SOCIOBIOLOGY, GOD, AND UNDERSTANDING

Abstract. This article presents the rationale of a new approach to the debate between sociobiology and religion. In it, I outline a sociobiology that may generate alternative and competing hypotheses about the existence of gods as beings (theisms) and the nature of their participation in the universe. I examine the central theoretical issues of this sociobiology and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of a sociobiological approach to theological issues, including problems pertinent to nontheistic theologies. A concluding case is made for an enriched and revitalized agenda in the dialogue between sociobiology and religion. While consistent with current research on gene-culture coevolution, the article's treatment expands on earlier work to begin incorporating theoretical terms that carry a more direct theological impact.     

The Identification of the Triune God: Robert W. Jenson's Approach to the Doctrine of the Trinity

Abstract : Robert W. Jenson's programmatic approach to the doctrine of the Trinity consists of his aim to identify the triune God in an anti‐religious and anti‐nihilistic way. Jenson has in a unique manner carried out this identification, i.e., ontologically, contextually, and narratively; and then defined the limits of his trinitarian doctrine in accordance with this approach. The fundamental prerequisite of Jenson's approach is his “negative” natural theology, including his existential analysis of living in time.     

An experimental analysis of the effectiveness and sustainability of a Chinese tutoring package

This experiment evaluated the effects of training tutors to use an instructional package to teach pronunciation and translation of the Chinese language. Tutors' correct use of the package increased from 68% of trials to 92% after training, and student correct pronunciation increased from 45% to 90%, with similar effects for translation. Continued use of the package, high social validity, and extended follow-up suggest that use of the package may be sustainable.     

Conductismo y etología: Una introducción a la polémica entre Herrnstein y Skinner

RESUMEN

En este trabajo no se pretende encontrar solución a la polémica entre la perspectiva conductista de Skinner y la etológica de Herrnstein acerca de la utilidad de inferir estados motivacionales y el uso explicativo que puede hacerse de ellos, sino más bien exponer los problemas que se plantea el autor a raíz de dicha polémica. Para ello analiza las aportaciones en la orientación conductista y la biológica, enfrentadas al pretender alcanzar, cada una por su lado, la totalidad de las conductas. El artículo finaliza destacando que la complementariedad de los enfoques de ambas disciplinas exige una traducción y no una mera recepción de las posiciones del “enemigo”.     

The future need for positive and constructive human characteristics

Past efforts at solving the “world problematique” have emphasized changing population, resources, energy, and so forth. More useful efforts should focus on better use of human resources and the application of constructive human qualities to bring about new and harmonious human/environment relationships. A radical re‐orientation in the study of human and societal dynamics is needed, one which would highlight constructive human characteristics, the most important of which are love and altruism. A global conspiracy of love may be the only hope for the survival of humankind.     

The Importance of Teleology to Boyle's Natural Philosophy

Boyle prefaced his Disquisition about the Final Causes of Natural Things with the claim that there are three dangerous consequences for failing to engage in the pursuit of final causes. Boyle was sincere in this claim, for there is a systematic line of reasoning in his texts that incorporates all three consequences and establishes conceptual connections between his science, his theology, and his value theory. I argue in this paper that Boyle's teleological outlook led him to believe that the natural philosopher is morally obligated to continue his investigations of nature on the grounds that a deeper understanding of the teleological order necessarily motivates divine worship. Moreover, Boyle saw a conceptual connection between a teleological study of nature and revealed theology, a connection that reveals that a study of teleological nature can lead to the highest form of happiness. I conclude with a summary, and some remarks about the sincerity and weaknesses of Boyle's reasoning.     

Looking for Whitehead

Saul Kripke in his revolutionary and influential series of lectures from the early 1970s (later published as the book Naming and Necessity) famously resurrected John Stuart Mill's theory of proper names. Kripke at the same time rejected Mill's theory of general terms. According to Kripke, many natural kind terms do not fit Mill's account of general terms and are closer to proper names. Unfortunately, Kripke and his followers ignored key passages in Mill's A System of Logic in which Mill enunciates a sophisticated and detailed theory of natural kind terms that anticipates and is in some ways superior to Kripke's.     

God,Mixed Modes,and Natural Law: An Intellectualist Interpretation of Locke's Moral Philosophy

The goal of this paper is to explicate the theological and epistemological elements of John Locke's moral philosophy as presented in the ‘Essay Concerning Human Understanding’ and ‘The Reasonableness of Christianity’. Many detractors hold that Locke's moral philosophy is internally inconsistent due to his seeming commitment to both the intellectualist position that divinely instituted morality admits of pure rational demonstration and the competing voluntarist claim that we must rely for our moral knowledge upon divine revelation. In this paper I argue that Locke is guilty of no such contradiction. In doing so, I attempt to accommodate Locke's position in the ‘Essay’ that moral principles are demonstrable a priori with his views on the sanctity of Christian revelation. I then consider Locke's conception of moral ideas as a species of mixed modes, or arbitrarily constructed complex ideas, and attempt to navigate the mechanism whereby human understanding can recognize these ideas as conforming to, or straying from, divinely appointed natural law. I conclude that despite Locke's failure to actually provide a full-fledged moral theory, he lays a rationally coherent groundwork for the fulfilment of such a project that accommodates a-priori rational reflection and divine revelation as complementary paths to moral understanding.     

Neat,Swine, Sheep,and Deer: Mill and Peirce on Natural Kinds

In the earliest phase of his logical investigations (1865–1870), Peirce adopts Mill's doctrine of real Kinds as discussed in the System of Logic and adapts it to the logical conceptions he was then developing. In Peirce's definition of natural class, a crucial role is played by the notion of information: a natural class is a class of which some non-analytical proposition is true. In Peirce's hands, Mill's distinction between connotative and non-connotative terms becomes a distinction between symbolic and informative and pseudo-symbolic and non-informative forms of representation. A symbol is for Peirce a representation which has information. Just as for Mill all names of Kind connote their being such, so for Peirce all symbols profess to correspond to a natural class.