TEXTS AND TRADITIONS IN CHINESE AND COMPARATIVE PHILOSOPHY

This article considers Quentin Skinner's critique and methodology in his seminal essay “Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas” vis-à-vis the current methodological debates in Chinese and comparative philosophy. It surveys the different ways in which philosophers who work with ancient Chinese texts in those related fields deal with the tension between textual contexts and autonomy and how some of the errors criticized by Skinner under the mythology of coherence, mythology of doctrines, mythology of parochialism, and mythology of prolepsis might apply to those fields. It argues that Skinner's insistence that understanding a text requires recovering its author's intended meaning by studying its linguistic context has limited application to Chinese and comparative philosophy because those fields’ most important texts are not best understood as means of communication by specific historical authors with intended messages to convey to readers. These texts are instead the means by which Chinese traditions perpetuate their respective beliefs and practices. Instead of being circumscribed by authorial intent, the meanings of traditional texts are dynamic and co-created in the process of producing, reproducing, and consuming texts as well as in the evolution of practices that also constitute each tradition. The meanings received by the audience are never exactly what authors or transmitters intended but have been transformed by each audience's own concerns and interests, even if the audience attempts to grasp what the former intended. Using the Five Classics and the Analects as examples, this article illustrates how such texts’ purposes to teach and perpetuate the practices that constitute a way of life determine their meanings. Understanding is not merely cognitive but practical as well. The meanings of such texts are not static but dynamic as traditions evolve. The debates about methods of reading and interpreting ancient Chinese texts are also debates about the nature of Chinese traditions and struggles over their futures.     

Gardens and gardening in early medieval Spain and Portugal

This is an overview of the range of gardens, garden plants and garden work in early medieval Spain and Portugal, and of the kinds of relevant source material available. There were different kinds of garden, from the architectural gardens of Andalusī rulers and officials to peasant plots in the countryside. Fine gardens were closely associated with an elite and were southern rather than northern. Productive gardens could be found all over the peninsula; vegetables were clearly grown in them, with the emphasis on pulses, but they constituted a small proportion of produce. Fruits were exceptionally important as a source of vitamins, sugar and mineral salts.     

抗战时期国民政府的交通立法与交通管理

抗战时期,为保证大后方交通建设的顺利进行,提高交通运输效率,保障交通安全和畅通,国民政府制定了大量交通法规,涉及到交通人事、业务、工务和财务方面,也包含了国民政府在这些方面的具体管理内容,这些法规形成了比较完整系统的交通法规体系。大量交通法规的颁布,体现了国民政府在交通管理上的一些特点,包括实行交通统制、军需优先、提倡节约和地方协作等特点,但由于在实际的交通管理中存在交通机构变动频繁、运价过低、管理人员腐败和执法不严等问题,国民政府颁布的交通法规并没有达到预期的效果。     

The Potential of e-Learning to Address the Needs of Out-of-School Youth in the Philippines

This paper reports on the findings of focus group discussions designed to explore the learning and skills-based needs of out-of-school youth in the Philippines, particularly addressing their reasons for leaving school, their current activities and employment, how they acquire skills and knowledge, what they want to learn about, their use of Information and Communication Technologies, and their future employment plans. It was undertaken in the context of the development of a programme of e-learning through ICT Centres to be delivered in support of the country's 5 million out-of-school youth.     

Introduction: Critical Agrarian Studies in Theory and Practice

In this introductory article we argue for renewed attention to life and labor on and of the land—or what we call the field of Critical Agrarian Studies. Empirically rich and theoretically rigorous studies of humanity's relationship to “soil” remain essential not just for historical analysis but for understanding urgent contemporary crises, including widespread food insecurity, climate change, the proliferation of environmental refugees, growing corporate power and threats to biodiversity. The article introduces an innovative and varied collection of works in Critical Agrarian Studies and also examines the intellectual and political history of this broader field.     

Framing Food Policy: The Case of Raw Milk

Policies governing the sale of raw milk—making the sales of raw milk more permissive—are gaining traction on the legislative agendas of dozens of states. This paper examines one contributor to this movement on the policy agenda: the role of competitive framing. By combining theoretical approaches from policy studies and political psychology theories of competitive framing, we offer evidence supporting the recent relative success of raw milk activists in several state legislatures. Using an Internet survey‐based experiment with a sample size of 1,630 respondents from seven Midwestern states, we show that a frame emphasizing consumer choice and food freedom is more effective than the frame that dominates among the policy establishment, that emphasizing public health risks. This is true in both one‐sided and competitive framing contexts. We further show that those previously aware of this issue were less influenced by the public health frame than those naïve to the issue. Our results suggest that the pro‐raw milk movement may be making strides on the state policy agenda because their frames are more resonant among the public. We also highlight the advantages gained from considering psychological and policy processes simultaneously to understand policy change.     

The 5th‐Century BC Shipwreck at Tektaş Burnu,Turkey: evidence for the ship's hull from nail concretions

The Tekta? Burnu ship (440–425 BC) sank along a rough and desolate stretch of the Turkish Aegean coast. Archaeological excavation of the shipwreck site by the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University resulted in the retrieval of hundreds of small fragments from the ship's wooden hull and its metal fasteners. Recent study of this artefact assemblage suggests that the coastal trader was built with pine planks and made‐frames, and assembled by a shell‐based construction method. Fasteners include pegged mortise‐and‐tenon joints and double‐clenched copper nails, and the ship may have had laced extremities consistent with other contemporaneous shipwrecks.     

从张家山汉简《具律》看汉初“爵论”制度

爵位是汉代法律量刑时的一个重要标准,爵位的有无与高低决定着刑罚的减免与否。本从张家山汉墓竹简《具律》篇中有关内容出发,结合其它出土竹简及相关史料来讨论汉初“爵论”制度在法律规定及司法实践中的表现,并通过与秦律作比较来探讨其变化与根源。