Conservatism,Aesthetic and Active: Reflections on Roger Scruton and Pierre Manent

Roger Scruton and Pierre Manent provide us much to admire, as authors and as men, and much to ponder. They can be seen as collaborators in the defense of the nation-state against the empty universalism of “human rights,” and, more generally, in exposing the boundless arrogance and blindness of modern rationalism insofar as it denies its inheritance from premodern sources. This defense of the nation-state and critique of secular rationalism are of vital interest to moral and political conservatives, and Scruton, for his part, has explicitly taken on the cause and the label of conservatism. But conservatives face an imposing and, I propose here, critically instructive obstacle in appropriating the teachings of these two contemporary giants. For, as soon as we begin to examine the foundations of their respective projects, Scruton's and Manent's approaches appear to be, not only quite different (and therefore, one might hope, complementary) but in an important sense directly opposed to one another. This opposition appears most directly in their respective estimates of the realm of politics: one would exaggerate little in saying that, for Manent, politics is everything, whereas Scruton wishes to constrict the reach of politics to the minimum. Thus, Scruton embraces the title “conservative” but understands it apolitically, whereas Manent declines to identify himself as conservative but fully embraces a political task essential to conservatism. Conservatives must confront this disconcerting opposition and see what can be learned from it.     

Defending the West in All Its Amplitude: The Liberal Conservative Vision of Roger Scruton

This article explores the mixture of conservatism and liberalism that informs Roger Scruton's political and philosophical reflection. It highlights his response to the “culture of repudiation,” his resistance to totalitarianism, his defense of national loyalty (as opposed to ideological nationalism), his conservative-minded environmentalism, and his defense of order—and government—against libertarian and leftist assaults on legitimate authority. In particular, it explores a fruitful tension in Scruton's thought between a robust acknowledgment of the Christian features of Western civilization (a civilization that is unthinkable without a Christian emphasis on confession and forgiveness) and Scruton's forthright defense of the secular state against Islamist fanaticism. The article also explores affinities and differences between Scruton's understanding of the West's conjugation of Christianity and secularism and Pierre Manent's critique of radical secularism. The article concludes with reflections on Scruton's judicious melding of truth and liberty, and philosophy and Christianity.     

向现代科学进军:周恩来与1956-1967年科学规划工作再认识

1956年,为实现向现代科学进军的目标,周恩来亲自领导了1956—1967年科学规划工作,为新中国科学事业的发展倾注了大量心血。可以说,周恩来是新中国计划科学的积极推动者,是十二年科学规划工作的直接领导者,是十二年哲学社会科学规划工作的有力支持者。回望周恩来及其当时科学工作者制订科学规划时的“初心”,对于今天科学工作者的一个重要启示是:既要制订好科学规划,更要贯彻落实好科学规划;同时,制订科学规划必须有利于解放和发展科研生产力,能够最大限度地调动科研工作者的积极性、主动性和创造性。     

论东方文化对近代科学的影响

近代科学不是西方文明独有的产物,而是不同文明特别是东西方文明间相互融合、共同创造的成果。在历史上,古代希腊科学没能直接发展成近代科学,而东方文化对西方科学中过度的理性主义传统却起到了纠偏、涵化和升华的作用,对其疏离价值、缺少人文关怀的“先天不足”作了适当的“培补”和“修复”。这些不仅体现在东方科学文化所给予的大量科学思想启迪中,而且表现在西方近代科学研究方法的嬗变中。没有东方文化的这种影响,近代科学（革命）是不可能发生的。     

The Bond of Civility': Roger Williams on toleration and its limits

In this article, I examine the meaning of the concept of ‘civility’ for Roger Williams and the role it played in his arguments for religious toleration. I place his concern with civility in the broader context of his life and works and show how it differed from the missionary and civilizing efforts of his fellow New English among the American Indians. For Williams, civility represented a standard of inclusion in the civil community that was ‘essentially distinct’ from Christianity, which properly governed membership in the spiritual community of the church. In contrast to recent scholarship that finds in Williams a robust vision of mutual respect and recognition between co-citizens, I argue that civility constituted rather a very low bar of respectful behavior towards others entirely compatible with a lack of respect, disapproval, and even disgust for them and their beliefs. I show further that civility for Williams was consistent with—and partially secured by—a continued commitment on the part of godly citizens to the potential conversion of their neighbors. Williams endorsed this ‘mere’ civility as a necessary and sufficient condition for toleration while also delineating a potentially expansive role for the magistrate in regulating incivility. Contemporary readers of William who conflate civility with other good things, such as mutual respect, recognition, and civic friendship, slide into a position much like that he was trying to refute.     

