The Southern Conservative Thought of John C. Calhoun and the Cultural Foundations of the Canadian Identity

Besides the largely ignored fact of general Canadian support for the Southern Confederacy during the American Civil War, the consociational dimensions of Canadian Confederation, as something opposed to American unionism in cultural terms, finds its historical roots legitimized in the Southern conservative writings of John C. Calhoun. It is the tension between an institutionally entrenched foundation of consociational pluralism and growing urban cosmopolitanism within Canadian history that has defined the debates and divides over the meaning of the Canadian identity, just as it is. Alternatively it is the tension between enforced constitutionalist unionism and consociational cultural tradition within the American South that has largely defined their historical experience. Both Canada and the American South find the tensions of their cultural identities rooted in the consociational values originally laid out by nineteenth century Southern conservative political thought.     

问鼎上层文化:胡适的哲学史研究

胡适是中国哲学史研究的开山者。他的《中国哲学史大纲》(卷上)作为中国第一部真正的哲学史著作,建立了哲学史学科的新体系,开创了现代学术史的新纪元。(1)它以科学的方法和可信的史料,创造了全新古典哲学史体系、构想与规范,使哲学史作为一门科学戛然独立,并迈向了中国古代哲学史研究的近代化进程;(2)它用疑古与实证的方法实践,完成了新学科的创立及从“形”到“质”的转变,开启了崭新的治学门径,对具体的学术研究起到了示范作用。(3)它从形式到内容整体手段的全方位更新,不仅具有冲击传统惯性的强劲的反封建之风,又有开拓学术研究新风尚之意义。胡适的哲学史研究,新见迭出,影响深远,具有划时代的意义。