Research Article
1. Political
Discourse in the Renaissance: Brandolini’s Theory of Comparative Polity
Kuo-Hsien
Hsu (Distinguished Professor, Department of Public Administration and Policy,
National Taipei University)
2. The
Limits of Reflexive Love, Or A Zoepolitical Challenge
Kuo-Kuei
Kao (Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, National Chengchi University)
3. David
Bloor’s Philosophical Stance and His Case Study of Robert Boyle
Dong-Yuan
Tai (Adjunct Assistant Professor, Center for General Education, National Tsing
Hua University)
4. The
Rising of Cat-town: The Formation of Cat-tourism Landscape at Houtong, New
Taipei City
Wen-Chi
Yeh (Master, Graduate Institute of Building and Planning, National Taiwan
University)
Chih-Hung
Wang (Professor, Graduate Institute of Building and Planning, National Taiwan
University)
Research Article
Political Discourse in the Renaissance: Brandolini’s
Theory of Comparative Polity
Kuo-Hsien
Hsu (Distinguished Professor, Department of Public Administration and Policy,
National Taipei University)
A special genre of political writing, the so-called mirrors for
prince or advice-book, played predominate role in Renaissance Europe. Many celebrated
humanists, from Petrarca, Pontano, Sacchi to Machiavelli and Erasmus, wrote
their mirrors for prince to urge the virtue that princes or rulers should adopt
and cultivate. In contrast to this genre of political writing, Aurelio Lippo Brandolini’s Republics and Kingdoms
Compared, though relatively little known until today, exhibited a rather
different prospect of political discourse. His concern was to evaluate and
compare the two dominant forms of polity of his time, namely republic and
kingdom, and, by doing so, to insist the superiority of kingdom over monarchy.
By bringing him back to the political context and theoretical milieu of
Quattrocento Italy, this essay asserts that Brandolini is both a modern
precursor of comparative politics/government and a keen political theorist
inheriting the long tradition of inquiring what a good polity should be.
Keywords:
Brandolini, the Renaissance, Republic, Monarchy
The Limits of Reflexive Love, Or A Zoepolitical
Challenge
Kuo-Kuei
Kao (Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, National Chengchi University)
This essay argues that although contemporary sociologists adopt the perspective
of individual action to subvert social structure, meanwhile discovering the
resistance of daily life to functional systems, they lapse deeper into the
modernist preference for the supremacy of human action. It indicates a
post-Parsonian symptom emerged from the sociological researches of intimacy
since the 1980s, inasmuch as the theoretical sociology of action and the
empirical sociology of love have verified each other in a collusive manner.
Firstly, we elaborate on the ways in which champions of the second modernity
imagine reflexive love as a communicative action. Secondly, we explicate the
reasons why Niklas Luhmann recognizes reflexive love as a communication medium.
Thirdly, we go back to Talcott Parsons for reflecting upon a certain religious
order of love. Finally, we analyze the notion of the social self assembled by
the synthetic rationality of language, the body and passion with an aim to
disclose the threefold limits of reflexive love imposed by life politics,
biopolitics and zoepolitics.
Keywords:
Reflexivity, Passion, Life Politics, Biopolitics, Zoepolitics
David Bloor’s Philosophical Stance and His Case Study
of Robert Boyle
Dong-Yuan
Tai (Adjunct Assistant Professor, Center for General Education, National Tsing
Hua University)
David Bloor is the founder of the sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK).
He constructs and defends the theoretical basis of SSK especially “the strong
programme” and “finitism”. Bloor is probably most well known for his work in
the knowledge of sociology but he also specializes in philosophical discourse.
In the early days of SSK, he once carried out a case study in the history of
science which targeted Robert Boyle using the method of the strong programme.
The aim of this paper is to examine Bloor’s philosophical discourse and
elucidate his philosophical stance. This will help to explain why he opposes
“philosophers”. Moreover, this paper showcases a theoretical context approach
to the case study of Boyle; one that differs from Bloor’s social context
approach. This will highlight shortcomings in Bloor’s version of the SSK
approach. By way of a case study comparison, it also shows the reasons why the
“causation” of SSK is widely regarded to be purely social; a charge that Bloor
both denies and inveighs against.
Keywords:
Sociology of Scientific Knowledge, Philosophy of Science, Boyle, Mechanical
Philosophy, Vitalism
The Rising of Cat-town: The Formation of Cat-tourism Landscape
at Houtong, New Taipei City
Wen-Chi
Yeh (Master, Graduate Institute of Building and Planning, National Taiwan
University)
Chih-Hung
Wang (Professor, Graduate Institute of Building and Planning, National Taiwan
University)
This article discusses the configuration of the tourist landscapes centering
on the cats in Houtong in the New Taipei City, and explores how controversial
issues regarding local development and animal protection are triggered because
of it. Through literature review, field observation and in-depth interviews,
several implications can be made: Firstly, the recent accidental emergence of a
Cat Town is a continuation of Houtong’s tourism development based on the
natural and industrial heritage of mining sites. Secondly, the emergence of the
tourist landscapes of cats has involved multiple actors with their negotiations
as well as conflicts in between, which then molds a complex network fabricated
by various discourses, practices, and objects. Third, the symbolization of cats
and their anthropomorphic configuration in the cat economy have made the cat a
spectacle, but the residents’ everyday life and the animals of other species
have also been made marginalized as a result of this. The cat tourism
demonstrates the humans’ inexorable pursuit for further development. Calls for
animal rights, however, still stand out as the dissent from the recreational
landscapes, and breeding appropriate human-animal relationship.
Keywords:
Tourism, Local Development, Construction of Nature, Human-Animal Relationship,
Animal Rights
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