Why-questions, determinism and circular reasoning

In this article I shall aim at showing that there exists beneath the surface of many why-questions about human behaviour a nest of deterministic assumptions which can preclude their ever being truly answered. A symptom of the presence of these underlying assumptions can be observed in an explanation-seeking dialogue in which the questioner persistently tries to discover why a certain human behaviour occurred. He repeats his why-question until he gets the type of answer he wants, but in the process he effectively reasons in a circle. If the repeated questioning with its implied circular reasoning becomes chronic, then the questioner will beg the question with regards to the answer he desires and consequently run the risk of missing the truth.     

信息表征形式对解决贝叶斯推理问题的影响

通过三个实验分别考察问题形式（一步问题,两步问题）、信息结构（分割结构,未分割结构）和辅助图形表征（条形图、饼图、结构图）对解决贝叶斯推理问题的影响。研究结果表明：(1)一步问题形式有时优于两步问题形式;(2)频率格式提问有时优于几率格式提问;(3)分割的信息结构明显优于未分割的信息结构;(4)与条形图和饼图形式的图形辅助表征相比,结构图形式的图形辅助表征显著提高了被试解决贝叶斯推理问题的成绩。     

Epistemological Open Questions

While there has been a great deal of recent interest in parallels between metaethics and metaepistemology, there has been little discussion of epistemological analogues of the open question argument (hereafter: OQA). This is somewhat surprising—the general trend in recent work is in the direction of emphasizing the continuity between metaethics and metaepistemology, and to treat metanormative questions as arising in parallel in these two normative domains. And while the OQA has been subjected to a wide variety of objections, it is still influential in metaethics. In this paper, I aim to show that an epistemological version of the OQA is just as promising as its moral cousin. That's not to say that I'll unqualifiedly endorse either argument. Rather, my aim is to show that there is just as strong a prima facie (really, secunda facie) case for an OQA in metaepistemology as there is in metaethics—I leave open whether the ultima facie case collapses.     

Assessment of Developed General Intellectual Ability with Nonverbal Measures

A canonical correlation analysis was performed between two measures of general intellectual ability: The D. 48 Test and the Standard Progressive Matrices were taken as one set of variables, and general scholastic ability, verbal and quantitative ability, English and mathematics achievement, time spent in school, and ethnic/cultural group membership were used as the second set of variables. Subjects were 180 girls attending a large urban parochial high school. The D. 48 Test performances made a substantial contribution to the first canonical variate associated with the only significant canonical correlation; quantitative ability performances made a substantial contribution to the second variate. Matrices performances and performances in mathematics achievement and general scholastic ability made lesser contributions to their respective variates.     

浙江省卫生法制建设与发展的主要问题分析

以卫生法制现代化构件为基本依据,在对卫生法制建设现状进行充分调研的基础上,系统分析和反映了浙江省卫生法制建设存在的主要问题,为浙江省科学制定和实施卫生法制建设规划与发展战略,切实推进卫生法制现代化进程提供决策依据。     

The Pragma-Dialectical Analysis and Evaluation of Teleological Argumentation in a Legal Context

In this article the author develops a framework for a pragma-dialectical reconstruction of teleological argumentation in a legal context. Ideas taken from legal theory are integrated in a pragma-dialectical model for analyzing and evaluating argumentation, thus providing a more systematic and elaborate framework for assessing the quality of teleological arguments in a legal context. Teleological argumentation in a legal context is approached as a specific form of pragmatic argumentation. The legal criteria that are relevant for the evaluation of teleological argumentation are discussed and translated in terms of critical questions that are relevant for the evaluation of the various forms of teleological argumentation.

Ethical Naturalism and Moral Twin Earth

In order to rebut G. E. Moore’s open question argument, ethical naturalists adopt a theory of direct reference for our moral terms. T. Horgan and M. Timmons have argued that this theory cannot be applied to moral terms, on the ground that it clashes with competent speakers’ linguistic intuitions. While Putnam’s Twin Earth thought experiment shows that our linguistic intuitions confirm the theory of direct reference, as applied to ‘water’, Horgan and Timmons devise a parallel thought experiment about moral terms, in order to show that this theory runs against our linguistic intuitions about such terms. My claim is that the Horgan–Timmons argument does not work. I concede that their thought experiment is a good way to test the applicability of the theory of direct reference to moral terms, and argue that the upshot of their experiment is not what they claim it is: our linguistic intuitions about Moral Twin Earth are parallel to, not different from, our intuitions about Twin Earth.

论现代人生活要义

生活通过思想展现魅力。思想作为理性认识的最高形式,超越了感性认识的局限,能自觉追问和自为创造。思想既是追求的内在力,又为追求的品位定价。思想作为精神的维度,提升精神生活层次。自我通过思想的反思映衬出人生的伟大与渺小,启示着内心的浩大与无穷。现代人要过一种健康有意义的自觉生活,需要在新生活中学会思想、学会追问、学会追求、学会反思。     

Voices of Silence: Foucault,Disability, and the Question of Self-determination

Studies in Philosophy and Education - In this paper I examine two controversialissues that occurred in two different centuriesbut that are inextricably linked with eachother – the 1835 murder...     

Chaos, Communications Theory, and God's Abundance

As the creator, God is the source of the abundance for immense variety manifest in creation. The reservoir for this abundance is the primordial chaos, identified as the Pandemonium Tremendum. God manages this inexhaustible “storehouse of the snow” through decisions or “willings,” giving rise to constraints that result in the ordered array of creation. Without this active and decisive vigilance, the Pandemonium Tremendum would scour and ravage the creation. Also, as an omniscient, unobtrusive, and impartial witness, God manages the primordial chaos without compromising its unfettered variety. What is the role of chaos as the Ungrund? All creatures are the consequence of acts of decision. God alone is self‐decisive and, hence, the uniquely sovereign creator. That is, God arises spontaneously through an aboriginal act of in–speaking. Otherwise, and in utter contradiction to its radically unprincipled character, the primordial chaos would provide the arche or sufficient reason for divine causation. This mythic and metaphysical account falls in the tradition of Meister Eckhart and Nicolas Berdyaev and is expressed in the rubric of communication theory.