道德新科学

THE NEW YORK TIMES
July 23, 2010
OP-ED COLUMNIST

THE MORAL NATURALISTS
Scientific research is showing that we are born with an innate moral sense.

By DAVID BROOKS

Washington, Conn.

Where does our sense of right and wrong come from? Most people think it is a gift from God, who revealed His laws and elevates us with His love. A smaller number think that we figure the rules out for ourselves, using our capacity to reason and choosing a philosophical system to live by.

Moral naturalists, on the other hand, believe that we have moral sentiments that have merged from a long history of relationships. To learn about morality, you don't rely upon revelation or metaphysics; you observe people as they live.

This week a group of moral naturalists gathered in Connecticut at a conference organized by the Edge Foundation. One of the participants, Marc Hauser of Harvard, began his career studying primates, and for moral naturalists the story of our morality begins back in the evolutionary past. It begins with the way insects, rats and monkeys learned to cooperate.

By the time humans came around, evolution had forged a pretty firm foundation for a moral sense. 

Jonathan Haidt of the University of Virginia argues that this moral sense is like our sense of taste. We have natural receptors that help us pick up sweetness and saltiness. In the same way, we have natural receptors that help us recognize fairness and cruelty. Just as a few universal tastes can grow into many different cuisines, a few moral senses can grow into many different moral cultures.

Paul Bloom of Yale noted that this moral sense can be observed early in life. Bloom and his colleagues conducted an experiment in which they showed babies a scene featuring one figure struggling to climb a hill, another figure trying to help it, and a third trying to hinder it. ...

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美国知名泄密网站“维基解密”网站（Wikileaks）的创办人Julian Assange

伯克利心理学家要在中国推广快乐科学

matrix 发表于 2010年7月17日 15时30分 星期六

中国的百万富翁数量在增多，但财富的增长并没有促进全国的幸福指数。加州大学伯克利分校的心理学家认为，中国对财富的追求远远超过了精神的健康和幸福，他们试图通过推广快乐科学来弥补这种不平衡状态。伯克利将与清华大学合作在八月举办中国首届正向心理学会议。伯克利心理学家Kaiping Peng表示，他们希望中国能将注意力从国内生产总值转移到幸福快乐和谐上，从竞争的文化转移到共同利益上。

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ELIF SHAFAK: THE POLITICS OF FICTION

不要和山羊争辩

Don't argue with an ibex

Charlie bit my finger - again !

草泥马 FIFA

FIFA’S FOUL PLAY

Tim Parks in the NYRB blog:

The final saw Holland playing Spain, two European colonizers on African territory. Before the game Nelson Mandela’s grandson complained that FIFA had put “extreme pressure” on the elderly hero to attend, despite the fact that he was in mourning for the loss of a great-granddaughter. “Their focus is on having this world icon in the stadium, yet not really paying attention to our customs and traditions as a people and as a family.” The miracle is that anyone ever imagined that FIFA might behave otherwise.

In the event, the grand finale was a disgrace; it also offered another pathetic “English” performance in the shape of the referee, Howard Webb. Having seen German youth outclassed by Spanish skills, the Dutch decided for spoiling tactics. That is fair enough, but their harrying and pressing came with a systematic intimidatory violence that amounted to the worst possible advertisement for football. A “filthfest,” the Guardian’s commentator called it. Webb showed plenty of yellow cards but didn’t have the courage to send a man off until the last minutes of extra time. The moment when Nigel De Jong lifted his leg high to kick his studs into Xabi Alonso’s chest and then was not shown a red card was emblematic of the mentality that FIFA has created in players and officials.

The Dutch team knew that Webb would not want to be responsible for ruining a TV spectacle with a dismissal, so they ruined the game themselves in the hope of grabbing a goal from the shambles they had created. Andres Iniesta’s wonderful strike just five minutes away from a penalty shoot-out was the tournament’s only moment of poetic justice and FIFA’s only fig leaf. On this ugly showing 2014 is rather too soon for a repeat performance.

