French Eighteenth-Century Materialists and Natural Law

Summary

This article looks at the discussions of natural law by the eighteenth-century French materialists Julien Offray de La Mettre, Denis Diderot, Paul Thiry d'Holbach and Claude-Adrien Helvétius. It is particularly concerned with their discussion of moral values and their attempt to find a materialistic basis for them as part of their rejection of religion. The discussion brings out the différences between them and analyses their dialogues on this question, including the other materialists' rejection of La Mettrie's amoralism, which threatened to undermine their attempt to found a natural law taught by experience and based on human nature. Particular attention is paid to Diderot's many writings which grapple with the subject, beginning with his Encyclopédie article droit naturel, probably written in 1754. He discussed the question in many of his later writings, including in his annotations on the works of Helvétius, who based natural law on the general interest. These writings reveal a tension between Diderot's emphasis on the search for individual happiness and the interests of society as he, together with d'Holbach, attempted to provide a natural basis for morality and government from which to criticise existing institutions.     

The Poison and the Spider's Web: Diderot and Eighteenth-Century French Epicureanism

This article argues that the term ‘Epicurean’ had multiple meanings in the moral and political thought of the eighteenth century. Concentrating on the reception of Epicureanism in France, it shows that some critics focused on Epicurus’ hedonistic moral psychology and labelled Epicurean those thinkers who denied natural sociability; for others, who instead focused on Epicurus’ materialist natural philosophy, to label a thinker an Epicurean was to label them an atheist. This polyvalence is presented as a salutary caution against essentialising claims about the content of eighteenth-century Epicureanism per se. Despite this sceptical stance, however, the article goes on to argue that it is nevertheless fruitful to investigate the engagement with Epicureanism by particular thinkers or in particular texts. Indeed, a comparative reading of Denis Diderot's Encyclopédie entry on ‘Epicuréisme’ and his source material in Johan Jakob Bruker and Pierre Bayle demonstrates that Diderot used his discussion of Epicureanism to intervene directly in contemporary theological controversies over the immortal soul and a providential god.     

Andreas Kalvos and the Eighteenth-Century Ethos

Abstract

In the space of a few years the small isle of Zante, one of the Ionian group, produced three important poets: Hugo Foscolo, Dionysios Solomos, and the subject of this present study, Andreas Kalvos. Kalvos was born in 1792, fourteen years after Foscolo and six years before Solomos. His father's family may originally have come from Crete. His mother's family was one of the aristocratic families of Zante—the family name had been inscribed ever since the Venetian occupation of the island in the Gold Book of the island nobility. The marriage of the poet's parents does not seem to have been a success, for not many years after the birth of his younger brother in 1794, the father, taking the two children with him, left Zante for Leghorn, where his brother was consul for the Ionian Islands, and where there was a considerable Greek colony. In 1805 Andreas' mother obtained a divorce fron her husband on the grounds of desertion, and shortly afterwards she married for the second time. She died in 1815, never having seen her children again after their departure from Zante.     

论法国大革命时期英国政治的保守化

法国大革命是英国政治史上的分水岭,它造成18世纪末英国政治的保守化。大革命前夕,小皮特领导下的英国政府,为消除光荣革命后"旧制度"的积弊而走上渐进改革道路。随着法国大革命的爆发及其日益激进化,英国国内激进主义与保守主义两大派别在思想与实践层面的交锋也日趋激烈。英法战争爆发后,英国在政治上日趋保守,革命前的渐进改革戛然而止,政府转而采取高压政策,严厉打压国内激进主义运动,由此在政治上进入到1688年光荣革命后最为保守的时代。     

英法对北美整体性的认可与美利坚民族的形成

殖民地内部的整体意识乃美利坚民族形成的先决条件。本文作者通过仔细研读相关的历史文献 ,考察并比较了从“七年战争”结束到 1 789年法国大革命期间英法两国对北美整体意识的促进作用。尽管英国政府和英国民众强烈反对北美的独立运动 ,但英国政府法令的颁布方式、颁布对象、措辞以及英国民众的冷漠态度 ,从客观上刺激了殖民地的整体意识与独立意识。而法国政府与法国民众则出于历史因素、战略考虑以及国内社会文化形势而对北美独立运动给予了热情支持 ,并在法国和欧洲其他地区塑造了美利坚民族崭新而独特的形象。英国的作用因此是客观间接的 ,法国的作用则是主动直接的。     

French and British Security: Mirror Images in a Globalized World

The French government is reassessing the whole basis on which it trains and equips its diplomats for their calling, driven by a growing perception that French diplomacy has not been performing well. The 'Heisbourg Report' on the state of French diplomacy pulled no punches and accused French diplomats of being closed to international influences, untrained for modern diplomacy and stifled by a state-centrist view of modern international relations. On the face of it this can all be interpreted as a milestone in an underlying convergence between Francophone and Anglophone approaches to modern diplomacy and security. In very important respects, however, Britain and France are mirror images of each other. What is defined here as mirror imaging can be seen to exist at three different levels which are self-reinforcing, though not in obvious ways: in the pros and cons of each others' policy-making style; in their inextricable fate to develop the European Security and Defence Policy project; and even at the most abstract levels in the predicaments they face in the light of globalization. Seen in this context, it is evident that it is not merely the skills and techniques of French and British policy-makers that need to be re-examined, but rather their way of thinking about their own state and about the nature of the international system around them in an era when globalization is symptomatic of deep structural change.     

当戏楼已成往事

2004年,京剧大师程砚秋诞辰100周年;京剧大师梅兰芳诞辰110周年.2004年6月13日,前门大碗茶戏楼开业两周年纪念,却在准备搬走;同在前门的当年北京外城最早的戏院--广和楼也是门可罗雀.     

见证国家大剧院

在共和国走过55个年头的时候,我们终于拥有了自己的国家大剧院.等待了这么漫长的时间,与其说它一个财力积累的过程,毋宁说它是一个认识的过程.也许至今还有人认为,花几十亿元建一个剧院是一种浪费,但是这种声音毕竟非常微弱了.10月,国家大剧院即将封顶,在此,让我们共同回顾这一神圣艺术殿堂不平凡的诞生经历.     

曾纪泽与中法战争时期的英国调停

1883—1885年中法战争期间英国的数度调停,目的在于独立操纵中法和议,以维护英国在华优势地位及列强共同侵华的统治秩序。曾纪泽维护中国国家利益和尊严的外交立场和活动及其对清政府政策的影响,是英国调停未能如愿成功的重要原因。     

近代日本横滨英法驻军研究

日本自幕府末期开港后,国内政局动荡不安,对外政策亦处于左右摇摆中;欧美列强以防止攘夷派武士浪人袭击横滨居留地外国人为借口,于1863年开始向横滨派驻警戒军队。驻军以英法军队为主,直至1875年撤军,驻屯横滨达12年之久。英法两国的驻军加深了日本的民族危机,横滨居留地亦成了列强的国中之国。明治新政府通过内政、外交等方面的不懈努力,加之国际形势变化等因素,终于促使英法做出撤军决定。