The vigorous and doux soldier: David Hume’s military defence of commerce

ABSTRACT

If war is an inevitable condition of human nature, as David Hume suggests, then what type of societies can best protect us from defeat and conquest? For David Hume, commerce decreases the relative cost of war and promotes technological military advances as well as martial spirit. Commerce therefore makes a country militarily stronger and better equipped to protect itself against attacks than any other kind of society. Hume does not assume commerce would yield a peaceful world nor that commercial societies would be militarily weak, as many contemporary scholars have argued. On the contrary, for him, military might is a beneficial consequence of commerce.     

From Savages and Barbarians to Primitives: Africa,Social Typologies,and History in Eighteenth–Century French Philosophy

This article describes the conceptual framework (what I call a “style of reasoning”) within which knowledge about Africa was legitimized in eighteenth–century French philosophy. The article traces a shift or rupture in this conceptual framework which, at the end of the eighteenth century, led to the emergence of new conditions for knowledge legitimation that altered Europe’s perception of Africa. The article examines these two conceptual frameworks within the context of a discussion of the social theory of the time, which categorized Africans first as savages, and then, with the advent of our modern “style of reasoning,” as primitives. The argument used to demonstrate this change in categorizations is historical. (In the terminology of Michel Foucault, the paper is an “archaeological” investigation of knowledge about Africa.) The greater part of the article analyzes in detail the principal social theory of Enlightenment philosophy, the stadial theory of society, with the aim of demonstrating how it determined what could be affirmed about Africa. The shift in the perception of Africans from savages to primitives involved an epistemological change in how societies were grasped. The article provides a greater understanding of the constitution of Africa as a cognitive construct, which is not only of theoretical concern; this construct shaped Europe’s intervention in Africa, and continues to influence what we believe Africa is and should become.     

Culture versus commerce: societies and spaces for elites in eighteenth-century Liverpool

Our understanding of an eighteenth-century renaissance in English towns is based around the emergence of cultural infrastructures and organisations which formed the cultural capital of a polite society concerned with both sociability and differentiation. Urban improvements are seen as spreading to a wide variety of towns including a number of large commercial centres. This paper explores the experience of this urban renaissance in Liverpool, focusing in particular on the ways in which cultures and counter cultures were created around the changing social and economic infrastructure of the town. The changes occurring in Liverpool were characteristic of wider debates about the relationship between commerce and culture. The town had ambitions to cultural grandeur, a wealthy corporation and a growing number of middle-ranking professionals, merchants and tradesmen. And yet many of its social and leisure facilities were lost as Liverpool grew into the leading provincial port of late eighteenth-century England. Rather than see the fate of these spaces and societies as the triumph of commerce over polite culture, or as a reflection of an alternative culture, the paper argues that their demise can only be fully understood in the context of political and ideological conflict between elite groups, especially over the slave trade. The gradual resolution of these conflicts around the turn of the nineteenth century encouraged growing investment in cultural capital in the town.     

Kierkegaard's alternative metaphysical theology

This article uses Jeremy Bentham's notion of disambiguation, which links language to power and ‘sinister interest’, to analyse criticisms of the Royal Academy of Arts by Benthamites and Philosophic Radicals at the Select Committee on Arts and Manufactures of 1835/6. This practice of disambiguation aimed to produce a distinction between the Royal Academy of Arts and the publicly funded art school. I situate this activity within the linguistic turn taken by Bentham's ethics, and its relevance to a dilemma of pedagogy in commercial society framed by Adam Smith. Smith's dilemma turns on the conflict between the requirement for a pedagogy that conforms to the principle of free trade, and an equally binding requirement for a virtue ethical model of pedagogy that offers a remedy for the corrupting effects of commerce on character. Adam Smith's support for private academies of art asserted a hierarchy of virtue ethics over utility, thus safeguarding autonomous ethical reasoning within capitalist forms of social life. Bentham's thought, in contrast, eschews the link between ethics and character, and places ethics itself within normative rules of language and cognition.     

