Did Harrington’s cats catch Harvey’s chick? Vitalistic imagery in early modern republican political theory

In an early modern context, ‘vitalistic’ natural philosophies had been associated with antiauthoritarian political theories. Whilst mechanical philosophy has been characterized as amenable to (or even, sometimes, inspired by) conservative politics on account of the structural analogies between passive and inert particles that can only be organized by externally imposed strict mechanical laws on the one hand, and similarly passive citizens, on the other, vitalism understood as a monistic, dynamic materialism purportedly implicated alternative modes of agency and organization. This alternative model incorporated inherently active, self-organizing agents allegedly capable of bringing about higher structures in a bottom-up fashion both in the natural and in political realm. In this paper, I focus on James Harrington’s appropriation of William Harvey’s physiology and examine whether the republican philosopher actually made use of the political potential said to be inherent in vitalistic discourse. I intend to show that Harrington, rather than boldly capitalizing on vitalism’s decentralizing and democratic potential, adapts his physiological imagery to his wider set of ideas concerning human nature and moral psychology underpinning his politics. Simple analogy between vitalism and antiauthoritarianism is then lost in Harrington’s writings, pointing to a more complex relationship between early modern natural and political philosophy.     

Do we have any genuine works by Aristotle? Francesco Patrizi da Cherso’s discussion of the corpus Aristotelicum

ABSTRACT

This paper deals with the scrutiny, as found in the Discussiones Peripateticae 1, 2–4, to which Francesco Patrizi da Cherso subjected the works of the transmitted corpus Aristotelicum, and those attributed to Aristotle outside the corpus. It explains why Patrizi rejected most of the transmitted ?uvre as spurious, and shows what would have been the most radical consequence of his hyper-critical stance, had it carried the day. Particular attention is paid to contemporary (i.e. sixteenth-century) scholarship available to, and used by, Patrizi.     

A Manchu itinerary

Abstract

Eighty‐nine business letters from European map sellers to the London firm of Thomas Jefferys and William Faden are preserved in the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan. Dating from the decade 1773–1783, the letters reveal through the invoices, accounts payable, bills of lading, and orders many detailed aspects of the map trade in the eighteenth century at the time of the War of American Independence. Special attention is drawn to the exchange of maps between England and France during this period of war.     

论哈维对海德格尔“地方”思想的一次学术建构

大卫·哈维在收录于其《正义、自然与差异地理学》文集中的《从空间到地方,再回看》这篇文章中,对他所谓的马丁·海德格尔\"地方建构\"思想进行了批判。通过忠实地引用哈维和海德格尔的著作、分析其各自观点形成的背景并提供依据,本文详尽揭示了哈维在勾勒海德格尔思想这一学术工作中的操作细节,即他实际上大量使用了重排引文、重组素材、偷换主题、\"视而不见\"、模糊处理等做法,\"制造\"出一个需要批判的所谓海德格尔的\"地方建构\"思想,从而对自己所要提出的\"地方建构\"思想加以支持。仅就目前所掌握的文献看,海德格尔有他自己的\"地方\"和\"空间\"思想,但并未明确讨论过甚至从没有提到过哈维所关心的\"地方建构\"问题。     

Between friendship and justice: on Lincoln’s political thought

Reading Aristotle and applying his notion of philia, or political friendship, across 26 centuries sheds significant light into Abraham Lincoln’s career. It is precisely in Lincoln’s embodiment of the Aristotelian notion of friendship that we come to understand his unique greatness. Perhaps he alone of all Americans proved capable of such extraordinary feats as leading the Republican party to victory in 1860, holding the Union together through the secession crisis and four long years of bloody civil war, ending slavery without white backlash, and offering reconciliation with the incredible magnanimity expressed in the ringing phrases of the Second Inaugural address. The basis of Lincoln’s preternatural political genius proved to be his ability to comprehend all sides, a comprehension that can only come from a profound belief in the importance of friendship. Americans, Lincoln argued throughout a terrible war as he had his entire life, were not enemies but friends who shared a commitment to nature and nature’s law as expressed in the Declaration.     

Resistance politics of non-violence: Jean Paulhan’s ’Fautrier the Enraged’ (1943)

