La resistencia al programa fuerte en la sociología del conocimiento: la asepsia científica y la amenaza del relativismo

In this article we defend the plausibility of adopting a Strong Program in the Sociology of Knowledge. We critically analyze various objections against it; in particular, we show that the auto-refutation charge is not decisive. We offer a Mertonian hypothesis to explain the reason why the Strong Program continues to be the target of very passionate attacks and mockery, despite its prima facie attractiveness and its affinity with contemporary epistemology. Such hypothesis suggests that at least some of the passionate arguments against the Strong Program are motivated by outrage occurring as a result of the violation of a central value of scientific endeavor.     

Relativism

Modern democracies increasingly confuse civic or political equality with a radical relativism that calls into question legitimate principles of hierarchy and the very idea of reasonable value judgments. This confusion reflects a “corruption,” in Montesquieu’s sense, of democracy rooted in a refusal to recognize distinctions that are integral to both human nature and social life. A moderate form of cultural relativism is a genuine intellectual achievement that helps combat ethnocentrism and allows one to better appreciate the full range of human experience. But criteria of meaning and truth are by no means entirely dependent upon cultural context. Our contemporary awareness of the “relativity” of cultures and historical experiences must be complemented by a robust appreciation of the universality of Reason and citizenship.

THE SEXUAL SUBALTERN IN CONVERSATIONS “SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN”: LAW AND THE OLD POLITICS OF COLONIALISM

Ratna Kapur’s recent book entitled Erotic Justice proposes a new politics of postcolonialism whereby the sexual subaltern disrupts the normative principles of the universal, liberal, legal domain. Kapur traces legal strategies regarding censorship, sex-work, homosexuality, sexual harassment, trafficking and migration which travel a treacherous path, countering allegations of ‘unIndian’ and Western practice with cultural histories of ‘authentic’ sexual legitimacies, towards a new politics of desire. Kapur frames her analysis through postcolonial feminist theory as providing a tool for feminist struggle, yet distinct from and disruptive of a liberal project of global sisterhood. This review deeply values the role of the sexual subaltern which disrupts the tenets of a linear, progressive liberalism. Drawing upon Indian feminist and Western feminist perspectives, the review considers how the distinct position of the postcolonial sexual subaltern subject informs the generic role of law as a tool constructing relations of domination regarding gender, sexuality, caste, property and religion. Kapur observes that both the West and the Hindu Right have engaged with liberal legal principles. This engagement, I argue, exposes and informs law as a historical and contemporary tool of gendered legal colonialism, for sisters to disrupt across the Western and Eastern terrains.Review of Ratna Kapur’s Erotic Justice, Law and the New Politics of Postcolonialism, London: Glasshouse Press, 2005, 219 pp., ￡26, ISBN 1-90438-524-9     

人权的普遍性与特殊性析论

人权的普遍性与特殊性是人权性质中最重要的一对范畴。自人权概念产生之始，普遍性就内涵于其中。人权的普遍性这一范畴，一般认为包含了三个向度：主体的普遍性、内容的普遍性以及价值的普遍性。人权的特殊性一般被理解为不同国家和地区由于历史传统、文化、宗教、价值观念、资源和经济等因素的差别，在追求人权的充分实现的过程中其具体的方法手段和模式的多样性。承认人权的特殊性并不意味着对于人权普遍性原则的否认，而是在人权普遍性的前提下，认为人权理论、人权观念与人权制度的多样性是必要的。     

Debating Latin American Aesthetic Theory. Beatriz Sarlo on the Autonomy of Art

For quite some time, Beatriz Sarlo has been at the forefront of the debate over the possibility of ascertaining the aesthetic value of art. The Argentine critic's dismissal of value‐neutral approaches to art has been often criticised as a repackaging of the aestheticist tradition inherited from the European Enlightenment. Using Sarlo's own critical practice – a selection of Sarlo's key texts on Argentine literature written since 1980 – as a testing ground for her theoretical insights I argue in favour of re‐evaluating Sarlo's project as an aporetic discourse with positive implications for cultural politics that should be refined rather than abandoned.     

自然权利的现代性困境——解读列奥·施特劳斯的《自然权利与历史》

列奥·施特劳斯在其《自然权利与历史》中,通过其对经典的解读与批判呈现了自然权利走向现代性困境的历史过程,为我们清晰地勾画了不同思想间的逻辑线条。霍布斯将人的主观欲望代替了古典自然权利论的德性以论证自然权利的正当,从而使解构古典的普遍正义成为可能;卢梭则将文明的进化过程视为人道的历史过程,从而在相对的历史中追寻人道,使自然权利论走向了相对主义;事实与价值的两分方法在社会科学中的运用将相对主义进一步推进,海德格尔将存在投入时间的视野,以时间性和历史性呈现暂时和断裂的意义,彻底将自然权利抛向了虚无主义的现代性困境。     

刑事既判力在我国刑法中的重构

刑事既判力采取相关主义原则 ,既与刑法溯及力的从旧兼从轻原则相一致 ,蕴含了有利于行为人的思想 ,也与刑法所追求的三大价值目标 ,即公正、谦抑、人道并行不悖。是对罪刑法定原则精神在时间效力上的彻底贯彻。而采取分离主义原则 ,不仅不能彻底贯彻有利于行为人的思想 ,而且与刑法的三大价值目标相背离。建议我国刑事立法应采取相关主义原则 ,对我国刑法第 1 2条第 2款作出重构。     

赛珍珠文化相对主义思想溯源

美国作家赛珍珠一生所从事的跨文化创作、学术研究和社会活动,均为其文化相对主义思想的体现.这一思想的形成首先来源于她的跨国界的生活,在几个不同世界的生活使其发现文化差异是普遍存在的现实,文化差异不是文化低劣的表现,相反,它赋予人类文化以多样性;其次来源于她的跨文化阅读,特别是对中国文化的研究性阅读,使得赛珍珠认识到文化差异存在的历史合理性,东西方文化因此应该遵循"和而不同"的原则,并在此基础上由沟通交流达到融合.     

Dialectics and Transformation: Exploring the International Theory of E. H. Carr

This article examines the appeal of Carr's theory of international relations, which has enjoyed a longevity matched by few other bodies of work in a discipline characterised by faddism. I attribute Carr's success as an international theorist to his subtle use of philosophy, history, and political theory. Carr's holistic and interdisciplinary approach achieves its best expression in his employment of a critical dialectics of international theory in The Twenty Years' Crisis. The article does not confine itself to this element of Carr's writings as I also examine several works, such as The Future of Nations. Independence or Interdependence?, Conditions of Peace, and Nationalism and After,that consider the transformation of the international society. The latter works also employ a dialectic of power and morality in order to envision a world very different from the international system that Carr observed, an international order that approximates the emerging relations among states at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The article concludes with an examination of the role relativism played in Carr's theory scheme and the extent to which his dialectics of utopianism and realism is an important precursor of critical and postmodern theories of international relations.     

论我国私人承担行政任务的行政法规范模式选择——基于德国主观主义模式与法国客观主义模式的比较

我国行政法不具有规范私人承担行政任务的功能。德国和法国都将私人承担行政任务纳入了行政法的规范,但两国基于不同的法哲学立场采取了不同的规范模式。比较德国主观主义模式和法国客观主义模式,综合考虑两种模式的功能完善程度和对我国的适应程度,我国应选择在安定性和合目的性之间予以调和的相对主义模式。