Political Reasoning and the Typology of Arguments in the Context of Political Philosophy

The main purpose of this article is to present the initial phase of the project in the field of argumentation theory and political philosophy. Project concerns studies of different types of rationality in the context of the argumentation. Background consideration is the problem of incommensurability and incompatibility types of rationality in political and ideological disputes. The first step is the establishment of a category of argumentative potential as a criterion for the typology of argument, which will build a map of argumentation, which will provide a starting point for a discussion. Apart from demonstrating the disproportion of discourses, the conclusion of the argument is to prove the local character of rationality.

A Review on Zheng Kai’s A Survey on Daoist Political Philosophy

Daoist political philosophy is a hot point in the study of Chinese philosophy.This paper introduces and comments on Professor Zheng Kai’s new book from four aspects,including the concept of Daoist political philosophy,the political philosophy of Laozi and Zhuangzi,the political philosophy of Huang Laodao,and the comparison between the political philosophy of Confucianism and Daoism.While speak highly of the systematic integration of the study in Daoist political philosophy,I also point out the shortcomings of this book.

On Confucian Political Philosophy and Its Theory of Justice

Traditional Confucian political culture （including its concepts, systems, practices and folk customs） has a legacy that deserves careful reconsideration today. Its theories, institutions, and practices address the source, legitimacy, division and balance, and restriction of political power. Confucian politics is a type of ＂moral politics＂ which sticks to what ought to be and what is justifiable, and holds that political power comes from Heaven, mandate of Heaven or Dao of Heaven, which implies that justification and standards rest with the people referring to scholars peasants, workers and merchants. This type of justification is rooted in the public space and the autonomous strength of the people, and it finds guidance in the involvement, supervision, and criticism of the class of scholar-bureaucrats （shi 士）. In this article, Westem political philosophy will be taken as a frame of reference for evaluating Confucian conception of justice as well as Confucian ideas of distribution, fairness of opportunity, caring kindness for ＂the least advantaged,＂ and institutional construction. It will argue that the leading characteristic of Confucian political theory is that of ＂substantive justice.＂

Confucian Political Philosophy for Non-Confucians

Contemporary proponents of Confucian political philosophy often ignore the fact that any sizeable future Confucian political order will have to accommodate many “non-Confucians.” The guiding question of this paper is therefore the following: how could a Confucian political philosophy, if it can at all, adequately take into account a plurality of comprehensive worldviews? I first turn to John Rawls and his account of these terms and of reasonable pluralism more generally. I then examine some particularly relevant developments and criticism of Rawls’ account. Finally, I offer a discussion of some recent proposals for a Confucian political philosophy, and examine to what extent each recognizes the fact of pluralism, sees it as a challenge, and deals with it in a persuasive manner. The paper concludes with a depiction of two major stumbling blocks that might stand firmly in the way of such a pluralism-accommodating political Confucianism.

How to Construct Marxian Thoughts as a Political Philosophy？.

Importance of contemporary political philosophy has increased in recent decades. Since the 1970s, studies of Marx’s theories have become an important part of the discussion within contemporary theories of justice. More extensive studies concerning Marxist political philosophy from multiple perspectives are becoming a focal point in other fields of academic research. “How to understand Marx’s political philosophy?” has been a classic question for over a hundred years. Not an academic philosopher himself, Marx seems not to have issued a complete or consistent political philosophy by today’s standards, so it is only natural that his views would be interpreted differently by different scholars. While it is justifiable for us to construct Marx’s political philosophy, we must do it through a comprehensive theoretical reflection, and our construction must take full account of the history of the interpretations of Marx’s political philosophy. This applies especially of his theory of justice—a history which has lasted for more than a century. It is even more important for us to reread the original texts, particularly Marx’s early philosophical writings, and take them as the textual foundation for Marx’s political philosophy.

A Continuable Political Administration System for World Countries （I）

In this work all the political/non-political ideologies, 168 religions/beliefs/sects, nearly 1,600 ethnic origin groups are synthesized to define continuable political construction. It is found that all the past federations, confederations, empires, ideologies, political administration systems, thoughts and senses, doctrines, etc. are in fact each reflects a special functional processes within a general system of where the kinds of services, subjects of services, way of services, service types and persons are considered and placed as a factor in it and where these factors are arranged through different priorities, weights, and also taken under record with some rules. It is evaluated that each groups, communities, societies, countries are separate models, but at the same time each of them are factors which owns different beginning points to reach a correct country structure with five new separate groups （New Era Group, Progression of The Country Group, Unity of The Country Group, Values of The Country Group, Social Progression Group）. The continuable political administration system is defined here by considering the all possible parts and by considering the other systems eormected for a country. Possible forceful factors which can effect political system administration are given. To realize political construction, some political construction methods are defined： Political construction by putting together the values, political construction based on different value, Political construction based on the new defined values, Political construction which considers stepped transition and Ideal political construction which will carry the political points of views and other standards of judgement, points of views of persons to a same line are expressed. New ideologies are put forwarded and ideal political construction for a world country is given with details. Integration of the political groups, political ideologies to the new system is explained. Some methods of politics are mentioned. Persons related with politics are classified simply.

