Books received: volume 11, issue 2

According to Bolzano, an object has necessary being if, and only if, there is a conceptual truth that ascribes being to it. I (Textor, 1996, chapter 5) proposed that the notion of conceptual truth bears the explanatory weight in Bolzano's theory of necessity because, ultimately, the truth of such a proposition depends only on the nature of the concepts it contains. Rusnock (2012) argues against this interpretation and proposes, in turn, that for Bolzano necessity and contingency are tied to free choice. In this article I will provide conceptual and historical background for Bolzano's view of necessity and use it to motivate my interpretation as well as to rebut Rusnock's criticism.     

Constructs to describe individual knowledge / Constructos para describir el conocimiento individual

Abstract

The basic unit of any cognitive model that attempts to describe individual knowledge and its manifestations must be chosen carefully, as the resulting position on learning, teaching and, in general, of the psychological research subject depends largely on this choice. The objective is to assess and contrast two constructs of enormous significance in cognitive psychology that have been used as cognitive units under different theoretical contexts: the concept in its classical sense, and the scheme in its organismic version. Arguments are presented to show that the latter is more consistent with constructivist assumptions and is more respectful of psychological data such as the Gestalt and prototype effects or the existence of procedural and implicit knowledge.     

Teacher Racism,Academic Self‐Concept,and Multiculturation: Investigating Adaptive and Maladaptive Relations With Academic Disengagement and Self‐Sabotage for Indigenous and Non‐Indigenous Australian Students

The issue of patterns of educational disengagement for Indigenous Australian students has long been of considerable concern within Indigenous education research. Although there is an expanding research base identifying factors that may increase (or decrease) the risk of disengagement for Indigenous students, little acknowledgement has been given to international research highlighting how stigma and discrimination may be associated with student disengagement and the resiliency factors that may nullify these associations. Utilising a sample of 1,376 (305 Indigenous; 1,071 non‐Indigenous) students from five New South Wales high schools in Australia, this study sought to examine the influence of academic self‐concept and two culturally sensitive constructs—specifically, perceived multiculturation (perceived cultural respect) and racial discrimination—on two disengagement‐orientated outcomes: affective disengagement and self‐sabotaging behaviour (behavioural disengagement) for both Indigenous and non‐Indigenous students. The findings showed relatively consistent direct and positive effects of academic self‐concept and direct negative effect of teacher racism for both groups of students. An interaction effect (discrimination × multiculturation) for the Indigenous students only was also identified, which suggested that the negative effects of racial discrimination on self‐sabotaging behaviour are exacerbated when the Indigenous students perceived higher levels of cultural respect from others. Overall, while these findings suggest that promoting higher levels of inter‐cultural respect may be beneficial for Indigenous and non‐Indigenous alike (e.g., culturally inclusive programmes), such positive perceptions may put Indigenous students at greater risk if the impact of racism is not also addressed. The implications of these findings suggest that cultural safety must be framed both in promoting the positive (cultural respect) and in eliminating the negative (racism).     

Metaphysics of quantity and the limit of phenomenal concepts

Quantities like mass and temperature are properties that come in degrees. And those degrees (e.g. 5 kg) are properties that are called the magnitudes of the quantities. Some philosophers talk about magnitudes of phenomenal qualities as if some of our phenomenal qualities are quantities. The goal of this essay is to explore the anti-physicalist implication of this apparently innocent way of conceptualizing phenomenal quantities. I will first argue for a metaphysical thesis about the nature of magnitudes based on Yablo’s proportionality requirement of causation. Then, I will show that, if some phenomenal qualities are indeed quantities, there can be no demonstrative concepts about some of our phenomenal feelings. That presents a significant restriction on the way physicalists can account for the epistemic gap between the phenomenal and the physical. I’ll illustrate the restriction by showing how that rules out a popular physicalist response to the Knowledge Argument.     

