The Enlightenment,Pyropolitics, and the Problem of Evil

Abstract

In this article I argue that the ideal of rationality espoused by the European Enlightenment hinges on the separation of the light of reason from heat, with which it had been conjoined in the classical element of fire at least since the Greek antiquity. As a result, evil, from the standpoint of the Enlightenment is tantamount to heat without light, while evil, critically viewed outside this tradition, inheres in the absolute separation between the two aspects of the life-giving, albeit ineluctably dangerous, fire.     

Habermas’s Theological Turn and European Integration

Abstract

Jürgen Habermas’s recent work is defined by two trends: an engagement with the realm of the sacred and a concern for the future of the European Union. Despite the apparent lack of connection between these themes, I argue that the early history of European integration has important implications for Habermas’s conclusions about the place of faith in public life. Although Habermas’s work on religion suggests that the sacred contains important normative resources for postsecular democracies, he continues to bar explicitly religious justifications from discourse within state institutions. I question this exclusion of faith by reconstructing the role that political Catholicism played in the foundation of the European project. By focusing on two of the most important actors involved in the creation of the first European Community, French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman and German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, I show how explicitly religious reasons can broaden political perspectives, resulting in the creation of new, inclusive, postnational forms of communal life. Pushing Habermas to accept the implications of his theological turn, I argue that pluralistic, nondogmatic and nonauthoritarian religious claims should be allowed to enter into the formal public sphere through a discursively determined interpretation of secular translation.     

Irrational Exuberance: Hope,Expectation, and Cool Market Logic

This article examines expectation, optimism, and future-oriented affective postures in financial markets in conversation with theological debates about hope, fanaticism, and enthusiasm. I identify a tendency in economic discourse to valorize calculative and calm rationality over against emotive enthusiasm in market behavior. In recalling the theological debates over passions and interests that proved influential at the inception of capitalism, I argue that the denigration of exuberance in economics bears genealogical links to theological condemnation of the fanatic and enthusiast in early modernity. Retrieving this theological precursor provides an analytical lens for considering the ongoing traction of the language of rationality in economics.     

孟子“性善”思想的现代诠释

孟子认为人区别于禽兽的只是“人性善”,它源于人类共有的同情之心。因为人特有理性精神——反思能力,人人可以发现自己的“本心”,人人也可以成为“尧舜”。“人性善”是孟子“仁政”学说的基石。然而把“人性善”作为“平天下”功业的起点,也使其诞生之日起就有了巨大的消极意义。可是,现代人视人性为物质生活,社会生活等等所决定,也使人类为了从精神家园逃离,失去了生存的终极意义。把“人性善”作为终极的价值理性或许可以拯救这一现代病。     

零团费演化机制分析

基于微观经济学中的效用论、博弈论等基本理论以及心理学对理性的阐释,本文剖析了零团费的产生和存在根源,建立了零团费演化的“路径依赖”机制模型和均衡模型两个简单模型,并得出结论：零团费是客源地和目的地相互作用的一种特殊表现,零团费最终根源在于消费者有限理性决策和我国大众旅游者独有的消费特征,消除零团费需要经历一个相对较长的阶段。     

4. REASON,AGENCY, AND HISTORY: REMARKS ON KANT AND BENJAMIN

This essay begins by determining the nature of Richard Eldridge's project. Referring mainly to writings by Immanuel Kant and Walter Benjamin, I view his attempt as considering what it involves to be an agent in a historical setting. According to Eldridge, the correct answer will have to involve the right combination of Kant's emphasis on rational self‐determination and Benjamin's account of spontaneous (yet nonrational) self‐transformation. In response to this answer, I suggest that Benjamin's view may not easily lend itself to being made compatible with Kantian thinking. In particular, Benjamin's effort to think experience in terms that do not make any reference to rational self‐determination must be viewed as deeply foreign to Kant's project. I also argue that Kant's third Critique, in particular its conception of reflective judgment, could have provided Eldridge with a view of agency and experience that does not deviate substantially from Kant's project elsewhere. At the end of the essay, I argue that the duality we find in Eldridge's exposition should be viewed as not only related to individuals but to society in general. An attempt to resolve it must involve reflection on how historically constituted social forms create such stark oppositions between reason and its other.     

日本江户时代商家雇佣制度的合理性

江户时代的商家确立了较为完善的招募录用制度和逐级晋升体制,完善了奉公人内部教育制度和淘汰制度。这些制度排斥血统主义,重视工作经验和能力,分工明确,结构完善,具有时代条件下的一定的合理性。     

党执政理念的新境界:构建社会主义和谐社会

党的十六届六中全会明确提出构建社会主义和谐社会,标志着党对执政理念的认识达到一个新境界,体现着党对人类文明中关于社会和谐思想的清醒认识,体现着党对共产党执政规律的深刻把握,体现着党对以党内和谐促进社会和谐的信心。     

新时期写作教学理念的更新与发展

随着社会的发展与进步,传统的写作教学理念也随之发生着重大的变化,向着实现人的多样化和个性化发展的新型理念转变,向着科学精神与人文精神相统一的方向发展。