The disambiguation of the Royal Academy of Arts

This article uses Jeremy Bentham's notion of disambiguation, which links language to power and ‘sinister interest’, to analyse criticisms of the Royal Academy of Arts by Benthamites and Philosophic Radicals at the Select Committee on Arts and Manufactures of 1835/6. This practice of disambiguation aimed to produce a distinction between the Royal Academy of Arts and the publicly funded art school. I situate this activity within the linguistic turn taken by Bentham's ethics, and its relevance to a dilemma of pedagogy in commercial society framed by Adam Smith. Smith's dilemma turns on the conflict between the requirement for a pedagogy that conforms to the principle of free trade, and an equally binding requirement for a virtue ethical model of pedagogy that offers a remedy for the corrupting effects of commerce on character. Adam Smith's support for private academies of art asserted a hierarchy of virtue ethics over utility, thus safeguarding autonomous ethical reasoning within capitalist forms of social life. Bentham's thought, in contrast, eschews the link between ethics and character, and places ethics itself within normative rules of language and cognition.     

Popular geographies and scholarly geographies in provincial France: the Société Normande de Géographie, 1879–1937

Geographical societies were established in many provincial cities of France during the final quarter of the nineteenth century. Through lectures and publications, these organizations promoted popular geographies at a time when academic geography was in its infancy. The Geographical Society of Normandy was founded at Rouen in 1879 and survived for six decades. Unlike some of its counterparts, it did not provide commercial information after its early years nor did it receive funding from the local chamber of commerce. Its annual Bulletins presented aspects of popular geography at the time and elucidated views held by explorers, colonial administrators and other contributors. Tales of expeditions to distant lands were reported enthusiastically, but assessments of opportunities for European settlement were not always optimistic. European affairs rose to prominence in the life of the Society in the years surrounding World War I. Its popular geographies conveyed in public lectures continued to enjoy success but contacts with academic geographers were intermittent. Largely forgotten geographical societies, such as that in Normandy, played a significant role in raising knowledge of the world before geography became firmly established as a university discipline.     

Enlightened histories: civilization,war and the Scottish enlightenment

The concept of civil society continues to generate considerable interest, while the concept of civilization attracts comparatively little attention. This has led to a tendency to oversimplify the relationship between civil societies and militarily powerful sovereign states. Civil societies, it is often argued, are those societies that have emerged from a successful process of domestic pacification and effective control of state power. In this paper, it will be argued that some prominent Scottish Enlightenment thinkers developed theories of civilization grounded in more complex historical narratives, in which the accomplishments of civil society were tied to the achievement of state sovereignty based on the successful monopoly of military might. The purpose of this paper is to trace the role of state sovereignty and military monopolization, and the consequent prominence given to the practice of war, in the “historical” theories of civilization articulated by David Hume, William Robertson, Adam Smith and Adam Ferguson.     

徽商衰亡主因探析

徽商的衰亡固然与商帮生存发展的外部社会环境、政策环境发生了重大变化等因素相关,但外部因素并不足以完全摧垮一个盛极一时的商帮集团.本文认为,徽商衰亡的主因,一在于商帮的核心价值观是取儒而非取贾,二在于徽州文化与徽州社会由初期的开放走向封闭,三在于商帮集团的封建性质,三者共同构成了徽商集团走向衰落的内因.     

Unlikely amazons: Brazilian indigenous gender constructs in a modern context

Feminist theory predicts that when traditional societies with egalitarian gender relations contact European state societies in which gender stratification exists, the traditional society will adopt the European gender construct. This rule may be modified in cases where the relations between the two types of society are modulated by interpretive processes which allow the state society to appropriate symbols of the indigenous culture for their own purposes, and the indigenous society to shape contact and change as they occur. This article describes how European contact transformed gender constructs among the Bakairí Indians of central Brazil, while accounting for the presence of an anomalous group of women who behave differently to the typical Indian woman. It explains how individual Bakairí, along with the support of key Brazilian institutions, have employed interpretively the early-contact indigenous version of the female gender role to authenticate the indigenous identity.     

The Work‐Life Balance: Geographical Perspectives on Lifestyle,Leisure, Stuff and the FuturePresidential Address to the Institute of Australian Geographers’ Conference,Hobart, July 20081

The work‐life balance is a pressing social issue in Australia but one on which geographers have been relatively silent. Predictions of ‘a leisure society’ have not been fulfilled. Instead, work has come to dominate life in Australia and in many other advanced western societies. The reasons for this are explored. Materialism is at the heart of the work‐life imbalance. There is, however, evidence of a changing work ethic and the emergence of leisure‐orientated lifestyles, albeit with ‘leisure’ interpreted as ‘freedom to’ undertake gratifying activity rather than simply ‘freedom from’ obligatory commitments. Despite the supposed homogenising influence of globalisation and the internet, place will become increasingly important in a leisure‐orientated lifestyle‐led future.     

