Comments on ‘Dictionary on Tibetan History and Culture'

WiththeworldbecomingincreasinqlyknowledgeableaboutTibet,astheveilisliftedfromitsface,a"Tibetanculturalcraze"hasemerged.ItisagainstthisbackqroundthattheDictionaryonTibetanHistoryandCulturewaspublishedbytheTibetPeople'sPublishinqHouseandtheZhejiangPeople'sPublishingHouseinJune1998.WithWanqRaoandChenQinqyinqasthemainauthors,thedictionaryrunsto700,000words.ThedictionaryreflectsthehistoryandstatusofTibetanstudiesinChina.Thedictionaryspansatimerangingfromtheancienttomodernperiodsandcoversva…     

Comparative Study on Tibetan-style gLing-kas and Han-style Gardens

In our contemporary world, ecology-oriented re- search is especially prevalent among scholars. Horti- cultural research attracts more and more attention. This shows that people become concerned about their life style and begin to focus on the relation between man and nature. China has achieved impressive results     

Manent and Perreau-Saussine on MacIntyre’s Aristotelianism

This essay examines Pierre Manent’s and Émile Perreau-Saussine’s critique of Alasdair MacIntyre. Both criticize MacIntyre’s neo-Aristotelianism as an apolitical Aristotelianism, arguing that it is a deficient because it neglects Aristotle’s question of the best regime. In examining MacIntyre’s narrative biography of Justice O’Connor in Ethics in the Conflicts of Modernity, I show the merit of this critique, in that it obscures what the applications of MacIntyre’s Aristotelianism are in the modern polity. While MacIntyre is not without a strong reply to their objections, I conclude that the deeper, unresolved disagreement MacIntyre has with Manent and Perreau-Saussine is over how to characterize modernity.     

Enlightenment Universalism? Bayle and Montesquieu on China

This article addresses questions concerning Enlightenment universalism and cultural diversity by focusing on the views of China held by Pierre Bayle and the Baron de Montesquieu. In contrast to the characterizations of Enlightenment thought as insufficiently attentive to cultural diversity and as providing pretexts for imposing European values on non-European cultures, recent scholarship has sought to uncouple Enlightenment thought from imperialism and colonialism. An examination of the perspectives, positive and negative, of Bayle and Montesquieu on China suggests that Enlightenment thinkers attempted to reconcile ethical universalism and cultural diversity, but also shows the limitations of such attempts. Thus, while dismissals of Enlightenment thought as universalistic and even imperialistic fail to consider Bayle’s and Montesquieu’s subtle engagements with Chinese culture, their accounts of China arguably fall short of being robust cross-cultural or anti-colonial perspectives.     

Free and Fair? Rhodesians Reflect on the Elections of 1979 and 1980

The elections of April 1979 and February 1980 were the first in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe's history to permit universal adult suffrage, allowing for black majority rule. In the first election, Bishop Abel Muzorewa's United African National Council (UANC) won an overwhelming victory, while in the second, British-supervised election, Muzorewa's party was soundly defeated and Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) won over 60% of the vote. By interviewing present and former white Rhodesians, located via Facebook and the print magazine Rhodesians Worldwide, who were witnesses to these two critical elections, this study aims to shed light on which of them was more representative of the will of the people of Zimbabwe, at least in the eyes of the country's white minority.     

Comments on Nordic animal style ‐ background and origin

Jernvinna på M?sstrond i Telemark (Bloomery Ironmaking in M?sstrond, Telemark). I. Martens, En studie i teknikk, bosetning og ?konomi. A. M. Rosenqvist, Kjemiske og mineralogiske unders?kelser. Norske Oldfunn XIII. Universitetets Oldsaksamling. Oslo 1988. 189 pp., 55 figs.     

Reflections on ‘fieldwork and disabled students: discourses of exclusion and inclusion’

The promotion of education for sustainable development (ESD) is likely to be constrained by its compatibility with other missions and objectives of higher education institutions (HEIs). Finding space for ESD in the Enterprise Economy invites consideration of opportunities for increasing the visibility and audibility of environmental messages in HE sectors primarily committed to equipping national economies with skilled graduates. A survey of undergraduates registered for a physical geography module at the National University of Singapore was undertaken for three successive cohorts. Students fundamentally associate sustainability with resource-based definitions and usually construct environmental issues in terms of access to and utilization of the resource base. A limited articulation of environmental problems in neighbouring countries suggests that a geographical perspective (emphasizing space and scale) could be usefully enhanced. However, the role of the geography discipline in best serving ESD is ambiguous given the need to infuse ideas through traditional disciplinary boundaries. Reflections on environmental awareness and attitudes among students in Singapore concur with UNESCO recognition that models for ESD must be locally defined in culturally appropriate ways.     

Zhaxi Bendian and His “Soul on Piano Strings”

ZhaxiBendian,aTibetanwriter,publishedhisSoulontheStringsofMusicalInstrumentsintheautumnof1999totheappreciationofthebroadmassesofreaders.Thiswritermanagedtointerviewhiminthepastyear.ZhaxiBendianwasbornintoafarmingfamilyinRambaVillage,RenboCounty,Xigaze.Heisthesecondofthesixchildren.Upongraduationfromtheprimaryschool,ZhaxiBendianfurtheredhisstudyinRenboCountyalthoughthefamilyledapoorlife.ZhaxiBendianstudiedveryhard,buthisstudywassuspendedduringthechaotic"culturalrevolution".Whensomeurban…     

What's on the Case-List? Legal Texts and Felonies Rediscovered

In this article light will be thrown upon so-called case-lists, a medieval source material based upon abstracts of the Norwegian Christian Laws. I have chosen to focus on one aspect in particular: the case-lists also present medieval legislation otherwise lost for posterity, and we therefore catch a glimpse of unknown felonies centred on taboos concerning food, sex and heathen practice; for instance, in a "kinky" combination so far unheard of: men having sex with women who ate horsemeat were liable to a fine of 40 marks. Following an outline of the case-lists, and remarks on methodological problems posed by these sources, the felonies will be presented and placed in a historical context. Finally, I will address the question of provenance of the case-lists.     

The Media Prism and Reflections on Insécurité

This article considers media coverage of the theme of insécurité in the French presidential election of 2002, at which the National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen shocked the French nation by winning a place in the second round contest against the incumbent President Jacques Chirac. We examine the much-publicised accusation that the media contributed to Le Pen's success by excessive, distorting coverage of insécurité, the polemic surrounding this charge, and issues of media responsibility. While much writing on the topic has focused on thematic media analysis or on the interaction of politicians, the media and the electorate in setting the election agenda, this article discusses the findings of a number of quantitative media studies and focuses on the terms and nature of media discourse. Through a discussion of insécurité, the article highlights the misleading potential of simplistic labelling and vague emotive terminology, amplified in sensational coverage by competing media outlets.     

Historian or Philosopher? Ian Hunter on Kant and Vattel

Summary

Ian Hunter's essay pursues several lines of argument, one explicit and the others not. The first is that of an historian correcting the mistaken view among Kantian commentators that Kant's conception of international justice had displaced Vattel's as the dominant one in nineteenth- and twentieth-century international thought. The second, which is not acknowledged, is that of a philosopher entering a debate over the relative cogency of the two conceptions. To accomplish this unacknowledged philosophical task, Hunter exaggerates the importance of Kant's metaphysics in his treatment of international justice and understates the element of raison d'état in Vattel's casuistical ethics. The subtext in both lines of argument is criticism, political rather than either historical or philosophical, of Kant's effort to articulate principles of international justice, together with implicit advocacy of Vattelian ethics as a corrective to Kantian ideology.