Quest for divinity: a critical examination of the thought of Mahmud Muhammad Taha

Quest for Divinity makes an intriguing contribution to explain the debatable thought of Mahmud Muhammad Taha. The author analyzes competently different complexities, inter-relatedness, and comprehensiveness of the thinker's doctrine, which articulates the unique accomplishment of his individuality. The author's fluent style, comparative research, and serious attempt to scrutinize the Jumhuri thought and reform project based on academic sources, in addition to personal acquaintance with the movement, provide an opportunity to both scholars and students of religious studies to understand closely major similarities, differences, and spiritual linkages that tie up the Jumhuris with both Sufi spiritualities and orthodox Muslim faith. Still, there is essential need to comprehend the thinker's stands and ideas in their pure originality and totality, as a full package of his doctrinal commitments, rather than tearing them apart by a piece-meal approach, with due consideration to the significant analysis the author offers.     

Four Brief Studies of Relations Between Postformal Thought and Non-Cognitive Factors: Personality, Concepts of God, Political Opinions, and Social Attitudes

This is a report of four studies extending research on Complex Postformal Thought using the Postformal Thought Scale (PTS) (Sinnott 1998a, b). In Study I PTS was studied in relation to personality as conceptualized in the NEO Five Factor Model. Data from 82 participants indicated that PTS is significantly related to the Openness to Experience and the Conscientiousness factors of the NEO. In Study II PTS was examined in relation to the Concept of God Scale to answer the question whether postformal and non-postformal respondents were likely to hold different god concepts. Data from 50 participants indicated no relationship between the two measures. In Study III PTS was examined in relation to political opinions using the newly created Political Opinion Survey. Data from 50 participants demonstrated no relation between the two tests. In Study IV PTS was studied in relation to the Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men Scale. Data from 112 participants indicated that PTS was related to positive attitudes toward lesbians and gay men. Current conceptualizations of PTS development are used to interpret these findings.     

The cryptomnesic origins of Jung's dream of the multi-storeyed house

Abstract :  Jung first recounted his dream of the multi-storeyed house in the 1925 seminars to illustrate the concept of the collective unconscious and explain the influence of phylogeny on his split with Freud. However, his telling the story of the dream belies a cryptomnesic influence of the early writings of psychoanalysis because Josef Breuer used a similar image to illustrate the structure of the psyche which Édouard Claparède associated with a phylogenetic inheritance. When telling the story of the dream, Jung misrepresented Freud's position, creating the impression of there being a bigger difference between their theories than was actually the case, and giving the dream a fictional significance for the breakdown of their relationship. In fact, Jung followed Freud into the fields of mythology and phylogenetics, and their split was due primarily to their different attitudes towards sexuality rather than phylogeny. The dream image has therefore led to a misunderstanding of Freudian theory when viewed from within a Jungian perspective. Freud believed there was a phylogenetic layer in the psyche, though he held a different view to Jung on its nature and importance.     

Still Epiphenomenal Qualia: Response to Muller

Hans Muller has recently attempted to show that Frank Jackson cannot assert the existence of qualia without thereby falsifying himself on the matter of such mental states being epiphenomenal with respect to the physical world. I argue that Muller misunderstands the commitments of qualia epiphenomenalism and that, as a result, his arguments against Jackson do not go through.

The persistent problem of targetless thought

Targetless thought raises a persistent problem for higher-order theories of consciousness. In cases of targetless thought, a subject represents herself as being in a mental state that she in fact lacks. One popular response among proponents of the higher-order theory is to say that it can appear to a subject that she is in a conscious mental state, even though that mental state doesn’t exist (Picciuto, 2017; Rosenthal 1997, 2011; Weisberg, 2010). Recently Brown and Lau (2019) and Lau and Rosenthal (2011) have shifted the debate to empirical ground, and offered evidence for real-world cases of targetless thought. In this paper, I give an alternate explanation of the evidence which avoids the need to posit targetless thoughts. As I argue, this challenges the empirical argument for the higher-order view because it shows that the evidence on offer does not discriminate between the first-order and higher-order theories of consciousness.     

德厚足以安世,行广足以容众——从《晏子春秋》谏上、谏下论晏子谏君思想

谏君是晏子思想的一项重要内容和重要特征。本文以《晏子春秋·内篇》谏上、谏下为解读文本,从爱民恤民、任贤远谗、赏善罚恶、重人远神、守礼中节、社稷无常奉等方面,对晏子的谏君思想进行了深入系统地考辨。     

再论梁漱溟心理学思想

该文从心理发生的动力、身心关系的活动机理、知识构成的方法、心理发展的条件、心理保健方法和学习心理学思想等六个方面历史地、系统地论述和评析了梁漱溟先生的心理学思想,并从多角度阐述了他对我国早期心理学发展的贡献,以期确立他在我国近代心理学史上的地位和全面认识梁漱溟先生。     

The Nature of Physical Reality

This account of the dynamical theory of chaos leads to a metaphysical picture of a world with an open future, in which the laws of physics are emergent-downward approximations to a more subtle and supple reality and in which there is downward causation through information input as well as upward causation through energy input. Such a metaphysical picture can accommodate both human and divine agency.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed: Ronald Hayman, A Life of Jung Mario Jacoby, Jungian Psychotherapy and Contemporary Infant Research: Basic Patterns of Emotional Exchange P. Pietikainen, C. G. Jung and the Psychology of Symbolic Forms Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams A New Translation by Joyce Crick. Ana-Maria Rizzuto, Why Did Freud Reject God? A Psychodynamic Interpretation T. Ogden, Reverie and Interpretation: Sensing Something Human Christopher Bollas, The Mystery of Things Douglas Kirsner, Unfree Associations: Inside Psychoanalytic Institutions      

Law,Ethics, and the Needs of History: Mendelssohn,Krochmal, and Moral Philosophy

Although the role of ethics in modern Jewish thought has been widely explored, major works by foundational philosophers remain largely absent from such discussions. This essay contributes to the recovery of these voices, focusing on the Hebrew writings of Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786) and Nachman Krochmal (1785–1840). I argue that these texts reveal the existence of a shared ethical project animating these founding philosophical voices of Jewish modernity, and that reconstructing their claims contributes to broader conversations about the relationship between ethics and law. Mendelssohn and Krochmal present Jewish law as addressing needs emerging from the history of moral philosophy—from the modern histories of Platonic and Aristotelian ethics. Moreover, my reading highlights these thinkers’ ongoing relevance, suggesting that their work illuminates the role of law in ethical cultivation.