咒符(CURSE TABIET)——古希腊的巫术

在对古希腊社会的考古发掘中,咒符(curse tablet)是非常典型、直观地表现古希腊人进行巫术行为的最有力的实物证据。本文主要根据英国威尔士·思旺西大学教授丹尼尔·奥登先生的考证成果,来说明咒符用途、起源、形式、分类等等问题。而且通过这些分析,也能明显让我们看出:巫术观念在古希腊人的眼中,已经和他们的宗教观念发生了明显的分野。这种情况的发生是同希腊与东方文明在文化上的隔阂感分不开的。     

ZHOU Yiqun,Festivals, Feasts,and Gender Relations in Ancient China and Greece

Zhou's book takes aim at questions that carve an interesting niche in the vast area of comparative studies of Ancient Greece (800-300 BCE) and China (1000-450 BCE).Of the many ways in which the two cultures of this period can be compared,Zhou takes an angle rooted in gender dynamics as they are displayed in and around the family,particularly,but not exclusively,when they take place in social events such as festivals and feasts.These two arenas,charged with politics,religion,and social mores illuminate the interaction of males and females as participants and narrators,and provide a way for Zhou to contribute to scholarship in the field with this impressive work.     

The Practicality of Ancient Virtue Ethics: Greece and China

Virtue ethics has been charged with being unable to provide solutions to practical moral issues. In response, the defenders of virtue ethics argue that normative virtue ethics exists. The debate is significant on its own, yet both sides of the controversy approach the issue from the assumption that moral philosophy has to tell us what we should do. In this essay, I would like to examine the question regarding the practicality of virtue ethics in a different way. Virtue ethics is an ancient approach shared by both ancient Greek philosophers and classic Chinese Confucians, and indeed, ancient Greeks call ethics “practical science.” How, then, do the ancients themselves view the issue of practicality? This essay shows that there is a notion of practicality which is prominent in both ancient Greek and ancient Chinese virtue ethics but is neglected in today’s ethics. According to this notion, ethics is to transform one’s life. The essay also raises a prospect of the revival of this notion.     

Markets in Votes and the Tyranny of Wealth

A standard objection to a market in political votes is that it will enable the rich politically to dominate the poor. If a market in votes was allowed then the poor would be the most likely sellers and the rich the most likely buyers. The rich would thus accumulate the votes of the poor, and so the candidates elected and the policies passed would represent only their interests and not those of the electorate as a whole. To ensure that the poor do not become de facto disenfranchised, then, markets in votes should be disallowed. This objection seems so straightforward and compelling that it has received almost no critical scrutiny. This is unfortunate, for close examination reveals that this argument is not as straightforward as it initially appears. Indeed, there are (at least) four different ways of understanding this objection. It could be understood as expressing: (1) the concern that markets in votes would enable candidates to win elections who would otherwise lose them; (2) the concern that they would enable the election of candidates opposed by the majority of the electorate; (3) the concern that they would lead to the poor having disproportionately low political influence; and (4) the concern that they would lead to the rich having disproportionately high political influence. I will argue in this paper that only (3) and (4) could plausibly ground objections to markets in votes. Moreover, these will only plausibly ground objections to unrestricted markets in votes; they will not ground objections to markets in votes per se. Thus, if we are to continue to object to markets in political votes we will have to do this on grounds other than that were they to be allowed the rich will politically dominate the poor.     

