The origins of democratic thinking: The invention of politics in classical Athens

While many (perhaps most) of those engaged in the study of philosophy would accept the continued reality and importance of an analytic/continental divide in the discipline, there has been no serious examination of the political dimensions of this rift. Here a series of political assumptions are revealed to be widely held among the British analytic philosophers who were active during the period in which the analytic/continental divide was being established. This paper will approach demonstrating the analysts’ beliefs about the political affiliations of continental philosophy in three ways. Firstly, it will produce direct evidence of the analysts’ belief in the relationship between 19th century continental philosophy and various politically undesirable regimes. Secondly, it will examine in detail one illustrative example, that of Hegel. Thirdly, it will illustrate how the political beliefs already canvassed permeated beyond the limited political critique of continental philosophy into the analysts’ writing on the history of philosophy.     

Market civilisation meets economic nationalism: the discourse of nation in Russia's modernisation

This article examines how the discourse of nation functions as a mechanism furthering the expansion of a neoliberal market civilisation in Russia. It contributes to discussions that have challenged the assumed mutual exclusivity of economic nationalism and neoliberalism. The article develops its argument in the context of the idea of contemporary international society as a market civilisation characterised by an adaptation to and adoption of neoliberal standards by states. The ongoing modernisation project in Russia illustrates the workings of such standards, as exemplified by the project for an innovation city in Skolkovo, in the Moscow metropolitan area. Building on an analysis of the Skolkovo debate, the article agues that there is no inherent contradiction between economic nationalism and neoliberalism. Rather, the nation is an important symbolic system that produces a cultural susceptibility to, and a discursive field for, the introduction of neoliberal standards of market civilisation in Russia.     

A civilisation at peril: Goethe's representation of Europe during the Sattelzeit

The importance of the concept of Europe as a source of meaning and object of contested discursive battles during the fundamental transition towards modernity of the Sattelzeit (1750–1850) can hardly be overstated. The Weimar Classics (Goethe, Schiller, Herder, Wieland) made important contributions both to Enlightenment debates about Europe before the French Revolution and to the discursive battles about the continent taking place in the aftermath of the French Revolution in a context of heightened epistemic uncertainty and ideological confrontation. The paper aims to investigate Goethe's representation of Europe as an almost millenarian civilisation endangered at the end of the eighteenth century by a double process of economic and political modernisation. Particular attention is paid to how Goethe rooted his perception of Europe as a civilisation in geographic and climatic assumptions and how he compared the continent to other civilisational entities such as America, China, India or Persia. Finally, the political implications Goethe derived from his perception of Europe as an ailing civilisation shall be contrasted with democratic, romantic and conservative discourses about the continent in the aftermath of the French Revolution.     

论60年代美国政府在中国问题上的几个基本观念

研究60年代的美国对华政策,必须先考察决定这一时期美国对华政策的核心理念,即“观念”,学术界似乎没有涉及这方面的讨论。1961—1968年间,美国民主党政府形成了对中国的四个基本观念：确认中国的现实存在;中国共产党敌视美国,富有侵略性,威胁美国的利益;中国经济危机导致粮食紧缺,社会动荡;中共内部权力斗争激烈,当权派受到挑战,政局混乱。承认中国的“现实存在”,表明美国政府意识到,必须尝试新的对华政策出路。但美国对华政策的基本出发点是,期望中国的“混乱”局面能推翻现行“敌视”美国的领导层,催生新一代“务实派”领导。然而,整个60年代,一片骚乱过后,中国并没有出现美国想要的结局,最终美国排除了对中国改变政策的可能性。     

An Approach to the Substantiation of Stochastic Conceptions in Geography

The penetration of stochastic-statistical conceptions into geography is viewed as a natural process in the history of development of science, as is seen from the history of physics and biology. Without denying the importance and the need for theoretical models constructed in geography on the basis of strict determinism, the authors stress the heuristic value that the stochastic-statistical methods have for an explanation of geographical phenomena. The authors suggest that Soviet geographers still have a preference for deterministic models based on the classic mathematical notions of exactly predictable relationships.     

