黄河九曲第一湾

<正>黄河九曲第一湾,位于四川省若尔盖县唐克乡,此处是川、青、甘三省交界处,这里属于若尔盖大草原的一部分,蓝天白云,绿草茵茵,有着"宇宙中庄严幻影"的美誉。通过地图可以看出,这弯弯曲曲的黄河,就是四川与甘肃的界河,河西为甘肃,河东为四川。黄河自甘肃一侧来,四川的白河自黄河第一湾湾顶汇入,     

Anatomy of a Social Virtue

Abstract

Humanity is radically and pervasively interdependent. Catholic social teaching uses solidarity as the lens through which to critically examine our interdependence. Solidarity is multifaceted, at once a feeling, an attitude, and a duty, with each of these building to culminate in the virtue. How is solidarity a virtue? What are the habits and practices by which it is cultivated? To whom does it apply? And what, if any, are corresponding vices? This article proposes that solidarity is both an individual virtue and a social virtue. By offering an examination of the anatomy of this social virtue, this article will propose the scope and boundaries of solidarity, corresponding sets of vices for this virtue, and the cultivation of this virtue by communities through practicing respect for human rights.     

Defining Freedom Up: The Constitution and National Character

In the beginning, Americans got it right. They did not fall for the false choice between the comfort of the least and the potential of the best, sometimes posed as a choice between the common good and individualism. Instead, the Founders envisioned a productive people who were at the same time a caring people. They identified social progress with realizing the potential of the best. More recently, social progress tends to be identified with the comfort of the least, which is a dumbing down of the idea of freedom.     

The Meaning and Value of Freedom: Berlin contra Arendt

This essay considers the theoretical disagreement between Isaiah Berlin and Hannah Arendt on the meaning and value of freedom. Berlin thinks that negative liberty as non-interference is commendable because it is attuned to the implication of value pluralism that man is a choice-making creature and cannot be otherwise. By contrast, the political freedom to act is in Arendt’s view a more fulfilling ideal because it is only in political action that man’s potentiality is actualised, his unique identity manifested and his being-in-the-world-with-others reaffirmed. What lies beneath the two thinkers’ dispute over the most satisfactory meaning of freedom, I argue, is a deeper disagreement over human nature itself. The implication of this analysis for the contemporary debate between pluralist liberals and their agonistic critics is briefly discussed in conclusion.     

Freedom of Establishment Versus Retail Planning: The European Case

Studies on retail planning in European Union (EU) Member States tend to be nationally oriented and, at best, compare national retail planning systems. They also appear to be based on an implicit assumption that retail planning should not be designed to fit the Single European Market (SEM). This paper analyses a series of judgments by the European Court of Justice and activities undertaken by the European Commission and concludes that this assumption is misguided and incorrect. The bottom line is that retail planning can interfere with freedom of establishment—one of the fundamental EU freedoms laid down in the Treaty of Rome—by limiting the realization of new shopping outlets and by redirecting retail to preselected locations. Such restrictions may be allowable if the Member State in question is able to demonstrate that they are non-discriminatory, appropriate and proportional on the basis of the interpretations of these fundamental principles in European Law. There is a European Retail Action Plan which aims to organize national retail planning systems in such a way that they are compatible with the principles of the SEM.