Previous findings in cultural psychology indicated that East Asians are more likely than North Americans to be attentive to contextual information (e.g., Nisbett & Masuda, ). However, to what extent and in which conditions culture influences patterns of attention has not been fully examined. As a result, universal patterns of attention may be obscured, and culturally unique patterns may be wrongly assumed to be constant across situations. By carrying out two cross-cultural studies, we demonstrated that (a) both European Canadians and (...) Japanese attended to moving objects similarly when the task was to simply observe the visual information; however, (b) there were cultural variations in patterns of attention when participants actively engaged in the task by constructing narratives of their observation (narrative construction). These findings suggest that cultural effects are most pronounced in narrative construction conditions, where the need to act in accordance with a culturally shared meaning system is elicited. (shrink)

Moral reasoning develops rapidly in early childhood. Recent evidence from cognitive neuroscience literature suggests that the development of moral reasoning is supported by an integration of cognitive and affective components. However, the role of culture in the development of moral reasoning in young children is under-investigated. Previous cross-cultural research suggests that culture shapes how people interpret other’s behaviors. In particular, people raised in independent cultures, such as the United States, tend to form impressions of others and attribute others’ behaviors to (...) their personal dispositions more quickly than people raised in interdependent cultures, such as Japan. In the present cross-cultural study, we examined parents’ discourse with children in Japan and the United States. Parents and their 3- to 4-year-old children were asked to view and discuss cartoon characters depicting prosocial and antisocial acts. Results indicated that in both cultures, parents discussed about moral actions of characters. Furthermore, United States parents were more likely to evaluate dispositional characteristics of characters based on their pro-social and anti-social acts, whereas Japanese parents were more likely to refer to emotion of the characters who got hurt. We discuss implications of cross-cultural differences and similarities in parental moral socialization and the development of moral reasoning in young children. (shrink)

Culture is a demanding word, particularly when it is used in the context of the contemporary academic discipline of international relations . It is often employed in order to distinguish one identity from another, allegedly illuminating idiosyncrasies embedded in a particular society or group of people. The essentialized understanding of culture is also detectable in the case of the current debate on the non-Western international relations theories . Non-Western politicians and scholars often employ the term culture in order to distinguish (...) their values from alleged Western values. However, culture has another important function mainly advanced by a left-wing Kyoto School philosopher Tosaka Jun, that is, culture as a mirror for critical reflection for morality . This article is based on Tosaka's argument that culture has an important function for moral reflection beyond that of a mere means to identify one's distinctiveness from the West, and it criticizes Japan's soft power diplomacy or the total absence of it from that point of view. It also argues that this absence is the result of the soft power discourse's over-simplified interpretation of culture that results in confrontation between the West and the rest, particularly when it is employed in non-Western IRT discourses. Towards the end, I examine Miyazaki Hayao's films, Princes Mononoke in particular, as examples of cultural works facilitating a moment of critical reflection, and I extract embedded messages of relevance to critical reflection on contemporary IR literature, particularly non-Western literature. (shrink)

It is well known that the self-energy of the gauge bosons is quadratically divergent in the Standard Model when a simple cutoff is imposed. We demonstrate phenomenologically that the quadratic divergences in fact unify. The unification occurs at a surprisingly low scale, \(\Lambda _\mathrm {u}\approx 4\times 10^7\) GeV. Suppose now that there is a spontaneously broken rotational symmetry between the space-time coordinates and gauge theoretical phases. The symmetry-breaking pattern is such that the gauge bosons arise as the massless Goldstone bosons, (...) whereas the dilatonic mode acts as the massive (Higgs) boson, whose vacuum expectation value determines the gauge couplings. In this case, the quadratic divergences or the tadpoles of the gauge boson self-energy should indeed unify because these divergences need to be cancelled by a universal dilatonic contribution, assuming dynamical symmetry breaking. If there is dynamical symmetry breaking, we are in principle able to calculate the value of the gauge couplings as well as the scale hierarchy \(\Lambda _\mathrm {cut}/\Lambda _\mathrm {u}\) . We perform this calculation by adopting a naive quartic symmetry-breaking potential which unfortunately violates local gauge invariance. Using tadpole-cancellation and dilatonic self-energy conditions, the value of \(\Lambda _\mathrm {cut}\) is then found to be approximately \(4\times 10^{18}\) GeV in the Feynman gauge and \(5\times 10^{15}\) GeV in the Landau gauge. The cancellation of an anomaly in the dilaton self-energy requires that the number of fermionic generations equals three. The symmetry-breaking needs to be driven by some other mass-generating mechanism such as electroweak symmetry breaking. Our estimation for \(\Lambda _\mathrm {u}\) is of the correct order if \(\Lambda _\mathrm {cut}\approx 5\times 10^{15}\) GeV. (shrink)

