Beyond the Legacy of Absolutism: Re-examining Jean Bodin’s Idea of Anti-Tyranny Violence.Jiangmei Liu -2024 -The European Legacy 30 (1):24-43.detailsThe longstanding debate over Jean Bodin’s (1530–1596) Six Books of a Commonweale—whether it championed an ideology of absolutism or pioneered a normative doctrine of the modern sovereign state—has profoundly influenced our understanding of Bodin’s intellectual legacy. This article challenges the influential absolutist reading by re-examining Bodin’s ideas of violence against tyrants. Proponents of the absolutist interpretation often view Bodin’s rejection of resistance against the tyrant as compelling evidence of his defense of absolutism, suggesting that this stance negates the constitutional constraints (...) imposed by fundamental and natural laws on the sovereign. However, this article contends that such a reading is overly simplistic. A closer analysis of Bodin’s nuanced perspective reveals that he does not remove the constitutional limitations established by both fundamental and natural laws. Instead, Bodin posits that sovereigns who violate these higher laws could face either domestic resistance or a just war of punishment. Thus, labeling Bodin merely as an absolutist ideologue is inappropriate, as it risks overshadowing the profound intellectual legacy he offers as a serious political thinker, jurist, and the father of modern state theory. (shrink)
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论“哲学铁三角”及当今哲学丢了什么?.Liu Lihua -2008 -Proceedings of the Xxii World Congress of Philosophy 15:383-395.detailsAs a reference frame for reflection on the past and future of philosophy, this paper offers a ‘Iron triangle of Philosophy’ category. Philosophy is defined as “A study of seeking or displaying Tao by a reasonable way ”. Though Chinese philosophy and Western philosophy are very different and highly supplementary in expression, structure, element and building way, as the studies of seeking or displaying Tao, both possess inherently unified ontology, axiology and epistemology, that is ‘Iron triangle of Philosophy’. These three (...) legs mutually support and its structure of three legs is not from philosophers’ designing subjectively but decided by the essential needs of human life or human being nature. The ‘Iron triangle of Philosophy’ functions as the nuclear core or the soul of human spirit culture. Since the later half of 19th century, the main stream of Western philosophy has lost the most of the three legs, therefore could not enter the core or soul level ofthe culture and has been fringed in the culture. Also Chinese philosophy, since 1840, has slowly lost its broadly comprehensive ontology, its axiology with the universal ethics held by the ontology, and its epistemology or methodology of knowing that pursue harmony and suitability. It is not enough only to simply recover the old format for “regaining” what philosophy lost, we need to engage very difficultly rebuilding work for this. (shrink)
Water Ethics and Water Resource Management.Jie Liu,Amarbayasgalan Dorjderem,Jinhua Fu,Xiaohui Lei &Darryl Macer -2011 - UNESCO.detailsThis book examines some possible ethical principles to resolve moral dilemmas involving water. Existing problems in current water management practices are discussed in light of these principles. Transformation of human water ethics has the potential to be far more effective, cheaper and acceptable than some existing means of “regulation”, but transformation of personal and societal ethics need time because the changes to ethical values are slow.
Coping with National Language Policy Shift: Voices of Chinese Immigrant Parents in an Irish County Town.Yuying Liu,Shujian Guo &Xuesong Gao -2024 -British Journal of Educational Studies 72 (4):457-481.detailsThis paper focuses on the diaspora Chinese community in Limerick – an Irish county town in the southwest of the Republic of Ireland – and examines how Chinese parents have responded to the education policy shift resulting from the 2017 Irish foreign language strategy, which added Chinese to the official educational curriculum. A semi-structured group interview was conducted with four Chinese-speaking parents. Analysis of the data revealed that identity preservation and maintaining bonds with extended family are the predominant expressed reasons (...) for parents to cultivate their children’s Chinese proficiency. English and Irish are prioritized over Chinese. Though the parents hold positive attitudes towards the inclusion of Chinese as a school subject in Ireland, they are disempowered from taking advantage of participating in the implementation of this national language shift due to a lack of access to social, cultural, and economic capital. Analysed through a Bourdieuian lens, the findings further expose the limitations or constraints placed on family language policy and the discrepancy between macro- and micro-level language policies. The paper is intended to shed light on education, social justice, and equality, bridging the gap between micro-level family language practices and macro-level language policy. (shrink)
