Where is the History in Mel Gibson’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">The Passion of the Christ</Emphasis>?

Mel Gibson’s repeated claim for the accuracy of his powerful and popular film, The Passion of the Christ, inevitably raises the question: Where’s the history here? A close analysis leads to these conclusions: Gibson provides no context for understanding the brutality suffered by Jesus in this film, why anyone hated him or followed him. Gibson relies on medieval speculations and 19th century visions for most of the plot and many of the scenes. He whitewashes the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate and presents Pilate’s wife as a crypto-follower of Jesus. He demonizes most of the Jewish leaders, especially the high priest Caiaphas, makes Mary, Jesus’ mother, the unhistorical focus of very many scenes, and ignores the historical Jesus’ critical actions, prophetic social critique, and profound concern for the poor and marginal.     

Begging the Question in Arguments Based on Testimony

Summary This paper studies some classic cases of the fallacy of begging the question based on appeals to testimony containing circular reasoning. For example, suppose agents a, b and c vouch for d’s credentials, and agents b, d, and e vouch for a’s credentials. Such a sequence of reasoning is circular because a is offering testimony for d but d is offering testimony for a. The paper formulates and evaluates restrictions on the use of testimonial evidence that might be used to deal with such problematic arguments. One is called the Non-repeater Rule: in an extended sequence of argumentation based on testimony, once a source x has been appealed to at any given point in the sequence, that same source x must never be appealed to again at any next point in the same sequence.     

论马一浮"六艺之学"视野中的易学研究

作为现代新儒家早期思想的代表人物,马一浮先生提出了以儒家"六艺之学"统摄天下诸学的主张.这是马先生的一个创举,体现着他对传统儒学有意识地改造和发扬.作为"六艺之学"的一个分支,易学研究在马一浮先生的学术研究中无疑具有着"本体论"地位和作用,它所体现的"心之本体",不仅是"六艺"所自出的本原,也是"六艺之学"共同的目的和归宿.     

Romancing the Family: Umberto Eco’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">Baudolino</Emphasis>

Referencing Umberto Eco’s novel Baudolino, the author discusses issues concerning the authenticity of the narrative, specifically the distortions in the story presented to the audience and doubts surrounding the veracity of the tale. The act of narration is associated with the shame caused by the abuse and neglect that is an integral part of this story. The ambivalence of the protagonist—to tell his story and to keep it (and his true identity) concealed—associates narration, a creative act, with lying. Trauma generates the lies and hiddenness as a means of coping with abuse and indifference. In order to deal with the feelings of inadequacy caused by his humble birth, the traumatized protagonist lies: he romanticizes his family origins, the illusion of being the offspring of distinguished parents. His attempt to win the love of the parents, by being both good and all-knowing, is one of the motivating forces of his family romance. Telling lies makes the protagonist omniscient: he is the only one who knows if and when he is telling the truth. Paradoxically, the narrator creates and undermines that image of omniscience by revealing the thought processes of one character while leaving opaque those of the protagonist, and by denying the trueness of the tale affirmed when he presents as objective his own subjective sentiments by indirectly attributing them to the protagonist. The uncertainty that underpins the narration is indicative of the storyteller’s absence. This vacancy structures the work because it allows kindred spirits, nonjudgmental readers (listeners) who willingly suspend disbelief, to enter the world of the narrator. This uncritical participation counters the chaos of the storyteller’s reality, as they create their own new world where the split parental images are united.     

Something Covered with an Old Blanket”: Nancy and Other Dead Mothers in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Oliver Twist</Emphasis>

In Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection, Julia Kristeva outlines her theory of abjection as a simultaneous fascination and horror stemming from sensorial reminders of the subject’s primal, psychological relation to the mother. In this essay, I show how these psychological perspectives can potentially result in acts of physical violence, which I call the “abject response.” Applied to literature, a study of the abject response explains why sexually active female characters, such as Nancy, the prostitute, in Oliver Twist, suffer extreme acts of physical violence: not simply because they are sexual, as critics of Victorian domestic ideology most often argue, but rather because their particularly female bodies give them an agency which threatens to destroy the mastery of women on which Victorian male identity is based. Reading Oliver Twist through the lens of Kristeva reveals the ways in which Sikes, Nancy’s murderer, psychically links her sexuality to the fatal potential he perceives in her body. This threatening construction of women’s sexuality derives from an imbalanced focus in the male psyche on the repulsion aspect of abjection, a focus socially inscribed as a threatening power, which is used to justify violent usurpations of the feminine in masculine constructions of gender.     

从佛教量论看翻译的实质及类型划分--兼论翻译理论中的不可译性问题

本文首先从佛教量论的角度对翻译的实质做出界定,指出翻译的实质是一种为他(社会性)的比量活动。根据翻译为他比量的实质,可以引导出翻译的两种类型：比知翻译和喻知翻译。比知翻译是具有事先直接约定性的语言传递活动;喻知翻译是没有事先直接约定的语言传递活动。根据从佛教量论对翻译实质和类型的规定,本文分析了不可译性问题,揭示出不可译性在认识论上的误区,指出不可译性是不可知论或怀疑论在翻译领域的显现。     

阅读障碍学生创造力特征的研究

本研究采用问卷测量的方法,对76名阅读障碍学生的创造力特征以及教师对其创造力评价的客观性进行了研究,结果表明:(1)阅读障碍学生的创造力总分与正常学生并无显著差异,但阅读障碍学生创造力的独特性和抽象性成绩显著优于正常学生。(2)对阅读障碍学生而言,流畅性、精细性和创造力总分存在性别差异;创造力总分亦存在年级差异;独特性与创造力总分在年级与性别因素上均存在交互作用。(3)不同学科教师对正常学生的创造力评价显著高于阅读障碍学生,他们对正常学生的创造力评价基本客观,对阅读障碍学生创造力的评价则与测验成绩呈显著负相关。     

现代新儒学基本理论的自我消解

现代新儒家的基本理论主张可概括为 :儒学主流说、儒家道统说、新内圣外王之道、良知自我坎陷说、儒学复兴论。现代新儒学第三代重要代表人物已经偏离或放弃了这些基本的理论和主张 ,走上了文化多元化之路。这无疑意味着现代新儒学基本理论的自我消解。现在 ,这股文化思潮的高峰已经过去 ,已经成为历史。     

关于《易传》美学—文学思想的若干问题——兼论《易传》是我国最早作专书批评的文章—文学理论著作

《易传》作者有意表明了对《易经》的研究与评价的立场 ,《易传》文本包含有关美学—文学思想的内容。在前人研究的基础上 ,本文拾遗补阙 ,论述《易传》之“美”有美在自然、自然美高于艺术美、美乃自然而然、无所为而为等方面的内容以及阴柔之为美及其含蓄的特征 ;又 ,关于“修辞立其诚”的意义及其影响 ,关于“衰世之意”、“忧患”著书的意义及其对司马迁“发愤著书”说的影响等等。论述结合了与古今中外美学—文学理论的比较 ,加强证明了《易传》实为《文心雕龙》之先导 ,是我国最早作专书批评的文章—文学理论著作。