The Role of Culture and Technology in Civil Society Promotion in the Middle East: A Case Study Approach

For over a decade, the U.S. administration has been sponsoring capacity‐building efforts focusing on technology to support democracy activists in Middle Eastern societies; such efforts have often fallen short in their effectiveness. In this article, using a case study approach, we argue that capacity‐building efforts must be approached in a culture‐specific manner. It is imperative to begin exploring the specific nature of civil society in different Middle Eastern societies and translate the Western concept of “civil society” into terms appropriate to Middle Eastern contexts. Based on a culture‐specific understanding, programs involving technology to promote democratic institutions in Middle Eastern societies can be designed.     

90年代重庆零售商业离心化研究

本文以重庆市近郊区为研究区域,通过对近郊区与中心区社会商品零售额总量和增长率的比较以及对近郊区零售商业中心的特征分析,发现90年代中期开始出现商业离心化的迹象。商业离心化的出现是宏观环境以及中心区与近郊区推拉力机制共同作用的结果。目前的商业离心化尚处于萌芽阶段,是市场经济下的自觉行为,但不同于计划经济下的均衡分布,离心化发展速度较慢,主要发生在各郊区商业中心,中心区的商业优势仍然很突出。商业离心化势不可挡,近郊中心与中心区的竞争将更加激烈,中心商业区和郊区商业中心应各有侧重地发展     

中国城市的商业郊区化及研究迟缓发展探讨

随着城市人口郊区化、工业郊区化的发展,商业也就不可避免的有向郊区化发展的趋势,中国商业发展状况存在地区不平衡性,大城市商业发展情况较好,一些城市已开始有商业郊区化现象,但是目前商业郊区化的现象还很不明显,相对人口和工业郊区化而言比较迟缓。这与郊区化概念有一定影响外,更主要是因为商业本身的特征(包括发展机制、付租能力、业态多样性等)以及中国的国情等。本文首先回顾了中国商业郊区化的研究,得出商业郊区化的动力主要来自购买力的外移、交通的改善以及郊区地价和租金相对市区便宜等,并在分析商业网点布局的影响因素基础上,探讨城市商业网点布局发展的阶段特征以及阐述商业郊区化为什么在中国发展迟缓的原因。     

From Ancient to Modern Urbanization: Intermediary Function of an Urban Society

A number of traits identify an urban society from a village. In the 1950s, V.G. Childe identified ten traits for an urban society, including permanent settlement in dense aggregations, centralization of surplus, monumental public buildings, social stratification, a ruling class, systems of recording and administration, exact and predictive sciences regulating the cycle of agriculture operation, conceptualized and sophisticated styles of art, long-distance trade and importing raw materials, and a social organization based upon residence rather than kinship. Although he identified these traits for ancient urban society, these also can be applied in modern times. The most important function of an urban society especially in southeast Iran is its intermediary function. This function can be seen both in ancient and modern times. The present paper aims to identify both urban societies in ancient and modern times, and to explain intermediary function of these societies, including Shahr-i-Sokhta during the third millennium BCE and Zahedan in modern time. In fact, this function may have caused the emergence and development of these urban societies during two different periods. It is also postulated that the decline of this function may have caused the collapse of both societies.     

Beyond Modernization and Development, or Why the Poor Reject Development

This paper examines the processes and impact of modernization and development paradigms upon poor communities in non-Western societies. It traces the original classical meaning of modernization as being a process of transformation of the rural economy into modern industrial urban-based capitalist society. This transformed society at a later stage through colonization exports "modern development" to these non-Western societies but with very different consequences in terms of their impact on the lives of millions of people who are marginalized and exploited through these means.
Instead of transforming their agriculture into modern industrial development, these societies are subjected to a "reverse modernization" in which the prior European industrial relations and structure are superimposed on to the traditional structures of the Third World using neo-traditional ideologies and structures as part of the process of penetration. This "enforced development" is resisted in many parts of the world and rejected through diverse means including post-traditionalism. The paper ends by posing questions as to what are the appropriate responses to modernization and development as we move towards the twenty-first century.     