红色和蓝色对中国汉族大学生情绪的启动效应

通过3个实验探讨红色和蓝色对中国汉族大学生的情绪意义。实验1采用限制联想法考察红色和蓝色的情绪意义。实验2、实验3采用启动范式, 分别考察在知觉水平和概念水平上红色和蓝色对情绪的启动效应。结果发现：(1)知觉水平：在唤醒度和优势度上, 红色知觉引发了高唤醒、高优势情绪, 蓝色知觉引发了低唤醒、低优势情绪, 这与国外研究基本一致; 但在愉悦度上, 红色知觉既能引发高愉悦情绪, 也能引发低愉悦情绪, 而蓝色知觉只引发了高愉悦情绪, 这体现出本土化特点。(2)概念水平：在唤醒度和愉悦度上, 红色概念引发了高唤醒、高优势情绪, 蓝色概念引发了低唤醒、低优势情绪, 这与知觉水平基本一致; 但在愉悦度上, 红色概念只启动了高愉悦情绪, 而蓝色概念同时启动了高愉悦和低愉悦的情绪, 这与知觉水平不一致。本研究表明：(1)红色和蓝色对中国汉族大学生情绪引发的特点主要表现在愉悦度上; (2)颜色知觉和颜色概念对情绪的引发机制可能具有如下特点：颜色知觉对情绪的三维度具有直接的引发作用; 而颜色概念对情绪唤醒度和优势度的引发是以颜色知觉为中介, 对愉悦度的引发则是以社会文化为原因。本研究探讨了红色和蓝色对中国汉族大学生情绪的作用, 对红色和蓝色在中国社会环境中的应用具有一定的实际价值; 同时, 直接比较并剖析了颜色知觉与概念对情绪的引发特点, 对于揭示二者对情绪引发的内部机制具有一定的理论意义。     

儿童经济现象认知的研究进展

经济现象广泛存在于社会生活,对经济现象的认知是儿童社会认知的重要组成部分。儿童对经济现象的认知包括对基本经济概念、经济原则、经济规律和经济行为的认知等。研究表明,儿童对基本经济概念的理解随着年龄的增长而不断发展,但是受环境和经验因素的影响,存在跨文化的差异。儿童对不同经济概念理解的发展是不同步的。儿童可能很早就出现对基本经济概念内隐性的理解。儿童对经济原则和经济规律的理解也是随着年龄的增长而不断发展的,并且和他们对基本经济概念的理解息息相关。储蓄行为是一种重要的经济行为。12岁的儿童能够理解储蓄的多重目的,并仍处于发展之中。     

A Model of Knower-Level Behavior in Number Concept Development

Abstract We develop and evaluate a model of behavior on the Give- N task, a commonly used measure of young children's number knowledge. Our model uses the knower-level theory of how children represent numbers. To produce behavior on the Give- N task, the model assumes that children start out with a base rate that makes some answers more likely a priori than others but is updated on each experimental trial in a way that depends on the interaction between the experimenter's request and the child's knower level. We formalize this process as a generative graphical model, so that the parameters—including the base rate distribution and each child's knower level—can be inferred from data using Bayesian methods. Using this approach, we evaluate the model on previously published data from 82 children spanning the whole developmental range. The model provides an excellent fit to these data, and the inferences about the base rate and knower levels are interpretable and insightful. We discuss how our modeling approach can be extended to other developmental tasks and can be used to help evaluate alternative theories of number representation against the knower-level theory.     

民族宗教学的创立

民族宗教学是民族学与宗教学的交叉学科,是一门新兴的人文学科,其主轴是研究民族与宗教的互动关系,其核心理念是:"族教和谐,多元互补"。近些年在中央民族大学"985工程"推动下,课题组开展了民族宗教学的学理的系统研究,推出《民族宗教学导论》专著,初步搭建了民族宗教学的理论框架。本文主要围绕着民族宗教学的研究对象、范围、方法、主要概念和理论体系展开论述,从发生学、历史学、社会学、文化学、政治学等多学科角度介绍民族宗教学的基本议题和思路,并阐述中国宗教生态模式。