Suchergebnisse

I want to know whether Chan masters and students depicted in classical Chan transmission literature can be interpreted as asking open (or what I will call &ldquo ; genuine&rdquo ; ) questions. My task is significant because asking genuine questions appears to be a decisive factor in ascertaining whether these figures represent models for dialogue&mdash ; the kind of dialogue championed in democratic society and valued by promoters of interreligious exchange. My study also contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of early Chan not only by detailing contrasts between contemporary interests and classical Chan, but more importantly by paying greater attention to the role language and rhetoric play in classical Chan. What roles do questions play in Chan encounter dialogues, and are any of the questions genuine? Is there anything about the conventions of the genre that keeps readers from interpreting some questions in this way? To address these topics, I will proceed as follows. First, on a global level and for critical-historical context, I survey Chan transmission literature of the Song dynasty in which encounter dialogues appear, and their role in developments of Chan/Zen traditions. Second, I zoom in on structural elements of encounter dialogues in particular as a genre. Third, aligning with the trajectory of performative analyses of Chan literature called for by Sharf and Faure, I turn to develop and criticize a performative model of questions from resources in recent analytic and continental philosophy of language and I apply that model to some questions in encounter dialogue literature.

Throughout the trials and tribulations of the 1950s and 1960s, white anti-apartheid activists rose to the call of duty and took a stand against injustice, taking a stance that others refused to take. They threw themselves into the fire, serving jail sentences, going underground, and suffering great hardship as they separated from their families and friends. When imprisoned and exiled by the national government, they soldiered on, more resilient than ever. These activists provided an invaluable service to their country and to their fellow citizens of Africa, and many of their lives were forsaken for the cause. But above all, they achieved their aim: a free and democratic South Africa equal to all.

Factors such as shift work, sleep deprivation, and noise affect job performance in part because they affect individuals' levels of arousal. Recent work on arousal has identified two distinct forms of arousal that affect performance in very different ways. Tense arousal represents a continuum from calmness to anxiety, whereas energetic arousal reflects a continuum from tiredness to energy. The three studies reported here sought to determine the usefulness of breaking down energetic arousal still further, into dimensions of wakefulness and vigor. In the first study, a factor analysis of self-reported psychological state data determined that wakefulness and vigor did form separate factors. The second study found that the circadian rhythms of wakefulness and vigor differed; wakefulness increased over the day, whereas vigor peaked at noon. The third study examined the relationship between the two types of arousal and performance on a reading comprehension task. Although both wakefulness and vigor showed an association with performance, only vigor showed the inverted-U-shaped relationship embodied in the Yerkes-Dodson law. These data suggest that distinguishing between wakefulness and vigor will clarify how changes in arousal levels affect productivity. These results also suggest that the schedule for optimal performance of tasks depends on whether they are facilitated by either wakefulness or vigor.