Cultural participation in Europe: shared problem or shared problematisation?

Europe has a ‘problem’; it is becoming a ‘less cultural continent’ as fewer Europeans are ‘engaging in cultural activities’. This conclusion has been reached due to the findings of the latest cross national cultural participation survey. This paper questions the existence of this ‘problem’ and instead suggests that there is a shared problematisation across Europe sustained by common discursive archaeology that employs various discursive strands in relation to a dominant institutional discourse. The argument is that the ‘problem’ of ‘non-participation’ legitimates a ‘solution’ that predates its emergence: the state subsidy of arts organisations. The paper recaps the comparable problematisations that the researchers have previously identified in the policy texts of their respective countries. It progresses to consider three distinct but interwoven discursive strands upon which the problem representation in both countries, and potentially across Europe, appears to rely.     

THE WORDS OF HISTORY

In From History to Theory, Kerwin Lee Klein writes a history of the central terms of the discipline of theory of history, such as “historiography,” “philosophy of history,” “theory of history,” and “memory.” Klein tells us when and how these terms were used, how the usage of some (“historiography” and “philosophy of history”) declined during the twentieth century, and how other terms (“theory” and “memory”) became increasingly popular. More important, Klein also shows that the use of these words is not innocent. Using words such as “theory” or “historiography” implies certain specific ideas about what the writing of history should be like, and how theoretical reflection on the nature of history and its writing relates to the practical issues of the discipline. In the second half of his book, Klein focuses more on the concept of memory and the memory boom since the later part of the 1980s. He observes that “memory” came to be seen as a kind of “counterhistory,” a postcolonial, fragmented, and personal alternative to the traditional mainstream discourse of history. Klein does not necessarily disagree with this view, but he does warn us about unwanted side effects. More specifically, he argues that the discourse of memory is surprisingly compatible with that of extremist right‐wing groups, and should be treated with suspicion. Although Klein certainly has a point, he presents it in a rather dogmatic fashion. However, a more nuanced version of Klein's criticism of memory can be developed by building on Klein's suggestion that there is an intimate connection between memory and identity.     

Intellectual History and the History of Philosophy

Summary

The issue which I wish to address in this paper is the widespread tendency in Anglophone philosophy to insist on a separation between the history of philosophy and the history of ideas or intellectual history. This separation reflects an anxiety on the part of philosophers lest the special character of philosophy will be dissolved into something else in the hands of historians. And it is borne of a fundamental tension between those who think of philosophy's past as a source of ideas and arguments of interest to the present, and those who hold that the philosophy of the past should be studied on its own terms, in relation to its immediate context, without reference to the present. The challenge, then, is to re-historicise the history of philosophy, and to keep the philosophers onside.     

胡适与庄子研究

胡适在20世纪中国庄学研究史上占有重要地位.他尝试运用西方哲学体系研究<庄子>,推动了庄子研究范式的转换.胡适对庄子人生哲学展开了激烈批判,对庄子反科学主义思想既有所批判,又努力挖掘庄书中所包含的生物进化论思想.最近20余年来,庄子研究范式又得到了新的救正.     

稻盛经营哲学中的文化印迹辨析

稻盛和夫1997年退出经营第一线后,愈发活跃于国内外的财界、学界乃至政界,不断地著书立说,登台演讲。主题大都是谈自己的经营之道。有人说稻盛的哲学思想深受中国传统文化影响,也有人说,稻盛的哲学博采众长,是吸收多种文化的产物。这些说法哪种更贴近现实,抑或都存在片面性?本文将通过对稻盛和夫的著述、演讲以及个人访谈中所引用的中国古典、哲学以及宗教等内容的比较,分析中国古典在稻盛经营哲学中所处的地位以及发挥的作用。     

两汉用玉思想研究之一——辟邪厌胜思想

笔者在对汉代玉器进行综合考察时,发现在丧葬、佩饰、日用及陈设用玉中,有许多玉器无论造型或纹饰都有一定的辟邪厌胜之意。本文通过对这类玉器的研究,试图从玉器角度分析看待当时社会流行的辟邪厌胜思想,辟邪厌胜意义也是汉代用玉思想中的一个重要方面。     