Philosophy and Theology in the Islamic Culture： Al-Farabis De scientiis

In this paper, the author refers to the Latin translation of the Kitab Ihsa ＇al＇ Ulum of Al-Frabi made by Dominicus Gundissalinus in the Xllth Century in Toledo, Spain. This text under the Latin title De scientiis was one of the most influential texts of the Arab and Persian world in the western Latin Europe. It is an introductory text into all until known sciences written for students and laymen （illiterate） who want to study one of these sciences. The text of Al-Farabi discusses the seven liberal arts, all of the works on physics of Aristotle and includes some reflexions on metaphysics, political philosophy and theology. There are two important points： （1） All sciences have a theoretical and practical aspect. All sciences are sciences of principles and causes and their application to the practical world. （2） The so called prima philosophia is the political philosophy and not metaphysics. In this respect, Al-Farabi subordinates theology as a science of the religious laws to politics as a science of civil laws. In the same respect, he combines, under the famous sentence of Plato that philosophers are the governors and the very well companions of mankind, politics with theology

Broaching Political and Theoretical Divides through Deliberation

Commitment to deliberative democracy as a tool for social and political ordering is shared by political philosophers from many traditions. This paper examines John Rawls and Iris Marion Young＇s respective commitments to deliberative democracy in hopes of finding a methodological proposal for peace between followers of Rawls, the greatest liberal political philosopher of the 20th century, and Young, the late anti-liberal and anti-oppression theorist. While there are important differences between their respective positions, this paper posits that deliberative democracy can appease adherents of both thinkers, providing a shared method for determining conflicts between them. Liberal democracy is preferable, partly since it creates a place for anti-liberal positions （viz., Young＇s position can exist within the larger Rawlsian framework）, but deliberative democracy can succeed even if one is not a liberal democrat.

Countries＇ Union and Political/Non-Political Administration Systems for the World Countries

In this work, the author noticed that some/most of the problems in the world countries, are because of the past/present differences, disputes about ethnic origins, federation systems, political and/or religious ideologies, organizations, mythologies, religions/sects, organs of governments, party systems, political systems, basic senses, administrations, and others. Purpose of this work, is to solve these problems for all related sides in a country and/or in the world to obtain continuable （political/non-political） administrative system（s） for the world countries by considering countries＇ union theory. The author considered the ＂synthesis＂ method and evaluated, generally/specifically, all these subjects also related philosophy branches, present political ideology spectrums, power sources and structures, public administrations, science branches by considering nearly 12,000 years written historical period. The author also considered his personal contacts with nearly 80,000 people from different political/non-political groups, and from all different position levels of persons, directly/indirectly. The author defined 21 dimensions of the synthesis to categorise the problems, related solutions, and theories he found. General points that can be evaluate as positive and/or negative about each side are expressed. Basic important concepts and definitions about political/non-political administrations of a world country are defined. General types of organizations and administrations in the world are expressed together with some related problems in the present systems. Good and/or correct perspective that must be behind administration（s） is described. Categories and types of interacted sides are explained. Subjects of services mandatory for a world country are defined. Necessity of the new system（s） for two or more sides is expressed. General types of needs for each world country are defined and categorized due to the domestic and international needs and due to possible interaction between two or more sides. As a conclusion, new political/non-political methods are defined to solve general and specific administrative problems between sides in a world country or between different countries. Theory of countries＇ union system is defined. General principles and sense of justice which are necessary for establishing countries＇ union between any two countries are defined.

