Orienting numbers in mental space: Horizontal organization trumps vertical

While research on the spatial representation of number has provided substantial evidence for a horizontally oriented mental number line, recent studies suggest vertical organization as well. Directly comparing the relative strength of horizontal and vertical organization, however, we found no evidence of spontaneous vertical orientation (upward or downward), and horizontal trumped vertical when pitted against each other (Experiment 1). Only when numbers were conceptualized as magnitudes (as opposed to nonmagnitude ordinal sequences) did reliable vertical organization emerge, with upward orientation preferred (Experiment 2). Altogether, these findings suggest that horizontal representations predominate, and that vertical representations, when elicited, may be relatively inflexible. Implications for spatial organization beyond number, and its ontogenetic basis, are discussed.     

"形而上"与"形而下"的近代分离--《易》与经学时代中国学者的学术兴趣

近代科学在欧洲的产生,乃得益于"文艺复兴"以来欧洲学术上"形而上"与"形而下"的大规模分离.而汉以来"独尊儒术"的实现,<易>作为儒家主要经籍以其"仰观天文,俯察地理,中知人事"的宏大叙事与终极关怀,影响了经学时代中国学者的学术兴趣,导致他们将绝大多数精力投入到了以史学为主的"人事"中而非自然事物的研究对象与形而下的研究路径.两个相对独立的历史进程与历史体系或无何可比性:近代科学在欧洲产生只有在产生近代科学的欧洲自我历史进程与历史体系中才能得到解释,中国没有产生近代科学亦复如此.至于将中国科学落后的原由单一性地归结于<易>或儒家经学,这未必符合历史的因果真相与思维的有效推理.     

Meaning and Method in the Social Sciences<Superscript>1</Superscript>

Academia’s mathematical metaphysics are briefly explored en route to an elaboration of the qualitatively rigorous requirements underpinning the calibration and unambiguous interpretation of quantitative instrumentation in any science. Of particular interest are Gadamer’s emphases on number as the paradigm of the noetic, on the role of play in interpretation, and on Hegel’s sense of method as the activity of the thing itself that thought experiences. These point toward and overlap with (1) Latour’s study of the metrological social networks through which technological phenomena are brought into language as modes of being that can be understood, and (2) the way that Rasch’s models for measurement comprise a potential beginning for metaphysically astute, qualitatively and quantitatively integrated, mathematical methods in the social sciences. The paper closes with observations on the general problem that is philosophy, the need to remain open to multiplicities of meaning even as clear understandings are sought and obtained.     

In the Name of the Spirits -- A Reading of Solov'ëv's Justification of the Good

In this contribution, the author analyzes Vladimir Solov'ëv's intention to study the idea of the Good as something relatively independent from religion and metaphysics. Some implications of Solov'ëv's definition of moral philosophy in The Justification of the Good are investigated, and illustrated with his applied ethics of war in chapter 18 of this book. It appears that Solov'ëv's moral philosophy and his account of war must be understood in connection with the central place of the cult of ancestors in his ethics. The idea of the Good and the idea of God spring from a religious origin and appear in our efforts to conjure up and exorcize the spirits of our forefathers. The author explains this ethics by referring to Solov'ëv's article China and Europe. There, Solov'ëv assumes that the Christian mind is treatened by the danger of a cultural order in which the cult of ancestors is most purely preserved. In the future war against China, however, Christian civilization must show itself superior to its enemy without betraying its loyalty to its own ancestors. The author concludes that in Solov'ëv's ethics, the moral subject is divided between the confirmation of its own autonomy and its being haunted by the spirits of its forefathers, a haunt which results in relentless wars against others     

The Price of Non-reductive Moral Realism

Non-reductive moral realism is the view that there are moral properties which cannot be reduced to natural properties. If moral properties exist, it is plausible that they strongly supervene on non-moral properties- more specifically, on mental, social, and biological properties. There may also be good reasons for thinking that moral properties are irreducible. However, strong supervenience and irreducibility seem incompatible. Strong supervenience entails that there is an enormous number of modal truths (specifically, truths about exactly which non-moral properties necessitate which moral properties); and all these modal truths must be explained. If these modal truths can all be explained, then it must be a fundamental truth about the essence of each moral property that the moral property is necessarily equivalent to some property that can be specified purely in mental, social and biological terms; and this fundamental truth appears to be a reduction of the moral property in question. The best way to resist this argument is by resorting to the claim that mental and social properties are not, strictly speaking, natural properties, but are instead properties that can only be analysed in partly normative terms. Acceptance of that claim is the price of non-reductive moral realism.     

