Pioneering a New Realm of Human Rights Civilization in the Chinese Path to Modernization——An Overview of the Symposium on“The Chinese Path to Modernization and the Promotion of Free and Comprehensive Human Development”

On October 14,2023,a symposium themed“The Chinese Path to Modernization and the Promotion of Free and Comprehensive Human Development”was held in Changchun,Jilin Province,China.More than fifty experts,scholars,and researchers from national institutions and universities engaged in discussions and exchanges on human rights on the Chinese path to modernization,including the path,practice,knowledge systems,and civilization forms of human rights.This symposium played a significant role in advancing the construction of the disciplinary system,academic system,and discourse system of human rights in China.

Human Rights Knowledge Training in Xiamen

The second human rights knowledge training class was held May 29-June 3 in Xiamen. More than 60 cadres incharge of international communication from the central government agencies and information offices of various provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities received training at the class sponsored by the Information Office of the State Council.

Constructing China’s Human Rights Science:Cause,Cognition,and Paradigm

“China’s Human Rights Science”is undoubtedly a brand-new concept.Just as China has its own philosophy,literature,history,law,political science,and sociology,it should also have its own human rights science.China’s Human Rights Science refers to the cognitive science of human rights in China.Developing its disciplinary system,academic system,and discourse system,and constructing an independent Chinese human rights knowledge system,are essential requirements for promoting the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through Chinese modernization and creating a new form of human civilization.China’s Human Rights Science originated in China,grew in China,and deepened through China’s human rights practices.China’s Human Rights Science adhere to the universality of human rights principles and possess distinctive characteristics.It works as the knowledge-based organization,academic refinement,and theoretical expression of the path of human rights development that conforms to the trend of the times and suits China’s national conditions,as pursued by the Communist Party of China in leading the people.China’s Human Rights Science can enrich and develop the theory of human rights civilization,and should become a global public product of human rights.

The Scientific Evidence That Today’s Psychiatry Cripples Itself—By Excluding‘Intent’

PSYCHIATRISTS DISAGREE profoundly with lawyers,about what we human beings are capable of.The one says we have‘intent’—the other that we do not.They cannot both be right.All non-psychiatrist doctors must perforce agree with the lawyers.This paper argues that these harmful discrepancies will continue,until we undo the separate watertight human knowledge silos,which have grown up between legal procedures,general medicine,and psychiatric practice.All three would benefit.Psychiatry in particular,suffers from a grievously narrow view of scientific evidence,one which is open to fundamental criticism.There are radical differences in how the fuzzy concept of‘intent’is regarded in law,in general clinical medicine and in psychiatry.Once‘intent’is accorded its due weight,our understanding of justice,health and sanity is vastly improved,allowing us hugely more optimism.This paper is based on two earlier papers—The Scientific Evidence That‘Intent’Is Vital for Healthcare and Why Quakerism Is More Scientific Than Einstein.These are deployed here,to unpick the unhealthy tangle in which today’s psychiatry now finds itself.Its six sections are—(1)why‘intent’matters in law,in medicine&in psychiatry;(2)scientific quagmires;(3)a working definition for‘madness’;(4)“children are impressionable”;(5)“trust me,I’m a doctor”;and(6)skin heals,why can’t minds?The breakthrough is that verbal fuzziness means that words can mean different things at different times––not that they are 100%meaningless.Only a better understanding of trust,autonomy and consent can open the way to something that is painfully absent from today’s psychiatry––a cure for any and all mental disease.

Water, Plant, Light, and Mirror： On the Root Metaphors of the Heart-Mind in Wang Yangming＇s Thought

Clarifying Wang Yangming＇s thought through a study of his root metaphors of heart-mind is an important step toward explaining his further concepts of the human world. Along with the root metaphors of water and mirror, the metaphors of plant and light work together for Wang to form a coherent theoretical and practical system of xin （heart-mind）. This method is also a good way to unravel the various theories of the ＂three teachings＂ that are intermingled in his thinking. By using this methodology Wang＇s attempts to harmonize several ancient traditions of heart-mind that appear as possibly polarized to modem readers, are illuminated （though they did not appear contradictory to the Neo-Confucians）.