Civil Liberty in Hobbes's Commonwealth

Hobbes has been long accused of providing a political philosophy that threatens individual liberty. While some commentators have tried to rescue him from this criticism, little attention has been paid to the specifics of his statements on such topics as freedom of speech, censorship, and property rights. In this paper, I examine what Hobbes says on these issues and conclude that his overwhelming priority is to defend liberty once peace has been secured. I conclude by suggesting that Hobbes's political project has some similarities with current liberal proceduralist theories of justice.     

Papadiamandis and Homer: A Note

Abstract

Meaningful allusion to the classics in Papadiamandis's work is not a matter of the text's being stuffed with overt classical references. In his early novels we find a large number of, as it were, classical one-liners: essentially undigested – or at best opportunistic – allusions. The technique is a less focused form of Roidis's in Pope Joan; perhaps a closer comparison is Kalligas's Thanos Vlekas, which is replete with Homeric allusions and puns, none of them integral to the narrative. Similarly, we find in early Papadiamandis a disorderly collection of allusions: Byron, Milton, Aesop, Sophocles, Juvenal, Homer et al.; and sometimes we see his allusiveness to be a mere tic of style rather than fully purposive. In other words, .it is as true here as elsewhere in Greek literary tradition that we need to sift meaningful from more or less chance allusion.     

Dhammapada Traditions and Translations

The Dhammapada is probably the most frequently translated Buddhist text in the world today. This article looks at the history of translations of the Dhammapada since it was first translated into English in the nineteenth century. I start by comparing the little known first English translation by Daniel Gogerly from 1840 with the influential 1870 translation by Max Müller. The paper then examines the main translations which have appeared since the mid-twentieth century. I show how they represent Buddhist, Hindu and other views on the Dhammapada and that they continue to be influenced by the pioneering nineteenth-century translations. I argue that translations of the Dhammapada are conditioned not only by the viewpoints of the translators but also by the existence of a tradition of translating the Dhammapada . Both factors I conclude have contributed to the importance placed on the Dhammapada as a representative Buddhist text.     

反教权主义与19世纪下半叶法国的教育世俗化

本文从探讨推动19世纪下半叶法国教育制度世俗化的意识形态——反教权主义着手,说明法国教育制度世俗化的独特性。反教权主义并不是一种系统的、统一的意识形态,而是反对教权过多干预社会和政治生活的思想体系。在19世纪下半叶的法国,以资产阶级共和派为主体的反教权主义者与政治上倾向于君主派的教权主义者之间的政治斗争推动了法国教育制度的世俗化。这种斗争决定了法国教育制度世俗化的进程及特征。     

Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan and the Theological Origins of Secular International Politics

Abstract

Recent years have seen a resurgence of interest in Reinhold Niebuhr's scholarship. Many scholars have drawn upon Niebuhr's work in the run up to World War II when drawing analogies to the contemporary struggle with Islamic radicalism. This article explores Niebuhr's writings on Communism in the run up to Vietnam as another possible source for analogies to the current struggle. It concludes with an analysis of contemporary Islamic radicalism using the categories of Niebuhr's analysis. While neither period in Niebuhr's work provides a perfect analogy to the present, there are significant insights to be drawn from this later period in Niebuhr's writing.     

Dividing Homer (continued): Innovation vs. Tradition in Homer - an Overlooked Piece of Evidence

In Homeric studies, the evidence of metrics has often been overlooked. The authors argue that the hexameter must be a recent development, closely bound up with the transition from an Aeolic to a Ionic phase in the development of the epic diction. The Ionic phase must have been very short, and the rise of the Iliad is probably also to be situated at the very moment of change in meter and dialect.     

Hobbes's Contribution to International Thought,and the Contribution of International Thought to Hobbes

Summary

The aim of this article is to explore in what respects Thomas Hobbes may be regarded as foundational in international thought. It is evident that in contemporary international relations theory he has become emblematic of a realist tradition, but as David Armitage suggests this was not always the case. I want to suggest that it is only in a very limited sense that he may be regarded as a foundational thinker in international relations, and for reasons very different from those for which he has become infamous. In the early histories of international thought Hobbes is a cameo figure completely eclipsed by Grotius. In early histories of political literature, the classic jurists were often acknowledged for their remarkable contributions to international relations, but Hobbes is referred to exclusively as a philosopher of a positvist ethics and absolute sovereignty. It is among the jurists themselves that Hobbes is believed to have made important conceptual moves which set the problems for international thought for the next three centuries. He conflates natural law and the law of nations, arguing that they differ only in their subjects—the former individuals, the latter nations or states. This entailed transforming the sovereign into an artificial man, not in the Roman Law sense of an entity capable of suing and being sued; rather, as a subject not party to a contract, but created by a contract among individuals who confer upon it authority. This subject is not constrained by the contractors, but is, as individuals were in the state of nature, constrained by the equivalent of natural law, the law of nations in the international context. Throughout, the methodological implications are drawn for modern historians of political thought and political philosophers who venture to theorise about international relations.     

Six Tibetan Translations of the Ratnagotravibhaga

The Ratnagotravibhaga （abbr. RGV） is one of the most influential texts among Indic works that teach the Buddha-nature doctrine in Tibet. No translation of the text seems to have existed in Tibet before the 11th century, inasmuch as no catalogue of the imperial period （the 9th century）,     

哈斯金斯与“12世纪文艺复兴”

本文首先评析哈斯金斯《12世纪文艺复兴》的主要内容 ,认为该书资料丰富、翔实 ,体现了历史主义思想 ,动摇了“中世纪黑暗说” ,推动了欧洲中世纪史的研究 ;其次评介该书自 192 7年问世以来西方史学界对“12世纪文艺复兴”现象的研究 ,对其中一批标志性成果 ,中国史学工作者应予以重视。