On the Autonomy of the Transcendental Time-Horizon: an Essay in De-Subjectivizing Heidegger’s Kant-Interpretation.Renxiang Liu -2024 -Sophia 63 (2):215-238.detailsIn this paper, I discuss, in a Heideggerian context, the possibility of de-subjectivizing the notion of the transcendental time-horizon and reinterpreting it as a formally indicated ‘whereto’ of releasement. The structures of the time-horizon depict the way beings unfold in the fullness of time in their alterity, and they orient the subject’s activity of ‘projection.’ What results is a field-oriented (as opposed to self-oriented) transcendental philosophy which would survive Heidegger’s critique of his own transcendental project, and which would avoid mystification. (...) I take three steps. First, I point out that the problematization of ‘transcendental Heidegger’ is based on the subjectivist interpretation of the time-horizon. I problematize a recent account in the subjectivist vein, arguing that it is neither indispensable, nor very plausible, nor the most illuminative of Heidegger’s work. Second, with the help of Dahlstrom, Golob, Engelland, Sheehan, and Vasterling, I gradually dissociate the notion of the horizon from subjectivism, the visual metaphor, and the assumption of an absolute ground. I suggest instead that the horizonality of the horizon be understood temporally, i.e., as an interplay of presencing and absencing where what matter most are the structures, themselves affected by time, which the transcendental field displays when beings unfold themselves within it. Third, I identify three of those structures when performing a de-subjectivizing reading of Heidegger’s interpretation of the threefold synthesis in Kant’s A-Deduction. These structures capture the way every being manifests itself, without themselves being necessarily grounded in the subject’s activity. This gives an example of how transcendental philosophy can clarify what the time-horizon is like while bracketing the question of its provenance. (shrink)
Language change in a constructional network: the emergence of Mandarin [bi N hai N] comparative constructions.Meili Liu,Hubert Cuyckens &Fangqiong Zhan -2025 -Cognitive Linguistics 36 (1):1-29.detailsThis paper explores the mechanisms of and motivations for two unconventional comparative constructions in Mandarin: [bi Ni hai Ni] and [bi Ni hai Nj]. They are unconventional in that the item expressing the dimension along which the comparison is made is a noun rather than an adjective. It is shown that [bi Ni hai Ni] emerges (i) by analogy with the conventional comparative construction [bi N hai A] and (ii) by inheriting the nominal feature from an existing construction [Adverb N], (...) which is corroborated by a collexeme analysis. At a more schematic level, the extension A > N observed in [bi N hai A] > [bi Ni hai Ni] may have been modeled on the existing development from [Adverb A] to [Adverb N]. Analogical extension and inheritance also underlie the subsequent development from [bi Ni hai Ni] to [bi Ni hai Nj]. This study not only shows how language changes in a constructional network (including node creation and network reconfiguration), but also sheds light on the nature of horizontal links. It also demonstrates how a synchronically perceived relation between constructions may impact a later, similar language change. (shrink)
Discourse construction of social power: interpersonal rhetoric in editorials of the China Daily.Liu Lihua -2009 -Discourse Studies 11 (1):59-78.detailsBased on systemic functional linguistics, and especially newly developed appraisal theory, this study uses editorials from the China Daily to investigate patterns of interpersonal rhetoric devised to construct and shape public opinion. Attitudinal lexis and modal expressions are examined separately with the object of discovering how editorials communicate their evaluation of their subject matter. This article contends that the author of an editorial is more likely to be explicit in evaluating events and implicit in evaluating behaviour and that he/she seldom (...) attributes attitudes to other sources. Modality occurs frequently in editorial discourse. Modal expressions of certainty, necessity and obligation are particularly common and indicate the authority and power nature of the discourse. Modal expressions of obligation/necessity normally occur at the end of the text in order to make the most powerful possible appeal to the reader. (shrink)
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Campana, the ‘End of Art’, and Hegel’s Philosophy of Literature.Chunge Liu -forthcoming -Hegel Bulletin:1-25.detailsBased on Hegel’s thesis of the ‘end of art’, this paper aims to explore how to study Hegel’s philosophy of literature by carrying out a dialogue with Francesco Campana. In his recent book, The End of Literature, Hegel, and the Contemporary Novel (2019), Campana demonstrates how literature resists its end by continuous self-transformation and provides a framework of ‘philosophization’–‘poetry’–‘ordinariness’ in understanding the contemporary novel. While, to some extent, I agree with him on the understanding of the ‘end of art’ thesis, (...) I object to his idea that ‘philosophization’ and ‘ordinariness’ are two poles between which poetry moves. I defend the view that, from the perspective of Hegel’s absolute and taking Hegel’s philosophy as a totality, ‘philosophization’ and ‘ordinariness’ are inseparable. Furthermore, I emphasize the significance of Hegel’s thesis of the ‘end of art’, which I argue lies in revealing the problem of modern subjectivity. Literature, as a unique form of art, also reveals this problem and helps to solve it. Therefore, in the study of Hegel’s philosophy of literature, I insist on adopting the perspective of Hegel’s absolute and taking Hegel’s philosophy as a whole so that we can build connections among different disciplines and among different art-forms and art-types. With this perspective, I make some proposals, which include several paradigms for the study of Hegel’s philosophy of literature. Finally, in terms of the thesis of the ‘end of art’, I maintain that the study of Hegel’s philosophy of literature is to address the problem of modern subjectivity. (shrink)
