From Oblivion to Post-History: Sublime Othering in Rider Haggard and W. E. B. Du Bois

This article addresses the ways in which art and philosophy have been discursively used to conceptualize critical political changes and frame narratives of liberation by including and excluding primitive consciousness simultaneously. More concretely, it analyzes the contribution of art and philosophy to the understanding of history and post-history through different representations of black bodies, black desires, and black agencies in the novels She (1886) by Rider Haggard and The Quest of the Silver Fleece (1911) by W. E. B. Du Bois. At stake is the question of the archeology of the past as a living memory in the post-historical time. This past is politically relevant especially if its cognitive fossils negate the idea of exhausted primitive consciousness in the modern world and give meanings to incongruous bedfellows such as civilization and slavery, neoliberalism and poverty, democracy and Nazism, globalization, terrorism and racism, liberalism and homophobia. Arguably, the triumph of scientific ideas has left us with a perpetual quest for liberation rather than the actualization of liberation as a world phenomenon. I hypothesize the relation between exhaustible elements of technical consciousness simulating progress and their inexhaustible materiality at critical historical junctures as a struggle for taste and self-determination. Critical in this relation is the sense that not only primitive stages of consciousness are never fully exhausted at historical junctures, but that one never comes close to thinking about genuine liberation without engaging with real world matters both domestic/intimate and foreign.     

Staging an encounter between anthropology and philosophy: Hits and misses in the work of Michael Jackson

This review essay assesses Michael Jackson’s ongoing project of staging an encounter between anthropology and philosophy in two books: Lifeworlds (2013) and As Wide as the World Is Wise (2016). Considering his philosophical enrichment of ethnographic theory and method, this essay addresses foundational questions about the prospects and practices of interdisciplinary engagement. It also suggests future avenues for continued dialogue between philosophy and anthropology.     

Cesare Beccaria’s On Crimes and Punishments: the meaning and genesis of a jurispolitical pamphlet

At the heart of the criminal reform proposed in Cesare Beccaria’s 1764 Dei delitti e delle pene (On Crimes and Punishments) are the principles of penal parsimony derived from a precise interpretation of the social contract. Punishment, being no more than a necessary evil devoid of any intrinsic virtue, must serve no more than a preventative function to the smallest possible extent; its application strictly bound by the principle of legality. Beccaria’s criminal philosophy, therefore, attempts to drastically reduce the power of the penal institution. After recounting its principal aspects, this article seeks to propose a new interpretation of Beccaria’s theory from the perspective of its historical context. The Italian Enlightenment philosopher did not so much express indignation against the barbarism of the Milanese penal system, but rather instigate a rebellion against the political dominance of its patriciate, whose power had long been validated by its juridical functions. In this respect, Beccaria sought to combat the political hegemony of the jurists, concluding his treatise by excluding juridical thought from, and thus removing the intellectual foundations of, the practice of criminal law.     

Clarifying divine discourse in early modern science: divinity,physico-theology,and divine metaphysics in Isaac Newton’s chymistry

Isaac Newton, like many of his contemporaries, appears to have distinguished between the practice of divinity, founded on divine revelation, and philosophical considerations of God derived from the study of nature. This article evaluates these distinct modes of divine discourse through a close reading of the chymical content of Newton’s optical writings and his correspondence with Thomas Burnet regarding Genesis. Newton’s chymical exploration of divine activity in the natural world in Query 31 to the Opticks (1704) seems independent from Scripture in its physico-theological demonstration of God from natural phenomena and its divine metaphysical reliance on a priori concepts of God to establish principles of nature. Nonetheless, the sensorium analogy by which he explored divine agency in nature drew directly from the biblical doctrine of the imago Dei. Moreover, Newton used his chymical understanding of nature to access the natural-philosophical realities behind the accommodated words of the Mosaic creation account.     

美国史学界关于美国建国初期商业组织的研究

美国建国初期的商业组织不仅推动了经济发展,而且对社会民主化进程产生了重要影响。在过去一百多年间,美国史学界涌现出众多研究美国建国初期商业组织的论著。美国史学家围绕商业组织的政策制度、思想意识以及商业组织发展中的社会冲突展开讨论。随着研究的不断深入,学者们将商业组织的发展转变看做一个综合体,涉及社会各层面与领域的因素。在这个意义上,经济史变成了政治史和社会史。政治精英的态度、大股东活动与平民百姓生活都融入商业组织发展转变的叙述中,展现了一个时代的发展。     

《历史》与命运:希罗多德命运观初探

对人类命运的关注是希罗多德《历史》最突出的主题。这个主题的形成与他所处的时代氛围密切相关。古希腊自然哲学直接启发了希罗多德对命运的思考,史诗和悲剧更进一步促成了他对人类命运的关注和同情。希罗多德敏锐地把握到了命运的变化无常,作品着力于人物命运的书写,传达了历史的变易意识。命运对希罗多德而言,既是变化不定、不可把握和预测的,又是命中注定、无从逃脱的,一切生灭变化导致了命运的无常,命运本身就是变化,就是无常,无常是命运的永恒特性。他对命运的思考既充满了哲学的深邃,又力显史家情怀,诗家笔法。这使得他的《历史》历久弥新,吸引着一代代的史家和普通读者。因为命运不拘何时,总是牵动着人心,人类面对的根本问题从未改变。     

《药言》的伦理教化思想

作为流传甚广的家训名著,姚舜牧的《药言》包含着丰富的伦理道德教育思想。其主要内容包括治家、教子、处世等各个方面。对《药言》的研究、借鉴有助于今天的社会主义精神文明建设。     

康有为的“大中国观”与革命派放弃“驱除鞑虏”口号

190 2年 ,康有为深情表白 :“以我之愚 ,窃爱大中国 ,爱一统 ,若其为印度焉 ,分为众小以待灭 ,此则我之愚 ,所不敢知不敢从也。”他以“大中国观”反对喧嚣一时的狭隘民族主义 ,导发了一场思想大论战。通过论战 ,革命派接受了“大中国观”,清算了“民族复仇”、“满汉分治”、“特法治满”等错误主张 ,放弃了有严重负作用的“驱除鞑虏”口号 ,形成了巩固中国统一、体现民族平等的“五族共和”方针     

旅游哲学发凡

从人生哲学、政治哲学、教育哲学三大方面探讨旅游哲学。旅游哲学之内涵见诸情性观、价值观、生死观、苦乐观、天人观、人际观、政治观、修身观、静思观、义利观等。     

服务业地理学的理论与人文地理学方法论革新探讨

长期以来,对服务业地理学的理论研究、特别是研究方法论的哲学探讨往往重视不够。文章探讨了服务业地理学研究的一般意义和特殊意义,在此基础上,对服务业地理学方法论进行了深入探讨。从而得到了人文地理学方法论研究的几点启示。研究结果表明:借助人地全息统一论与城市全息地域结构的研究成果,并从信息哲学的角度,对服务业空间规律的分布、服务业空间组合与形态、服务活动区位等进行研究,将是一个重要的研究思路和方向。