Spirituality and natural mentoring relationship among adolescent girls and boys in Slovakia

The aim of the article is to explore the association between natural mentoring relationships and spirituality among adolescent boys and girls, controlling for perceived parental support and year of high school attendance. The sample consisted of 177 Slovak adolescents (53% girls; M_age = 16.92, SD = 1.69). Spirituality was measured by the Expressions of Spirituality Inventory, the existence of a mentoring relationship by single item measure, and the perceived parental support was examined via the Resilience and Youth Development Module questionnaire. Binary logistic regression was used for data analysis. Results confirm an association between spirituality and the existence of a natural mentoring relationship. Mentoring relationships were associated with a lower level of cognitive orientation towards spirituality among boys and girls and with a lower level of existential well-being among girls. Results confirm the importance of mentoring due to the development of adolescent spirituality and emphasize the need to examine its correlates.     

IS THERE A FUTURE FOR THE DIALOGUE?

The title question was raised by Philip Hefner in an editorial in the March 2007 issue of Zygon, and answered in various ways in sixteen guest editorials in the June, September, and December 2007 issues. In this article, after defining some pertinent concepts, I comment on these essays. I review critical statements made by the guest editorialists and survey their proposals for further dialogue topics. I conclude with my own views on the future of the dialogue and the role of Zygon therein.     

On Reduction Rules,Meaning-as-use,and Proof-theoretic Semantics

The intention here is that of giving a formal underpinning to the idea of ‘meaning-is-use’ which, even if based on proofs, it is rather different from proof-theoretic semantics as in the Dummett–Prawitz tradition. Instead, it is based on the idea that the meaning of logical constants are given by the explanation of immediate consequences, which in formalistic terms means the effect of elimination rules on the result of introduction rules, i.e. the so-called reduction rules. For that we suggest an extension to the Curry– Howard interpretation which draws on the idea of labelled deduction, and brings back Frege’s device of variable-abstraction to operate on the labels (i.e., proof-terms) alongside formulas of predicate logic. Presented by Heinrich Wansing     

流畅性对自然概念类别检索的影响

探讨不同转换条件下,流畅性对自然概念类别检索的影响.实验1探讨自由转换条件下,流畅性对自然概念类别检索的影响.实验2探讨限制转换条件下,流畅性对自然概念类别检索的影响.结果表明:两种转换条件下,对熟悉性流畅性一致类别的检索时间策略主要受到根据熟悉性形成的知晓感的调节和监控.对熟悉性流畅性不一致的类别,知晓感的形成主要受流畅性的影响,并以此来控制和调节检索时间策略.     

The ELCA at 20 Years: Flunking the Theological Test

Abstract : This article deals with four theological issues at the forefront of controversy in the ELCA. They are: 1) the naming of God; 2) the unique place of Jesus in the world's salvation; 3) the authority and interpretation of the Bible; 4) the place of the law in theological ethics. The response to these issues holds the key as to whether or to what extent the ELCA will be faithful to its confessional commitment or become just another variety of liberal Protestantism.     

A preliminary comparison of functional analysis results when conducted in contrived versus natural settings

A preliminary evaluation of the correspondence between functional analysis outcomes across settings was conducted with 2 children who had been diagnosed with autism and who engaged in challenging behavior. Differences across settings (a therapy room and a classroom) were demonstrated in ABAB reversal designs. Three potential patterns of results that may occur when comparing functional analyses across environments are described, and one possible explanation for the occurrence of discrepancies between environments (differing learning histories within separate environments) is offered.     

The Suszko Operator. Part I.

The paper is conceived as a first study on the Suszko operator. The purpose of this paper is to indicate the existence of close relations holding between the properties of the Suszko operator and the structural properties of the model class for various sentential logics. The emphasis is put on generality both of the results and methods of tackling the problems that arise in the theory of this operator. The attempt is made here to develop the theory for non-protoalgebraic logics.     

Pluralism and Ambivalence in the Evolution of Morality

Much good work has been done on the evolution of human morality by focusing on how “selfish genes” can give rise to altruistic human beings. A richer research program is needed, however, to take into account the ambivalence of naturally evolved biopsychological motivators and the historical pluralism of human morality in religious systems. Such a program is described here. A first step is to distinguish the ultimate cause of natural selection from proximate causes that are the results of natural selection. Next, some proximate causes are suggested as possible conditions of biological and emotional valuing as well as of customary social morality and individual rational ethical thought. Finally, different moral perspectives of Confucianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity are briefly presented in order to illustrate how one might inquire about the selection of a variety of biopsychological and cultural proximate causes that enable the evolution of a plurality of religious moral systems.     

Was Thomas Aquinas a Sociobiologist? Thomistic Natural Law,Rational Goods,and Sociobiology

Abstract. Traditional Darwinian theory presents two difficulties for Thomistic natural‐law morality: relativism and essentialism. The sociobiology of E. O. Wilson seems to refute the idea of evolutionary relativism. Larry Arnhart has argued that Wilson's views on sociobiology can provide a scientific framework for Thomistic natural‐law theory. However, in his attempt to reconcile Aquinas's views with Wilson's sociobiology, Arnhart fails to address a critical feature of Aquinas's ethics: the role of rational goods in natural law. Arnhart limits Aquinas's understanding of rationality to the Humean notion of economic rationality–that “reason is and ought to be the slave of the passions.” On Aquinas's view, rationality discovers goods that transcend the merely biological, viz., the pursuit of truth, virtue, and God. I believe that Aquinas's natural‐law morality is consistent with some accounts of sociobiology but not the more ontologically reductionist versions like the one presented by Wilson and defended by Arnhart. Moreover, Aquinas's normative account of rationality is successful in refuting the challenges of evolutionary relativism as well as the reductionism found in most sociobiological approaches to ethics.