Strauss and 'Straussianism': From the Ancients to the Moderns?

Do scholars inspired by Leo Strauss adhere to, or diverge from, his teachings as they contribute to turn of the twenty-first-century American conservative thought and new conceptions of the American political executive and constitutional order? Analyzing Strauss' view of the twofold task of political philosophy, as well as his position that modern political philosophy inexorably leads to philosophic and moral crises, the scaffolding of Strauss' political outlook – and the dimensions of its contemporary relevance – will begin to take shape. Turning to the writings on America by many of Strauss' most notable students, we discover that most of them point back to the admittedly liberal theories of John Locke and the American founders as the starting point for defining a new conservative outlook that will address the problems of modernity. We are thus confronted by a quandary. How can an important current of Strauss-inspired scholarship put forth that the theories of Locke and the American founders provide the foundation for addressing a crisis that Strauss states is rooted in that very modernity? We will discover that the thought of Strauss and an important strand of Straussianism are not the same, because Strauss-inspired scholarship on America adheres to only a facet of Strauss' two-pronged political philosophy. Strauss, however, cannot disavow responsibility for these students and followers, who embrace an important current of his thinking.     

One Concept of Liberty

In this paper I argue in favour of a single conception of liberty, that picked out by Berlin as negative liberty. However, Berlin's defence of liberty so understood seems to rest on a view not open to the moral realist.
The first half of the paper explains this and suggests an alternative defence compatible with such a moral position. The defence rests on an account of why we value freedom. In the second half of the paper this negative conception is defended against recent criticism from Charles Taylor. His appeal to qualitative distinctions within freedom is queried, as is the conception of the self that seems required for his outlook.     

谈语言的不可翻译性--伽达默尔解释学语言理论研究

语言翻译问题是伽达默尔解释学的一个重要内容,翻译不仅与理解密切相关,而且是不同视域的融合过程;由于翻译涉及不同语言之间的转换,而这种转换不仅仅是形式结构的转换,更重要的是世界观的转换,所以原文与译文之间的差异和距离便无法消除.从这个意义上讲,语言的不可翻译性是一个"形而上学事实".这一问题可以透视伽达默尔关于理解、语言、存在三者的关系,而正是这一点为他的解释学本体论转向作好了铺垫.     

Lenin on the Jewish Question: the Theoretical Setting

Western scholars studying Lenin's writings on the Jewish question tend to view them as reflecting no more than the tactical needs of the struggles he conducted against the Jewish Bund. This article examines these writings in the context not of Lenin's political quarrels with the Bund but of his theoretical conception of the relationship between modernization and ethnic conflict. Underlying Lenin's views on the Jewish question and the positions he took vis-à-vis the Bund was a carefully considered theory of nationality grounded in a clearly defined Marxist outlook on history. That theory of nationality, however, happened to be erroneous in that it stipulated the gradual elimination of ethnic conflict as a by-product of modernization. In reality, as theorists of ethnicity have shown in the last 15 years, modernization may have the exactly opposite effect. For the benefits of modernity, whether economic or political, accrue in unequal measures to members of different ethnic groups, thus intensifying ethnic solidarity and the friction between ethnic communities. Lenin's over-optimistic view of the effect of economic development on inter-ethnic relations caused him to judge the Jewish problem in Russia in an unrealistic way, and gave his comments on that problem the appearance of ad hoc tactical pronouncements.     

也评黄枬森的“辩证唯物主义世界观”——答周树智先生相关评论

把马克思的世界观称之为辩证唯物主义是恰当的,这在我国哲学界是许多学者的共识,黄枬森同志对此做了比较系统的论述。近来有部分论者发文高调批判和否定了黄枬森的相关观点,在他们看来,黄枬森先生所坚持和阐发的辩证唯物主义是斯大林的哲学、是"见物不见人"的旧哲学,不是马克思的世界观;辩证唯物主义是与"以人为本"的科学发展观相背离的哲学;劳动异化理论是马克思的以人为本的新哲学开始形成的重大标志等。这些理由完全不符合马克思主义哲学史事实,具体地来说有的是主观臆断、乱扣帽子,有的是无中生有、自欺欺人,有的是断章取义、牵强附会,因而都是不能成立的。     