A Continuable Political Administration System for World Countries （II）

In this work, some important parts of the system, and the relation between the parts, and its connections with other systems are defined, explained briefly. With this respect, the nature of the person is defined with related parts. A new science branch called ＂information science＂ is defined. Importance of the political organizing of a political party is shortly explained. The necessity of the academies for public sector, private sector, and for political administration system is expressed. How to choose a person and how a person can be choose for any part of the system is defined. For both cases ＂good and/or correct＂ system criterions, determination of the criterions, and evaluation criterions are defined. New evaluation levels are defined based on the 8-basic senses in philosophical point of view to deepen the sensitivity of the evaluations. The importance of the situation notice and how to make it for each of the association are explained. The 10 main service parameters are defined to show the interactive relations between the ideology, services, person nature and others. Present and possible future problems of a country are expressed. Aims/targets are characterized with real approach for all related sides. Other systems which proposed to be connected to continuable political administration system are shortly defined and expressed. Way of system administration and administration types are shortly explained. The importance and ways of the decision making are expressed. The general ways, types of inspection are shortly explained. Official units that could be assign for the new system are defined. The importance of these units and of the persons that could be assign for these units are expressed together with the definition of the characteristics of the persons or groups that could be. The necessity of an action planning, possible supply and demand cases are defined scientifically. The importance and necessity of sense of justice is explained to make system continuable. The methods of determination of the policies/strategies are expressed.

Reflections on the Body in Clive Barker＇s ＂The Body Politic＂

The article aims at deciphering Clive Barker＇s multilayered short story ＂The Body Politic＂ inserted in the 4th book of Books of Blood （1984-1985）. In this work, the British author presents the human body as literally a book which has to be opened, rediscovered; it is a terra incognita marked by the resurgence of repressed elements or by the sense of urgency of applying a new significance to this locus. The notion of rewriting is a leitmotiv in ＂The Body Politic＂ as Barker seems to redefine not merely the organic political metaphor but drapes this imagery with Gothic, biblical or psychoanalytic veils. Julia Kristeva＇s Powers of Horror （1982） is a cornerstone to apprehend the depiction of the body as the ultimate unknown. The narrative traps the reader into the paradoxical hypnotic delights of the Otherized, abjectified body.

Global Distributive Justice and Education

Global distributive justice is directly connected to the increased inequality in the world. This inequality, which includes the huge inequality of education opportunities, is usually understood as unjust. There are two main approaches to this problem： cosmopolitan and statist. Looking from the cosmopolitan point of view, this kind of injustice is related predominantly with the socio-economic relationships among the individuals on the planet. Just the opposite is the view of the so-called statists, who claim that a more just world is not a world of persons who are equal among themselves, but rather a world of nation states which are able to achieve a more just society within their borders and, consequently, a more just and egalitarian global society as well.

Walter Benjamin： A New Positive Concept of Destruction

The author＇s proposal is to show how an apparently marginal text by Walter Benjamin, ＂The Destructive Character＂, can be taken as a hermeneutic model for understanding the connection of Benjamin＇s with history and tradition and for characterizing his thought as philosophy of threshold. It is the author＇s intention to show how the destructive character, on the threshold between destruction and construction, succeeds in remaining in that transition area that announces a change, showing its creative and conservative features; thus it appears as a figure of coexistence between stillness and movement, passage and interruption, and past and future. What the author wants to point out is that, in the description of this figure, Benjamin is driven by a cognitive demand, which tends to focalize the process of destruction itself rather than the result of the destruction process. The space in which the destructive character is acting is the space of the possibility of change and emancipation, and the space where it is possible to keep together past and future, and memory and redemption. Starting from these reflections, an important question arises about the problem of the relation between history and tradition, and culture and its memory： Neither the destruction of memory by a culture nor its canonization is meaningful. The concept of destructive character then represents a preferential point of observation for analyzing the articulations of Benjamin＇s thought. From this perspective, a decisive point of Benjamin＇s reflection seems to emerge on one side, strengthened in the permeation of Hebraic ancestors between destruction and salvation; on the other side, some of the concepts and images of the Berliner philosopher seem to show up in a new light.

Critical Theory Between Tradition and Innovation： Axel Honneth and the New Paradigm of Recognition

In the actual political philosophical debate terms as dialectic, emancipation, social conflicts seem＇to have lost every actuality and the attempts to revitalize them often assume a nostalgic tone. in that tradition, only the term ＂criticism＂ is not looked with suspicious, hut rather it is associated in an automatic way to every analysis of the society, that has some normative claims and doesn＇t limit itself to a mere empirical description of the social reality. One of the few exceptions in this scenario is the attempt of Axel Honneth to connect the category of recognition to the original idea of the critical theory, without depriving it of his theoretical pregnancy, but at the same time eliminating his premises of philosophy of history. This study will start from the Honneth＇s reading of the first critical theory to analyze, secondly, the limits individualized by Honneth from the Habermas＇ sociological perspective, particularly those referred to his two levels model of society. The study will finally analyze the actuality of the category of recognition in relation to three problematic spheres： the cultural pluralism, the normativism, the connection between political philosophy and social theory.

