Renewing the Political Perspective: Reflections on James Ceaser,Political Science,and Liberal Democracy

Abstract

This is a response to the contributions to the symposium on David Walsh's trilogy on modernity: After Ideology (1990), The Growth of the Liberal Soul (1997), and The Modern Philosophical Revolution (2008). After expressing appreciation for the careful reading the work has received, it enters into a reflection on the underlying unity of the studies. This is intended to address the common concerns that center on the issue of how the modern world is to be understood. It emphasizes the impossibility of separating the attempt to understand modernity from the need to take responsibility for it. This is the perspective that has illuminated the totalitarian catharsis, the durability of liberal political regimes, and the existential turn within modern philosophy. In the latter part of the essay, a response is offered to specific objections and characterizations that individual symposiasts raise.     

Writing about a different kind of medical history: a critical review of Zaizao bingren by Yang Nianqun

After the implementation of China's Reform Policy and the dissolution of the Cold War system, the conditions in Japan for conducting scholarly research on China's modern history changed drastically. We can categorize Japanese research on China's modern history since the 1980s into two components: the relativization of the Chinese Revolution and a rediscovery of the uniqueness of Chinese society. Some historians, however, continue to point out that an alternative vision of history that integrates detailed research results already achieved within individual areas of history has not yet replaced the conventional revolution‐based paradigm. It is indisputable, as they emphasize, that breaking away from the so‐called revolution‐based viewpoint of history in Japan has created diverse visions of history and has contributed to a more substantial body of work pertaining to China's modern history. The question of what kind of new vision we should search for, however, remains unanswered. Recent overviews of modern Chinese history in Japan were expected to answer this question. This paper is intended as a general review of recent trends and expected developments in Japanese research on China's modern history by introducing the most important overviews written by Japanese scholars. We are not concerned here with individual case study research.     

Between left and right: cooperation and the split between Yu Qiaqing and the CPC during the era of the Northern Expedition

During the Northern Expedition, the Communist Party of China (CPC) had close contact with certain businessmen; one of these was Yu Qiaqing of Shanghai, who played a role in the background of the Three Armed Uprisings of Shanghai Workers. Because of this contact, Yu Qiaqing was regarded as a leading figure of the leftist bourgeoisie. He was also considered an important collaborator with the provisional municipal government after these uprisings. However, his cooperation with the CPC did not jeopardize his alliance with the Nationalist Party. When Chiang Kai-shek, an old friend of his, arrived in Shanghai, Yu soon turned himself into one of Chiang's financial advisors. Although it is hard to argue that Yu Qiaqing's behavior was representative of most businessmen's party preferences, it does demonstrate that some businessmen had a profiteering attitude in politics and were open to taking advantage of the nexus between politics and business. Influenced by the political context and situation, the CPC was also able to flexibly apply its “class analysis” theory during that time to justify the policy of cooperating with people like Yu Qiaqing. However, the failure of cooperation with the bourgeoisie by 1927 became an excuse for opposing factions within the party to criticize this policy, and even affected the CPC's subsequent policy line afterwards.     

De la caída de Tenochtitlán al decaimiento del Make Sicko Seedy de Carlos Fuentes: Ciudades en crisis,mundos por nacer

Carlos Fuentes's 1987 carnivalesque novel, Cristóbal nonato, criticizes Mexico's prehispanic past through a satire of Tenochtitlán-Mexico City in the neoliberal, postnational era. This study consequently juxtaposes criticism, theory, and analysis from both imperial Aztec Mexico and nationalist modern Mexico. While the bulk of this 600-page novel confronts readers with a highly negative (although often risible) view of both Mexicos, it ultimately leads to a happy ending with a didactic twist: If Mexicans will stop abandoning Mexico for the North or other green pastures, and instead stay in Mexico despite its many problems, they can turn things around by their altruism and their activist determination.     