论新世纪干部的“城市观”教育

21世纪的世界,将是城市化的世界。在我国强化对新世纪的干部——国家和城市的管理者的“城市观”的教育尤为重要。要遵循生产力发展的要求,教育干部树立正确的城市发展观;从人民群众的根本利益出发,教育干部坚持城市可持续发展观;以先进文化引领域市精神文明建设,教育干部树立学习型城市观。     

科玄论战的主旋律、插曲及其当代回响(下)

也许正是洞察到张君劢论点中的这些缺陷,科学派当即对其进行了针锋相对的批驳.针对张君劢鼓吹孔孟朱王注重内心修养形成的精神文明以及把精神文明和物质文明对立起来的观点,丁文江径直反诘道:"懒惰的人,不细心研究历史实际,不肯睁开眼睛看看所谓‘精神文明'究竟在什么地方,不肯想想世上可有单靠内心修养造成的‘精神文明';他们不肯承认所谓‘经济史观',也还罢了,难道他们也忘记了那‘衣食足而后知礼节,仓廪实而后知荣辱'的老话吗?"[52]针对张君劢的寡均贫安说,他一针见血地指出:"中国现在寡到什么程度,贫到什么田地,君劢研究过没有?那一年北方遭旱灾,没有饭吃的人有二千万人:卖儿女的也有,吃人肉的也有.     

Of(f) Course: Michel Foucault,the Mobile Philosopher and his Dreamworlds

Foucault extolled the Iranian revolution and, anticipating the havoc that his public intervention in favour of the revolution would create, he wrote: “I can already hear the French laughing, but I know that they are wrong”. Examining Foucault’s (so unlikely) valorisation of certainty and the partisan affectivity it bestows upon knowledge and truth, I read his unusual engagement with the Iranian revolution against the grain. A major tendency is to approach Foucault’s Iranian writings as aberration; against this tendency, I read them as an effect of Foucault’s specific epistemic and utopian optics. Through a critical reading of neglected aspects of Foucault’s comments on Iran, I argue that much nuance is missing when damning critiques fail to see why and how Foucault’s interest in an active rather than folklore non-European political identity unveils deeper tensions of his own worldview and outlook on international politics and interrogates mainstream appraisals of Foucault’s political philosophy.     

Recalling Lewis Feuer

This essay examines a brief stretch of the career of the noted sociologist Lewis S. Feuer, paying particular attention to his relationship to Communism during the thirties and forties. With the aid of archival sources, it reconstructs several key episodes of his political involvement that help to explain his eventual deradicalization. This essay first considers Feuer’s geopolitical outlook at the beginning of the Second World War, demonstrating the extent to which his views accorded with the official stance of the Communist Party. It then details Feuer’s experience as an American soldier stationed in New Caledonia, highlighting his independent efforts to abolish forced labor under the French colonial regime. These previously unexamined aspects of his early life shed new light on his later struggles to define himself politically. The purpose of this essay is to complicate Feuer’s posthumous memory, which has been overshadowed by his belated neoconservatism, and to assert the continuing importance of leftist commitment to his thought even until late in his career.     

发扬延安精神 建设廉洁政治

延安时期是中国共产党领导新民主主义革命由低谷走向高潮、走向全面胜利的最光辉的时代。在这一时期，中国共产党展现出纪律严明、倡言真话、以身作则、勤于学习等优良作风与高尚品质。正是这种迥异于腐败丛生的国统区的崭新的精神风貌，吸引了一批批有志之士投入革命阵营，培养了大量的革命人才参与对敌斗争。延安精神是中国民主主义革命胜利的宝贵财富，直到今天仍值得借鉴与发扬光大。     

The Strange Happy Life of a Scholar Gipsy

Society - Interview with freelance writer and independent scholar John Rodden, who discusses his literary work and personal outlook as an author. How does one live the life of the mind and write...     

The Immovable Foundations of the Infinite and Immortal: Tocqueville's Philosophical Anthropology

My purpose in this essay is to show that the enduring value of Alexis de Tocqueville's work is rooted in his philosophical anthropology, or view of human nature. In Democracy in America, Tocqueville reveals his view of human nature as he treats the relationship between religion and politics in the democratic social state. His political science remains valuable because he understands human beings as creatures distinguished by their desire for the infinite and immortal. In sum, for Tocqueville, religion is an essential support of liberty in the democratic social state because it answers the soul's desire for the infinite and immortal, and provides the foundations for personal and political justice.     