From Paradox to Unity: The Essential Duality in Edward Bond’s Lear

Edward Bond’s rather controversial play Lear which is saturated with profound dialectical insights marks a critical point of departure in his whole artistic career.Approached from the lens of duality,this paper examines the significant role assumed by duality in Bond’s dramatic creation through three dimensions,namely,the characteristic complexity,the dramatic strategy and the political philosophy.Bond’s illustrative interpretation of duality embodied in the play Lear manifests his bitter critique towards the conventional binary system of value criterion as well as the outmoded social morality,but also adheres consistently to his fundamental artistic principle as a Marxist,that is,to educate his audiences by the means of literature,and,hereby,to effect practical changes in society.

From Ethics Washing to Ethics Bashing:A Moral Philosophy View on Tech Ethics

Weaponized in support of deregulation and self-regulation,“ethics”is increasingly identified with technology companies’self-regulatory efforts and with shallow appearances of ethical behavior.So-called“ethics washing”by tech companies is on the rise,prompting criticism and scrutiny from scholars and the tech community.The author defines“ethics bashing”as the parallel tendency to trivialize ethics and moral philosophy.Underlying these two attitudes are a few misunderstandings:(1)philosophy is understood in opposition and as alternative to law,political representation,and social organizing;(2)philosophy and“ethics”are perceived as formalistic,vulnerable to instrumentalization,and ontologically flawed;and(3)moral reasoning is portrayed as mere“ivory tower”intellectualization of complex problems that need to be dealt with through other methodologies.This article argues that the rhetoric of ethics and morality should not be reductively instrumentalized,either by the industry in the form of“ethics washing”,or by scholars and policy-makers in the form of“ethics bashing”.Grappling with the role of philosophy and ethics requires moving beyond simplification and seeing ethics as a mode of inquiry that facilitates the evaluation of competing tech policy strategies.We must resist reducing moral philosophy’s role and instead must celebrate its special worth as a mode of knowledge-seeking and inquiry.Far from mandating self-regulation,moral philosophy facilitates the scrutiny of various modes of regulation,situating them in legal,political,and economic contexts.Moral philosophy indeed can explainin the relationship between technology and other worthy goals and can situate technology within the human,the social,and the political.

The Incomprehensible Art of Thomas Hobbes

The political philosophy of Thomas Hobbes is one of the cornerstones of modern liberalism. Resting on controversial doctrines of freedom, perception, human nature, and history, the foundations of Hobbesianism presuppose an emergence of reason from matter-in-motion that Hobbes never adequately explains. In this paper I explore the motivations and consequences of his neglect of fundamental philosophical problems through a series of ambiguous uses of key terms manifested his work： nature, necessity, and God in metaphysics and theology; freedom in politics; intelligible unity in epistemology; and imagination in ethics. These show up, respectively, in his doctrines of naturalism, political science, phenomenalism, and the state of nature. While it may be that Hobbes＇s metaphysical ideas are finally incoherent, this only raises a further question： Might Hobbes have recognized that the goal of a liberal state-a common human war against death-can only be grounded on sketchy and inadequate metaphysics, to be suppressed and avoided so far as possible？ Primarily through a reading of the Leviathan, I explore this question and tentatively propose that an affirmative answer is warranted.

Why Talk about Chinese Metaphysics？

Chinese philosophy in the twentieth century has often been related to some sort of cultural or other particularism or some sort of philosophical universalism. By and large, these still seem to be the terms along which academic debates are carried out. The tension is particularly manifest in notions such as ＂Chinese philosophy＂ ＂Daoist cosmology,＂ ＂Neo-Confucian idealism,＂ or ＂Chinese metaphysics.＂ For some, ＂Chinese metaphysics＂ may be a blatant contradictio in adiecto, while others may find it a most ordinary topic to be discussed at the beginning of the twenty-first century. In this article, I set out to examine two major discourses in which talk about ＂metaphysics＂ is frequent and popular and to which talk of ＂Chinese metaphysics＂ may wish to contribute： the history of philosophy and analytic philosophy. My contention is that it is usually far from obvious what reasons are behind putting ＂Chinese metaphysics＂ on the academic agenda and to what precise purpose this is done. What my discussion seeks to highlight is the as yet often largely unarticulated dimension of the politics of comparative philosophy--of which talk about ＂Chinese metaphysics＂ may but need not be an example.