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Lévinas’s Philosophy of the Face: Anxiety, Responsibility, and Ethical Moments that Arise in Encounters with the Other.Lewis Liu -2024 -Human Affairs 34 (3):440-459.detailsLévinas’s philosophy emerges from his critique of the traditional sources of Western philosophy and employs phenomenological methods to transcend the conventional theology and ethics of subjectivity. Through a series of inquiries, Lévinas expands the narrow philosophical vision and problem domain related to the philosophy of the Other. This study examines the profound impact of Lévinas’s philosophy on contemporary philosophy and human society, particularly its elucidation of people’s anxiety, confusion, and overwhelm with the ethical dimension of life in postmodern society. In (...) today’s rapidly evolving landscape, characterized by increased reliance on AI, decreased face-to-face communication, and significant shifts in lifestyle, the study of Lévinas’s philosophy gains heightened relevance. As we navigate these changes, Lévinas’s insights into anxiety, responsibility, and ethical encounters with the Other offer reflections on human connection and ethical engagement, urging us to reconsider our relationship with technology and prioritize meaningful interactions amidst societal transformations. (shrink)
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Understanding sovereignty through meteorology: China, Japan, and the dispute over the Qingdao Observatory, 1918–1931.Xiao Liu -2024 -Annals of Science 81 (3):420-439.detailsConcentrating on the Qingdao Observatory, this paper will explore the role of scientific facility in asserting China’s sovereignty during the first half of the twentieth century. Although scholars have explained the efforts of China’s internationalization in diplomacy through the perspectives of politics, economics and culture, they have not paid attention to science. Therefore, this paper aims to shed some light on how scientific issues were solved via diplomacy during the Republic of China, while further asserting that the focus in negotiations (...) was not confined to science itself, but rather to sovereignty within a scientific context. In this process, the meaning of sovereignty has also been expanded basing on the improvement of nation’s scientific capability. Besides, the participation of different actors involved in sovereignty assertion is investigated by this paper. Although the diplomatic negotiation was held at the international level, the local government and scientific community were main promoters in this case, which calls for attention on the various subjects in sovereignty issue. Consequently, this paper argues that Asian countries, such as Republic of China, could also employ science as a means to negotiate with foreign powers and claim their due rights. (shrink)
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Graph Grammar Formalism with Multigranularity for Spatial Graphs.Yufeng Liu,Fan Yang &Jian Liu -2023 -Journal of Logic, Language and Information 32 (5):809-827.detailsTraditional spatial enabled grammars lack flexibility in specifying the spatial semantics of graphs. This paper describes a new graph grammar formalism called the multigranularity Coordinate Graph Grammar (mgCGG) for spatial graphs. Based on the Coordinate Graph Grammar (CGG), the mgCGG divides coordinates into two categories, physical coordinates and grammatical coordinates, where physical coordinates are the common coordinates in the real world, and grammatical coordinates describe the restrictions on the spatial semantics. In the derivation and reduction of the mgCGG, the spatial (...) matching conditions between nodes are evaluated on the basis of the grammatical coordinates, which can be obtained by the specified granularities. By adjusting the granularities, both qualitative and quantitative analyses for spatial semantics can be obtained, including the transition states between them. In addition, a new redex searching algorithm with polynomial time complexity is designed for the mgCGG. A running example of drawing a flowchart is given to illustrate a practical application of the mgCGG. Through a detailed comparison with related spatial-enabled grammars, it is found that the mgCGG has good performance in four critical aspects—the semantics processing mechanism, fault-tolerance, redex searching algorithm, and practical application—providing a flexible yet uniform way to specify spatial graphs and building a bridge between nonspatial and spatial grammars. (shrink)
Do we need collective epistemic reason: comments on Mitova’s “The collective epistemic reasons of social-identity groups”.Xiaofei Liu -2023 -Asian Journal of Philosophy 2 (1):1-8.detailsThis paper reviews Veli Mitova’s recent article, “The collective epistemic reasons of social-identity groups,” which proposes and defends a collectivist account of epistemic reasons for social-identity groups. The paper first discusses what makes a collectivist account appealing in the context of moral obligations, a context from which Mitova apparently draws inspiration for her collectivist account of epistemic reasons. The paper then considers two issues that may make a collectivist account of epistemic reasons lose much of the theoretical advantage that a (...) collectivist account of moral obligations has over its individualist competitor: (1) epistemic reasons need to be internally possessed and (2) the individual inability that motivates a collectivist account of moral obligations is of a special kind. (shrink)
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