文化改革的指导方针

    外交部长杨荣文在“慧眼中国环球论坛”中说，儒家思想，须要演化成一种能反映并针对现代社会组织形态的新“城市儒学思想”（Urban Confucianism）。

　　传统文化往往随着时代而递变演化。如佛教的“小乘”“大乘”，基督教的“旧教”“新教”。经“五四”冲刷过的今日新儒家，对至圣先师的教导，扬弃幅度不可说不大。至于于丹的“鸡汤儒学”之类，则走得更远。

　　社会文化精英是文化演化方向的主要推手。不过，在推动文化演进时，博弈者自各有各的考量。原教旨者，一心一意保留或还原教旨的原意，死死盯住原典的一字一句，亦步亦趋，不敢稍有逾越。改革派则主张提炼抽象精神原则，诠释引申。所以，往往有“挂羊头卖狗肉”，“食古不化”之类的相互指责。

　　对原教旨者，我没有话说。对那些有志于改革文化以促进社会经济进化的人，我则建议他们参考一下劳伦斯·哈瑞森（ Lawrence Harrison ）的说法。

　　哈瑞森认为，对社会经济的演进，文化有决定性的影响，是成败关键之一。在他眼中，各种文化传统，如果从社会经济的角度看，是有好环之分的。好的文化促进社会与经济的发展，坏的文化则导致社会济经滞后。

　　这样的说法，对许多亚洲人而言，似乎是理所当然的，没什么值得大惊小怪。不过在20世纪文化相对主义当道的欧美学术主流，则备受排斥。

　　文化相对主义者认为，世界各种文化，不论现代或古老，各美其美，是没有高下之分的。所以，西方在帮助落后国家发展社会与经济的时候，往往着手于体制、政策、资金、基建、科技方面：如空降民主制度，修订法律，注入大量资金，建设基建以及引入科技。但是由于忽视了那决定社会行为的既有文化，他们的努力，往往被一些看来琐琐碎碎的，但是却有一定的模式，在各地一再出现，一系列相同的问题所阻挠破坏：如，不尊重法律、滥权、不合作、遇到问题时逃避被动、毫无公民意识、缺乏互信以及极端的自私自利等。以致在投入大量的人力物力之后，那些援助计划，十之八九以失败收场。

　　哈瑞森是过来人。从1962到1982年间，他任职于美国国际开发署（USAID ）。花了整整20年，在5个不同的拉美国家，积极振兴经济，改进社会。可惜的是，殚精竭虑之余，却毫无例外的，皆告无功而返。

　　痛定思痛，他最终领悟到，造成发展滞后的基本问题，深深根殖于的拉丁美洲人的头脑中——是一个更根本的文化问题。放眼世界，他看到了亚洲儒家社会成功的经济转型；东亚以及犹太移民，在世界任何一个角落都同样善于经营；北欧国家的发展指数，总是领先全球。这些现象，在在指向一个事实，文化是族群成功的重要条件。没有良好文化价值，信仰及态度的支持垫底，徒有资金、体制、法律、政策与科技是不足够的。

哈瑞森是个有心人。在这个发现之后，他决定不再徒劳浪费精力，立即离开了美国国际发展署，花了将近30年时间，从事学术研究，确认文化因素与社会进化的关糸，并致力于探索文化改革之道。

　　从1982到1997，他完成了三本著作，报告了在世界各地，文化在社会进化中所扮演的角色。

　　1997年，他与亨廷顿（Samuel Huntington ）在哈佛，邀请了学术、大众传媒、政治以及发展专业的各界精英，召开了专题研讨会，讨论这个议题。然后在2002年跟进，召集了60多名国际俊杰，合力创订一套文化改革的指导方针。并把研究成果结集成书，其中以《为什文化重要》 ( Culture Matters ) 以及《政治如何改革文化以自救》 ( The Central Liberal Truth ) 影响最为深广。

　　这群研究者甄识了25项有利与不利于社会经济进步的文化因素——25项影响社会进步的文化价值、信仰与态度。例如：

　　时间取向：前进的社群放眼未来；停滞的社群则耽于过去或沉溺于现在。

　　认同半径：在前进的社会里，认同与信任的范围扩及整个社会。在停滞的社会则仅限于家族亲人。所以裙带风与徇私问题严重。

　　节俭与财富：在前进的社会里，节俭促进投资同时保证财务安全；在一个大家都习惯一样穷的社群里，个人的财富是一个分化社会的威胁，在这种“零和”(Zero Sum)文化中，某人得益被看成是其他人的损失。