One world? Many worlds? The place of regions in the study of international society

This article is a revised version of the 2006 Martin Wight Memorial Lecture and examines the placeof regional states‐systems or regional international societies within understandings of contemporary international society as whole. It addresses the relationship between the one world and the many worlds‐on one side, the one world of globalizing capitalism, of global security dynamics, of a global political system that, for many, revolves a single hegemonic power, of global institutions and global governance, and of the drive to develop and embed a global cosmopolitan ethic; and, on the other side, the extent to which regions and the regional level of practice and of analysis havebecome more firmly established as important elements of the architecture of world politics; and the extent to which a multiregional system of international relations may be emerging. The first section considers explanations of the place of regionalism in contemporary international society and the various ways in which the one world aff ects the many. The second section deals with how regionalism might best be studied. The final section analyses four ways in which regionalism may contribute to international order and global governance.     

论洋务知识分子的对外贸易思想

洋务知识分子在对外贸易上主张：以中国的优势产品推行出口型贸易战略;发展本国机器工业以实现“进口替代”;组织公司以发挥对外贸易的团队优势;强化政府的宏观管理以改善贸易的内外环境;采取保商政策等。这些主张的提出,适应了时代的发展要求,从而把传统的国内贸易思想和对外无足轻重的贸易意识提高到了立国强国的现代贸易的思想高度。这对当时及此后重商、重工思想的发展以及社会经济的进步都产生了积极影响。     

Juvenile Delinquency in Kuwait: Applying Social Disorganization Theory

Juvenile delinquency is considered one of the most serious and challenging problems worldwide. Criminology provides a wide array of explanations for delinquency; however, the vast majority of the theories were applied and tested in Western societies. Therefore, the possibility of applying these theories to non‐Western societies is yet to be determined. This article will examine juvenile delinquency in Kuwait and will attempt to determine the relative effects of social disorganization on delinquency. The study will also test the effects of competing theories such as social control, strain, and differential association. Some researchers believe that urbanization, modernization, and social change lead to such problems. They believe that crime and delinquency can be viewed as an outcome of rapid social changes in societies, which in turn, lead to social disorganization. Faris (1948 ) believed that the decline of unity and harmony in a society is a major condition of social disorganization. Furthermore, Mowrer (1942 ) indicated that disorganization of society can produce many social problems such as divorce, delinquency, crimes, poverty, and unemployment. More recently, researchers viewed the concept of social disorganization as the inability of a local community to identify the common values of its residents and solve their problems ( Bursik, 1988 ; Bursik & Webb, 1982 ). This article explores the assumptions of this theory and other theories as they relate to the Kuwaiti society.     

Trading Sentiments

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the relationship between commerce, cross-cultural friendship and empire in the published Voyages of Pacific salt pork trader John Turnbull. Turnbull published two versions of his Voyages, the first in 1805 and the second in 1813. Through exposing the variations between the two versions of his Voyages and analysing the reception of each text in the burgeoning periodical literature at the time, I explore how his commercially oriented critiques of cross-cultural friendship transformed into unbridled enthusiasm in the second reprint. I explain this shift as both a consequence of a shift in genre, from commercial voyaging to scientific voyaging, and as a reflection of two competing ideas of the relationship between friendship and commerce. The first version reflects a Smithian ideal, where friendship is excluded from commerce, while the second version shows a natural law conception of friendship as commercial imperialism in its ideal, and morally virtuous, form.     

Direct Taxation and State–Society Relations in Lagos,Nigeria

Existing research suggests that external sources of finance, such as foreign aid and natural resource rents, allow states to generate revenue independently of their societies, disincentivizing them from forming close links with their citizens and severely problematizing the notion of a social contract. In Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital, a series of personal income tax reforms have seen an increase in taxpayer compliance. Considering Lagosians’ perceptions of their relation with the state government, this study examines whether the state had to ‘earn’ its revenue by developing a closer relationship with its citizens, and whether citizens responded through a greater willingness to pay tax. It explores how citizens understand this relationship, what role they perceive themselves to fulfil, and what their expectations are for the future of state–society relations. The study shows how, through efforts to visibly link tax to service delivery, a social contract is emerging between Lagos State and its citizens — but that this relationship differs among groups, in that it is shaped by pre‐existing concepts of public organization and modes of political engagement.