Fundamentalism: examining the role of public reason in ‘non-liberal’ approaches to ‘unreasonable’ doctrines

In this article, we examine ways in which critics of liberalism come to adopt, without acknowledgement, ‘liberal’ forms of public reason in responding to homogenising tendencies of fundamentalist doctrines. We focus on the divergent approaches of John Gray and Slavoj ?i?ek, arguing that the former upholds a comprehensive form of liberalism, while the latter upholds a political form popular among policy makers who endorse a ‘fundamentalism’/‘extremism’ dichotomy. We argue that the latter fails to recognise that ‘philosophical’ unreasonableness often translates into political unreasonableness. Examining these non-liberal approaches not only indicates the apparent value of reason as reciprocity, it also supports a long-held charge against liberalism: that it is not able to uphold its promise of accommodating radical forms of diversity.     

The ‘secular’ settlement and Australian political thought

This paper challenges the tendency among contemporary historians and political scientists to read secularism and religion in Australian political history in binary terms. It is argued that this framework is anachronistic, creating a barrier to a proper appreciation of religion in Australian political history. In keeping with much British Enlightenment thinking, religion through much of Australia’s history was deemed to have great social utility and its promotion was of central secular significance. This understanding framed the education debates of the second half of the nineteenth century as well as the social welfare reforms and institution building around the Federation period. Such developments cast doubt on claims that secularism of an exclusionary kind is a key element of the now widely invoked category of the Australian settlement.     

J.B. Priestley: Bradford and a provincial narrative of England, 1913–1933

J.B. Priestley's writing has been used to explore aspects of landscape and Englishness. Through an analysis of Priestley's early journalism in the Bradford Pioneer and the Yorkshire Observer, we argue that his critical disengagement to most of the landscapes of England was based on a connection to the landscapes of his youth in Bradford where he first developed his fictional and documentary narrative style. In his early journalism, Priestley articulated a sense of dwelling in Bradford that was rooted in the experience of two distinct local landscapes: the spaces of the city and the nature of the surrounding upland and moorland. Priestley's geographical ideal balanced the civility of the Edwardian city embedded in a landscape that offered escape to and commune with nature. The existential balance between the two was, we argue, central to the narrative geographies developed by Priestley in his fiction which is illustrated through an analysis of his two early novels: The Good Companions (1929) and Angel Pavement (1930). We suggest that the ways in which Priestley's interwar writing expressed dwelling in local landscapes might be thought of as a critical provincialisation of London and England.     

"You turn if you want to": The Questions a Pragmatic Political Theology Might Ask of Speculative Realism

Abstract

The question pursued in this article is what might a pragmatic (in the Rortyan sense) political theology ask speculative realists to contribute to its analyses and discussions. The article begins by discussing the potential reservations political theologians might have in employing Richard Rorty as a dialogue partner. It then considers the insights from Rorty that political theologians might value, namely a respect for Western democracy and pluralism, the desire to reform capitalism, and a deeper understanding of the relationship between Christianity and liberalism. These insights are discussed in dialogue with the radical orthodoxy of John Milbank. It is argued that Milbank and Rorty share post-foundational philosophical assumptions but arrive at different political conclusions with regard to democracy and capitalism. The paper makes the case for a pragmatic valuing of democracy and capitalism and a recognition of their Christian heritage.     

The Mediation of the Distinction of “Religion” and “Politics” by the UK Press on the Occasion of Pope Benedict XVI’s State Visit to the UK

Abstract

One feature of modern political liberalism is its acceptance of the superiority of secular political reasoning over faith-based reasoning where matters of practical politics are concerned. The distinction religion/politics has become a defining feature of modern political liberalism. We examined how this distinction was mediated by the UK national press through a case study of its reporting of Pope Benedict XVI’s state visit to the UK in 2010. The case study evaluates the following four propositions: (1) “religion” is benign and relevant to “politics”; (2) “religion” is malign and relevant to “politics”; (3) “religion” is assumed to be irrelevant to “politics” but is dismissed positively; and (4) “religion” is regarded as irrelevant to “politics” but is dismissed negatively. We conclude there is a dominant shared assumption in the UK press supporting propositions two and three: that religion is a good thing when it conforms to a pre-existing narrative of political liberalism and a bad thing when it does not and that religion was judged in terms of its “political” values rather than in terms of its “religious” values.     

司徒雷登与战后中国的"新革命运动"

战后中国的"新革命运动"是由司徒雷登发起的,其目的是通过国民党政府内部的改革,把CC系的势力排除出去,让自由主义势力进入政府并掌握政权,以维持国民党政权的统治,对抗中国共产党领导的革命运动.由于"新革命运动"是建立在错误的基础之上,司徒雷登试图通过"新革命运动"挽救国民党统治的努力最终失败.     

