BEWILDERMENT AND THEREAFTER: Some Reflections in Response to Lee Yearley

The following reflections were originally an oral response to issues raised in Lee Yearley's presentation in May 2009 at Harvard Divinity School. As written here, they follow upon his oral and now written comments, highlighting key issues and points for development, drawing on this respondent's expertise in comparative and Hindu studies.     

Introduction

Journal of International Migration and Integration -     

虚无主义、语言和创造性：尼采与德里达的界限

尼采和德里达对虚无主义危机做出了不同的回应.这是因为作为主体解读活动及其结果,虚无主义危机本身表现出两可性:一方面,形而上学的真理意志已经演变为一种桎梏,带来了虚无主义的"虚无化"或人类创造性和历史的终结;另一方面,危机也构成主体走出形而上学的条件.德里达更注重对前者进行否定性批判,揭开了形而上学追求超验真理所带的虚无性,或追问本源所掩盖的"本源"缺失.尼采开启了这种批判,不过他更渴望逆转这种潮流,进行更具建设性的重构,而不只是把主体抛在丧失了"意义"的空场上.其目的是脱离消极的虚无主义,复兴各种冲动在主体创造性中的作用.     

"宗教多元性"、"宗教多元观"与"宗教多元论"——试论"Religious Pluralism"的三重含义

目前国内学界通常将"Religious pluralism"一词译作"宗教多元论"或"宗教多元主义"。本文通过对其内涵的深入分析,揭示出该术语三重含义:"宗教多元性"、"宗教多元观"与"宗教多元论"。文章进一步提出判断某种理论是否属于宗教多元论的标准可概括为"以相对化为途径,祛除宗教自我中心主义,在新秩序内实现宗教平等"。由此揭示出当代宗教多元论的目标在于通过建构宗教共同体建立宗教平等的"新秩序"。     

Ethnic pride and self-control related to protective and risk factors: test of the theoretical model for the strong African American families program.

OBJECTIVE: To test a theoretical model of how ethnic pride and self-control are related to risk and protective factors. DESIGN: A community sample of 670 African American youth (mean age = 11.2 years) were interviewed in households. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Measures of cigarette smoking, alcohol use, and sexual behavior (lifetime to past month). RESULTS: Structural modeling analyses indicated parenting was related to self-control and self-esteem, and racial socialization was related to ethnic pride. Self-control and self-esteem variables were related to levels of deviance-prone attitudes and to perceptions of engagers in, or abstainers from, substance use and sexual behavior. The proximal factors (behavioral willingness, resistance efficacy, and peer behavior) had substantial relations to the criterion variables. Participant gender and parental education also had several paths in the model. Results were generally similar for the 2 outcome behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: In this population, self-esteem and self-control are related to parenting approaches and have pathways to attitudes and social perceptions that are significant factors for predisposing to, or protecting against, early involvement in substance use and sexual behavior.     

The Body in Religion: The Spatial Mapping of Valence in Tibetan Practitioners of Bön

According to the Body‐Specificity Hypothesis (BSH), people implicitly associate positive ideas with the side of space on which they are able to act more fluently with their dominant hand. Though this hypothesis has been rigorously tested across a variety of populations and tasks, the studies thus far have only been conducted in linguistic and cultural communities which favor the right over the left. Here, we tested the effect of handedness on implicit space‐valence mappings in Tibetan practitioners of Bön who show a strong religious preference for the left, in comparison to an English group. Results showed that Bön right‐handers tended to implicitly associate positive valence more strongly with their dominant side of space despite strong explicit associations between the left and goodness in their religion. This pattern of results found in Bön participants was indistinguishable from that found in English speakers. The findings of the present study support the BSH, demonstrating that space‐valence mappings in people's minds are shaped by their bodily experience, which appears to be independent of space‐valence mappings enshrined in cultural conventions.     

马克思唯物史观对吉登斯的影响与启发

安东尼·吉登斯是当代国外马克思主义的代表性人物之一.在对历史事件的分析中,吉登斯既肯定了后现代主义对于宏大叙事的"解构",拒斥各种寻求普适性规律的观念及其理论形式,又承认能够对某些确定性的历史事件予以辨认与概括,尝试提出一种与马克思相异的历史解释理论.     

Reducing STD/HIV Stigmatizing Attitudes Through Community Popular Opinion Leaders in Chinese Markets

Reducing STDs and HIV/AIDS incidence requires campaigns designed to change knowledge, attitudes, and practices of risky sexual behavior. In China, a significant obstacle to such changes is the stigma associated with these diseases. Thus 1 campaign intervention strategy is to train credible community leaders to discuss these issues in everyday social venues. This study tested the effectiveness of such an approach on reducing HIV/AIDS stigma, across 2 years, from a sample of over 4,500 market vendors, in 3 conditions. Results showed an increasing growth in market communication about intervention messages, and concomitant declines in stigmatizing attitudes, across time, with the greatest changes in community popular opinion leaders, significant changes in intervention nonopinion leaders, and little change in the control markets.     

Does power corrupt? The moderating effect of status

Findings on the effect of power on corruption are mixed. To make sense of these mixed results, three studies were conducted to examine the moderating role of status on this effect. In Study 1, corrupt intent was measured using a corruption scenario that contained manipulations of power and status. In Study 2, corrupt behaviour was measured in a corruption game that contained manipulations of power and status. Study 3 was conducted in real organisational settings, and aimed to expand the external validity of Studies 1 and 2. The results of all three studies consistently indicated that the effect of power was moderated by status. Specifically, power increased corruption when status was low, whereas this effect disappeared when status was high. The implications of reducing the facilitating effect of power on corruption by considering status from the perspective of social hierarchy are discussed.