Stimulus presentation versus stimulus removal in the Good Behavior Game

The Good Behavior Game (GBG) is an effective intervention to reduce disruptive behavior. The GBG typically involves immediate stimulus presentation (e.g.., delivery of a token) following disruptions; however, experimenters have also removed tokens contingent upon disruptions. In the present study, we compared the effects of the GBG-stimulus presentation (P) and GBG-stimulus removal (R) on levels of disruptions in a 2nd-grade general education classroom. In addition, we measured student prompts, teacher praise and correctives, and student and teacher preference. The GBG-P and GBG-R versions of the game were similarly effective in reducing disruptions. However, the teacher chose to implement the GBG-R and the majority of students reported a preference for the GBG-R.     

RELIGION, PACIFISM, AND THE DOCTRINE OF RESTRAINT

The doctrine of restraint is the claim that citizens and legislators ought to restrain themselves from making political decisions solely on religious grounds. That doctrine is normally construed as a general constraint on religious arguments: an exclusively religious rationale as such is an inappropriate basis for a political decision, particularly a coercive political decision. However, the most common arguments for the doctrine of restraint fail to show that citizens and legislators ought to obey the doctrine of restraint, as we can see by reflecting on those arguments as they bear on the Agapic Pacifist's rationale for denying that even legitimate political authorities may use lethal military force.     

Moral Deliberation in a Public Lutheran Church

Abstract : Variety and complementarity characterize the views of six Lutheran theologians regarding the place of the church in the public square: Martin Marty, Ronald Thiemann, Robert Benne, Gary Simpson, Cynthia Moe‐Lobeda, and Patrick Kiefert. This article explicates their thought in with respect to the internal and external life of the church. To think of the church as a “community of moral deliberation” in the public square becomes the preferred model for Lutherans in North America.     

浅析死刑认同的心理根源

我国民众普遍认同死刑,这种"死刑认同"具有三种心理情绪根源:死亡情结、社会情感以及正义报复感。死刑认同实质上是国民的一种个人情绪和社会情感的表达和要求。取消死刑是必然趋势,但必须具备相应的社会条件。     

GOD AS A COMMUNICATIVE SYSTEM SUI GENERIS: BEYOND THE PSYCHIC, SOCIAL, PROCESS MODELS OF THE TRINITY

With an aim to develop a public theology for an age of information media (or media theology), this article proposes a new God-concept: God is a communicative system sui generis that autopoietically processes meaning/information in the supratemporal realm via perfect divine media ad intra (Word/Spirit). For this task, Niklas Luhmann's systems theory is critically appropriated in dialogue with theology. First, my working postmetaphysical/epistemological stance is articulated as realistic operational constructivism and functionalism. Second, a series of arguments are advanced to substantiate the thesis: (1) God is an observing system sui generis ; (2) self-referential communication is divine operation; (3) unsurpassable complexity is divine mystery; (4) supratemporal autopoiesis of meaning is divine processing; (5) agape is the symbolic medium of divine communication. Third, this communicative model of God is developed into a trinitarian theology, with a claim that this model offers a viable alternative beyond the standard (psychic, social, process) models. Finally, some implications of this model are explored for constructive theology (conceiving creation as divine mediatization) and for science-and-religion in terms of derivative models: (1) God as a living system sui generis and (2) God as a meaning system sui generis .     

论老子首倡人性善

老子是第一个提出人性善的哲学家。从他的宇宙生成论、人性修养论可以看出老子是主张人性善的。老子认为人性变坏的原因主要是客观事物的影响和世俗教育,"复归于婴儿"是老子人性修养论的总纲,其复归美好天性的主要措施是:反对享乐品的出现,反对世俗的教育。     

Public involvement: How to encourage citizen participation

The study was aimed at identifying the impact of a pool of variables on the willingness of the participants in five consultative arenas (Open Space Technology) to become involved in future experiences of civic engagement. The study also intended to verify whether such willingness varied among subgroups of participants. In total, 194 participants (49.5% men, 50.5% women; mean age = 37.04) were recruited during five OSTs held in Italy between May and November 2008 and asked to fill in a questionnaire composed of the following measures: perceived costs and benefits, emotions, sense of community, trust in institutions and need for cognitive closure. Findings suggested that the setting‐related variables—namely the perception of costs and benefits and the arousal of positive feelings—were more influential than the community‐related variables, such as sense of community and trust in institutions. Indications and suggestions for the design, implementation and evaluation of participatory settings were discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

浅析医生处方权的属性与规范——基于医疗卫生资源微观配置视角的分析

从医疗卫生资源微观配置视角分析,处方权是一种资源配置权力,属于公权力。主要分析了医生处方权的权力来源、医生处方权的职权性质和医生处方权的源权力属性。鉴于此,建立处方权独立行使的保障制度与处方权规范行使的程序控制制度可以有效规范医生处方权的行使。     

MacIntyre and the Idea of an Educated Public

Some years ago, 1985, Alasdair MacIntyre wrote a paper onThe Idea of an Educated Public in which he argued that the only route open for educators for the future, in order to emerge out of the current moral crisis created by the emotivist modernist culture is to bring back the idea of an educated public from the Scottish Enlightenment and to regard education as education into such a public. The notion of an educated public, in effect, reappears also in all his later books on moral philosophy, particular his latest,Three Rival Theories of Moral Enquiry, where he takes up his original proposal that educated publics should grow around universities and canvasses the new idea that under contemporary conditions what we may need is not one universal university but three kinds contextualized within the three rival kinds of cultural and moral programmes he identifies, and, correspondingly, three kinds of educated public. This paper tries to trace the evolution of MacIntyre's idea of an educated public throughout his work, (1) arguing that there is one particular perspective on the idea which he strangely omits, that represented by Dewey/Habermas, and (2) critiquing his final solution on the basis of its possibility and political desirability.     

Can we still stand by words? or: Why rhetoric needs A pragmatic turn

Rhetorical theory has developed powerful criticisms of pretentions to objectivity, in the spirit of deconstruction and ideology critique. These critiques contain nihilistic tendencies when they become abstracted from the interactive social contexts upon which they depend for their own significance and efficacy. With a rich analysis of the social bases of communication sustained by its commitment to the project of deliberative democracy, the classic Pragmatism of John Dewey and G. H. Mead can provide an important corrective by orienting rhetorical theory toward reflective social-political engagement.