ABSTRACT

The idea of adequately ‘representing’ violence was an important point of discussion amongst Resistance artists and intellectuals at the time of the French Occupation. In particular, intellectual resistant Jean Paulhan had written on the subject in his text introducing Jean Fautrier’s retrospective exhibition of November and December 1943 in occupied Paris, ‘Fautrier the Enraged’. While the thematic of the exhibition proposed an academic and traditional subject matter, Paulhan demonstrated that Fautrier’s typically matierist and anti-naturalistic approach was instrumental in ‘suggesting reality’. Fautrier’s individual creative process, Paulhan argued, led to a transparent experience to be shared between viewer and artist not only on an aesthetic level, but also from a political point of view. At the time of ‘Fautrier the Enraged”s writing, Paulhan had indeed been concerned with issues of political engagement, as is evident from his essay ‘The Flowers of Tarbes or Terror in Literature’ (1941), which reflects upon the human condition and is concerned with reconciling poetry, politics and ethics. The author believes that such questions were being addressed in Paulhan’s text on Fautrier and by Fautrier’s art and that an aesthetic reading of Paulhan’s text is inseparable from a political interpretation of Fautrier’s art within the context of the Occupation. Indeed, the aesthetic criteria used in Paulhan’s text as framework to his argument were then loaded with political meaning. For instance, Paulhan considered virtuosity as an essential artistic characteristic to be opposed to the art of imitation based on the technical ability to observe and simulate ‘nature’ as imposed by the occupants. With excerpts from Paulhan’s essay and exchange of letters with Fautrier as well as visual analysis of some of the artworks presented in the exhibition, this paper deals with the wider issues of ‘representation’ in the historical and cultural context of the Second World War in France.     

The Akko 1 Shipwreck, Israel: the First Two Seasons

The Akko 1 shipwreck was found in 4 m of water inside the ancient harbour of Akko (Acre), 250 m from the ancient wall, with its stern touching a submerged rampart. The dense framing-pattern and relatively thin planking, the extensive use of oak and the origin of the timber, suggest that this is the remains of a small armed ship or auxiliary vessel built in the Eastern Mediterranean. The ship has been provisionally dated to the late-18th or early-19th century, the late Ottoman period. The finds testify to its involvement in one of the naval campaigns at Akko.
© 2008 The Authors     

论朱熹建构鬼神理论的必然性

朱熹是宋代一位具有科学思想的理学家,但科学思想却没有使他走向无神论道路,反而使他接受鬼神,并建构了鬼神理论。对此,我们不能简单地断之为倒退落后,如果对朱熹"了解之同情",则能理解他建构鬼神理论之苦衷。四大因素迫使朱熹建构鬼神理论:一是现实中的"鬼神"现象必须得到解答;二是儒学典籍中的鬼神之事无法回避;三是必须应对佛道鬼神论的挑战;四是道统的合法性辩护。     

鲁宾逊对美国历史教育的贡献

美国新史学家鲁宾逊提出了实用主义的历史教育论 ,设计了新的课程体系 ,编写了一系列历史教科书 ,对二十世纪美国的历史教育做出了重要贡献     

The Republicans Are the Nation? Thomas Jefferson,William Duane,and the Evolution of the Republican Coalition, 1809–1815

This essay explores Thomas Jefferson's early retirement political activity and binary vision of Federalism/Republicanism within the context of the broader political economic forces of the early nineteenth century. It shows that his notions of unity and legitimacy, so rooted in the life and death struggles of 1790s state building, increasingly no longer were relevant. His participation in a minor affair illuminates this point quite well. In the spring of 1811, Jefferson played a central role in a battle over loyalty, editorial prerogative, and the maintenance of party unity. It began when William Duane, book publisher, editor of the Philadelphia Aurora and long-time power broker within the coalition, sought Jefferson's help in securing funding from Virginia Republicans. Duane was facing a financial meltdown, and he hoped that the “sage of Monticello” might provide him a way out. Jefferson ultimately rejected the request in the name of party harmony, the irony of which is that Duane's “schism” reflected more of the future of the Republican movement than the harmonious nation Jefferson was hoping to preserve.     

Reagan's Foreign Policy: An Assessment (I) Introduction

The Western drama High Noon introduces political considerations deeper than the maelstrom of American anticommunism of the 1950s against which it is most often viewed. It presents the central problems of modern political obligation as arising out of an encounter between Aristotelian and Lockean ideas about marriage, friendship, consent and coercion, and religious obligation. The marshal Kane, representing the altered vestige of Aristotelian ideals, desperately seeks help from the Lockean-like community of Hadleyville. The resulting tension lays bare the political ambiguity many find inherent in American political life.     

A few bubbles more: The myntling register revisited

To conclude the debate between E.D. Jones and M.D. Bailey about the historical significance of the Myntling Register, we now print Dr Jones' reply to Dr Bailey's criticisms, in which he defends the use to which he has put the text.     

Forgiveness and reconciliation in Hobbes’s natural law theory

Thomas Hobbes’s laws of nature dictate the making and keeping of the social contract. In addition, Hobbes’s natural law theory considers traditional moral virtues, such as mercy and gratitude, as being conducive to peace. Some Hobbes scholars have argued that these other natural laws call for ‘forgiveness’ and facilitate ‘reconciliation’. However, as this essay shows, Hobbes does not use these terms to mean the reparation of broken relationships between victims and perpetrators. Rather, Hobbesian reconciliation refers to efforts to propitiate enemies in order to win their favour, while forgiveness is a synonym for pardon, in the sense of punishment-forbearance. It is argued that neither of these requires true remorse and reparation of the wrong done. By contrasting Hobbes’s conception of anger with that of Aristotle, the article provides an explanation for why Hobbes maintains that the rage of enemies could be appeased by instrumental calculations of expected benefits, thus ignoring more deep-seated resentments caused by moral wrongs.