　　功绩主义：前进的社会里，晋升取决于功绩；在停滞社会，出身与社会关系才是最重要的。

　　世俗主义：在先进社会，宗教对公共机制的影响不大。

　　命运观：先进社群相信个人的努力能够影响运命；落后社群迷信宿命、巫术等，基本上听天由命。

    教育：在先进的社会里，教育是晋升的关键。在停滞的社会里，除非是特权阶层份子，教育无关重要。

　　在参照了今古各地文化改革的实例之后，研究者对以下几个关键领域，提出了文化变革的建议：育儿与教育、宗教改革、政府政策、发展援助机构、大学、媒体以及私营机构。这些研究成果，对于各地文化改革者，相信都有参考的价值。

早报言论（2010-07-26）

儒家民主？

CONFUCIAN DEMOCRACY?

Beijing—Four decades ago, it would have been suicidal to say a good word about Confucius in Beijing. Confucius was the reactionary enemy, and all Chinese were encouraged to struggle against him. Chairman Mao himself was photographed on the cover of a revolutionary newspaper that announced the desecration of Confucius’s grave in Qufu. My own university was a hotbed of extreme leftism. How times have changed. Today, the Chinese Communist Party approves a film about Confucius starring the handsome leading man Chow Yun-Fat. The master is depicted as an astute military commander and teacher of humane and progressive values, with a soft spot for female beauty. What does this say about China’s political future? Confucius bombed at the box office, leading many to think that the revival of Confucianism will go the same way as the anti-Confucius campaigns in the Cultural Revolution. But perhaps it’s just a bad movie. Confucius received the kiss of death when it went head-to-head against the blockbuster Avatar. A vote for Confucius was seen as a vote against the heroic blue creatures from outer space. In the long term, however, Confucian revivalists may be on the right side of history.

more from Daniel Bell at NPQ here.

色情搜索，巴基斯坦排名世界第一

DONKEY SEX, RAPE PICTURES, CHILD SEX, CAMEL SEX...

Kelli Morgan at Fox News:

They may call it the "Land of the Pure," but Pakistan turns out to be anything but.

The Muslim country, which has banned content on at least 17 websites to block offensive and blasphemous material, is the world's leader in online searches for pornographic material, FoxNews.com has learned.

“You won’t find strip clubs in Islamic countries. Most Islamic countries have certain dress codes,” said Gabriel Said Reynolds, professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Notre Dame. “It would be an irony if they haven’t shown the same vigilance to pornography.”

So here's the irony: Google ranks Pakistan No. 1 in the world in searches for pornographic terms, outranking every other country in the world in searches per person for certain sex-related content.

Pakistan is top dog in searches per-person for "horse sex" since 2004, "donkey sex" since 2007, "rape pictures" between 2004 and 2009, "rape sex" since 2004, "child sex" between 2004 and 2007 and since 2009, "animal sex" since 2004 and "dog sex" since 2005, according to Google Trends and Google Insights, features of Google that generate data based on popular search terms.

The country also is tops -- or has been No. 1 -- in searches for "sex," "camel sex," "rape video," "child sex video" and some other searches that can't be printed here.

More here. [Thanks to Waseem Malik.]

狐獴有自己的文化（生活习惯）

社会性团体中的个体能从同伴中获得信息，形成某种行为模式或习惯，这种习惯能在群体中共享，在不同群体之间则存在差异性。根据《英国皇家学会学报B》上发表的研究报告(全文)，经过11年的观察后，研究人员发现不同狐獴群体有着自己的作息习惯，如居住在非洲喀拉哈里沙漠的狐獴有些会在早晨5点外出，其余的狐獴则要多睡一个小时。他们发现此种作息具有连续性，即使上一代的所有成员全部去世后仍然会保留下来。由于狐獴会在不同群体间迁移，因此习惯的差异并非遗传因素所致。外来的狐獴适应群体既定习俗，幼儿则是学习成年长辈的作息。研究人员认为，这证明非灵长类动物也会有习俗。

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• 文化的定义，“学来的行为，相对於本能。”

流言称费米实验室发现“上帝粒子”