可持续发展文化是科学与人文融合的必然选择

“科学”与“人文”的关系表现为“分立”与“融合”,二者的分立所导致的严重后果直接表现为科技的异化和人类价值观的扭曲,间接导致了生态环境的极度恶化和日益严重的生态危机,不利于人类社会的可持续发展。从科学与人文分立的历史追溯,发现既有科学对人文的压制,又有人文对科学的反抗。随着全球性生态危机的日益凸现,科学与人文的融合是必然选择,这既是理论发展的趋势又是现实的要求。可持续发展文化融合了科学与人文的内涵,体现了人文关怀,营造了“科技人性化”发展的氛围。科学与人文必将伴随着可持续发展文化的发展而不断融合。     

The Origin of “Chinese Philosophy”

Using the analysis of a single word to launch a conceptual review of (a problem in) cultural history, the Chinese term zhexue 哲學 (wisdom-learning, tetsugaku) is not simply a translation of the word “philosophy”; its inventor, Nishi Amane (1829–97), regarded it as the (Western) counterpart of Oriental learning (Tōyōgaku). The first explicit linkage of “philosophy” with “the East” was at The University of Tokyo, where it played an important role in the work of Katō Hiroyuki (1836–1913) and Inoue Tetsujirō (1855–1944). Inoue’s History of Oriental Philosophy, written under Katō’s inspiration, used Western philosophy to systematize ancient Chinese thought, and transformed “philosophy” (tetsugaku) from a learning of others, or Western learning, into an important component of the spiritual world of the East, and into a kind of universal knowledge. This was completely different from earlier lectures on “China philosophy” (shina tetsugaku) by Nakamura Masanao (1832–91) and Shimada Jūrei (1838–98) which still followed the Chinese underlying structure, and in the background, it had the intent of grasping the power to control East Asian discourse. In China, when young scholars like Wang Guowei (1877–1927) embraced philosophy, they already took its universality as a self-evident premise. This kind of alignment later evolved into a situation where it seemed entirely natural to use Western systems to interpret Chinese thought, and it also induced serious scholars to reflect. However, “Oriental philosophy” and “Chinese philosophy” provide East Asia and especially China with an opportunity to reevaluate its traditional culture. In this connection, “Chinese philosophy” includes: first, using philosophical concepts to re-provision ancient thought (the so-called history of Chinese philosophy); second, the occurrence of “philosophy” and “Chinese philosophy” and their evolution after their arrival in China; third, drawing on philosophy to enrich and develop China’s thinking. When seeking out “philosophy” in the veins and arteries of China’s history, the first and second aspects must be strictly distinguished. As to what the future may hold, the effect of the third aspect is most important.     

京瓷企业发展的宏观经济环境分析

京瓷企业发展与日本乃至世界经济环境息息相关,特别是日本经济高速增长,稳定增长,泡沫经济形成与破灭,不仅对京瓷,而且对整个日本企业界都产生了巨大的影响,但同样的宏观经济大环境,对各个企业的影响并不相同,在这正反两方面的双重影响下,有的企业发展壮大,有的企业衰微败落,京瓷属于前者,其成功在于始终不渝坚持稻盛和夫经营哲学,应不同时期经济环境,以光明正大的经营苦炼内功,构筑了京瓷企业健康,坚实的体制。     

The World Map as an Emblem: Abraham Ortelius and the Stoic Contemplation

Although the close association of word and image in medieval cartography is widely acknowledged, the significance of the relationship after the rediscovery of Ptolemy's Geography and throughout the Renaissance has been overlooked, despite Abraham Ortelius's choice of the term ‘Reader’ for users of the Theatrum orbis terrarum (1570). In this paper, the map of the world, which (as in Ptolemy's Geography) opens Ortelius's Theatrum, is analysed to show how Ortelius's concept of space was very different from Ptolemy's. Attention is drawn to the content of the texts on the map, to Ortelius's notion of geography as the eye of history, and to the importance in the Renaissance of the emblem as a conceit, or device, in the system of acquisition and transmission of knowledge. As in emblems, the words on Ortelius's map are not there to explain or to comment on what is seen but to give the image meaning; the purpose of the map is to invite contemplation of God's world. The map is contradictory, however; for Ortelius's accurate and up‐to‐date presentation of the physical world is qualified by a verbal statement that the world is ‘nothing’, a mere pinpoint in the immensity of the universe. It is concluded that Ortelius was not a geographer in the same way Ptolemy was, and that Ortelius was using geography as a philosopher and his world map as an illustration of his moral and religious thinking.