Introduction: The Future of Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship

In her Introduction to this issue of International Affairs devoted to the future of Europe and the transatlantic relationship, Julie Smith highlights the challenges facing the West's major organizations—the European Union and NATO. The Convention on the Future of Europe, enlargement of both NATO and the EU, the euro debate, and the tensions in the transatlantic relationship are discussed in the context of the articles in these pages.     

The end of the West: the once and future Europe

Europe and the United States—the West—urgently need political leadership, economic fortitude and a clear vision of the future if they are to contend with the challenges posed by emerging regional powers and to resist the downward pressures of ‘relative decline’, the central focus of David Marquand's book, The end of the West: the once and future Europe. Central to this goal will be the West's ability to ‘rebalance’ between its institutions and democracy; its power and commitments; and its political and moral authority. Europe must ‘rebalance’ on issues related to ethnicity and identity, governance and authority, and civilization and territory. EU enlargement and its institutional reform processes have exacerbated this imbalance. American foreign policy objectives currently exceed its resources and are hampered by lack of strategic clarity and intellectual vision which keeps the United States from achieving an adaptive leadership model more capable of successfully operating in an increasingly complex and multipolar world. For Europe to become internally healthy and externally productive—both politically and economically—it needs to regain balance between its utopian, institutional objectives and democratic support for its future ambitions and policy course. Strong leadership and a powerful vision of prosperity from the West will be vital to return the transatlantic partnership to global economic and political advantage.     

Britain and the Convention on the Future of Europe

If the reaction from the British Conservative Party and the right-wing press were to be believed, it would be easy to think that the constitutional treaty produced by the European Convention represented a failure for Britain. This article takes issues with such claims. It illustrates, by tracing British involvement within the Convention from its inception to the finalization of the draft treaty, that the British Government succeeded remarkably well in ensuring that the document reflected its major policy preferences.     

重新审视中西比较史——《大分流：欧洲、中国及现代世界经济的发展》述评

一、标新立异《大分流》美国学者彭慕兰 (KennethPomeranz)的新著《大分流 :欧洲 ,中国及现代世界经济的发展》一经出版 ,即在学术界引起轰动 ,2 0 0 1年获得美国历史学会的费正清奖和世界历史学会年度奖 ,在国外 ,围绕着这本书和其他一些对中国史和世界史进行再评价的史学新著开展过多次讨论 ,在中国 ,这本书也正在引起越来越多的关注。何谓大分流 ?大分流的英文原文是“GreatDivergence” ,它有多种译法 ,已见之于报章的就有大分流、大分岔、大歧变、大裂变等 ,译者在听取学术界同仁意见后最终选定了“大分流”。1 8世纪在西欧发生的工…     

梦华怀旧情结与明末清初西湖小说之兴盛

杭州在唐宋时期的辉煌历史与灿烂文化,是明末清初西湖小说的素材来源与情感寄托,而这在与后南宋时代的兴衰对比中产生了强烈的反差与失衡。失落中的梦华怀旧情结,在小说作者的审美心理与创作动机中,以及杭州读者群的接受心境与审美情趣中是普遍存在的。这是明末清初西湖小说兴盛的一个重要心理因素。     

走到世界的尽头 乌斯怀亚

<正>我能想到的最浪漫的事,就是牵着你的手,一起走到世界的尽头。这个"世界的尽头",就是阿根廷乌斯怀亚,有人类居住的最南端的城市,出了乌斯怀亚港口1000海里,就是渺无人烟的茫茫冰河南极洲。皑皑雪山下"美丽的海湾"乌斯怀亚,位于南半球的顶端火地岛南海岸,走到这里,就走到了世界的尽头——出港口,过德雷克海峡,就是无人居住的冰封南极极地。这里依山傍水,小镇的建筑色彩绚丽,山顶常年积雪,山下的森林却郁郁葱葱,风光旖旎     

The End of Art: A Philosophical Defense

This essay constructs philosophical defenses against criticisms of my theory of the end of art. These have to do with the definition of art; the concept of artistic quality; the role of aesthetics; the relationship between philosophy and art; how to answer the question “But is it art?”; the difference between the end of art and “the death of painting”; historical imagination and the future; the method of using indiscernible counterparts, like Warhol's Brillo Box and the Brillo cartons it resembles; the logic of imitation—and the differences between Hegel's views on the end of art and mine. These defenses amplify and fortify the thesis of the end of art as set forth in my After the End of Art: Contemporary Art and the Pale of History (1997).     

The End of Asceticism

Abstract

In this article the author explores the process by which asceticism lost its central place in (Protestant) Christian tradition in early modernity by comparing the ascetic teaching of fifteenth-century Carthusian writer Nikolaus Kempf with the views of Martin Luther and Immanuel Kant. The article identifies a number of philosophical and theological changes that took place that made it impossible for modern thinkers to understand asceticism in its traditional sense, and instead led to interpretations of asceticism as “works righteousness” and superstition. These changes included a new emphasis on the freedom of the individual, which corresponded to a mistrust of moral authority, a new understanding of morality that de-emphasized moral education, and a new understanding of knowledge that disconnected knowledge and virtue.