Thinking Childbirth from an Emancipatory Perspective? Phenomenology and Psychoanalysis1

Feminist thought, despite the importance of its work, has not resolved the phenomenon of women's subordination in the care and education of children, and in society as a whole. Meanwhile, we are witnessing a gradual but continuous process of disconnection between women's bodies and subjectivity, and the conception, pregnancy and birth of children, due to developments in reproductive techniques. Considering this paradoxical tension, the author proposes to return to the very place where this subordination and anticipated rupture occur, to consider whether mothers could find there both the means to reclaim their childbirth experiences and potential levers for emancipation and rebirth, on both a personal and societal level. To this end, she describes, from the point of view of a singular woman, and from an emancipatory perspective, the phenomenological and psychoanalytical itinerary of childbirth by which this woman, in becoming a mother, is born to herself by giving birth to her child. By co-constituting the universal meaning of childbirth and becoming a philosophical mother, this singular woman operates a real paradigm shift in our representations of the mother and the metaphysical structure of the sexes.     

Response to Barbara Stephens's 'the Martin Buber-Carl Jung disputations: protecting the sacred in the battle for the boundaries of analytical psychology' (journal of analytical psychology, 2001, 46, 3, 455-91)

John Dourley, Response to Barbara Stephens's 'The Martin Buber–Carl Jung disputations: protecting the sacred in the battle for the boundaries of analytical psychology' ( Journal of Analytical Psychology , 2001, 46, 3, 455–91), p.479
Warren Colman, A response to Barbara Stephens , p.492
David Tresan, Response to Barbara Stephens's paper in JAP, 46, 3 , p.494
Barbara D. Stephens, Patterns at play: my response to respondents , p.498     

Acalculia and Dyscalculia

Even though it is generally recognized that calculation ability represents a most important type of cognition, there is a significant paucity in the study of acalculia. In this paper the historical evolution of calculation abilities in humankind and the appearance of numerical concepts in child development are reviewed. Developmental calculation disturbances (developmental dyscalculia) are analyzed. It is proposed that calculation ability represents a multifactor skill, including verbal, spatial, memory, body knowledge, and executive function abilities. A general distinction between primary and secondary acalculias is presented, and different types of acquired calculation disturbances are analyzed. The association between acalculia and aphasia, apraxia and dementia is further considered, and special mention to the so-called Gerstmann syndrome is made. A model for the neuropsychological assessment of numerical abilities is proposed, and some general guidelines for the rehabilitation of calculation disturbances are presented.     

Fields and Theology: A Response to Wolfhart Pannenberg

In responding to Pannenberg's paper, "God as Spirit—and Natural Science," Polkinghorne challenges the paper's interpretation of the scientific concept of field. He insists on its physical, material nature, elaborated by quantum theory, and asserts that Pannenberg's concept of field is immaterial or even in some sense "spiritual." Polkinghorne also comments on how a physical theory may give rise to several differing, even contradictory, metaphysical interpretations.     

Passage,Becoming and the Nature of Temporal Reality

I first distinguish several notions that have traditionally been conflated (or otherwise neglected) in discussions of the metaphysics of time. Thus, for example, I distinguish between the passage of time and temporal becoming. The former is, I maintain, a confused notion that does not represent a feature of the world; whereas a proper understanding of the latter provides the key for a plausible and comprehensive account of the nature of temporal reality. There are two general classes of views of the nature of temporal reality; proponents of particular views in both classes attempt to account for the phenomenon of temporal becoming in terms of qualitative change. I argue that any such account – in terms of change – is irredeemably problematic. And so I propound a different account of temporal becoming, based on the notion that temporal reality is transient, which provides the means to characterize intuitively and vividly the significant effects of time on the metaphysical nature of the world.