Conceptions of Space and Crime in the Punitive Neoliberal City

The entrenchment of neoliberalism in the United States has coincided with an unprecedented expansion of punishment practices that intensify social divisions rooted in class and race. We explore the political culture of this hyperpunitiveness through a discussion of two popularized explanations for urban crime: broken windows and situational crime prevention. These popular criminological theories help legitimate the deepening of social and spatial divisions. They also rest their precepts upon the foundation of a particular geographic imagination. We use this paper to reveal and critique the core assumptions about space upon which each of these theories critically relies. We suggest that each theory understands society–space interactions too simplistically to provide comprehensive insight into the dynamics of landscape construction and interpretation. We argue further that the logics and practices of broken windows and situational crime prevention possess significant elective affinities with social dynamics characteristic of neoliberalism. For these reasons, these popularized criminologies both reflect and reinforce the processes through which neoliberalism exacerbates social differences.     

略论刘备夷陵之战失败的原透

传统观点认为刘备夷陵之战失败,原因在于"备不知兵"。本文认为,夷陵之败,并非"备不知兵",而是有其客观原因和主观原因。客观原因为刘备兵力本不占优势,加之手下缺乏得力将才,后勤供应困难,以及水军力量薄弱。主观原因则为,刘备未做好充分准备,贸然出兵;初期的军事胜利,使其产生了骄傲轻敌情绪;对形势认识不足,缺乏战略考量,卒为敌所乘。     

Engaging with Young People's Conceptions of the Political

In many states, there are concerns about declining levels of political engagement and participation among young people. Our understanding of this decline, however, is limited because much of the research on youth politics is based on a narrow conception of 'the political', little attempt is made to explore how people themselves define politics, non-participation is not adequately problematised, and there are in sufficient youth-specific explanations for declining participation among young people. Drawing on fieldwork carried out in Britain, I argue there is a need to develop an approach and research methodology that engages with young people's conceptions of the political.     

Principles of Lightweight Structures in the Sculptural Conceptions of Naum Gabo

Abstract

The Russian-born artist Naum Gabo (1890–1977) often employed new materials and techniques which demonstrate how his spatial conceptions developed towards a sculptural expression of lightness, balance and equilibrium. These principles reverberate with concepts of optimum structures, in which minimum-weight design is achieved through removal of redundant material. Not only formal aspects of his sculptures correspond to this concept, but also Gabo's shared aesthetic and structural concerns with twentieth-century architecture and engineering, in terms of transparency, spatial openness, efficiency and lightweight design are consistent with this idea. Similar notions surfaced in prevailing interests in nature's sense of order and perfection as the basis of biologically-inspired design, which Gabo encountered especially in the work of the biologist D'Arcy Thompson and the art critic Herbert Read. This paper investigates the aesthetic and structural affinities Gabo's sculptures bear with these notions, highlighting how these informed his sculptural conceptions. His oeuvre demonstrates how his constructive technique enabled Gabo to convey an aesthetic that would be appropriate for a modern, industrial society. The aim of this paper is to offer a new way of looking at Gabo's sculptural aesthetic by identifying analogies with theoretical formulations of minimum weight frame-structures, as encountered in the theory of the scientist engineer A.G.M. Michell (1904). Consistent with his historical context, this work demonstrates how Gabo's sculptures convey an aesthetic of balance, equilibrium, and lightness precisely because his sculptural language is rooted in principles of optimum structures to which he responded in visual as well as structural terms.     

The origins and development of complex prehispanic society in the Lower Santa Valley,Peru: Implications for theories of state origins

A major issue in attempts to construct cross-culturally valid theories of state origins is the relative roles of irrigation agriculture, population growth, and warfare in the rise of complex society. Recently, data from the coast of Peru has provided the stimulus for the formulation of the “coercive theory” of state origins. This theory proposes that state formation in circumscribed environments was the result of population pressure, internecine (local level) warfare, and the incorporation of defeated groups into ever larger, victorious polities. Yet, although the pioneering study of settlement patterns was carried out in Virú Valley, the lack of a comprehensive regional study of the development of prehispanic subsistence-settlement systems in any Peruvian coastal valley meant that the “coercive theory” rested on a precarious data base. Selected results of an extensive and systematic survey carried out in 1979–1980 in the Lower Santa Valley, an area only partly studied prior to our research but long famous for its large number of major prehispanic walls and fortresses, are discussed. Following a discussion of the problem, research methods and data for the early periods leading to state formation are outlined. Analysis of settlement patterns, maize-based carrying capacity, and settlement-cluster ceramic assemblages is then carried out to suggest refutation of the “coercive” model and acceptance of an alternative model of multivariate causality. External, or intervalley, warfare is shown to have been an important socioenvironmental stress leading to sociocultural complexity not only in Santa, but probably in adjacent valleys as well.