社科类学术期刊科学发展的路经选择

本文从社科类学术期刊的勃兴与发展危机、社科类学术期刊遭遇发展危机之实质、社科类学术期刊科学发展的路径三个方面,对社科类学术期刊科学发展问题进行探讨。文章指出,社科类学术期刊在市场化背景下遭遇危机的实质绝非只是发行量的问题,而是在市场中如何与学术最佳结合的问题。因此,社科类学术期刊要顺势而为,以人为本,锁定目标读者和作者群;统筹兼顾,处理好学术性市场和经营性市场的关系;与时俱进,提升社科期刊“核心竞争力”。从而充分发挥社科期刊作为学术传承和学术积累的载体作用,让自身的社会价值在市场中得以最大化,创造更多的精神财富,促进社会和谐,实现自身科学发展。     

现代科学技术对中国文物保护的影响和启示

中国文物保护事业的发展是紧紧伴随着现代科学技术的发展而发展的.经过清末的国门被打开、建国后的现代化建设以及改革开放后的科学发展,现代科学技术数度冲击促进着我国的发展,推动文物保护工作上了三个台阶,并具有显著特征.展望现代科学技术在文物保护中应用研究的同时,我们也要认识到建立文物保护理论体系和文物保护技术方法的重要性.     

周恩来的现代科学技术革命思想论析

学术界对于周恩来的科学技术思想研究已经取得了一批成果 ,而对周恩来现代科学技术革命思想的研究则十分薄弱。周恩来是中共领袖中对现代科学技术革命认识最早、阐发最系统的一位杰出代表。对于现代科学技术革命的迅速崛起 ,周恩来不是漠然置之 ,而是积极主动的正视它、探讨它。周恩来关于现代科学技术革命的思想 ,具有鲜明的前瞻性、务实性和创造性 ,是中国共产党人顺应历史潮流、勇于迎接时代挑战的重要思想结晶。     

The condemnation of Roger Bacon

The condemnation of the English Franciscan Roger Bacon in 1277 has been the subject of a great deal of discussion, most of it inconclusive or misleading. There is ample evidence to suggest, however, that Bacon's condemnation and imprisonment resulted from his adherence to an astrological tradition, transmitted to Europe through the writings of Albumasar, which placed the birth of Christ and the advent of Christianity under the influence of a planetary conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. In his works written for Pope Clement IV in the 1260s, Bacon treats this celestial phenomenon as an integral part of his astrological doctrine. Most of his contemporaries, including Thomas Aquinas and Albertus Magnus, reject the idea that the stars exerted an influence on the human nature of Christ at his birth. In contrast to the opinion of the noted historian of science, Lynn Thorndike, this article shows that Roger Bacon's views on this subject were indeed unique, and sufficiently heretical to warrant his condemnation and imprisonment by the Franciscan Order.     

The Personal and the Political in Roger Scruton's Conservatism

Roger Scruton's philosophical enterprise is an effort to “save the appearances” of value in the human world that elude scientific explanation. The meaning of the human things appears only to a first-person perspective, which is incommensurable with the objective perspective of cause and effect. To make sense of our experience requires a “cognitive dualism” that can account for the human or “lifeworld” as well as physical reality. Ranging rather indiscriminately over Scruton's diverse writings, I expound the unifying conception of personhood that makes them a coherent whole and also serves as the touchstone for Scruton's conservative critique of liberal theory and practice. Some questions are raised about that two-dimensional critique, about its separation into “metaphysical” and “empirical” components, and about whether the latter does or doesn't “operationalize” the former.     

传统改造与科学发展的互助相促——略论中国近现代图书目录学的发展性特征

中国近现代目录学的发展以赋予传统目录学的“公共性质”为方向,立足为公众收藏、整理、传播图书文献资料服务,读者意识大为增强。目录学从学科体系范围、紧密联系各个领域的方式,也有了极大的改变,努力与近现代科学的进步接轨,为中国传统文化的改造做出了贡献。