Reproduction, Representation and Authenticity: A Rereading

This essay argues for the moral necessity of retaining connections between the practices of representation and the ideal of authenticity. Using the example of racial representation, the author finds in the political philosophy of Charles Taylor and the cultural criticism of George Steiner resources for engaging in a creative dialogue with the history of our own tradition.     

Pursuing Moral Governance

A millennium ago in Northern Song (960–1127) China, Emperor Huizong initiated the “Eight Virtues of Conduct” in order to recruit morally upright officials. In place of the candidates’ skills in literary composition and understanding of the Confucian classics, this scheme adopted candidates’ moral virtues as their major criterion of selection. This paper analyzes how this scheme was implemented. It also shows that the rejection of certain genuinely virtuous nominees and the recruitment of some candidates who had exhibited objectionable conduct somehow compromised the emperor’s ideal. This analysis is followed by a discussion of the political and social implications of the scheme. Instead of perceiving this promotion channel as a means for Huizong and Chief Councilor Cai Jing to eliminate dissidents and install ideological conformity, the author argues that the scheme was an initiative of the emperor to counter the chief councilor’s dominance and alleviate factional conflicts. The final section examines the extent to which this scheme facilitated social mobility in the Song dynasty.     

The hinc et nunc of moral theology: Francisco de Vitoria’s lesson and the missionary experience*

In the sixteenth century, as moral theology was being consolidated as an autonomous academic discipline, theologians at the University of Salamanca, including the Dominican Francisco de Vitoria, began to incorporate current moral and political issues into their teaching agendas. Prominent among these issues were those arising out of the conquest of the Americas. Their students, a generation of university-trained missionaries, then went to work in Spanish possessions in the Americas and the Philippines. These missionaries and men of learning included the Augustinians Alonso de la Veracruz (in Mexico) and Martín de Rada (in the Philippines and China). As their world expanded, Vitoria's teachings were rendered fully intelligible in the confusing reality of the colonial enterprise, and these missionaries struggled to apply his lessons to the questions of conscience they encountered. The result can be considered a new chapter in the relationship between theological knowledge, the production of facts, and moral certainty, all against the backdrop of the territorial and economic expansion of Spain.     

Gated communities as spatial manifestations of moral differentiation and competition: an example from Istanbul,Turkey

Gated communities have received significant attention in academic debates. Despite this, there is a lack of studies on differentiation and tensions between them. This paper analyses differentiation between gated communities by adopting the theory of “symbolic boundaries” [Lamont, M., 1992. Money, morals, and manners: the culture of the French and American upper-middle class. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press]. It uses the data collected from fieldwork in two gated communities in Istanbul, Turkey, comprising semi-structured in-depth interviews with residents. First, the paper contributes to Lamont's “symbolic boundaries” [Lamont, M., 1992. Money, morals, and manners: the culture of the French and American upper-middle class. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press] by showing that morality is not independent from socio-economic context, but indicates the legitimate values of a given social context. This is shown in residents’ use of moral boundaries such as a law-abiding lifestyle, legitimate sources of capital accumulation and the existence of warmer relations with each other. Second, the paper contributes to the study of gated communities by demonstrating that they can be regarded as spatial manifestations of the division within the upper classes which results from competition for deserved status.     

Marketplaces and Morality in Papua New Guinea: Place,Personhood and Exchange

In Papua New Guinea (PNG) more rural people, and especially rural women, earn cash from selling in marketplaces than from any other source. PNG's marketplaces are critical for food security, and for the redistribution of wealth. They are also important meeting places where people gather to see friends, hear the latest news, attend court cases, play cards and be entertained. This introduction to this special issue on ‘Marketplaces and Morality in Papua New Guinea’ reviews the history of PNG marketplaces and their contemporary forms. It charts their transformation from introduced colonial spaces into dynamic Melanesian places, which, as places to buy, sell and socialise, have become pervasive institutions in the lives of both urban and rural Papua New Guineans, and places where people interact with both known and unknown others. From this, marketplaces emerge as important spaces of moral evaluation and contestation in relation to what constitutes morally acceptable exchange and what practices are acceptable in these places. The paper demonstrates that exchange in the marketplace should not be reduced to commodity transactions, and questions assumptions about the types of people marketplaces create. It argues that the country's marketplaces are productive sites to consider ideas of exchange, social relations and social personhood, and that there is a critical need to understand the concrete details of what takes place in contemporary marketplaces.     

河南汉代陶阙及相关问题

本文依据已发表的考古学资料,对河南出土的汉代陶阙进行了分类分期研究,并对其中一类陶阙在汉墓中的位置、寓意、双阙中间的“罘罳”及其上面的浮雕像内容进行了探讨。     

Young people's cartographies of school choice: the urban imaginary and moral panic

A critical geography of school choice illuminates how parental school choice reproduces unequal urban conditions. This paper contributes to this scholarship by arguing that the reproduction of urban spaces is reinforced by the ways the dominant urban imaginary shapes how youths imagine and organise their school options. I draw from the fields of critical geography, school choice, and sociology of moral panic to theorise how children's geographies are informed by the dominant urban imaginary and reconstituted reiteratively by moral anxiety. Through this lens, I analyse ethnographic data collected on school choice policy, along with interviews with 59 youth (ages 11–19) in Vancouver, Canada. My analysis demonstrates that the dominant forms of classed stigmatisation of marginalised urban schools are important to young people's rejection of those schools. My analysis also shows that moral panic and rising fears of violence underwrite the spatial patterns of youth participation in school choice.     

网络对大学生思想道德的影响及其对策

随着互联网渗透到社会的各个层面和领域,对新生事物历来敏感的高校大学生受其影响日盛。网络在改变着当代大学生学习、思维和生活的模式,影响着他们的政治态度、道德风貌和价值取向。如何借助互联网,因势利导,做好高校思想政治教育工作,是我们面临的一大课题,本文指出了网络对大学生思想观念的正、负影响并提出了应对对策。     

领导干部必须加强品行修养注重能力培养着力改进作风

建设新青海,青海各级领导干部必须加强品行修养,努力培养高尚道德情操;必须注重能力培养,切实提高推动跨越发展、绿色发展、和谐发展、统筹发展能力;必须着力改进作风,坚决抵制各种不良风气。     

银雀山汉简《定心固气》与孟子思想

银雀山汉简《定心固气》篇现存简十三枚,残损较多。文中有"积气"、"守一"、"定心"、"固气"、"独行"等内容,是一篇专论养气修性的古代文献,是研究传统文化的珍贵资料。《孟子》中也曾讨论"知言养气"的理论,其说与简文相近。