《周易》自然哲学与生命实践

《周易》蕴涵的自然哲学思想,可谓是一种以生命为隐喻,宇宙论、本体论、价值论统一的生成哲学,它基于道德实践与认识实践统一的生命实践。文章根据《周易》"经"、"传"本身之内涵,按现代哲学表述方法,从源于道德之宇宙论,三才圆通之本体论,知行不二之实践论,生成整体之方法论等方面,阐明中国式自然哲学的特性与意义。指出正是这种独特的自然哲学,不仅开启了中国文化超越的价值之源,为中国古代科学提供了形而上学基础,而且应在21世纪伟大历史转型和中西对话中,共同创造人类不同文化"殊途同归"、"和而不同"的世界生成之序。     

Conséquences d’une catastrophe naturelle touchant le lieu de travail sur l’épuisement professionnel : Le cas du personnel d’un hôpital gériatrique

The Hautmont tornado has occurred on august 03, 2008, in the North of France. It was caused major destructions in this town and particularly in this city hospital. A tornado is a major natural phenomenon that causes destructions and disasters. In the literature, natural disaster and their destructive consequences are associated with psycho-traumatic disorders, among which is posttraumatic stress. The purpose of this research was to study the psychological impact of this tornado on a particularly vulnerable population: employees of a hospital. Thirty eight employees were interviewed one year after the Tornado. The results of this study showed that this disaster had many psychological repercussions. Many cases of posttraumatic stress disorders and cases of burnout were present independently of job strain level.     

Pyrrhonism in the Political Philosophy of Thomas Hobbes

The importance of Pyrrhonism to Hobbes's political philosophy is much greater than has been recognized. He seems to have used Pyrrhonist arguments to support a doctrine of moral relativity, but he was not a sceptic in the Pyrrhonist sense. These arguments helped him to develop his teaching that there is no absolute good or evil; to minimise the purchase of natural law in the state of nature and its restrictions on the right of nature; virtually to collapse natural law into civil law; and to make the sovereign the political, moral and theological epicenter of his political system.     

The noosphere vision of pierre teilhard de chardin and Vladimir I. Vernadsky in the perspective of information and of world‐wide communication 1

The noosphere vision of the two great natural scientists and thinkers Teilhard de Chardin and V. 1. Vernadsky is presented critically. Their basic ideas are discussed from the viewpoint of present‐day insights in natural science and of the world‐wide information and communication technology. To date very little has become known about their mutual influence on each other. It is advocated that the development of a noosphere can be supported by the networking and globalization of information and communication techniques. The noosphere is a sphere of human mind and of work, but it must not be identified with the modern technological trend that is changing all sectors of our life. A reference is made to Teilhard de Chardin's warnings against individualism, nationalism and racism, as well as fascism and Stalinism as seductive erroneous developments. The fundamentally teleological vision of T. de Chardin is contrasted in this paper with the idea of creativity in nature and in man. Delimiting conditions, such as structure, information, and at the level of society, the free will of man who has become aware of himself—humanistic values, are considered. All of them operate to limit the number of possibilities for development that are derived from the creativity of nature and man. Thus, new possibilities for development emerge at a higher level. The utilization of technology must be really oriented to human beings among human beings. Only with a strong internal determination of the social processes by understanding the genuine existence of man as man will it be possible to master the ambivalence of the technological effects and to come closer towards a society with deepened human information and communication.

Klaus Fuchs‐Kittowski, born in 1934, is Professor of Informationprocessing. He was head of the Division of Systems Design and Automated Information Processing at the Department of Theory and Organization of Science of Humboldt University Berlin. He was associated with the research at the International Institute for Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria. At present he works as Visiting Professor at the Department of Informatics of the University of Hamburg, and at the Beriin College of Technology and Economics he has a teaching assignment in Economy Informatics. He is also an associated member of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, U.S.A.

Peter Krüger, born in 1934, Dr. rer nat, Dipl. Mineraloge worked at the Bergakademie Freiberg/Sachsen from 1958 to 1961 and from 1961 to 1985 in the Central Geological Institute Berlin. From 1985 to 1992 he worked as historian of science at the Division of History of Science at the Department of Theory and Organization of Science of Humboldt University Berlin. His special fields are history of geology, Russian‐German scientific connections in the 19th and 20th century and unpublished studies of Marx about geology, mineralogy and agrochemistry.     

