自然之性和仁义之性——程颢人性论的两重性

程颢的人性论是学界研究的难点,有多种观点并存。要正确理解程颢的人性论,需要结合他所面临的辟佛与弘扬儒学的文化背景。为了批判佛性论,他吸取告子"生之谓性"说以肯定人的自然之性。他继承并发展孟子的性善论,使其在理论上更加完善。程颢对自然之性和仁义之性皆持肯定态度。然而,自然之性和仁义之性毕竟有所不同,前者杂气禀而有善恶,后者不杂气禀而至善。未能处理好两者的关系,是程颢人性论的不足之处。     

Democracy and epistemology: a reply to Talisse

According to Robert Talisse, ‘we have sufficient epistemological reasons to be democrats’, and these reasons support democracy even when we are tempted to doubt the legitimacy of democratic government. As epistemic agents, we care about the truth of our beliefs and have reasons to want to live in an environment conducive to forming and acting on true, rather than false, beliefs. Democracy, Talisse argues, is the best means to provide such an environment. Hence, he concludes that epistemic agency, correctly understood, supports the legitimacy of democracy. This reply highlights the interest, but also the difficulties, of this argument and, in particular, of its assumptions about epistemic agency, morality and democracy.     

Migration and justice: a reply to my critics

In this response to six critics, I begin by clarifying the sense in which my approach to the issue of immigration is ‘realistic’. I also explain why a realistic approach must place immigration in a nation-state context, although without treating it as primarily reparative for historic injustice. I suggest that it is implausible to regard global equality of opportunity, as opposed to global sufficiency, as setting limits to national self-determination. I then defend my use of the distinction between refugees and economic migrants to frame the discussion of immigration against the charge that all migrants are potentially vulnerable to the decisions of admitting states, since these may determine the fate of their life-projects. And I also defend the claim that, in the case of refugees, justice requires only that each state should discharge its fair share of the burden of admitting them; doing more than this would require popular consent. Finally, I consider the case of irregular migrants, and explain in what sense they have taken unfair advantage of other potential migrants; I defend offering a conditional amnesty to people in this category.     

The limits of tax and expenditure limits: TEL implementation as a principal-agent problem

Previous scholarship has shown that Tax and Expenditure Limits (TELs) often fail to constrain government growth. This paper views the implementation of TELs as a principal-agent problem. Agency theory predicts that delegation is affected by the preferences of agents and the costs of monitoring those agents. Using panel data for the US states from 1970 through 2008, I conduct an empirical test of the validity of the principal-agent model for TELs. I find that state spending limitations are only effective at cutting the growth of state and local spending under the direction of agents who have a preference for limited government. Additionally, state property tax limitations are only effective when monitoring does not require costly coordinated action. These findings contradict an alternative theory of TEL implementation that looks towards the policy’s origin. My research suggests that the arrangements of delegation determine when and under what conditions TELs effectively reduce government growth.     

马克思主义人学思想的初步形成——从博士论文到《1844年经济学哲学手稿》

马克思主义哲学是关于现实的人及其历史发展的科学,从博士论文到《1844年经济学哲学手稿》标志着马克思主义人学思想的初步形成。马克思实现了对黑格尔的思辨的人的超越,通过对劳动和异化劳动的深刻分析,揭示了人的自由、解放和全面发展问题,为科学的人本主义历史观的创立奠定了基础。     

传统人文思想的特点及其现代价值

传统人文思想是中国传统文化的核心与灵魂,其特点是在各种关系中突出了人的重要性。神人关系上,人对神的实用主义态度;人与自然关系上,强调人与自然的统一,利用自然为人造福,突出人的价值;社会关系中,强调以人性为基础的社会准则;它将自然、社会和人视为一个和谐的统一体,以伦理道德为价值取向,追求人格和道德的完善。科学地审视     

Structural injustice and alienation: a reply to my critics

ABSTRACT

This author’s reply addresses critiques by Reinhard Wolf, Alasia Nuti, and Kimberly Hutchings of my 2017 book, Justice and Reconciliation in World Politics. First, I restate the normative and practical significance of focusing on challenges of structural injustice for resolving many serious and pressing problems in world politics, including climate change. Second, I begin to resolve some puzzles about the concept of alienation and its relationship to justice and reconciliation, by outlining two concepts of alienation, and distinguishing them from alienation as a cognitive-affective experience. Third, I clarify the limits and potential of decolonial political theory.     