The semiotic limbo of the pacific

Deleuze's study of his friend Michel Toumier's first novel Vendredi has widely been seen as a pivotal point in the development of his thought; Alphonso Lingis even sees it as the final articulation of the concept of the ‘elemental sign’. Contrary to this view, this paper argues that Deleuze's postface anticipates in important ways the semiotics of Mille Plateaux, but that Deleuze's reading has been so influential as to obscure Tournier's own? which may be shown to be much more concerned with the immediate politics of the French presence in the Pacific.     

Montesquieu on Federalism and Anglo-Gothic Constitutionalism

The common perception that Montesquieu is not a major theoristof federalism is due both to the peripheral nature of his accountof confederate republics and his praise of the unitary BritishConstitution in the Spirit of the Laws. This study challengesthis view by arguing that, despite his endorsement of the separationof powers, Montesquieu had serious reservations about England'shighly centralized system of parliamentary sovereignty. Moreover,his most significant reflections on federalism were not containedin his brief treatment of confederate republics, but ratherin his lengthy consideration of Gothic constitutionalism. Iconclude that Montesquieu's complex constitutional theory involvestwo distinct dimensions including both the separation of powersexemplified in England and the federal principles in the decentralizedGothic system of medieval France.     

Policymaking and the Control of the Nongovernmental Sector: Porfirio Díaz and the Grand Diet

Regimes and politicians seeking dominance of groups perceived as important to policy formation is not a new phenomena, and this is illustrated by the frustrated efforts of the Mexican president and dictator Porfirio Díaz to gain control of the Masonic lodges of his country. The Grand Diet devised by him as a pan Mexican Masonic alliance eventually collapsed, representing one of his few political failures and confirming the view that Mexican secret societies have seldom been amenable to central control.     

One Man's Damage: The Consequences of Boris Johnson's Assault on the British Political System

The disgraced British prime minister, Boris Johnson, was forced to resign by his own backbench MPs on 7 July 2022 (effective from 6 September) in complete denial that he had done anything wrong. Optimists might argue that this shows the strength of the British political system; that a way was found to throw out a proven rascal, thus providing the opportunity for a restoration of ‘normal politics’. In my view, this optimism is misplaced. Boris Johnson's behaviour, mirroring that of his populist role model, Donald Trump, has raised a number of serious questions about the continued successful functioning of the UK's unwritten constitution. The article reviews the character of Johnson's constitutional violations during his period as prime minister. Using data from a recent survey of UK voters, it then explores the damaging effect that his period in office has had on UK public opinion. Despite his removal from office, Johnson retains a hard core of support across the wider electorate and, in particular, among grassroots Conservative supporters and party members. These supporters remain largely unaware of Johnson's constitutional crimes, and where they do know about them, they forgive them. This creates the real danger either that Johnson may at some future date return to office to repeat his offences, or that a similarly populist successor might deploy the same anti-democratic devices that Johnson himself used in his desperate attempts to cling to power.     

Mill, Liberty and the Facts of Life

This paper examines John Stuart Mill's discussion of economic liberty and individual liberty, and his view of the relationship between the two. It explores how, and how effectively, Mill developed his arguments about the two liberties; reveals the lineages of thought from which they derived; and considers how his arguments were altered by political economists not long after his death. It is argued that the distinction Mill drew between the two liberties provided him with a framework of concepts which legitimized significant government intervention in economic matters without restricting individual liberty.     

行政哲学：研究对象与基本问题

本以行政哲学研究对象和研究主题的新认识为基础，提出行政哲学是关于行政观的学问，是人们基于行政实践而对行政本质以及行政科学发展进程进行考察和反思的相关知识的概括和总结。结合当前行政学研究的实际，本将行政哲学研究的基本问题界定为以下五个方面：行政本质及其分界、行政的基本假定、行政目的与行政价值、行政理论范式及其转换、行政理论评价及其创新。     

Debating the ‘Stalemate’: A Response to Dr Dixon

This article responds to the critique of our work offered by Paul Dixon in this issue of Political Quarterly. We correct the numerous inaccuracies and straightforward errors in his work, which, in our view, distort and misrepresent our arguments.