《政治的历史与边界-牛津通识读本》章节试读

《政治的历史与边界-牛津通识读本》的笔记-CHAPTER 9 The Experience of Politics: II Parties and Doctrines - CHAPTER 9 The Experience of Politics: II Parties and Doctrines

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`Picking a side :liberal/conservative
`a party that monopolizes power and talks only to itself, like the ruling communist parties of the 20th century, can only be totalitarian, which is to say despotic and therefore quite distinct from politics (PRC?)
`an idea:modern states are the arenas of a concealed war between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat
`parties steal each other's clothes and poach each other's supporters as part of the great game of politics, often with relatively little concern for doctrines consistency
`the position of socialism?

《政治的历史与边界-牛津通识读本》的笔记-CHAPTER 6 How to Analise a Modern Society - CHAPTER 6 How to Analise a Modern Society

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`the state is a unified body?
`new sovereign state, while from one point of view simply an assemblage of equal subjects under a sovereign, was also a complex, highly articulated body
`dissolution of traditional stabilities.
`large scale of migration -from Europe to the New World
-from countryside to the cities
"the trend of pursuing their own interests"
`a man was political and social
`in economics, there is to be found the key to a real science of man?
`Mercantilism: economic competition
`rationalism/romanticism
`modern body politics turns out to be a number of bodies
society/economy/culture

《政治的历史与边界-牛津通识读本》的笔记-CHAPTER 2 The classical Greeks: how to be a citizen - CHAPTER 2 The classical Greeks: how to be a citizen

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`in ancient Greece, all citizens were equal
the only appropriate relation between rational beings is that of persuasion (Plato's Crito)
`classical Greeks: oriental despotism was not politics!
`man is a rational animal, the meaning of human life is found in the exercise of rationality
`the greeks could also be considered the prisoners of the prejudices of their time:woman?slaves?are they rational?
`polis was in one sense natural and in another sense a thing of artifice
`is everything in the world the result of deliberate design?
`whereas despotism depends on the personalities of the individual despot, political rulers act in terms of the duties attaching to their offices
`constitution:the set of offices by which a polis was governed, and the laws specifying their relation
`political cycle
-monarch (or a group of people) >>tyranny>>aristocracies>>oligarchies>>democracies>>mob rule>>powerful leader establish himself a monarch again
`could the cycle be broken?
`balanced power/distribution of power.
`aristotle: can a good citizen be a good man?
`human nature is fixed or is the creature of its society?

《政治的历史与边界-牛津通识读本》的笔记-CHAPTER 5 Constructing the Modern State - CHAPTER 5 Constructing the Modern State

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`in middle ages and 16th century, civil society of the time was conceived of as an association of believers. to reject fundamental communal beliefs was a kind of internal emigration
`staking one's life in in the game of politics remained a deadly options until the beginning of the 18th century>>>high-risk political period
`the heterogeneity of an individualistic society, combined with the problem of keeping order in a large state by abstract laws, generated "the new politics"
`"art of the state"
`Thomas Hobbes: "the theory of sovereignty"
-law must be made;what is the position of the lawmaker?
-there is always some element of risk in giving the necessary power to a sovereign authority
`tension between what the ruler thinks the state needs and what the lawyers say the state will allow
`state: liberal or repressive?

《政治的历史与边界-牛津通识读本》的笔记-CHAPTER 4 Christianity and the Rise of the Indivitual - CHAPTER 4 Christianity and the Rise of the Indivitual

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` Europe is the outcome of successive waves of migration by tribes pushed westwards by the pressure of others behind them
`three elements out of which the civilization of the high middle Ages was constructed
-vital love of freedom
from the oath to inheritors to the obedience to law to the legislation of law
-civil order had to be constructed by agreement with a set of magnets
1 rights and liberties were first elaborated by, and commonly in the interests of the nobility and the richer inhabitants of the towns
2 the voter of today inherits the rights first sustained by the barons of old
3 king could not rule without the cooperation of partners
-religion (beliefs and feelings a civilization has about the point of being alive)
1 in Greece and Rome, people enjoyed a "civic religion" no difference between members of state and of church
2 but one could only become a Christian by deliberately acquiring a set of beliefs
3 Greek and Roman religion and philosophy were highly elitist. Christianity reversed it
`Christianity turned human attention away from political conquest and material thing towards the cultivation of the inner life >> Individualism
`the church became another power which king had to balance, along with the nobility

《政治的历史与边界-牛津通识读本》的笔记-CHAPTER 7 Relations between States: How to Balance Power? - CHAPTER 7 Relations between States: How to Balance Power?

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`Hobbes:life of man would be "nasty,poor,solitary,brutish and short"
`three basic reason for war
-scarcity of the things
-human passion for glory
-"diffidence" or mistrust of others
`human beings were impelled to take this course of action by their vulnerability
`war is the natural relation between humans
`why there is not a single imperial power ruling all western Europe?
-balance of power
-when one power arises, others unite to counter it
-although costs a lot, it works
`national interests?
`the movement to turn the society of European stats into an international moral order derives from the medieval idea of Christendom
`all political solutions tend to create new political problems?

