Fact-sensitive political theory

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to argue for the importance of attention to facts in normative theorising. I discuss the problems that arise from both not displaying such attention (as some idealists do) and from doing so in the wrong way (as, for example, realists do). I propose a different brand of theorising – fact-sensitive political theory, which aims to avoid these two problems by paying attention to key facts while retaining a solid normative anchoring in abstract normative principles. The merit of abstract vs. non-abstract reasoning is that the normative debate is not torn between two distinct ends of a spectrum in the way the idealist–realist debate is. By contrast, the locus of the investigations is vertical in the sense that abstract and concrete normative discussions are given equal status and can co-exist compatibly. One of the main differences between abstract and concrete normative principles is whether abstract or concrete facts are considered necessary for the determination of the normative principles. The fact-sensitive account of normativity is neither realist nor non-ideal: it is an ambitious and demanding normative theory that contains both abstract and concrete normative reasoning. The fact-sensitive account of political theory meets the two criteria set out in this article: to integrate concrete and empirical facts about the subject matter and to subject the selection of facts to theoretical and methodological discussion and justification.     

A TURNING POINT FOR GUOHUA?: XU BEIHONG AND TRANSFORMATIVE ENCOUNTERS WITH THE SOCIALIST SPIRIT, 1933–1953

Abstract

This article investigates a transformative encounter between the Chinese artist Xu Beihong (徐悲鴻 1895–1953) and audiences in the Soviet Union during his 1933–1934 exhibitions of Chinese art in Europe. While Xu was exchanging perspectives and addressing questions about Chinese painting, a misreading of one of his paintings sparked in him a reconsideration of content and form that eventually led to the creation of some of the earliest Socialist realist ink-and-color paintings in China. This addition to his repertoire is arguably more significant to his legacy than his most popular works because of the way it heralded the coming Socialist realist evolution in guohua (國畫 national painting) and the manner in which Xu’s choices would meet the ideological needs of the Communist Party well before it secured authority over the direction of China’s arts. Special attention is paid to situating Xu’s personal work vis-à-vis Republican and revolutionary art and explaining how the concurrent political milieu paved the way for both the prestige of his art in popular and cultural memory and the unprecedented stature of his art education methodologies in China’s revolutionary times.     

‘At least 2001’: US security policy and exit strategy in Bosnia

This article describes and analyzes the United States’ security conduct in Bosnia since the Dayton Accords of November 1995, and its involvement in the multilateral conflict resolution and peacebuilding effort. From this analysis, the conclusion is that it will be difficult for the US to exit from its engagement in Bosnia. Various explanations are offered for the formulation of American policy: norms and values, alliance politics and the role of NATO, bureaucratic and congressional influence, as well as presidential leadership. The most important factor remains affirmation of US leadership to make the peacebuilding mission in Bosnia a successful one.     

刑事再审启动程序论要——从实证、比较法的视野考察

我国刑事再审启动程序以及刑事再审制度理念上存在的问题,导致二审终审形同虚设、无限申诉的情况发生,造成诉讼和司法资源的大量浪费,严重影响终审裁判的既判力等现象。从实证、比较的角度对该问题进行系统地研究表明,更新刑事再审制度理念、改革再审启动程序乃完善我国刑事再审制度的必经之路。     

The virtue of vice: a defence of hypocrisy in democratic politics

This essay suggests that Machiavelli's claim that the moral vice of hypocrisy is inescapable in politics constitutes a real issue for democratic politics today. Indeed, it concludes that democratic societies are implicated in creating the impetus to hypocritical behaviour. The essay questions the prevalent conviction that a liberal democratic polity should be premised on transparency and candour, not on hypocritical manipulation – a conviction which is paradoxically shared by the dirty hands thesis which is mostly owed to Michael Walzer and which purportedly takes Machiavelli's insights on the moral messiness of politics seriously. Attempts to deny the necessity of political hypocrisy misconstrue the realities of democratic politics – the messy context in which politicians operate and what is distinctive of political friendships. Democratic politicians operate in a context ridden with conflict and dependence which renders hypocrisy a necessary political virtue and one of the strings that hold together a virtuous political life.     

Elizabeth von Arnim’s The Pastor’s Wife: A Reassessment

Abstract

The Pastor’s Wife (1914) may seem at first reading simply another depiction of a woman struggling for liberation in the decades following the work of Thomas Hardy and Henrik Ibsen, being the story of how Ingeborg Bullivant escapes from an English patriarchal home, only to find herself trapped in another one in Germany. The novel, however, marks a turning point in Elizabeth von Arnim’s career; it is a novel that looks back to previous themes while anticipating those to come. It demonstrates, with comedy and bitterness, themes of alienation and exile; satirizes German codes and class; and provides a lyrical Romantic vision of the natural world. It also presents the married woman as a prisoner in a way that anticipates Vera (1921). The novel can also stand alone as an underrated classic that plays an important part in the history of English literature. Published at the beginning of high modernism, it shows, unlike the work of some canonized writers of the time, a fusion of realism and modernism. This essay argues that the novel is a proto-feminist work that is radical in its portrayal of women’s experience and influenced by literary naturalism in its childbirth scenes, but pessimistic about possibilities for change. The essay shows how the novel is modernist in its depiction of the alienated experience of the city; uses nineteenth-century realism in its narrative structure and comedy; and yet is forward-looking in its use of endings. A book that begins as a comedy but ends as a tragedy, The Pastor’s Wife deserves equal recognition with the work of H. G. Wells and E. M. Forster, writers with whom von Arnim was connected and by whom she was influenced.     

关于应该、善和价值存在本性的几种理论

客观论是一种认为善和价值存在于客体之中的无价理本体论。而实在论和主观论以及关系论都是夸大客观论的某些方面而导致错误的。实在论夸大应该、善、价值产生的源泉和存在的实体方面,主观论则夸大应该、善、价值产生和存在的条件方面,关系论则把"价值是客体的关系属性"夸大成"价值是客体与主体的关系",把"价值是客体在与主体发生关系时产生的"夸大成"价值是在客体与主体的关系中产生的",从而误以为应该、善、价值产生于、存在于主客关系中,是一种主客关系。     

Ethics, Foreign Policy, and Liberal Wars: The Role of Restraint in Moral Decision Making

Can morality be a basis for making foreign policy? What happens when it is? The dangers in using morality to justify violence are discussed in the light of the just war tradition and liberalism. An ethical case for the importance of restraint in moral decision making, especially with regard to unnecessary but desirable wars within liberalist approaches to foreign policy, is presented.     

转型：从写实传统到现代主义——论1960至70年代台湾话剧的发展

台湾话剧从写实传统向现代主义转型是在1960年代后半期及70年代.姚一苇等戏剧家为了真实深刻地描写现实和表现人,为了给已呈衰颓迹象的台湾话剧注入活力,借鉴西方现代派戏剧并融合民族戏曲传统去求新求变,推动了中国话剧艺术的发展.     

法律现实主义的演变及对中国法治的思考——倡导纠纷解决机制多元化

创建一个民主、法制的社会环境是构建和谐社会的必要条件之一。如何构建民主、法制的社会环境.吉尔莫的经典叙述告诉我们对于纠纷的解决依赖于一系列多元化的纠纷解决机制。我们通过从传统法律现实主义到新法律现实主义的历史演变的描述,以及对二者思想的分析对比,可以总结归纳出一些现代法治国家可以借鉴的思想和方法。对于发展中的中国来说,也许这些方法有助于确定和保证达到法治和社会和谐的较佳程度。