雑誌『現代思想』が創刊された七〇年代から現在までの社会/思想の推移を、その特集と営みを補助線としながら考察し、これからの歴史の読み方を鋭く問う。.

Depue & Morrone-Strupinsky's (D&M-S's) implicit assumption appears to be that affiliative bonding is either strengthened or maintained with time; however, it is more realistic that it can also be weakened or destroyed by conflictive interpersonal interactions. Without specifying the mechanisms by which antagonistic stimuli deteriorate affiliative bonding, the model is incapable of accounting for the dynamics associated with this complex phenomenon.

Allah katında en şerefli amellerden biri Kur’ân ilimleri hakkında araştırma yapmaktır. Özellikle Rasulullah’ın ashabına öğretmiş olduğu vahiy vecihlerinin lafızlarını nakletme olgusunu üstlenen kırâat ilmi hakkında araştırma yapmanın ayrı bir yeri vardır. Kur’ân-ı Kerim İslam şeriatının ilk kaynağı olduğundan dolayı geçmiş ve günümüz alimleri kendisiyle alakalı olan tefsir, kırâat, dil bilimi, i’râb ve benzeri ilimlere ehemmiyet vermişlerdir. Biz de bu çalışmamızda çeşitli islami ilimler hakkında ilim ehli zatlar arasındaki yüksek mevkii bulunan İmam Ebû Muhammed Mekkî b. Ebî Talib’i ele aldık. Kırâat, (...) tecvid, arapça, fıkıh, kelam vb. İslami ilimlerde yüze yakın eser telif eden Mekki, İslami ilimlerin çoğunu elde ederek, özellikle Kırâat ve tefsir ilmine öncülük etmiş nadir âlimlerden biridir. Biz bu çalışmamızda Mekkî b. Ebî Talib’in Kırâat ilmindeki yeri ve bu ilme katkısını ele aldık. Bunun yanı sıra onun bu alanda telif ettiği eserler ve bu eserlerin önemi üzerinde durup, özellikle kendisinin Kırâatteki Tevatür meselesine değindik. Çünkü araştırmacılar Mekkî’nin bu konudaki görüşü hakkında ihtilafa düşüp farklı fikirler öne sürmüşlerdir. Son olarak çalışmamızı Mekki b. Ebu Talib’in kırâat ilminde kendisinden sonra gelen kişiler üzerinde ki etkisi hakkında bahsederek sonlandırmış olduk. (shrink)

Kur’ân-ı Kerîm ilimlerini araştırmak Allah indinde en şerefli amellerdendir. Özellikle de bu, Resulullah’ın ashabına öğrettiği vecih üzere vahiy lafızlarını nakletme olgusunu üstlenen kıraat ilmini araştırma olunca. Kur’ân-ı Kerîm İslam şeriatının ilk kaynağı olduğundan eskiden ve şuan âlimler Kur’ân-ı Kerîm’le ilgili olan tefsir, kıraat, dil bilim, i‘râb ve benzeri ilimlere önem vermişlerdir. Ben bu âlimlerden biri hakkında konuşmak istedim. O da çeşitli şeriat ilimlerinde ilim ehli arasındaki yüksek konumundan ötürü İmam Ebû Muhammed Mekkî b. Ebî Talib’tir. Mekkî, şeriat ilimlerin çoğunu elde (...) etmiş nadir âlimlerden biridir. Özellikle de O, Kur’ân ve tefsir ilminde birinci mevkiyi elde etmiş ve bununla da bu ilimlerde ipi göğüslemiştir. Kırâat, tecvid, arapça dil bilgisi, fıkıh, kelam ve diğer ilimler de yüz kadar esere ulaşan telifleri arkasında bırakmıştır. Ben bu çalışmada ilk başta Mekkî b. Ebî Talib ve kıraat ilimleri ile ilgili kitapları hakkında ışık tutmak, ardından da ayrıcalıkları ve onun özellikle de araştırmacıların anlamakta ihtilaf ettikleri tevâtür konusu hakkındaki görüşleri hakkında konuşmak istedim. Çalışmamı, kırâat ilimlerinde kendisinden sonrakiler üzerindeki etkisi hakkında konuşmak ile bitiriyorum. (shrink)