Undelivered: the space/time of the sacred in Bataille and Benjamin

Bataille’s work of the 1930s on the sacred has strong echoes of Walter Benjamin’s writing on space and messianic time. In bringing together Bataille’s theoretical and fictional writings, alongside key Benjamin texts, this article seeks to develop our understanding of a perversely grounded sacred.     

The alternative vote and interethnic moderation: A reply to Fraenkel and Grofman

The alternative vote (AV) is a preferential electoral system that tends to reward political moderation and compromise. Fraenkel and Grofman have modeled the likely effects of AV in severely divided societies, in order to impugn AV as a tool of interethnic accommodation. In this response, I show that Fraenkel and Grofman’s model is based on extreme assumptions that bear no relation to party and voter behavior in such societies. Models based on realistic assumptions about strategic behavior and cross-national experience with AV both demonstrate that AV generally provides centripetal incentives that can contribute to interethnic coalition-building and accommodation.     

The limits of analogy: comparing Islamophobia and antisemitism

ABSTRACT

The predicament faced by Muslims today, either in the United Kingdom specifically or in the West more generally, is often compared with the predicament faced by Jews at some point in the past. Muslims, it is suggested, are the new Jews. Klug's article homes in on one element in this view, the claim that Islamophobia is the new antisemitism, and considers the analogy between them. An introductory section sketches the political context, after which Klug focuses on logical or conceptual issues. The two middle sections contain the core of the analysis: consideration of the two terms ‘antisemitism’ and ‘Islamophobia’ in relation to the concepts they denote, followed by an examination of the concepts as such. Certain conclusions are drawn about both their general logic and their specific logics. The final section returns to the political context and, via critique of a thesis put forward by Matti Bunzl, discusses the uses of the analogy. Klug argues that the question we need to ask is not ‘Are Islamophobia and antisemitism analogous?’ but ‘What is the analogy worth?’ The value of the analogy lies in the light it sheds on the social and political realities that confront us in the here and now. Does it illuminate more than it obscures? These things are a matter of judgement. Klug leans towards asserting an analogy between antisemitism in the past and Islamophobia in the present, within limits.     

Toleration,neutrality, and freedom: a reply

ABSTRACT

In defending toleration against its many critics, Respecting Toleration has both conceptual and normative aims. Conceptually, I defend and explain the coherence of political toleration. This involves, in part, highlighting a distinction between two forms of toleration; one of which always involves objection, and one which does not. Normatively, I defend a particular understanding of toleration as the best way of accommodating contemporary diversity. In brief, the state should be guided by an active ideal of neutrality, and citizens must at minimum engage in forbearance tolerance with each others’ differences. In this paper, I respond to four main lines of criticism. The first is that my understanding of toleration – in which objection is not always necessary – is too broad, and that my non-moralised understanding of forbearance tolerance requires additional context. Second, my discussion of neutrality runs together the distinction between an active/passive state with a large/small state; wrongly fails to distinguish between mere preferences and deeply held beliefs; and is really a concern about equality. Third, my freedom-based justification for toleration is too limited; and may, in fact, enable recognition rather than resist it. Fourth, my rejection of inter-citizen respect for difference is too quick.     

Equal citizenship,neutrality, and democracy: a reply to critics of Equal Recognition

The commentators in this Special Issue raise questions about a number of aspects of the book. One group of critics questions the book’s overall normative strategy, asking whether too much weight is placed on the idea of neutrality. A second group raises doubts about the account of neutrality itself. A third zeroes in on the book’s discussion of language rights. And a fourth group is critical of the book’s assumptions about democracy, and about its relevance to public policy disputes. In this reply, I seek to address each of these clusters of concerns. In some places, I suggest, my commentators have misunderstood my position. In other places, I argue, they have not sufficiently thought through the implications of their alternatives to that position.     