Continuity and Discontinuity in the Historical Development of Modern Psychopharmacology

In the middle of the twentieth century psychiatry underwent a transition that is often referred to as the “psychopharmacology revolution.” Implicit in the term revolution is the idea that a paradigm shift occurred. Specifically, it has been argued that psychiatry abandoned the psychoanalytic paradigm in favor of a qualitatively distinct conceptual system based on brain chemistry. The validity of this view requires that psychoanalysis had the status of a paradigm. This paper presents evidence that psychoanalysis did not constitute a paradigm and that the advent of psychopharmacology was not, technically, a scientific revolution. Instead, the rise of modern psychopharmacology was the culmination of a linear growth of biological knowledge that began to develop in the nineteenth century.     

Fowling during the Gravettian: the avifauna of Pavlov I, the Czech Republic

This is the first article that describes in detail the bird remains from the Gravettian mega-site Pavlov I in the Czech Republic. More than 1000 bird bones represent at least 19 taxa, of which the most numerous are tetraonids including black grouse (Tetrao tetrix), willow grouse (Lagopus lagopus) and ptarmigan (Lagopus muta), and ravens (Corvus corax). The archaeological and biological contexts indicate that most birds were hunted by people in the vicinity of the site, possibly with the help of knotted nets made from plant fibres. We suggest that ravens were killed while feeding on carcasses and/or food remains that may have been disposed of intentionally, and feathers may have been used for arrow fletching. Human-modified bones indicate that birds were used not only for food but also as raw material for tools and decoration. Although mammals were certainly more important in the subsistence of the Gravettian people, it is clear that birds played a role in their culture. The location of Pavlov I enlarges the explanatory scope of the Broad Spectrum Revolution hypothesis to include higher latitudes north of the Mediterranean.     

韩国五四新文化运动思想研究--以陈独秀思想为主的考察

本文旨在帮助中国学者了解韩国学界对五四新文化运动的研究状况.韩国学者一般分三个时期来理解五四新文化运动思想:第一,新文化运动的黎明期;第二,新文化运动初期;第三,新文化运动展开期.他们根据每个时期不同的思想给予不同的评价.韩国学者为了更好地理解和评价每个时期的思想,使用了更详细的几个认识范畴:第一时期使用了反帝反封建运动、民族产业的发展与民众意识的成长以及对中国社会状况的认识;第二时期使用了进化论思想、民主主义与科学;第三时期使用了批判儒家思想、反对孔教运动和文学革命.一般而言,他们大多用儒教批判、孔教批判、偶像破坏论、进化论、民主主义思想和科学思想对五四新文化运动进行评价,这些评价可以给中国学者的研究提供新的视角.     

多维视野中的"革命"--西方"革命学"研究历程评介

20世纪的西方学术在融合和分化的大背景下,特别是在西方现实需要的强大推动下,兴起了众多交叉学科和研究领域。如“现代化”理论一样,“革命”也是西方学者多角度、多层面地加以探讨的活跃领域之一。西方学者真正以比较客观、公正的态度研究“革命”是自俄国十月革命之后,迄今为止大致经历自然史阶段、一般理论、结构—功能理论和行为主义革命理论等四个阶段。其研究方法和取向各不相同,反映了西方“革命”研究的多维视野。     

An Irish revolutionary in Britain: Sean McLoughlin and the British socialist movement, 1920–22

Sean McLoughlin was a significant figure during many of the tumultuous events that rocked Ireland throughout the 1916–23 period. He played a leading role in the Easter Rising of 1916 and was prominent in both the republican and socialist movements in the years that followed. But McLoughlin was also an activist in the British socialist movement, where he was noted both as an outstanding public speaker and an advanced thinker. This article examines McLoughlin's activities within the British socialist movement and looks both at his impact and the contribution to the development of socialist thinking he made whilst there.     

中西革命观念

Revolution is an event that had taken place in many countries in the 20^th century. Revolution was not only imagined in Western historical writing as a radical change of social life, but also perceived as representing a return to the old form of social rule in the end. The Chinese ideas of revolution in the 20^th century evolved from the traditional idea that the change of dynasties was due to the change of mandate. The modern Chinese idea of revolution also incorporated the European idea that revolution would lead to a higher form of social development. The interpretation of the aim of Chinese revolution in the 20^th century China shows that Chinese theorists had a misunderstanding for a long time regarding revolution as representing an ultimate social state and not as a means to achieve political modernization. A theoretical rethinking of the concept after the Cultural Revolution has resulted in an advance in China's social evolution.