Contextualist dilemmas: Methodology of the history of political theory in two stages

This article traces the development of contextualist methodology in the study of the history of political thought/political theory after WWII. It argues that the so-called ‘Cambridge School’, often regarded as the core of historicist contextualism, arose during the 1950s and 1960s in response to dilemmas that were largely internal to (the history of) political philosophy as it was practiced in Britain in an academic culture dominated by analytic philosophy. This first stage of contextualist theorizing, usually associated with Laslett, Skinner and Pocock, was highly influential, but it also contributed to the formation of a new set of problems. These were connected to the diversification and internationalization of the historicist contextualist study of political thought after the 1960s. The ‘second stage’ of contextualist theorizing was shaped by post-analytic and post-modernist impulses among others. Because of the variety of philosophical and conceptual commitments on notions central to the field such as ‘political thinking’, ‘politics’, or ‘power’, it is unlikely that the present historicist contextualist approaches would come to share a unified methodology or theory of historical interpretation.     

Advanced design of Chinese traditional materials for the conservation of historic stone buildings

The conservation of historic stone buildings and sculptures is recently receiving growing attention and becoming a focus of research because of rapid changes in weather conditions (pollution, acid rain, etc.). Presently, techniques for stone conservation primarily involve the use of organic coating treatments, but their side effects have been recognized. In contrast, some traditional materials used in historic stone buildings function well for thousands of years. In this paper, we report our research on the reasons why traditional protective materials can provide an unexpected long-term protection. First, calcium carbonate was prepared according to a formula for making Chinese traditional consolidating materials, and its structure and morphology were examined by different instruments. Second, the reinforcing effectiveness of the prepared CaCO₃ powders was tested and analyzed by investigating its surface characteristics. The experimental results reveal that a biocontrolled process occurs, in which an organic template can induce the precipitation of a mineral structure, which in turn results in a great improvement in the conservation of the historic stone buildings protected by these traditional protective materials. This provides a contribution toward the development of new researches on biocontrolled processes and on some protective materials with excellent performance through biocontrolled synthesis.     

合肥北门大房郢水库汉代墓葬出土红色颜料研究

中国先民使用红色颜料的历史悠久,最早可以追溯到新石器时期,它在中国的物质生产和文化发展中发挥了重要的作用。在2006年发掘的大房郢水库汉墓群中发现了两种红色颜料,通过采用X射线衍射、X射线荧光分析和傅立叶变换红外分析等分析方法对其进行了研究,发现它们是赤铁矿(α-Fe2O3)和朱砂(HgS),其用途分别为制造化妆品和红色漆膜。     

稻盛和夫的"心学"

日本企业的经营管理模式深受西方的影响。但是,通过考察可以发现,稻盛和夫等很多日本企业家的经营哲学还是和东方传统思想有着密切的关系。本文从“企业经营需要哲学”这个命题出发,探讨了“心学”与稻盛哲学的关系,分析了京瓷公司员工凝聚力产生的原因。     

日本商家家训的基本特征及其历史评价

作为日本家训的重要组成部分,商家家训是日本传统文化的一个重要裁体。商家家训的内容和形式虽各有迥异,但核心功能重在家业、训诫对象超越家族、实用主义色彩浓厚和教育形式灵活多样等却是其共有的基本特征。就其历史功用而言,商家家训在家族稳定发展、规范商业经营、促进社会教育等方面发挥了积极作用,然而家训中主张墨守祖业等思想,却在一定程度上抑制了商人创新意识和开拓精神。     

THE CONCEPT OF TRANSPARENCY,ITS HISTORY,AND THE THEORY OF BEGRIFFSGESCHICHTE

In this review essay, I examine the theoretical assumptions required in order to reconstruct an understanding of another historical period. Stefanos Geroulanos has produced a masterful history of mid‐twentieth‐century French thought, and he argues for a significant difference between that period and our own based on the values and ideas associated with the concept of transparency. The book is innovative in both its method and interpretation of the period of 1945–1984. However, despite the suggestive theoretical framework announced at its start, Geroulanos prefers to explore the theoretical content of conceptual history more than to explain how one might go about identifying, understanding, and translating the concepts of a different epoch. In order to contribute to what is already a successful project, I endeavor to extend some of Geroulanos's theoretical sketches through a comparison with Reinhart Koselleck's theory of Begriffsgechichte. Despite some muted criticism of Koselleck from Geroulanos, I argue that the projects share similar commitments, although Geroulanos needs to develop his theoretical premises at greater length, both for a full comparison and in order to complete the critical project that Transparency appears to be undertaking.     

The role of the telescope and microscope in the constitution of the Idea of scientific progress

The invention of optical instruments showed that the extent of human experience is not eternal and natural but contingent – it can change, depending on the availability and performance of optical instruments over time. This knowledge of the temporal variability of empirical knowledge led to changes in the methodology and epistemology of early modern natural philosophy. In this article, I focus mainly on three aspects of this process. Firstly, optical technique has shown that nature cannot be examined by an isolated individual. Natural philosophy must be a collective activity with institutional support. Secondly, use of optical instruments led to an understanding of the relativity of contemporary natural philosophy, no longer understood as the culmination of preceding development. The present state of natural philosophy becomes a transient stage in a longer development. Thirdly, telescopes and microscopes contributed to the formation of an idea of unending progress.     

Moralism in theories of secession: a realist perspective

Moral reasoning is the most common approach to secession in political philosophy. Just‐cause, choice and liberal‐cultural theories rely on moral conceptions of political authority. This article examines an alternative view through an exploration of moral theories of secession from a realist perspective. Realism has recently seen a revival as a form of normative political philosophy and focuses on political disagreement and legitimacy rather than rights and moral analysis. I claim that realism would reject utopianism and moralism present in theories of secession. Instead of regarding secession as a right, realism would frame secession as a political option. According to this view, this article explores a realist theory of secession that would be based on the priority of politics and disagreement among other concepts. This would be a middle‐ground theory, compatible with liberal values and existing moral theories.     

Coral Roads and their Sorcery: Lost Authority and Spectral Commodification in Buka

Sorcery in Buka, Autonomous Region of Bougainville, is understood as reprehensible in most present contexts, but it is also believed to have once played a constructive role in maintaining social order. This mytheme is important both to the analysis of how traditional systems of sorcery come to be rearticulated in postcolonial contexts, and as a means of understanding how villagers conceptualise social order itself. Here, an analysis of the selective means by which vernacular forms of sorcery are assimilated to the Tok Pisin term poisen is presented together with an examination of the history of institutions of social control in which sorcery is remembered ‐ and forgotten ‐ to have played key roles. In the past, sorcery would have been gavman blong peles, a ‘village government’, a power over and from people, accumulated by the hierarchical integration of lineages within houses known as tsuhana. Sorcery has been privatized and commodified, slipping out of control of traditional authorities, who now pursue a strategy of achieving power over land. Power from people entails, in the Buka context, sorcery or other forms of internalised violence; power over land entails the assertion exclusivist genealogical claims. The pursuit of such claims is mediated by courts, and frequently creates rifts in communities. Sorcery, once freed from its role as government, returns to haunt traditional authorities as the spectre of their former power, and as the spectre of resistance to their current power: to the extent that they emphasize the historical role of poisen, the more they are suspected of it; imagined as the anarchy of jealousies, poisen multiplies in proportion to their success in parlaying forms of traditional authority into economic and political advantage.