英国19世纪情感社会主义及其历史演进

19世纪中叶,欧洲诞生了多种社会主义思潮,英国的情感社会主义就是其中之一。从英国的文化传统、社会需求和民族情感出发,情感社会主义思潮在工业文明的背景下,主张复兴伟大传统,重建信仰、道德和情感等现代人的精神品质,吸收人类历史上不同时期和不同区域的优秀文化,构建和谐的社会主义事业。     

Breaking Ranks: C. P. Snow and the Crisis of Mid-Century Liberalism, 1930–1980

C. P. Snow's identification of ‘two cultures’, as the literary critic F. R. Leavis pointed out in 1962, represents not an insight but a cliché, one that invites the repetition of further clichés about the origins of a divided culture, the need to bridge cultures, the emergence of a third culture, or the reality of one culture. Yet this recurrent feature of ‘two cultures’ talk does not nullify the concept's value as an object of study, if these discussions are treated as revealing points of entry into foreign historical contexts. This article adopts this approach, unearthing the liberal position that Snow developed as a novelist and critic from the 1930s, that he advanced in the form of a disciplinary lament in The Two Cultures (Snow, C.P. 1959 Snow, C.P. 1959. The two cultures and the scientific revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar]. The two cultures and the scientific revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.), and that — to his distress — increasingly came under radical critique from the mid-1960s. Ultimately, the technocratic liberalism that Snow associated with science at mid-century came to be closer to American neo-conservatism by 1980. By tracking the fortunes of the ideological position that structured The Two Cultures, rather than lifting that text out of its moment in an attempt to engage its arguments today, this article testifies to the abiding value of contextual analysis at a moment when intellectual historians are increasingly inclined to question and even displace it.     

论英国19世纪手工艺运动

自工业革命以后,英国文明已逐步发生根本的变化。英国19世纪手工艺运动在反思现代工业文明、反对战争、追求在信仰背景下的人性的复归和自然的生存状态,从思想和文化上形成与文艺复兴相悖互补的基本品质。这场运动是一场新文艺复兴运动,它影响了整个欧美文化与艺术的历史进程,推进了现代人信仰的重建和现代文明的健康发展。     

Responding to the Mystery of Human Existence: David Walsh and Some Contemporaries for and Against Modernity

Abstract

An analysis of David Walsh's critique of modern liberalism based primarily on two of his works, The Growth of the Liberal Soul (1997) and The Third Millennium: Reflections on Faith and Reason (1999). Walsh's assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of modernity are discussed, and comparisons are drawn to the analyses of Eric Voegelin, Pierre Manent, Charles Taylor, and Michael Oakeshott.     

Complex Space or Broken Middle? Milbank,Rose, and the Sharia Controversy

Abstract

Remarks by Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, suggesting that British law recognize Islamic law in some cases provoked a public outcry. I reflect on what may have caused the strong reaction to Williams's remarks by situating them between the work of John Milbank and the work of Gillian Rose. What Williams, Milbank, and Rose are struggling to articulate is a "politics of the middle," a political theory that does not privilege the sovereignty of individual or state, and which puts intermediary associations at center stage. A politics of the middle offers the only alternative to political theology, I argue. However, attempts to articulate a politics of the middle have remained cloaked in residual political theology. Critics of secular liberalism, who often content themselves with offering genealogies instead of presenting a constructive alternative, should explore the possibilities held by a politics of the middle, possibilities (and challenges) exposed by the sharia controversy.     

‘A Great People Struggling for Their Liberties’: Spain and the Mediterranean in the Eyes of the Benthamites

Summary

This article examines the relationship of Jeremy Bentham and some of his disciples within Romantic Liberalism in the Mediterranean in the early 1820s. By studying the content of Bentham's correspondence with his collaborators and some Spanish political leaders, the text sheds light on Bentham's ideas on constitutional rule, the independence of Latin America and religious tolerance.     

María Zambrano amongst the philosophers. An introduction

ABSTRACT

As the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) came to an end, hundreds of thousands of Spaniards who had opposed the military rebellion which initiated the war and remained loyal to the democratically elected government were forced into exile. Amongst them was the philosopher María Zambrano (1904-1991). While little known to an English-speaking readership, she represents a unique voice engaging with some of the fundamental problems of our times. Her life was marked, like that of her contemporaries Benjamin, Husserl, Arendt, Pato?ka, Adorno, Lacan, Derrida and Blumenberg by the crisis of modernity culminating in the two World Wars. Her work is part of the same philosophical debates, currents and problems facing the Europe of her time. The aim of the volume María Zambrano amongst the philosophers, introduced in this article, is to focus on the links between Zambrano’s thought and a wide range of themes and ideas associated with these other European thinkers. A summary of Zambrano’s main philosophical concepts and preoccupations is also offered to help the reader situate the translated anthology of texts by the philosopher included in the volume.