What is the Philosophy of Information?

Computational and information-theoretic research in philosophy has become increasingly fertile and pervasive, giving rise to a wealth of interesting results. In consequence, a new and vitally important field has emerged, the philosophy of information (PI). This essay is the first attempt to analyse the nature of PI systematically. PI is defined as the philosophical field concerned with the critical investigation of the conceptual nature and basic principles of information, including its dynamics, utilisation, and sciences, and the elaboration and application of information-theoretic and computational methodologies to philosophical problems. I argue that PI is a mature discipline for three reasons: it represents an autonomous field of research; it provides an innovative approach to both traditional and new philosophical topics; and it can stand beside other branches of philosophy, offering a systematic treatment of the conceptual foundations of the world of information and the information society.     

Revising Process Metaphysics in Response to Ian Barbour's Critique

In Religion in an Age of Science , Ian Barbour concludes that the contemporary evolutionary worldview with its emphasis on the interplay of law and chance, relationality and autonomy, can be properly accounted for only by something like the process-relational metaphysics of Alfred North Whitehead. At the same time, he expresses serious reservations about certain features of Whitehead's scheme, notably, his perceived inability to account for the ongoing identity of the human self and for the fact of multilevel organization within organisms and in the world of inanimate compounds. In this article, I suggest that both of these difficulties can be resolved if one adopts a revisionist understanding of the Whiteheadian category of society according to which democratically organized societies possess an ontological unity and exercise a corporate agency proper to their own level of existence and activity. Furthermore, if one applies this revisionist understanding of societies to the Whiteheadian doctrine of God, a Trinitarian understanding of God becomes possible within the overall parameters of process-relational metaphysics. In this way, traditional belief in the doctrine of the Trinity can be reconciled with a scientifically credible worldview.     

Existential Responsibility - The Civic Virtue

Responsibility can cast light on the context of consensus, conflict, and education. In terms of juridical responsibility, the person responds to a defined claim or duty. Education as an alive relationship between unique persons is characterized by existential responsibility - the response to a unique and problematic situation. Depending on which kind of society we are referring to, responsibility will serve society best as juridical responsibility when it is a closed society and as existential responsibility when it is an open democratic society. Education as such will create the potentiality of provocation of conflicts in any kind of society.     

Walking a Tightrope: The Jesuit Robert Bütler and Muslim–Christian Dialogue in Pakistan

This article deals with the Swiss Jesuit Robert Andreas Bütler (1915–1996) and his attempts to develop Muslim–Christian dialogue in Pakistan between the 1960s and 1980s. It focuses especially on his correspondence with the Islamist ideologue Sayyid Abu ’l-A?la Mawdudi (1903–1979), one of the most influential Muslim thinkers of the twentieth century and a major figure in South Asian Islam. On the basis of their written exchange, the article identifies challenges to Muslim–Christian rapprochement against the backdrop of state-funded Islamization and rising political tensions in Pakistan. It demonstrates how Bütler’s efforts became entangled in postcolonial struggles for a national identity, thereby revealing the limits of Vatican II-inspired approaches to Muslim–Christian dialogue.     

IN DEFENSE OF PUBLICS: PROJECTION,BIAS, AND CULTURAL NARRATIVES IN SCIENCE AND RELIGION DEBATES

John H. Evans's recent book Morals Not Knowledge is a timely argument to recognize broader social and cultural factors that might impact what U.S. religious publics think about the relationship between science and religion and their attitudes toward science and/or religion. While Evans's focus is primarily on what can be classed as moral issues, this response argues that there are other factors that sit within neither the older epistemic conflict model approach nor a moral conflict model approach that also merit further investigation. There is a significant need for further research that examines the social, psychological, (geo)political, and broader cultural factors shaping people's social identities in relation to science and religion debates. When undertaking such research, we need to be wary of creating a binary between scholarly and public space discourse. Social scientific research in this field should be led by public perceptions, attitudes, and views, not by concepts or frameworks that we project onto them.     

ON BECOMING ABLE TO PLAY: INDIVIDUAL CHILD PSYCHOANALYTIC PSYCHODRAMA AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF SYMBOLIZATION

In this paper, the authors analyze the relevance and transformative potential of individual psychoanalytic psychodrama in the treatment of children with severe impairments in symbolization. Central features of this modality, including promoting the representation of early traumatic experiences, are presented and discussed. Specific features include double‐envelope containment of the co‐therapists’ group and play leader, consequent diffraction of the transference‐determining portrayal, gradual integration, and initial figuration of coexisting split‐off fragments. Drawing on in‐depth clinical material, the authors show how psychodrama tempers the potentially traumatic effects of the encounter with the object, allowing these patients to access the transitional area of play.     

EPIGENETICS,REPRESENTATION, AND SOCIETY

In recent decades, advances in the life sciences have created an unprecedentedly detailed picture of heredity and the formation of the phenotype where clusters of simplistic reductionist and deterministic views and interpretations have begun to lose ground to more complex and holistic notions. The developments in gene regulation and epigenetics have become a vivid emblem of the ongoing ‘softening’ of heredity. Despite this headway, the outlook and rhetoric widely popular in the twentieth century favoring the ‘gene’ in the ‘gene?genetic plasticity?phenotype?environment’ tetrad have not been successfully tackled but continue to exist in parallel with a new, equally monochromatic, viewpoint championing genetic plasticity. An examination of epigenetics and its presentation in the public sphere, open to a conversation with the social disciplines and philosophy, could address this dichotomy and contribute to the discourse. This article outlines key biological aspects of epigenetics and discusses the language, presentation and wider resonance of this field of life science research.     

当代中国医患关系的合理重构--论我国社会转型期医患利益的调节与平衡

我国社会转型,为当代中国医患关系的合理重构提供了平台,但社会转型期中出现的诸多医患利益冲突也向人们提出了严峻的挑战,亟需对其加以调节和平衡.这种调节与平衡,不能完全甚至不能主要地交由市场这双"看不见的手"去运作,不能完全任凭甚至不能主要地任凭医患双方自由地去博弈;政府必须明确并履行自己的职责,为正确调节与平衡我国社会转型期的医患利益创立一个全方位的合理的框架,使医患之间在有控制的理性的双赢的利益博弈中合理地重构当代中国医患关系的基本格局.     

试论"生理-心理-伦理-社会"相结合的大学生心理健康教育模式

提出了"生理-心理-伦理-社会"相结合的大学生心理健康教育模式,指出这种模式是建立在健康新概念的指导下,全面考虑了影响心理健康的各种因素,以当代大学生心理健康的现状与原因为基础和依据的具有中国特色的大学生心理健康教育模式.     

小康社会与城市伦理精神

全面建设小康社会需要一种伦理精神来支撑。本文将塑造城市精神与全面建设小康社会联系起来,认为作为时代进步表征的城市伦理精神是城市精神的核心与灵魂,是全面建设小康社会的精神动力和基本价值目标。目前,我们全面建设小康社会特别需要高扬八大城市伦理精神;从当代社会变化的实际出发,着力培育与时代进步契合的城市伦理精神的具体途径。