AN ARCHIMEDEAN POINT FOR PHILOSOPHY

Abstract: According to an orthodox account of meaning and translation, meaning is a property of expressions of a language, and translation is a matching of synonymous expressions across languages. This linguistic account of translation gives rise to well‐known skeptical conclusions about translation, objectivity, meaning, and truth, but it does not conform to our best translational practices. In contrast, I argue for a textual account of meaning based on the concept of a text‐type that does conform to our best translational practices. With their semantic function in view, text‐types are Archimedean points for their respective disciplines. The text‐type of philosophy is no exception. Culture‐transcendent conceptual analysis can proceed on firm footing without having to deny the reality of radical cultural and linguistic difference by treating components of text‐types as the concepts to be analyzed. Analyses of central philosophical concepts are provided as a means of adjudicating philosophical controversy.     

‘For our garden of remembrance is somewhere else’: Narratives of separation through the eyes of Freud's patients

This article presents a unique collection of narratives of separation – unique because the separation here is from psychoanalysis and from Freud as analyst. These narratives were published as part of memoirs written about Freud by three of his patients. Their narratives of separation give us an innovative point of view on the psychoanalytic process, in particular with respect to the importance they place on the termination phase of the analysis at a time when Freud himself had not given it much consideration. The three autobiographical texts are Abram Kardiner's memoir (1977); the memoir of Sergei Pankejeff, known as the Wolf Man (Gardiner, 1971a ); and ‘Tribute to Freud’, by the poet H.D. ( 1974 ). These three distinguished narratives are discussed here as works of translation, as understood by Walter Benjamin (1968 [1955]), Paul Ricoeur (2006 [2004]), and Jean Laplanche (1999 [1992]). They express translation under three aspects: reconstruction of the past (the work of memory), interpreting the conscious residues of the transference (the work of mourning), and, as a deferred action, deciphering the enigmatic messages received from Freud as the parental figure. This representation of the analysand's writing suggests that the separation from analysis is an endless work of translation within the endless process of deciphering the unconscious.     

Anticipatory affect during action preparation: evidence from backward compatibility in dual-task performance

Upcoming responses in the second of two subsequently performed tasks can speed up compatible responses in the temporally preceding first task. Two experiments extend previous demonstration of such backward compatibility to affective features: responses to affective stimuli were faster in Task 1 when an affectively compatible response effect was anticipated for Task 2. This emotional backward-compatibility effect demonstrates that representations of the affective consequences of the Task 2 response were activated before the selection of a response in Task 1 was completed. This finding is problematic for the assumption of a serial stimulus-response translation stage. It also shows that the affective consequence of a response is anticipated during, and has an impact on stimulus-response translation, which implies that action planning considers codes representing and predicting the emotional consequences of actions. Implications for the control of emotional actions are discussed.     

Measuring social alienation in adolescence: Translation and validation of the Jessor and Jessor Social Alienation Scale

Safipour, J., Tessma, M. K., Higginbottom, G. & Emami, A. (2010). Measuring social alienation in adolescence: Translation and validation of the Jessor and Jessor Social Alienation Scale. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 51, 517–524. The objective of the study is to translate and examine the reliability and validity of the Jessor and Jessor Social Alienation Scale for use in a Swedish context. The study involved four phases of testing: (1) Translation and back‐translation; (2) a pilot test to evaluate the translation; (3) reliability testing; and (4) a validity test. Main participants of this study were 446 students (Age = 15–19, SD = 1.01, Mean = 17). Results from the reliability test showed high internal consistency and stability. Face, content and construct validity were demonstrated using experts and confirmatory factor analysis. The results of testing the Swedish version of the alienation scale revealed an acceptable level of reliability and validity, and is appropriate for use in the Swedish context.     

An interruption in unconscious communication in the analytic couple

The authors describe an interruption in communication in the analyses of two patients, which gradually brings the analytic process to a halt/standstill. They propose several hypotheses for understanding this situation. One explanation is mutual identification of primitive superegos in the analytic couple which generates a moralizing effect thereby hindering investigation and discovery. They emphasize the importance of countertransference involvement which partly provokes this particular type of impasse. They also suggest the idea of shared acting out, with complementary participations of analyst and patient. In this way the analytic couple supports a 'bastion' which protects against the risk of breaking the omnipotence of patient and analyst or contributes to this omnipotence. Their shared unconscious phantasy feeds collusion linked to unconscious persecutory guilt. The authors also describe movements to break free from this impasse. The enclave created by the analytic couple is detected and subsequently worked through by way of the patient's contribution of dream material and the analyst's work with her countertransference.     

论社会科学的重要性--兼论淄博齐文化大市建设与社会科学的关系

社会科学的重要性越来越被人们发现和重视,在我国更是如此。社会科学对于一个国家、一个地区的经济和文化等方面的发展,特别是经济发展到一定程度以后,其巨大作用将日益凸显出来。我国是具有悠久历史文化传统的国家,这些悠久历史文化传统源于我国各个地方地域文化,是这些地域文化的有机统一。从社会科学的各个角度挖掘和研究这些历史文化遗产,无疑能够增加这些地区的文化底蕴,从而增强这些地区的社会和经济发展的后劲。社会科学意义重大,它是我们党领导人民取得胜利的重要法宝;它是我们党领导人民进行社会主义建设的重要法宝;它还是我们党领导人民进行改革开放的重要法宝。     

家庭伦理失范:青少年犯罪的重要原因

青少年犯罪的原因是复杂的、多方面的,分析和研究青少年犯罪现象,可以得出结论:家庭伦理道德的失范是青少年犯罪的重要原因。     

Sub specie universitatis

As a contribution to the debate on the future of philosophy as an autonomous discipline beyond its current function within Western-type universities, a comparison is offered between three diverging strategies of “speaking the universal” which keep their relevance today; the “Double Truth” strategy for secular tolerance, illustrated by Spinoza and Wittgenstein; the construction of the universal as “hegemony,” analyzed by Hegel and Marx in terms of collective consciousnesses or ideologies; and the program of generalized translation as it emerges from the critique of traditional “paradoxes of the untranslatable” in the works of contemporary socio-linguists and pragmatic philosophers. The conclusion remains an open questioning on the equivocity of the universal.     

What is to be done in the history of philosophy

Because the History of Philosophy is a branch of both History and Philosophy, it faces tasks which are Historical, tasks which are Philosophical, and tasks which overlap both. As Philosophy typically flourishes by incorporating and assimilating ideas and bodies of text which have either not previously been part of its stock in trade or have been forgotten, the main task facing the History of Philosophy today is that of developing serious scholarship in areas that have been largely neglected, such as Philosophy in Arabic and Persian as well as in Sanskrit and Chinese.     

不熟练汉英双语儿童翻译加工的特点

本研究使用单词翻译、图片命名和单词命名任务探查了不熟练的小学三、五和初一年级汉英双语儿童前向翻译和后向翻译的内在过程,结果发现,(1)各组被试命名图片和单词的语言效应显著,用第二语言命名图片和单词的反应时显著长于用第一语言命名图片和单词的反应时;(2)各组被试在前向翻译的反应时显著长于后向翻译,随着第二语言熟练程度的提高,反应时的差异逐渐减小。对结果的分析表明,不熟练的汉英双语儿童在两个翻译方向的内在过程相同,都是概念中介的,但两个翻译方向的加工速度差异显著。