Formulations of children's rights rest on assumptions about the nature of childhood yet conceptions of childhood are not stable across time and space. Such conceptions can be understood as placing different emphases ...Formulations of children's rights rest on assumptions about the nature of childhood yet conceptions of childhood are not stable across time and space. Such conceptions can be understood as placing different emphases among three different factors: the child as subservient to parents and ancestors (Child 1), as a young person requiring special protection and having characteristics distinct from adults (Child 2) and as a novice (Child 3). Different social arrangements place relatively different emphases on these three factors in their overall conceptions of childhood. Adopting the distinction between Will and Interest rights (Archard 2002), the paper considers how an emphasis on Child 1, 2 or 3 presupposes and demands a distinctive consideration of children's rights. The argument concludes with a reflection on how children's rights might be construed if the nature of adulthood is problematised alongside that of childhood. In this case, capabilities (as means to enable functionings) may prove a more fruitful concept than rights (as actual or possible existential conditions).展开更多
Eastern philosophy and western science have convergent and divergent viewpoints for their explanation of consciousness. Convergence is found for the practice of meditation allowing besides a time dependent consciousne...Eastern philosophy and western science have convergent and divergent viewpoints for their explanation of consciousness. Convergence is found for the practice of meditation allowing besides a time dependent consciousness, the experience of a timeless consciousness and its beneficial effect on psychological wellbeing and medical improvements, which are confirmed by multiple scientific publications. Theories of quantum mechanics with non-locality and timelessness also show astonishing correlation to eastern philosophy, such as the theory of Penrose-Hameroff (ORC-OR), which explains consciousness by reduction of quantum superposition in the brain. Divergence appears in the interpretation of the subjective experience of timeless consciousness. In eastern philosophy, meditation at a higher level of awareness allows the personal experience of timeless and non-dual consciousness, considered as an empirical proof for the existence of pure consciousness or spirituality existing before the material world and creating it by design. Western science acknowledges the subjective, non-dual experience, and its multiple beneficial effects, however, the interpretation of spirituality designing the material universe is in disagreement with the Darwinian Theory of mutation and selection. A design should create an ideal universe without the injustice of 3% congenital birth defects and later genetic health problems. The western viewpoint of selection is more adapted to explain congenital errors. The gap between subjectivity and objectivity, the mind-body problem, is in eastern philosophy reduced to the dominance of subjectivity over objectivity, whereas western science attributes equal values to both. Nevertheless, there remains an astonishing complementarity between eastern and western practices.展开更多
文摘Formulations of children's rights rest on assumptions about the nature of childhood yet conceptions of childhood are not stable across time and space. Such conceptions can be understood as placing different emphases among three different factors: the child as subservient to parents and ancestors (Child 1), as a young person requiring special protection and having characteristics distinct from adults (Child 2) and as a novice (Child 3). Different social arrangements place relatively different emphases on these three factors in their overall conceptions of childhood. Adopting the distinction between Will and Interest rights (Archard 2002), the paper considers how an emphasis on Child 1, 2 or 3 presupposes and demands a distinctive consideration of children's rights. The argument concludes with a reflection on how children's rights might be construed if the nature of adulthood is problematised alongside that of childhood. In this case, capabilities (as means to enable functionings) may prove a more fruitful concept than rights (as actual or possible existential conditions).
文摘Eastern philosophy and western science have convergent and divergent viewpoints for their explanation of consciousness. Convergence is found for the practice of meditation allowing besides a time dependent consciousness, the experience of a timeless consciousness and its beneficial effect on psychological wellbeing and medical improvements, which are confirmed by multiple scientific publications. Theories of quantum mechanics with non-locality and timelessness also show astonishing correlation to eastern philosophy, such as the theory of Penrose-Hameroff (ORC-OR), which explains consciousness by reduction of quantum superposition in the brain. Divergence appears in the interpretation of the subjective experience of timeless consciousness. In eastern philosophy, meditation at a higher level of awareness allows the personal experience of timeless and non-dual consciousness, considered as an empirical proof for the existence of pure consciousness or spirituality existing before the material world and creating it by design. Western science acknowledges the subjective, non-dual experience, and its multiple beneficial effects, however, the interpretation of spirituality designing the material universe is in disagreement with the Darwinian Theory of mutation and selection. A design should create an ideal universe without the injustice of 3% congenital birth defects and later genetic health problems. The western viewpoint of selection is more adapted to explain congenital errors. The gap between subjectivity and objectivity, the mind-body problem, is in eastern philosophy reduced to the dominance of subjectivity over objectivity, whereas western science attributes equal values to both. Nevertheless, there remains an astonishing complementarity between eastern and western practices.