Research Article
1. From
Base to Superstructure: Revisions and Developments of the British Left’s Theory
and Politics
Tzu-Chen
Yang Assistant Professor, Department of
History, National Taipei University
2. The
Figurative Expressions in the Ancient Egyptian Wisdom Literature
Shih-Wei
Hsu Ph.D. Student of Egyptology at Freie
Universität Berlin, Germany
3. Deceived
by Trust:The Analysis of a Financial Fraud Gang in Taiwan
Chung-Shen
Wu Assistant Professor, Department of
Sociology
Cheng-Hong
Lin Fu Jen Catholic University,M. A.,
Department of Sociology, Fu Jen Catholic University
4. The
Legal Status and Survival Strategies of Overseas Chinese Schools in Korea
(1978-2010)
En-Mei
Wang Assistant Professor, Department of
East Asian Culture And Development, National Taiwan Normal University
5. The Heuristic Implications of the Approaches
Linguistic Anthropology Exercised on Cross Cultural Studies
Ben-Ray
Jai Professor, Department of Cooperative
Economics, Feng Chia University
Research Note
1. “Religious Liberty”: On the Concept of
Natural Rights and Legal Rights
Chao-Hwei
Shih Dean, Faculty of Arts and Science,
University of Hsuan Chuang
Research Article
From Base to Superstructure:
Revisions and Developments of the British Left’s
Theory and Politics
Tzu-Chen
Yang
Assistant
Professor, Department of History, National Taipei University
This article focuses on the theoretical and political revisions
within the British Left in the period 1960s to the late 1980s. Its central
theme examines the way in which the British Left’s theory and politics were
conceived and elaborated, in response to the shifting social and political
contexts of the time. The article also shows how far a theoretical revision
influenced the practice of the British Left, and how these issues were debated.
By appropriating Gramsci’s idea of hegemony, the British Left revised the
orthodox Marxist concept of base/superstructure, challenged economic
determinism, and redefined the contents of the socialist politics. Political
theory and practice are thus intertwined and interlinked. In conclusion, this
article argues that it was the name of Gramsci rather than the detailed
contents of his ideas that was most influential. The British Left’
interpretations and use of Gramsci’s ideas reflected their need for
legitimatization and self-identification.
Keywords:
British Left, British Labour Party, British Communist Party, socialism, Marxism
The Figurative Expressions in the Ancient Egyptian
Wisdom Literature
Shih-Wei
Hsu
Ph.D. Student
of Egyptology at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
The
figurative language is a rhetorical style that consists of the comparison and
metaphor. Figurative expressions
appear almost in all languages and at all times and can be categorized as
groups of words that include a comparison or a figurative sense. The ancient
Egyptian texts, no wonder, use also figurative languages. Type and quantity of
figurative expressions vary depending on the genre of text. The wisdom texts
play an important role in the ancient Egyptian literature. The main point of
these texts is that the older give young people many useful advices and show
them the right ways. The wisdom texts are witnessed since the Old Kingdom,
unfortunately they are not totally preserved. Until up the early Middle Kingdom
the wisdom texts are more complete and the figurative language is also more
used than before. This article focuses on the figurative language and the
categories of tertium comparationis in the wisdom texts and discusses
its purpose and usage.
Keywords: Ancient Egypt, wisdom literature, comparison,
metaphor, tertium comparationis
Deceived
by Trust: The Analysis of a Financial Fraud Gang in Taiwan
Chung-Shen
Wu
Assistant
Professor, Department of Sociology
Cheng-Hong
Lin
Fu Jen
Catholic University, M. A., Department of Sociology, Fu Jen Catholic University
Financial
fraud (Ponzi scheme) is disguised as long-lasting and professional financial
investment, and initiated by deceivers who utilize signals from social
networks, institutions and general values to attract investors who are in a
familiar network. Our data came from both in-depth interviews and secondary
materials. We found that financial fraud attracts members from existing social
networks, and it manipulates signs in order to exhibit a successful financial
investment. Deceivers rouse the quasi-family emotion to consolidate
relationships among core groups, by both holding special activities to build up
collective effervescence and creating an impression of counterculture to, therefore,
maintain the legitimacy of mimicry. Members of fraud gang encounter a dilemma
of simultaneously being both a deceiver and a dupe, which makes it very
difficult to leave the gang. We conclude that financial fraud was born with
society, and sticks to both the surface of institutions and the interior of
social networks, thus coexisting with financial activities and society.