人类意识重演律和古希腊哲学研究

严格地说 ,我对于古希腊哲学应算是一个门外汉。但由于在研究西方近代哲学以及主讲“西方哲学史”的研究生课程时 ,不可避免地要涉及古希腊哲学 ,特别是自己多年前就有一种将皮亚杰在个体思维发生研究中的成果类比到人类思想史考察中的自觉 ,所以对于如何借助皮亚杰的成果来认识古希腊哲学家的思想演变有了一些尝试。现从方法论的角度将这些尝试作一简要的陈述 ,就教于方家识者。一这里所要陈述的从方法论上讲当属于一种“发生法”。在思想史的研究中 ,发生法强调的是思想演进的历时性。仅就这一点来说 ,它其实是一个平淡无奇的真理———有…     

"折衷主义"考辨与古希腊晚期哲学研究

哲学研究以理论创新为其直接后果 ,但理论创新与综合现有理论成果并不形成直接的对立。在我国 ,希腊哲学史的研究要想在新世纪中推陈出新 ,关键在于提高对希腊晚期哲学重要性的认识 ,加大对希腊晚期哲学的研究力度 ,并充分吸取各国研究者的最新成果 ,对中国学术界原有的评价或定论作适当的调整。希腊化时期以喀罗尼亚战役 (公元前 338年 )和亚历山大东征 (公元前 334年 )为开端。与此相应 ,希腊哲学的发展也进入了晚期。然而希腊化时期的开始并不是希腊哲学的终结。“在亚里士多德时代 ,希腊文明走出了本土疆界 ,进入了伟大的总的潮流 ,住在…     

古希腊罗马时期科技伦理思想研究

古希腊罗马时期是西方科学技术发展的活跃期,这一时期的科技伦理思想是西方科技伦理思想的雏形.它深受古希腊神话的影响;具有十分丰富的内容;科学技术与道德的关系是其核心;对后世科技伦理思想产生了重要影响和作用.     

Electoral Quid Pro Quo: A Defence of Barter Markets in Votes

In this article I aim to provide the first normative discussion of barter voting markets, namely markets which allow the trading of votes on issues/elections for votes on other issues/elections. The article is framed within the wider literature on the legal permissibility of vote buying, with a particular focus on the recent debate between Christopher Freiman and James Stacey Taylor. I argue that while Taylor's objections successfully defeat Freiman's case in favour of standard voting markets, they are unable to also defeat the type of voting markets outlined here. Furthermore, I argue that there are at least two plausible prima facie reasons in favour of barter voting markets, grounded in their capacity to contribute to the alleviation of injustice for systematically disadvantaged socio‐economic groups and to their capacity to reduce one form of bad voting, i.e. voting from ignorance.     

Votes Without Power:Procedural Justice as Mutual Control in Majority-Minority Relations1

In an application of procedural justice theory (Lind & Tyler, 1988; Tyler, 1989) to the domain of intergroup relations, we investigated justice preferences among members of numerical majority and minority groups as a function of two parameters: the number of representatives allotted to each group, and the decision rule used to determine the outcome (ranging from simple majority vote to unanimity). In the first study, minority group members perceived the combination of proportional representation and majority vote to be significantly less fair than all other combinations, and their choices of procedure stressed “mutual control” (when the decision rule exceeds the number of representatives possessed by either group). In a second study, majority group members perceived the combination of equal representation and majority vote to be significantly less fair than other procedures, but their choices of procedure did involve a considerable degree of mutual control. These findings suggest that there may be some basis for agreement between majority and minority group members' justice preferences and that both groups may perceive situations of mutual control to be acceptable. A third study involving both majority and minority group members ruled out an interpretation of the previous results in terms of motivation to maintain vs. change the status quo.     

Metaphysics and Morality in Neo-Confucianism and Greece: Zhu Xi, Plato, Aristotle, and Plotinus

If Zhu Xi had been a western philosopher, we would say he synthesized the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, and Plotinus: that he took from Plato the theory of forms, from Aristotle the connection between form and empirical investigation, and from Plotinus self-differentiating holism. But because a synthesis abstracts from the incompatible elements of its members, it involves rejection as well as inclusion. Thus, Zhu Xi does not accept the dualism by which Plato opposed to the rational forms an irrational material principle, and does not share Aristotle’s irreducible dualism between form and prime matter, or his teleology. Neither does he share Plotinus’ indifference to the empirical world. Understanding how these similarities and differences play out against one another will help us discover what is at stake in their various commitments.