Transforming top‐down agricultural extension to a participatory system: a study of costs and prospective benefits in Egypt

This article challenges some previous assessments of agricultural extension relying on simple measures of costs per farmer trained. Taking the case of Egypt, five pilot projects that aim to transform the existing agricultural extension system to a participatory system are analysed as regards their cost‐effectiveness and prospective cost–benefits. It is shown that the intensity and likely impact of participatory approaches among the different projects vary. Hence, it is insufficient to judge extension programmes by their cost‐effectiveness alone. In the case of cotton, for example, the costs per farmer trained are considerably lower than in horticultural crops but there are large differences in prospective benefits which would make investment in participatory extension in the latter more promising. The article calls for a more careful analysis of the costs of extension programmes in agricultural development and identifies four major cost categories, namely base costs, start‐up costs, recurrent and farmers' costs. The article also submits that in the context of the debate on privatization of agricultural extension there is a role to be played for the public sector in agriculture. The success of participatory approaches to extension will depend on the quality of services provided in connection with farmer training programmes. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Participatory planning as a deliberative democratic process: a response to Hodgson's critique

This paper is a response to Hodgson's recent critique of our model of participatory planning through negotiated co-ordination. His critique focused on four issues: the coherence of our distinction between market exchange and market forces; our understanding of tacit knowledge; the scope for innovation in our model; and the alleged problems of information overload and cognitive limitations. In this response we argue that Hodgson misinterprets our model as being based on the aggregation of individual preferences, whereas it is in fact a model of participatory planning through a process of deliberative democracy.     

Democracy and countries with Muslim majorities: a reply and update

My empirical results in Potrafke (2012) confirm past conclusions that Muslim-majority countries are less likely to be democratic. Hanusch takes issue with my results—and by inference with all past empirical results on the relation between Islam and democracy. In his comment on my study, Hanusch indicates that he believes I was using the POLITY IV index. He has not realized, as I made most clear, that the purpose of my study was to show results based on new data from Cheibub et al. (2010). Hanusch claims to have reversed the conclusion that having a Muslim majority is associated with having autocratic government. He establishes his conclusion by excluding the heartland of Islam from the estimation sample. For his estimates, Hanusch moreover uses data that do not appear to exist, at least in the claimed sources. I update my estimates to address issues that Hanusch raises. My new results confirm the conclusion that countries with Muslim majorities are less likely to be democracies. In deriving this result, I do not follow the strategy proposed by Hanusch of excluding from the data sample the countries in the heartland of Islam.     

Green citizenship: a review and critique

This paper reviews the literature on green citizenship and argues that the concept of citizenship has done much to advance green theory building internally but that in order to deepen an already substantial area of scholarship, promote a more inclusive and emancipatory environmental politics, and augment their contribution to the larger body of citizenship studies, greens will need to broaden their approach to the concept. This review highlights the tendency within green theorizing to privilege particular conceptions of the natural world and humans' relations to it, and draws attention to the work of those scholars explicitly engaged in incorporating the social construction of nature into their theories of green citizenship. The essay concludes by identifying three particular areas in which green theorizing has contributed to citizenship studies.     

Informational limits to democratic public policy: The jury theorem, yardstick competition, and ignorance

Condorcet’s jury theorem provides a possible explanation for the success of democracies relative to other forms of government. In its modern form, the jury theorem predicts that majority decisions are well informed, because they are based upon far more information than possessed by any single individual. On the other hand, it is evident that democratic politicians and policies are not always as good as the jury theorem implies they should be. This paper uses simulated elections to explore the power and limitations of majority rule as an estimator of candidate quality or policy effectiveness. The simulations demonstrate that slightly informed voters can make very accurate choices among candidates using majority rule. However, as the ratio of slightly informed voters relative to ignorant voters falls, the accuracy of majority decisions declines. The latter implies that institutions, policies, and technologies that promote the dissemination of information also tend to improve the efficiency of democratic governance.     

Creatively interpreting policy to move science forward: Implementing participatory technology assessment at NASA

Entrepreneurial strategies and tactics are often subtle and indiscrete, adding to the mystery of how one goes about being an entrepreneur, particularly within bureaucratic agencies that are often set up to constrain such behaviors. The authors use a case study of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)'s public engagement practices to examine how entrepreneurs shift policy interpretations with administrative agencies. Findings describe three entrepreneurial strategies and tactics: (1) using one-on-one or small group meetings to connect to different audiences across organizations; (2) tying new policy interpretations to existing ones, so changes seem less radical; and, (3) positioning oneself in the middle of the action to control both narrative and progress. Conclusions discuss both practical mechanisms for shifting away from the status quo, and the theoretical contributions to a growing body of literature on strategic and tactical approaches of bureaucratic entrepreneurs in democratic systems.