Science and secularization

ABSTRACT

According to a long-standing narrative of Western modernity science is one of the main drivers of secularization. Science is said to have generated challenges to core religious beliefs and to have provided an alternative, rational way of looking at the world. This narrative typically relies on progressive and teleological understandings of history, and commitment to some version of an ongoing struggle between science and religion. By way of contrast, recent theories of secularization, such as that of Charles Taylor, have suggested that the role of science in secularization has been greatly exaggerated. This article also offers a critique of the standard “science causes secularization” story. But in contrast to other critiques of this kind, it suggests that science nonetheless has a significant role in secularization – one that can be maintained without a commitment to a crude progressivist history or a narrative of science-religion conflict.     

牛郎织女神话十年研究述评(1996—2006)

1996至2006年10年间学术界关于牛郎织女神话研究所取得的成绩是有目共睹的,不仅出版了一批学术著作,而且还发表了大量学术论文,研究的视野也开阔起来。主要体现在如下几个方面：一、牛郎织女神话起源研究;二、牛郎织女神话流行状态研究;三、牛郎织女神话与相关民俗研究;四、牛郎织女神话与相关文学创作研究;五、牛郎织女神话的历史学、考古学、档案资料等方面的研究;六、牛郎织女神话的文化学、社会学、人类学等方面的研究。可以说,在牛郎织女神话研究方面已经形成了一个多姿多彩的局面。对近10年牛郎织女神话研究进行学术总结是有必要的。     

"层累地造成的中国古史"--一个带有普遍意义的知识论命题

顾颉刚“层累地造成的中国古史”一说的内涵不仅仅局限于史料学的层面,它的现代性似乎主要体现在顾颉刚对历史知识一般性质、尤其是其不确定性的看法上或对历史知识的谦卑的态度上。搁置历史本体、着重于古史知识形成过程的“层累构成说”标明了顾颉刚经验主义的知识立场。而在普遍的知识论意义上,从怀疑古史记录到怀疑全部历史记录,顾颉刚事实上已经触及了历史知识的一般性质与“神话”的性质的关系问题。     

论盘古神话的演变及其文化意义

盘古神话从原始产生到形成相对丰满完善的创世神话,是南北文化、汉民族与少数民族文化互相渗透融合的结果。它在后世的流传情况是丰富多样的,它主要在南方少数民族和汉民族民间流传,形式上各民族有各民族的特色,内容上或融合于各自的民族神话系统而赋予了新的文化内核。另外,道教的神仙传说也是盘古神话流传演变的一个途径。盘古神话体现出五个方面的文化意义。     

Myth,perspective, and affirmation in Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy

While the Apollonian and Dionysian in Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy are often understood as a rehashing of Schopenhauerian metaphysics, recent accounts have shown that his use of these concepts is at odds with such a metaphysics, interpreting them instead as myths. I follow this insight that Nietzsche is engaging in mythmaking in BT, but I argue that proponents of this view have missed an important dimension of that mythmaking: that Nietzsche presents multiple narratives of Apollo and Dionysus from different perspectives, each of which offers different senses of tragic affirmation. This perspectival feature of BT sheds light on the more formal ‘perspectivism’ articulated in the Third Essay of On the Genealogy of Morals, as Nietzsche uses perspective in both cases to generate an epistemic alternative to the life-denying features of modern science. Thus, the metaphysical discussions of the early Nietzsche are inseparable from the development of a stylistic practice that constitutes a radical rejection of metaphysics for the later Nietzsche, and this style is part of a project of generating a more life-affirming approach to knowledge.     

‘Primordialism’ in nationalism studies: theory or ideology?

For several decades, the field of nationalism studies has seen an extended debate about explanations of nationalism and about the process of nation formation. An impressive set of labels has been coined to describe alternative approaches. One of the theories that has enjoyed unusual longevity is the approach known as primordialism, which stresses the deep historical and cultural roots of nations and nationalism and assumes their quasi‐objective character. This resilience is surprising because of the difficulty of marshalling evidence to support such a theory, and because of the line‐up of critics who dismiss it. This article explores the recent debate about primordialism. It suggests that authentic versions of primordialism are extremely hard to find in the academic literature, and that primordialism may better be viewed as an ingredient in nationalism than as an explanation of nationalism.     

Humayma's notched peak: a focus of Nabataean and Roman veneration and civic identity

The most distinctive landscape feature at the southern Jordanian site of Humayma is Jebel Qalkha's highest peak, which is split at the top by a wide notch. The Nabataean town of Hawara (Roman Hauarra/Hauara) was built on the plain immediately east of this peak. This paper draws on the site's foundation myth, petroglyphs, betyls and religious and civic structures to illustrate the significance of this notched peak for the site's ancient populations. The evidence suggests that this distinctive peak served as a focus of veneration and a marker of civic identity for Humayma's Nabataean and Roman inhabitants.     

Euhemerus and the Chronicle of John Malalas

In spite of Warren Treadgold's recent contention to the contrary, no new insights on the Sacred History of Euhemerus of Messene are to be gleaned from John Malalas and the account of the gods found in his chronicle. They cannot be directly connected to Euhemerus, or even to a complete version of Diodorus Siculus’ lost sixth book, which related a version of the Sacred History. We would, nevertheless, like to know the source for what Malalas says about the gods. Previous efforts to identify the author of the euhemeristic narrative in the chronicle of Malalas prove unavailing and misleading. Taking into account the parallel version of this narrative found in the Excerpta Latina Barbari, it would seem that the most likely author is Bouttios, one of the authorities cited for a few other items by Malalas. Treadgold has included this Bouttios in the list of authors he considers to be nothing more than inventions of Malalas. But, unlike the others on Treadgold's list, the existence of Bouttios can be independently corroborated. We are, moreover, in a position to offer some speculations about Bouttios and his work.     

Europe's odyssey?: political myth and the European Union

The article argues that the European Union, despite being a different kind of polity, has political myths that are similar to those that have characterised nation‐states. It examines two types of political myth – foundation and exceptionalism – and demonstrates that they have been used in an attempt to make the European Union understandable and acceptable as a form of governing. The article also argues that political myths about the EU have had limited success not only because they are based on the same content as national myths but also because they do not always conform to recognisable narrative forms. The EU, with its ambiguous aim of creating ‘an ever closer union’, does not provide the basis for sacred narratives that become normative and cognitive maps that make the new polity ‘normal’ and provide the EU with ontological security.     

The Neapolitan revolution of 1799∗

Abstract

1999 marks the second centenary of the Neapolitan revolution of 1799. The following three short articles examine the ways in which historical interpretations of the revolution and its place in Italian history have changed over time and the ways in which the images and memories of the revolution have been used to transmit powerful political and cultural messages.