Recent Consideration of World Government in the IR Literature: A Critical Appraisal

Because recent contributions on world government in the international relations (IR) literature have focused on relatively nebulous issues, they are of limited usefulness for illuminating whether or not an actual world government would advance the human prospect. This question cannot be sensibly addressed unless in the light of a specific institutional proposal. Along the authority-effectiveness continuum separating the relatively ineffectual existent United Nations on the one hand, and the traditional world federalist ideal of the omnipotent world state on the other, there are intermediate possibilities not subject to the respective disadvantages of the extreme endpoints of this continuum.     

Self-transcendent positive emotions increase spirituality through basic world assumptions

Spirituality has mostly been studied in psychology as implied in the process of overcoming adversity, being triggered by negative experiences, and providing positive outcomes. By reversing this pathway, we investigated whether spirituality may also be triggered by self-transcendent positive emotions, which are elicited by stimuli appraised as demonstrating higher good and beauty. In two studies, elevation and/or admiration were induced using different methods. These emotions were compared to two control groups, a neutral state and a positive emotion (mirth). Self-transcendent positive emotions increased participants' spirituality (Studies 1 and 2), especially for the non-religious participants (Study 1). Two basic world assumptions, i.e., belief in life as meaningful (Study 1) and in the benevolence of others and the world (Study 2) mediated the effect of these emotions on spirituality. Spirituality should be understood not only as a coping strategy, but also as an upward spiralling pathway to and from self-transcendent positive emotions.     

Predicting posttraumatic growth among Hurricane Katrina survivors living with HIV: the role of self-efficacy,social support,and PTSD symptoms

Abstract

The study tested the model of adaptation after trauma by Benight and Bandura (2004) indicating that posttraumatic recovery may be predicted directly by coping self-efficacy (CSE) and indirectly by social support. These relations were investigated in the context of posttraumatic growth (PTG) among Hurricane Katrina survivors living with HIV. Additionally, it was hypothesized that among individuals with more intensive Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms, those with strong CSE would experience the strongest PTG. Cross-sectional data were collected among 90 patients with HIV who reinitiated care at the HIV outpatient clinic. Questionnaires were administered approximately 14 months after the hurricane. Higher CSE was related to higher PTG among the survivors who suffered from more intensive PTSD symptoms. Received social support was directly related to only one index of PTG, relating to others. Furthermore, although there was a significant relationship between social support and CSE, the indirect conditional effect of received social support on PTG was not confirmed. Similar results were obtained across the indices of PTG, controlling for the level of exposure to hurricane-related trauma. Cross-sectional design and convenience character of the sample warrants replications.     

Attributions for Different Types of Traumatic Events and Post-Traumatic Stress Among Women

This study investigated the relationship of attributions to post-traumatic stress symptoms among women exposed to different types of traumatic events. Participants were 424 female undergraduates who previously experienced a serious accident, natural disaster, child abuse, or adult interpersonal violence. Path analysis indicated a significant indirect pathway from event type to post-traumatic stress through global attributions. Interpersonal-violence survivors exhibited the highest levels of global attributions and post-traumatic stress symptoms. Regression analyses revealed significant interactions between event type and attributions in predicting post-traumatic stress. Stable attributions were associated with increased symptoms in sexual-assault survivors and decreased symptoms in natural-disaster survivors. These findings have implications for improving cognitive interventions for survivors of different types of traumatic events.     

In the Shadow of Terror

Summary

This study examined the effects of terror on world assumptions in Israeli youth. The sample comprised 2,999 adolescents aged 13-16 who were exposed to different levels of terror. Relations of objective and subjective exposure to terror, life events, ideological, religious commitment, and social support with world assumptions were assessed. Results show that personal and social resources made a more substantial contribution to the explained variance of world assumptions than exposure to terror. Implications of the associations between religious and ideological commitment and social support with world assumptions are discussed.