《政治的历史与边界-牛津通识读本》的笔记-CHAPTER 10 The Experience of Politics: III Justice, Freedom, and Democracy - CHAPTER 10 The Experience of Politics: III Justice, Freedom, and Democracy

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`Politics must dramatize itself
`leader should be guided by ideals
-conservatives to tradition
-liberals to freedom
-socialists to equality
>>the supreme tool, is "justice"<<
`Plato's Republic: justice is fitting people into the place in the state for which their natures equipped them
`Justice is an ideal, and nothing in the complex real world in which we live can actually be an ideal
`justice: not only ahead of us
but also behind us which tells us where we are and where we have come from
`freedom: an illusion?

《政治的历史与边界-牛津通识读本》的笔记-CHAPTER 1 Why despots don't belong in politics - CHAPTER 1 Why despots don't belong in politics

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`Haran Al Raschid, the caliph of Baghdad, despot.
`Despotism: a system of order created by conquest, resting on war, and issuing in caprice.
`everything depends on the wisdom of the ruler
`possibility of despotism is remote neither in space nor in time! despotism mat conceal itself in a seductive form of an ideal.
`how it came about that what used to be a limited activity conducted by the elites of some western countries is now thought to be the inescapable preoccupation of mankind?
`essence of despotism: no appeal against the unchecked power of the master
`thoughtful subjects turn to forms of withdraw(like stoicism), devaluing social and political life. "stagnation of science and technology"
`three notable occasions in Europe
-city-states of classical Greece
-Romans
-Modern world
`to understand politics we must study the sign which tell us what is going on beneath the surface. because ideals and names conceal.
`recognition of the distinction between private life and the public world.
`complex relations between names and reality
-"politics" itself refers to wider and wider domain.
-is everything all political?
-whoever seeks a kind of immortality in history goes into politics

《政治的历史与边界-牛津通识读本》的笔记-CHAPTER 3 The Romans: the real meaning of patriotism - CHAPTER 3 The Romans: the real meaning of patriotism

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`the politics of Greece was based on reason, that if the Romans on love-love of country, love of Rome itself
`Greeks: policy/police/politics
`Romans:civility/citizen/civilization
`Rome is the supreme example of politics as an activity conducted by men holding offices which clearly limited the exercise of power
`potentia: physical power
`potesta: legal right and power inhering in an office
`imperium: total quantum of power available to Roman state
`auctoritas(权威): not a political power, but respected by the public
`another harmony: conflict is resolved by free discussion and free acceptance of whatever overcome emerges from constitutional procedure

《政治的历史与边界-牛津通识读本》的笔记-第3页

希腊人最清楚地意识到，他们完全不同于东方人。希腊人赞赏埃及、波斯这些东方帝国的绚丽文化，却又鄙视这些国度的统治方式。他们把这种外国制度称作“专制主义”，因为这种体制下治理者与被治理者之间的关系无异于主人和奴隶的关系。希腊人是武士，他们鄙夷东方臣民在君主面前匍匐下拜：他们无法忍受公民与当权者之间这种不平等的关系。两千多年后，我们完全继承了这种对匍匐下拜的习惯性反感，部分的原因是“匍匐下拜”是基督教中用来描述人与神之间的距离的一种意象。

《政治的历史与边界-牛津通识读本》的笔记-CHAPTER 11 Studying Politics Scientifically - CHAPTER 11 Studying Politics Scientifically

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`politics: a body/ship/mechanism?
`politics as a mechanism
-politicians are engineers (finding the nature, using knowledge to make the system works in an ideal way)
demarcation of insider/outsider?
`studying politics scientifically
-data (set of facts which can be used to construct and test theories)
-basic question:
what causes such and such a political phenomenon?
-find answers within and out of politics

《政治的历史与边界-牛津通识读本》的笔记-第2页

“专制主义”是一个笼统的名称，它包含许多不同的类型。非欧洲的各种文明几乎全都不可避免地被不同形式的专制体制统治过，而西方的思想创造则总是遭到各种专制统治者的敌视——从残暴的埃及法老到精神狂乱的罗马君王如卡利古拉和尼禄，还有印度和中国那样的远方异邦的皇帝。在欧洲，追求专制权力的人必须把自己伪装起来。欧洲人有时会被某种以诱人的理想主义面目出现的专制体制所蒙蔽——希特勒就使用过这种手法。这一事实提醒我们，专制主义在时间和空间上离我们都不远。许多国家至今还在专制主义统治之下，它随时都可能带来痛苦或死亡，人们就像生活在疯人院里。

《政治的历史与边界-牛津通识读本》的笔记-CHAPTER 8 The Experience of Politics: I How to be an Activist - CHAPTER 8 The Experience of Politics: I How to be an Activist

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`traditions of politics vary greatly
-a population long accustomed to being exploited by tax collectors, for example, has an attitude to he census, to government forms, and to the rhetoric of leaders quite different from that which used to be found in European liberal democracies.
-the Chinese character for "freedom" (自由) connotes slipperiness and egoism rather than the courage and independence with which Europeans associate the term
-politicians talk about past events with the language of their own
`"spokesmanship"
` "president Kennedy notoriously used his prestige as president to induce large numbers of women to sleep with him, though since he was also handsome and rich he hardly needed presidential prestige for that. It may be that, like the kinds of political groupie the Hungarian writer Arthur Koestler talked about, some of them 'wanted to sleep with history'
"
`there is lowness of politics
`how to be a successful activist?
-cautious
-know the effects will his actions have on the future
-wit
-"care about success, but not so much"