundus. So the rebirth of God does not need to be performed literally but by way of internalization, which is the origin of Jungian psychology. In its substantial aspect, the references in The Red Book to pre-modern cultural images of sacrifice and redemption of the dead are impressive. The sacrifice may suggest that the numinous cannot be experienced as ritual and symbol but necessitates direct violence and sexuality.     

从科学的时空观看现代临床医学的局限性

时空是世间万物存在的载体,也是万物运行的物质基础。在一定意义上讲空间和时间都是无限的。然而,我们所经历的时空又都是有限的。本文从时空的维度论证现代临床医学的局限性和有限性。从时间的维度上看,无论在门诊还是住院期间我们对疾病的认识仅仅看到疾病过程中的中段或极期,而没有观察到疾病的潜伏期或前驱期,更没有观察到疾病的康复期。从空间的维度上看,现代临床医学分科过细使我们无法从整体上完整地理解疾病的全貌和本质,以及各个脏器的结构和功能变化之间的内在联系。     

SEXUAL DIVERSITY AND DIVINE CREATION: A TIGHTROPE WALK BETWEEN CHRISTIANITY AND SCIENCE

Abstract Although modern societies have come to recognize diversity in human sexuality as simply part of nature, many Christian communities and thinkers still have considerable difficulties with related developments in politics, legislation, and science. In fact, homosexuality is a recurrent topic in the transdisciplinary encounter between Christianity and the sciences, an encounter that is otherwise rather “asexual.” I propose that the recent emergence of “Christianity and Science” as an academic field in its own right is an important part of the larger context of the difficulties related to attempts to reconcile Christianity and a recognition of diversity in human sexuality as a norm. Through a critical discussion of arguments which are upheld most disturbingly on a global scale by the Roman Catholic Church and supported with much sophistry by important stakeholders of an influential stream in analytic philosophy of religion, this paper aims to contextualize and defend the legitimacy of the question why God would create homosexuals as such if it is true that every homosexual act is prohibited by God. While recently advanced nonheterosexist scientific models of sexuality in nature inform the discussion, I reject the simplistic view that religions suppress and the sciences liberate in matters sexual.     

Hyped Virtues,Hidden Vices: The Ethics of Icelandic Sports Literature

Ideally, good sports literature illuminates the subtle moral contours of sports reality. We ask in this paper how modern Icelandic literature describes sport-related ethical issues and attitudes. Our findings indicate that, in stark contrast to the rampant egocentrism, individual vice and misconduct blighting Icelandic sports reality, modern Icelandic prose literature typically either ignores this reality or refers to sports as if they were in full harmony with idealised ancient virtues and morals. Our conclusion is that this discrepancy admits of four possible interpretations: that (1) theories about the individualism and egocentricity of modernity do not apply in Iceland and in Icelandic sports; (2) the writers are seriously self-deceived; (3) the writers write their books for the deliberate purpose of deceiving the public; (4) the writers write their books for the deliberate purpose of preaching. Our answer is that, while there may be reason to foreground (4), the explanation lies in a combination of those four factors.     

Descartes,Scientia and Pure Enquiry

In Descartes: The Project of Pure Enquiry, Bernard Williams supplies an interpretation of Descartes's Meditations in which the meditator's clean sweep of initial beliefs is justified by a stance that abrogates all practical pressures: the stance of pure enquiry. Otherwise, Williams explains, it would not be reasonable to set many of the initial beliefs aside. Nowhere, however, does Descartes assert that his approach is in this sense ‘pure’. It would of course be preferable if the meditator's rejection of all the initial beliefs did not require an abrogation of the conditions that govern everyday belief-formation and assessment. I supply a reading that accomplishes this. The key to this reading is recognition that Descartes is a thinker of his time, a time when the pre-modern worldview was being systematically rejected. I show, in this regard, that when Descartes characterizes a belief as ‘uncertain’, this has the implication that the belief is false. And, certainly, the rational policy, without need for any special stance, is to reject falsehoods.     