Celem artykułu jest przedstawienie sytuacji oraz kondycji finansowej strefy euro i próba zorientowania się w tym względzie na przyszłość. Kryzys strefy euro to największe wyzwanie dla całego Eurolandu, ale i Unii Europejskiej. Zła sytuacja finansowa i stagnacja z nią związana zmuszają do refleksji i podjęcia działań naprawczych. Nie wyciągnięcie wniosków generuje problemy i dezintegruje całą strefę euro. W artykule zostaną postawione: hipotezy, tezy oraz pytania badawcze.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate whether galvanic vestibular stimulation with stochastic noise modulates the body sway and muscle activity of the lower limbs, depending on visual and somatosensory information from the foot using rubber-foam.Methods: Seventeen healthy young adults participated in the study. Each subject maintained an upright standing position on a force plate with/without rubber-foam, with their eyes open/closed, to measure the position of their foot center of pressure. Thirty minutes after baseline measurements under four possible conditions performed without (...) nGVS, the stimulation trials were conducted under the same conditions in random order, which were then repeated a week or more later. The total center of pressure path length movement and COP movement velocity in the mediolateral and anteroposterior directions were recorded for 30 s during nGVS. Furthermore, electromyography activity of the right tibial anterior muscle and soleus muscle was recorded for the same time and analyzed.Results: Three-way analysis of variance and post-hoc multiple comparison revealed a significant increment in COP-related parameters by nGVS, and a significant increment in soleus muscle activity on rubber. There was no significant effect of eye condition on any parameter.Conclusions: During nGVS, body sway and muscle activity in the lower limb may be increased depending not on the visual condition, but on the foot somatosensory condition. (shrink)

Employing an aero-acoustic levitator, the Fe 2 O 3 -16.5 mol% La 2 O 3 eutectic alloy was levitated, melted, undercooled and then solidified under a containerless condition when a continuous laser beam heating system was incorporated. By revealing the surface and cross-sectional microstructures, copious nucleation is confirmed to take place in the undercooled melts solidified by either an external seeding or spontaneous crystallization. The nucleation behaviour of eutectic alloys is summarized, indicating that copious nucleation may be an intrinsic attribute (...) of a eutectic system with the exact eutectic composition in unconstrained solidification. Considering the complexity level of crystal structures of eutectic oxide phases in the Fe 2 O 3 -La 2 O 3 alloy, the linear kinetic constants are approximately estimated and the growth kinetics are discussed. The sluggish growth kinetics of the perovskite-type phase, that is LaFeO 3 with a higher complexity level in a unit cell leads to a decoupled growth within a single eutectic colony when the melt is undercooled to exceed the critical undercooling j T = 125 K. It is the decoupled growth that results in the formation of anomalous eutectics. The present concept based on the kinetic constant of different phases can also be applicable to account for the growth behaviour of other oxide eutectics when considering the stable and metastable eutectic reactions in different solidification conditions. The nucleation behaviour and growth modes in some oxide eutectic systems have been predicted in the free solidification from an undercooled state. (shrink)

The postmodern enterprise, with its foundationlessness, fragmentariness, constructivism, and neopragmatism challenges interdisciplinarity. This paper discusses functional specialization and interdisciplinary method which provides a basis for interdisciplinary collaboration. In functional specialization, successive stages in the process of coming to know are distinguished. These stages correspond to Lonergan’s four levels of consciousness, namely experiencing the data, coming to understanding through addressing questions which arise from the data, and judgment about which hypothesis best fits the data. Authenticity, which involves genuine attentiveness, intelligence, reasonableness, (...) and responsibility, guides the appropriate attitude in interdisciplinary work. (shrink)