《每日电讯报》报道，普渡大学物理学家Tommaso Dorigo在博客上透露，大强子对撞机的美国竞争对手费米实验室Tevatron加速器已经发现了希格斯玻色子——即所谓的“上帝粒子”。Dorigo对此流言相当确定，声称它来自于两个独立消息来源，费米实验室观察到了一个“三个标准差”希格斯效应——也就是从统计学说有99.7%的可能性是希格斯粒子。

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HOW MICROBES DEFEND AND DEFINE US

我们的健康依赖细菌。

Carl Zimmer in The New York Times:

Dr. Alexander Khoruts had run out of options. In 2008, Dr. Khoruts, a gastroenterologist at the University of Minnesota, took on a patient suffering from a vicious gut infection of Clostridium difficile. She was crippled by constant diarrhea, which had left her in a wheelchair wearing diapers. Dr. Khoruts treated her with an assortment of antibiotics, but nothing could stop the bacteria. His patient was wasting away, losing 60 pounds over the course of eight months. “She was just dwindling down the drain, and she probably would have died,” Dr. Khoruts said. Dr. Khoruts decided his patient needed a transplant. But he didn’t give her a piece of someone else’s intestines, or a stomach, or any other organ. Instead, he gave her some of her husband’s bacteria. Dr. Khoruts mixed a small sample of her husband’s stool with saline solution and delivered it into her colon. Writing in the Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology last month, Dr. Khoruts and his colleagues reported that her diarrhea vanished in a day. Her Clostridium difficile infection disappeared as well and has not returned since.

The procedure — known as bacteriotherapy or fecal transplantation — had been carried out a few times over the past few decades. But Dr. Khoruts and his colleagues were able to do something previous doctors could not: they took a genetic survey of the bacteria in her intestines before and after the transplant. Before the transplant, they found, her gut flora was in a desperate state. “The normal bacteria just didn’t exist in her,” said Dr. Khoruts. “She was colonized by all sorts of misfits.” Two weeks after the transplant, the scientists analyzed the microbes again. Her husband’s microbes had taken over. “That community was able to function and cure her disease in a matter of days,” said Janet Jansson, a microbial ecologist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a co-author of the paper. “I didn’t expect it to work. The project blew me away.”

More here.

Why all soccer fans should root for Holland to lose to Spain.

Like all soccer writers, I have a debilitating nostalgic streak, and like all soccer writers, I love Holland. The Dutch, who face Spain in Sunday's World Cup final, are soccer's most gorgeous losers, a team defined by a single generation of players who brilliantly failed to reach their potential. The Dutch teams of the 1970s—led by the mercurial Johan Cruyff, who's widely considered the greatest European player of all time—launched a tactical revolution, played one of the most thrilling styles of their era, and lost two consecutive World Cup finals in memorable and devastating ways. In the process, they became the icons of soccer romantics who would rather see teams play beautifully and lose than win and be boring. That's a harsh legacy for any team that just wants to take home trophies, and this year's Dutch squad is trying hard to transcend it. The dreams of millions of fans are riding on their success. Personally, I hope they fail. The legend of Dutch soccer begins, and inevitably ends, with Totaalvoetbal: "total football." The Dutch haven't really played total football in years; their current World Cup team is constructed more in opposition to the system than in line with it. But embraced or resisted, it's the idée fixe that looms over everything they do.

more from Brian Phillips at Slate here.

人工智能自动化破译古代语言

MIT计算机科学和人工智能实验室副教授Regina Barzilay和同事开发出一种人工智能程序，帮助考古学家破译古代语言。人工智能系统在几小时内就破译了古代闪米特语言乌加里特语（Ugaritic）中的大部分，它有望成为类似Google Translate的古代语言自动翻译系统。软件破译语言是基于一些假设：首先，被破译语言与其它语言之间存在相关性，以乌加里特语为例，研究人员拿希伯来语作参考；其次，系统性的绘制出被破译语言和其它语言全部字母的映射，两种语言中相关的符号通常有相似的频数。例如法语和西班牙语中的单词main和mano，homme和hombre，它们都共享字根；例如overloading，有前缀over和后缀ing，系统由此推测语言中存在前缀over或后缀ing或兼而有之的单词，而另一种语言中的相关单词也可能有相似的三段结构，例如法语中就是surchargeant。研究人员将在下个月举行的计算语言学协会年度会议上介绍他们的论文（PDF）

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• matrix 发表于 2010年7月01日 16时42分 星期四

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