Toward a New Concept of Global Morality

The human community faces today the most serious challenges ever to have confronted the planet in the areas of health, environment, and security. Science and technology are essential for responding to these challenges. More is needed, however, because science is not equipped to deal adequately with the values dimensions and the political issues that accompany the challenges. For an adequate response, there must be cooperative effort by scientists and statespersons, informed for moral leadership by the religious wisdom that is available. The religious communities can provide this spiritual dimension, thereby fulfilling their traditional role, but it will require their coming to terms with the character of the scientific and technological base of contemporary culture. The paper lays the conceptual groundwork for understanding these issues.     

Does God Play Dice? A Response to Niels H. Gregersen, “The Idea of Creation and the Theory of Autopoietic Processes”

The idea that the Creator has a plan for creation is deeply rooted in the Christian notion of Providence. This notion seems to suggest that the history of creation must be the execution of the providential plan of God. Such an understanding of divine providence expects science to confirm that cosmic history is under supernatural guidance, that evolution is therefore oriented toward a goal—to bring forth human beings, for example. The problem is, however, that science finds evidence for neither supernatural guidance nor teleology in nature. To address this problem, I understand Niels H. Gregersen to suggest that God is involved in the creative process. The reason science cannot demonstrate God's supernatural guidance of evolution is that the Creator structures the process from within. Gregersen argues that God is involved in the process of creation by changing the overall probability pattern of evolving systems.
In my view, such a model of how God interacts with creation is supported neither by orthodox Christianity nor by modern science. After a critique of Gregersen's argument and a brief history of the relationship between Christianity and science, I shall suggest an alternative. It is that the freedom of creation to create itself is implicit in the fundamental dogma of Christianity that God is love.     

Where Do We Go from Here?

Beginning with the End represents an excellent collection of articles devoted to the thought of Wolfhart Pannenberg. This volume includes many of the most important thinkers in the science-religion dialogue and shows as well the importance and impact of Pannenberg's theology. This response addresses themes that surface in several of the articles: What is religion? What is science? What is theology? What is God? On some of these themes there is agreement, on others sharp disagreement. The conclusion also considers what this volume suggests about the future of Pannenberg's theology.     

对当代中国新造神运动的忧与思：伪生命科学思潮批判

分析中国伪生命科学产生的文化原因和背景,指出其致命的谎言、骗术与危害;揭露其理论上的荒谬与科学上的无知。并强调开展对这类伪科学产品进行批判运动的意义;同时重新对科学、非科学、伪科学、宗教、神话、迷信等进行划界和定义。医学研究需要正义、需要哲学的引导;在事实的世界之上,必须由价值和意义的世界来把握;医学理论不允许任意杜撰和加工,从这个意义上,医学科学还需要法律来维护其正义     

Molecular geneticists and moral responsibility: “maybe if we were working on the atom bomb I would have a different argument”

Senior molecular geneticists were interviewed about their perceptions of the ethical and social implications of genetic knowledge. Inductive analysis of these interviews identified a number of strategies through which the scientists negotiated their moral responsibilities as they participated in generating knowledge that presents difficult ethical questions. These strategies included: further analysis and application of scientific method; clarification of multiple roles; negotiation with the public through public debate, institutional processes of funding, ethics committees and legislation; and personal responsibility.     

Pragmatism, Science, And Society: A Review Of Richard Rorty's Objectivity, Relativism, and Truth: Philosophical Papers, Volume 1

Richard Rorty's Objectivity, Relativism, and Truth: Philosophical Papers, Volume 1 is a collection of papers that explores the implications of philosophical pragmatism in several areas, including natural science, mind—body issues in philosophy, and perspectives on liberal democracy and social change. Similarities between Rorty's pragmatism and Skinner's radical behaviorism are explored in each of these three areas. Although some important and interesting differences are found regarding the role of science in social change, most areas show remarkable similarities between the two systematic perspectives.     

Books received

Analytical Psychology
Yeoman, A. Now or Neverland. Peter Pan and the Myth of Eternal Youth. A Psychological Perspective on a Cultural Icon.
Pieri, P. F. Dizionario Junghiano.
Group Psychotherapy
Schermer,Victor L. & Pines, M. Group Psychotherapy of the Psychoses. Concepts, Interventions and contexts.
Psychoanalysis
De Groef, J. and Heinemann, E. Psychoanalysis and Mental Handicap.
Psychotherapy and Counselling
Wiener, J. and Sher, M. Counselling and Psychotherapy in Primary Health Care.
Bergler, E. M. D. The Talent for Stupidity. The Psychology of the Bungler, the Incompetent, and the Ineffectual.
Ripa di Meana, G. Figures of Lightness. Anorexia, Bulimia and Psychoanalysis.
Cohen, B. T., Etezady, H. M., Pacella, L. B., The Vulnerable Child, Volume 3.     

Cultural Effects Rather Than a Bilingual Advantage in Cognition: A Review and an Empirical Study

The bilingual advantage hypothesis contends that the management of two languages in the brain is carried out through domain‐general mechanisms, and that bilinguals possess a performance advantage over monolinguals on (nonlinguistic) tasks that tap these processes. Presently, there is evidence both for and against such an advantage. Interestingly, the evidence in favor has been thought strongest in children and older adults, leading some researchers to argue that young adults might be at peak performance levels, and therefore bilingualism is unable to confer an improvement. We conducted a large‐scale review of the extant literature and found that the weight of research pointed to an absence of positive evidence for a bilingual advantage at any age. We next gave a large number of young adult participants a task designed to test the bilingual advantage hypothesis. Reasoning from the literature that young adults from an East Asian (Korean) culture would likely outperform those from a Western (British) culture, we also compared participants on this factor. We found no evidence for a bilingual advantage but did find evidence for enhanced performance in the Korean group. We interpret these results as further evidence against the bilingual advantage hypotheses.     

中华书局本《二程集》之《周易程氏传》标点正误

中华书局于1981年出版的《二程集》之《周易程氏传》,无论从文本的选择上,还是句读方面,对于程学的研究都可谓有开创之功。此书在2004年再版,但未作任何修订。其实,于2003年由齐鲁书社出版的《〈程氏易传〉导读》一书中梁韦弦先生已经指出《二程集》之《程传》在标点及文字方面的一些遗漏。所以本文旨在系统地对中华书局版的《程传》作一些拾遗补漏的工作,以期为后来的学者提供更为准确的点校本《程传》。     

中国考试文化的古今嬗变与镜鉴

中国考试文化生态因社会环境、经济土壤、社会结构和国际环境影响而形成从保守封闭性向包容开放性转变的特征。本文从三个层面考察中国考试文化的当代嬗变： 考试观念文化从单一的政治情结向综合人文素质嬗变, 考试制度文化从僵化到创新嬗变, 考试行为文化则从场所、教学行为、主体、应试行为和实践行为考察。通过合理挖掘中国传统考试文化中的道德诉求与和谐理念, 力求凝练出一种具有深厚文化内涵和现代竞争意识的考试文化。