Reason and sense perception in comte's theory of mind

Hume is normally—and in my view, correctly—taken to be a legal conventionalist. However, the nature of Hume's conventionalism has not been well understood. Scholars have often interpreted David Hume as being largely indifferent to the specifics of the laws, so long as they accomplish their basic task of protecting people's property. I argue that this is not correct. Hume thinks certain systems of law will accomplish their purpose, of coordinating people's behaviour for the benefit of all, better than others. He introduces two concepts, which I call generality and convenience, to designate those features of the law that allow it to best accomplish its purpose. Of the two, generality is the more important. The ability to implement a system of what Hume calls “general laws” is a feature common to those governments he considers “civilized” rather than “barbarous.” A set of more specific criteria may be extracted from Hume's texts, which laws must meet if they are to be considered general. Many of the criteria Hume identifies later become associated with theorists of the so-called “rule of law.” Hume's conventionalism can thus be read an important development beyond that of Hobbes, one that lays a foundation upon which later theorists such as A.V. Dicey are able to build.     

The children's crusade of 1212

The touching story of innocent children setting out to recover the Holy Sepulchre but suffering a tragic fate was becoming a popular legend within half a century of the actual expedition. Linguistic and social analysis, however, suggests that the crusaders of 1212 were not children, but rather were poor persons on the margins of rural society who were thoroughly imbued with the ideals of the cult of apostolic poverty. They believed that after the failure of the armed crusades, God had judged the powers of this world unworthy to rescue the holy places, and had instead made the poor a divine elect to accomplish this task.     

The historicity of Jordan Fantosme's chronicle

A reassessment of the literary and aesthetic value of his Chronicle, undertaken in the course of preparing a new edition of that work, shows Jordan Fantosme to be vastly different from the feeble versifier, unable even to dispense accurately the twelve syllables of an Alexandrine line, he has sometimes been taken for. He is a highly competent and innovating prosodist and a talented story-teller quite capable of inventing or manipulating episodes for stylistic reasons, as is shown by reference to three of the vivid historical vignettes for which the Chronicle is frequently and somewhat misleadingly praised. It is suggested that historians should show caution before accepting as factually true incidents detailed by Jordan Fantosme which are not supported from other sources.     

英国退出印度的官方心态调整

英国财政困境与殖民统治问题是英国从印度退却的现实背景,然而,英国政府错误地认为自己仍然是印度独立进程的主导者,维持印度统一并把印度羁留在英联邦正是英国在此心态影响下制定的双重战略。内阁使团失败表明印度主要矛盾已经从殖民者与民族主义者对立转变为印度国大党与穆斯林联盟之间的利益斗争。随着印度局势恶化,英国政府的主导者心态转变为焦虑与无奈。蒙巴顿在形势压力下放弃统一印度的主张,承认了印巴分治的事实。英国政府在印度独立进程中的心态调整表明英国主动权非常有限,印度政治局势才是理解非殖民化的关键。     

Roses in January: a neglected dimension in Gregory of Tour's historiae

Gregory of Tours was a sixth-century bishop who wrote Ten books of histories, our only detailed source of information for that period in Gaul. A great deal of attention has been paid to his vivid portrayal of Merovingian society and politics. Apart from his often obscure Latin, the strictly chronological composition and the absence of clear co-ordinating statements give his work the appearance of a jumbled, if lively, mosaic. The following study is an attempt to follow one strand through the many-coloured texture of the Histories, that of extraordinary natural events and the context in which Gregory places them, since this seemed to reveal an up to now not so apparent dimension of his thinking about time and, history: his concept of contemporaneity.     

St Odo's St Martin: the uses of a model

The ideal of sanctity presented in Sulpicius Severus' Vita Martini included a repudiation of military life. Sulpicius was concerned to show that Martin was a true ‘man of power’ (potens), but this had nothing to do with the army. On the contrary, in Sulpicius' day, the potens was, in the political sphere, a decidedly civilian patron; in the religious sphere he was a miracle-worker. Six hundred years later the attributes of power were no longer the same. Social and political changes had worked to transform the ‘man of power’ into a warrior. The old ideal remained, however; its reactionary effects were evident in several Cluniac texts, where exemplary men were shown leaving the tumult of the battlefield for the discipline of the monastery. Yet within that same tenth-century Clumiac milieu an entirely different pattern of sointhood, that of the holy warrior, was created by St Odo, the second abbot of Cluny. It was a model quite unprecedented in the West, but it was not created new out of whole cloth. Rather, this new persona was patterned on the same old form. Its explanation seems to lay precisely in Odo's literal adherence to the old paradigm, but understood in the light of the changes which had taken place in the role of the potens.     

French jurisdictional supremacy in Gascony: one aspect of the ducal government's response

As a result of the 1259 treaty of Paris, the king of England resumed a feudal relationship with the French monarch, thus holding his duchy of Gascony as a fief. This meant that Capetian officials could exercise their master's jurisdictional authority in the duchy, in part because of the supreme appellate powers of the royal court, the Parlement of Paris. This they did with enthusiasm and skill, causing considerable disruption to English power in the duchy. Accepting the challenge, ducal officials devised a number of tactics to thwart the exercise of French jurisdiction in Gascony. These methods were altogether illegal or even criminal in nature, but the officials felt they were necessitated by the critical threat of Capetian authority to Plantagenet control of Gascony. Unfortunately, such tactics did little to alleviate their jurisdictional problems. Ducal authorities failed to create any consistent and systematic program for ending permanently Gascon judicial appeals to the French court, and they were hamstrung both theoretically and physically in the haphazard efforts they did make. Far from halting the advancement of Capetian jurisdictional authority in the duchy, the unlawful methods merely underscored the precarious nature of the English position there.     

Cabeza de Vaca's land of maize: an assessment of its agriculture

The inhabitants of eastern Sonora were reported by the Spaniards to be more populous and culturally more advanced than other groups in northern México and the southern portion of the American Southwest at the time of Spanish contact. They were also reported to have possessed a well developed agricultural complex. In spite of their achievements, the ancient people of this region have been the subject of few studies because of perceived data limitations. Although they are sparse, data are sufficient to reconstruct the agricultural base. Historical documentations, archaeological remains, and ethnographic analogs indicate that these people relied on a variety of cultivars and agricultural techniques. In addition to dry farming maize, beans, and squash, they also double cropped and irrigated through intricate canal systems. With such elaborate practices and techniques, enough was produced to feed a population of nearly 100,000 and to support a culture that was the only one in the region to be at its zenith when the Spaniards arrived.