To have and to be: towards the social representation of quality of life in China

This study explores the social representation of quality of life (QOL) in the Chinese socio‐cultural context. The data were collected by 16 open‐ended individual interviews. The study shows that the social representation of QOL embedded deeply in the collective memory of Chinese society is generated from, and organized around, the central thema of ‘having’/‘being’. ‘Having’ and ‘being’ are both antinomic and dialogically interdependent. ‘Having’ gives priority to how subject instrumentalizes object as resources to be possessed and consumed. It is manifested in the possessions of money, food, housing and car. The possessions are not only simply the material things but also the objects of symbolic significance. ‘Being’ prioritizes the authentic relationship between subject and object. It is manifested in rootedness, connectedness, participation and freedom. These provide a sense of belonging, commitment, direction and purpose and involve the establishment and maintenance of the union between the self and others, and between the individual and the outside world. On the other hand, neither ‘having’ nor ‘being’ exists in its pure form. Rather, they co‐exist dynamically, in rival or complementary ways, and each calls the possibility of the other into play. It is the synthesis of opposites between ‘having’ and ‘being’ that the social representation of QOL is generated and structured. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

制度伦理与社会转型期的医德建设

市场经济的发展,多元价值观的形成,各种伦理价值观念之间发生了冲突,医疗道德失范现象成为我国社会转型期的一个重要社会问题。制度伦理对道德建设起着基础性和根本性的作用,以制度伦理建设为契机,并辅以正确的激励手段等,可以让医务人员树立正确的道德理念,引导和强化医务人员的价值选择和行为规范,重塑良好医德医风。     

ANIMALIA,HOMO, AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD

Abstract. I selectively and critically review the state of knowledge about human evolution and the place of humans vis‐à‐vis living apes, with emphasis on bipedal posture and locomotion, expansion of the brain and associated cognitive capacities, speech, tool behavior, culture, and society. I end with a personal perspective on God and Heaven.     

简论儒之门户分于宋与医之门户分于金元--简论理学对中医学之影响

从医儒结合入手,剖析了理学对中医治学思想、中医理论方面的影响,诠释了"医之门户分于金元",与"儒之门户分于宋"的关系.     

Lutherans in Public—Four Lively Options

Abstract : The basic question regarding faith and the public square is not whether religion should become public. Rather, we should ask: how ought religion to become public? This article reviews four models: (1) the ethics of character, according to which ethically formed individuals exert indirect and unintentional influence on the public square; (2) the ethics of conscience with its indirect and intentional influence: (3) the church as social conscience with direct and intentional influence; and (4) the church with power exerting direct and intentional action. Generally, it is best for Lutherans to let direct action be carried on by the laity according to the first two models; yet, when rare yet extraordinary circumstances call for it, the church as an institution may resort to models three and four and take direct action.     

制度伦理与我国社会转型期医患关系

我国社会转型期中出现的诸多医患利益冲突向人们提出了严峻挑战,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去运作,不能完全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,为正确调节与平衡社会转型期的医患利益创立一个全方位的合理的框架.     

On ethical order

The existent ethical relationships are the result of the historical amalgamation of objective and subjective conditions. Ethical relationships are essential relationships in the real and rational order, which are maintained by a system of regulations on morals, laws and customs, and infused with a spirit of subjectivity. Rationality and legitimacy are the primary concerns of those relationships. A distinction between morals and ethos needs to be made when studying ethical order. Sound ethical order lies in effective regulation of morals and effective control of law. In the process of social reform, ethical order promotes social development through the dialectical movement of freedom and necessity. A harmonious society is a society which is based on legitimate and just ethical order. Translated by Cui Hui from Lunlixue yanjiu 伦理学研究 (Studies in Ethics), 2007, (5): 1–8     

Public Space

“Public space” is the space where individuals see and are seen by others as they engage in public affairs. Hannah Arendt links this space with “public freedom.” The being of such freedom, she asserts, depends on its appearing. It consists of “deeds and words which are meant to appear, whose very existence hinges on appearance.” Such appearance, however, requires the public space. Reflecting on Arendt’s remarks, a number of questions arise: What does the dependence of freedom on public space tell us about the nature of freedom? How does public freedom relate to the freedom of a private individual? Does the latter also depend on its appearing? Which is generatively prior: freedom or public space, i.e., the actions that publicly manifest freedom or the space required for their appearance? How does public power shape this space? In this article, I approach these questions through a phenomenological study of public space.     

社会公平:构建社会主义和谐社会的伦理基础

社会公平是社会主义最核心的价值追求,是构建社会主义和谐社会的伦理基础。社会公平是当代社会经济发展的基本理念,也是一个由机会平等、按贡献分配以及社会调节等原则组成的基本规则体系,具体表现为权利公平、机会公平、规则公平和分配结果的相对公平。在社会转型时期,必须坚持社会公平原则,对社会的有限资源和权利义务进行有效而合理的配置和安排,才能建立公正合理的社会经济生活秩序,建设一个经济繁荣、政治文明、社会秩序稳定、人民安居乐业的和谐社会。     

Empty signifiers,education and politics

The paper assumes that education is part of the process of discursive construction of society. The theoretical framework on which this argument is based includes Ernesto Laclau’s theory of the “ontological impossibility and political necessity of society”, and the role discourse and empty signifiers play in the establishment of political identities. Laclau’s theory is supplemented here by ideas of Derrida, Lacan, Žižek and Marx, and by other traits in contemporary semiotics that relate to the notion of “the void” in semantic systems. My claim is that empty signifiers, crucial to the production of the totality of society, are discursively produced, among others, in pedagogical debates. This is illustrated by one historical example (Rouuseau), which gives ground for more contemporary analyses, and on the basis of the present economic discourse of educating and the idea of “knowledge society”. The main conclusion is that education, in contemporary discourse of learning, becomes a neurotic symptom of the lack of overt domination in social relations.