The Rhetoric of Rhetoric: A Review Essay of McCloskey's The Rhetoric of Economics

The homeostatic method, which was developed to reconstruct the number of inhabitants of a city or even a country in pre-statistical periods, has yet to receive much attention from demographic historians. Applied first to Amsterdam during the years from 1586 to 1865, the method has subsequently been used to compute the population of other places, including England from 1541 to 1871. The author reviews major schools of thought in historical demography and shows that the homeostatic method, with its emphasis on fertility regulated by marriages, logically extends some schools and is both simpler and more accurate than others. He then explains the method in detail, applying it to Dutch and English cases, and compares its estimates with those obtained through the use of other techniques.     

《宋史》人名补校

中华书局点校本《宋史》,摒除了以往各种版本《宋史》中的大量讹误,是迄今为止最具权威性的《宋史》版本.但金无足赤,现行中华书局点校本《宋史》中仍有失校或校勘失当的情况.笔者因长期与《宋史》打交道,发现现行点校本《宋史》中有一些人名失校或校勘失当,以下试一析之,以求就正于专家.     

Gender Blindness and the Annulment of the Development Contract

This contribution to the Forum Debate responds to Horner and Hulme's analysis on the ‘rise of the South’, which they see as suggesting a dramatic redrawing of the global map of development and inequality. This response presents a critical South feminist perspective, informed by the lived realities of women in the South. It is based on a historical and political perspective that goes beyond income inequality to understand gender inequality in development within the persistent North–South divide.     

Destruction and the Rhetoric of Excavation

In this paper a recurrent perception of archaeological excavation as destruction is addressed. By examining this rhetoric in discourses about fieldwork in the UK, the theoretical issues implicit in its use are examined, issues that affect not only Britain but also other European countries and beyond. Tying it into notions of the archaeological record and the archaeological resource, the traditional model of the archaeological process is found to be problematic and an alternative perspective is presented which characterizes fieldwork in a radically different way, through the concept of displacement. Considered as a materializing practice, the processes of excavation and archiving are examined in new ways.     

西方古典修辞学与史学——以修昔底德为例

历史学的编纂写作必须依赖于某种交流与传播的载体或中介 ,诸如语言、图示、影像和文字等 ,其中最基本的形式便是由文字、词汇、语法、文法等构成的文本。西方古典史学的兴起正是凭借文本的革命而确立的 ,即由诗歌或韵文向散文的文体转变。在此过程中 ,作为散文体基本文法之一的修辞学对历史学产生了重要的影响 ,其中修昔底德的历史堪称修辞与史学的完美结合。     

The Artless Art: Leadership and the Limits of Democratic Rhetoric

Persuasion is vital to the practice of democratic leadership, making speech and communication of fundamental importance. Yet, democratic citizens habitually suspect political rhetoric as being either deceitfully empty or dangerously subversive. Rhetoric is thus central in democracy while paradoxically appearing either useless or pernicious. A consequence of this paradox for democratic leaders is that they are forced to avoid fine oratory in favour of a rhetorical style that sounds un-rhetorical, seeming to be plain factually-informative speech. This unique democratic form of rhetoric, which we have called an artless art, seeks to instil trust and to avoid appearing to talk down to the sovereign people. It is both helped and rendered problematic by the media, the essential communicative means in modern society, whose current dominance presents ever-new challenges and opportunities to democratic leaders.