Attention can operate on semantic objects defined by individual Chinese characters

Attention can select perceptual objects, but it is less clear whether attention can operate on objects defined by higher level cognition, such as semantic associations. Recent studies have shown that attention may be based on objects defined by Chinese two-character compound words, suggesting that attention can operate on semantic objects. In the present study, object-based attention (OBA) effect was investigated at the level of individual Chinese characters, and the role of character structure and radical order in OBA was explored by using a spatial cueing paradigm. In Experiment 1, we found OBA effect for conditions that had legal radical order, but not for other conditions in which the radical order information was disrupted. Character structure, however, had no influence on the OBA effect. In Experiment 2, we observed OBA effect for all conditions after enhancing the radical order and character structure information by adding perceptual cues. The results extend previous findings of a “semantic object”-based attention effect from the two-character word level to the individual character level. Moreover, we found that radical order but not character structure was important for this semantic OBA effect. We conclude that visual attention can be based on semantic objects at the level of individual characters, and that the development of semantic objects is affected by the perceptual grouping of the radicals.     

The holistic paradigm

Our present age is characterized by rapid processes of social transformation due to the rise of the systems sciences, computers and information technology. Part I of this paper distinguishes two perspectives for an interpretation of the ongoing evolution of our society as influenced by these newer developments in science and technology. From a structural perspective we argue that they have not created a society with entirely new structures, but just an expansion and intensification of the organizational‐technical systems which have typified the technological society since the Industrial Revolution. From a worldview perspective on our society we conclude that “systems rationalism” reinforces the prevailing technical worldview which fosters a progressive technical control and streamlining of society and human adaptation to its framework.     

中国传统哲学范式的现代转型

中国传统哲学范式在历史上经历了从古典范式、近代范式到现代范式的转型,“哲学范式转型”意味着哲学重心的转移和透视问题的角度发生了根本的变迁。20世纪上半叶,可以称为传统哲学范式向现代转型的最初阶段。应当说,传统哲学范式的转型是与历史事件分不开的。传统哲学范式向现代的转型得益于五四新文化运动。它有两个基本的转型路向：首先表现为由意识形态向学术资源或知识形态的转型。这种转型突出地表现为现代新儒学对传统儒学范式进行了新的思考和变革,确立了它的现代形态。其次是为传统哲学范式向现代的转型做了准备,表现在对传统哲学进行了深入的思考和清理,并以新的哲学思想(西方哲学、马克思主义哲学)对传统哲学的整体框架给以全面审视。20世纪初的传统哲学范式的转型是中国哲学史上的一次重大飞跃。自此以后,传统哲学从语言表述到问题视阈,从内容到方法都进入了一个崭新的时期。     

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SCIENTIFIC ANALYSIS AND THE WORLD VIEW OF PIERRE TEILHARD DE CHARDIN

Abstract. This paper introduces the thought of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin from a perspective neglected until now: a view that builds on the analysis of his scientific papers. His scientific work formed part of the "modern synthesis" which laid the foundation of contemporary Darwinism. His main contributions in the field were the definition of a new branch of evolutionary sciences, geobiology; the redefinition of the term orthogenesis ; and the proposal of the "scale" phyletic tree. Using these new research concepts, Teilhard de Chardin attempted to solve, within a scientific framework, a problem fundamental for his philosophical synthesis: that of evolutionary directionality.     

汉字分解组合的表象操作与汉字字形学习的关系

该研究的目的,在于探讨影响汉字字形学习效果的主要汉字形体因素和心理因素以及两者之间的关系。实验结果表明:(1)汉字分解组合的视觉表象操作速度和准确性与汉字字形学习水平具有密切关系,学习水平优良者明显优于低水平者,且上、中、下三个学习水平组别之间具有显著性差别;(2)并非任何汉字字形学习水平的不同都可以造成相应表象操作速度方面的显著性差别,只有当其前者达到一个相当程度的差异状况时才会如此;(3)不同汉字字形学习水平者在汉字分解组合的表象操作错误类型方面不尽相同:低学习水平者以顺序错误为主,中、上学习水平者则以部首替换错误较多。对此,应当注重培养学习者汉字视觉表象的操作能力,从而改善汉字教学和学习效果。