Keywords: trust, Ponzi scheme, financial fraud,
financial sociology
The Legal Status and Survival Strategies of Overseas
Chinese Schools in Korea (1978-2010)
En-Mei
Wang
Assistant
Professor, Department of East Asian Culture And Development, National Taiwan
Normal University
With a
history that can be traced back for more than a century, overseas Chinese
schools are not only the earliest but also currently the most common foreign
schools in Korea. Before the 1970s, these schools were not governed by the laws
of Korea. It is only in the 1970s that overseas Chinese schools were legally
recognized, not as schools but as “foreign organizations”. Due to the financial
and economic crisis at the end of the 1990s, the Korean Government loosened its
restrictions on foreigners and rescinded the registration rules for “foreign
organizations” in the hope to attract more foreign investors, changing the
legal status of overseas Chinese schools from “foreign organizations” to
“schools of varied types”. As a result, overseas Chinese schools obtained their
legal status as “schools” in Korea for the very first time. In this paper, the
change of legal status of overseas Chinese schools in Korea and its influences
on the schools will be investigated, along with a discussion on the dilemma
faced by the schools and their survival strategies.
Keywords: overseas Chinese in Korea, overseas Chinese
schools in Korea, overseas Chinese education, legal status, survival strategy
The
Heuristic Implications of the Approaches Linguistic Anthropology Exercised on
Cross Cultural Studies
Ben-Ray
Jai
Professor,
Department of Cooperative Economics, Feng Chia University
By its
systematic and logical uniformity, philosophy and social theories get their
argumentation legitimacy. However systematic and logical uniformity should not
be the warranty and criteria of the truth and the legitimacy of human cultures.
The approaches Linguistic Anthropology exercised on cross cultural studies make
the relativity obvious. All theories, frameworks of thinking, conceptual
categories, inference patterns, are conceived in the specific historical and
cultural fields, therefore, not that a theory can claim its absolute nature.
The absolute nature of a theory, is built on the ground of the mental model and
cultural architecture he who accepted, and will loss its objective basis when
we put it back to its historical contexts and exam it from comparative cultural
perspectives. It can insist on its absolute nature only base on the condition
of relativism. The limitations of a language are the limits of its speakers;
people comprehend the world through the architecture of a specific language.
Linguistic anthropology, base on a pragmatic attitude and not hurrying to build
a theory prematurely, is worthy to respect for all other disciplines.
Philosophy and social theories should not be knowledge in the Ivy Towel
anymore.
Keywords: Linguistic
Anthropology, phoneme, linguistic relativism, philosophy
Research Note
“Religious
Liberty”: On the Concept of Natural Rights and Legal Rights
Chao-Hwei
Shih
Dean,
Faculty of Arts and Science, University of Hsuan Chuang
This
article utlizes the theories of "natural rights" and “Social
Contract”, a political philosophy that maximizes people's liberties, to respond
to criticisms from Buddhist clerics that religious legislation will interfere
with religious freedom.
Since
religious freedom is a kind of natural right, it is also a kind of legal right.
But the two rights are not equivalent -- the former is an inherent right and
can never be removed, while the latter safeguards people with legal protection,
However, at the same time people must operate within the limits of that
legislation.
To regard
religious legislation as interfering with religious freedom, is to confuse the
natural right of religious freedom with the legal right of religious freedom,
as well as to equate natural rights and social contracts.
Therefore,
religious legislation is not guaranteed to conflict with religious freedom. If
the religious legislation is properly written, it will actually protect
people’s legal right to religious freedom, and it will construct suitable
regulations to promote friendly interaction between religious people and
secular people, so as to maintain maximum religious freedom.
Keywords: the theory of Social Contract, natural law,
natural rights, legal rights, the Principle of Liberty
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