THE RELIGION‐SCIENCE DISCUSSION AT FORTY YEARS: “REPORTS OF MYDEATH ARE PREMATURE”

Abstract. The startling success of the religion‐science discussion in recent years calls for reflection. Have old walls been broken down, old antagonisms overcome? Have science and religion finally been reconciled? Or is all the activity just so much sound and fury signifying nothing? Postmodern equations of scientific and religious beliefs disregard a number of enduring differences that help make sense of the continuing tensions. Yet the skepticism of authors such as John Caiazza is also ungrounded. I describe five major types of approaches that are being employed in the recent literature. These methods have led to a deeper understanding of the commonalities between science and religion and have produced new productive partnerships between them.     

中国大学生第二语言知识的心理表征特征

采用启动效应的实验范式,基于不同加工水平的词汇判断任务,通过变化启动刺激与目标刺激的4个实验,考察了中国大学生第二语言知识的心理表征特征。被试为第二军医大学的学生38名。结果发现:在基于语义的范畴判断任务中,当启动刺激(英)和目标刺激(英)之间存在语义联想关系,得到了显著的启动效应(实验一);当启动刺激(英)和目标刺激(英)之间存在语音相同或相近关系,也得到了显著的启动效应(实验二);但在基于语音的词汇判断任务中,当启动刺激(英)和目标刺激(英)之间存在语义联想关系,没有得到启动效应(实验三);而当启动刺激(英)和目标刺激(英)之间存在语音相同或相近关系,得到了显著的启动效应(实验四)。这一结果表明,对于中国大学生程度的中英双语者来说,其第二语言(英语)知识的心理表征特征为:①语义联想特征和语音联想特征,符合激活扩散模型;②第二语言知识的心理表征,不仅在概念语义层有着联系,而且在词汇表征层也有相互的联系;其词汇表征层和语义概念表征层是分层表征的。     

企业组织氛围与组织隐性知识共享之关系研究

本研究旨在考察组织氛围是否与企业中隐性知识的共享存在相关。是否可以以组织氛围的高低来预测企业中隐性知识的共享程度。本研究对辽宁省沈阳市和辽阳市的8家工业企业54个部门(班组)的463名员工组成的样本进行了问卷调查。结果表明,组织氛围的不同维度与隐性知识的不同因子的共享存在相关,组织氛围的不同维度能够在一定水平上预测隐性知识不同因子上的共享程度,但也显示隐性知识的不同因子共享机制并不一致。     

初中学生类别建构中的知识效应研究

采用类别建构的实验范式,选取具有家族相似性结构的人工类别材料,考察了已有知识对初中学生类别建构的影响。实验结果表明,当类别特征能够在已有知识的基础上形成主题时,初中学生倾向于按主题建构类别,而且在主题愈突出时这种趋势愈为明显;并且,主题性质对不同领域材料的类别建构的影响是一致的。     

Who Needs Valid Moral Arguments? (Dedicated to the Memory of R.M. Chisholm, 1916–1999)

Why have so many philosophers agonised over the possibility of valid arguments from factual premises to moral conclusions? I suggest that they have done so, because of worries over a sceptical argument that has as one of its premises, `All moral knowledge must be non-inferential, or, if inferential, based on valid arguments or strong inductive arguments from factual premises'. I argue that this premise is false.     

小学教师课堂教学能力构成的研究

采用实验与心理测验法,探讨知识结构、教学效能感、教学监控力和基本心理能力在小学教师课堂教学能力形成与发展中的作用,并通过验证性因素分析的方法,建构了教师课堂教学能力的验证性因素分析模型。结果表明;知识结构、教学效能感和教学监控力在小学教师课堂教学能力中起着重要作用;基本心理能力主要受年龄发展的影响,对教师课堂教学能力的作用不显著。     

部总知识在解决加法文字题中的作用

探讨的问题是部总知识是否制约着算术文字题的解答过程。小学4年级学生(192人)和大学生(178人)被要求解答一步加法文字题。实验结果发现,正确列式方式受到已知客体集合具体特征的系统性影响,尤其是随着年龄的提高和练习程度的深入,这种影响越来越明显。这是部总知识作用假设所不能解释的。现根据集合在心理表征中的位置和表征强度解释结果,并在此基础上讨论了研究的实践意义。     

The Effect of a Computerized Decision Aid on the Development of Knowledge

This study provides evidence on how the use of a computerized decision aid affects knowledge acquisition. While the intent of such computer-based decision aids is to improve and support unaided human judgments, it is unclear whether the use of the aids actually facilitate knowledge transfer. Seventy-six subjects completed a hypothetical decision task where one of two types of decision aids was used: an expert system or traditional textual materials. Results suggest that those using a computer-based decision aid acquired and encoded in memory less declarative knowledge than those using textual reference materials. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

The Pursuit of Epistemic Good

Pace Zagzebski, there is no route from the value of knowledge to a non–reliabilist virtue–theoretic epistemology. Her discussion of the value problem is marred by an uncritical and confused employment of the notion of a "state" of knowledge, an uncritical acceptance of a "knowledge–belief" identity thesis, and an incoherent presumption that the widely held thought that knowledge is more valuable than true belief amounts to the view that knowledge is a state of true belief having an intrinsic property which a state of 'mere" true belief lacks. Her arguments against a "machine–product" conception of knowledge are undermined by these flaws, while the alternative "agent–act" model she recommends is unattractive, at odds with the knowledge–belief identity thesis she favours, and no solution to the problem of the value of knowledge she poses. I end with the observation that her version of virtue–theoretic epistemology points in the direction of cognitive decision–theoretic norms, and I briefly discuss the bearing of this fact upon her viewpoint.     

Epistemic Presuppositions and their Consequences

Traditional epistemology has, in the main, presupposed that the primary task is to give a complete account of the concept knowledge and to state under what conditions it is possible to have it. In so doing, most accounts have been hierarchical, and all assume an idealized knower. The assumption of an idealized knower is essential for the traditional goal of generating an unassailable account of knowledge acquisition. Yet we, as individuals, fail to reach the ideal. Perhaps more important, we have epistemic goals not addressed in the traditional approach – among them, the ability to reach understanding in areas we deem important for our lives. Understanding is an epistemic concept. But how we obtain it has not traditionally been a focus. Developing an epistemic account that starts from a set of assumptions that differ from the traditional starting points will allow a different sort of epistemic theory, one on which generating understanding is a central goal and the idealized knower is replaced with an inquirer who is not merely fallible but working from a particular context with particular goals. Insight into how an epistemic account can include the particular concerns of an embedded inquirer can be found by examining the parallels between ethics and epistemology and, in particular, by examining the structure and starting points of virtue accounts. Here I develop several interrelated issues that contrast the goals and evaluative concepts that form the structure of both standard, traditional epistemological and ethical theories and virtue–centered theories. In the end, I sketch a virtue–centered epistemology that accords with who we are and how we gain understanding.