During his long, productive life the great English philosopher and exponent of utilitarianism Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) wrote not just on political philosophy but also clandestinely on religion. Under the pseudonym of Philip Beauchamp he published an attack on natural religion called "Analysis of the Influence of Natural Religion on the Temporal Happiness of Mankind" and under the pseudonym of Gamaliel Smith he published a book of New Testament criticism called "Not Paul, But Jesus." In addition, Bentham bravely released under his (...) own name" Church-of-Englandism and Its Catechism Examined," a thorough, biting critique of Anglican doctrine. These little-known works are discussed at length by philosopher Delos B. McKown in this informative contribution to Bentham scholarship. McKown introduces these major works on religion, and then presents an extensive synopsis of each. He defends Bentham against the criticisms of opponents where necessary, but does not hesitate to criticize Bentham when he feels he goes astray. McKown also shows how Bentham's attacks on the Christianity of his time, which denigrated human life in the here-and-now for some imagined future postmortem state of glory, fully complemented his utilitarian philosophy of the greatest happiness to the greatest number of people. This thorough analysis of three little-known works by one of philosophy's great minds makes an outstanding contribution to Bentham scholarship and will be of interest to humanists and philosophers of religion. (shrink)

Story of the place he filled in American history as a patriot and writer.

The Confucian doctrine of _tianxia_ outlines a unitary worldview that cherishes global justice and transcends social, geographic, and political divides. For contemporary scholars, it has held myriad meanings, from the articulation of a cultural imaginary and political strategy to a moralistic commitment and a cosmological vision. The contributors to _Chinese Visions of World Order_ examine the evolution of tianxia's meaning and practice in the Han dynasty and its mutations in modern times. They attend to its varied interpretations, its relation to (...) realpolitik, and its revival in twenty-first-century China. They also investigate tianxia's birth in antiquity and its role in empire building, invoke its cultural universalism as a new global imagination for the contemporary world, analyze its resonance and affinity with cosmopolitanism in East-West cultural relations, discover its persistence in China's socialist internationalism and third world agenda, and critique its deployment as an official state ideology. In so doing, they demonstrate how China draws on its past to further its own alternative vision of the current international system. Contributors. Daniel A. Bell, Chishen Chang, Kuan-Hsing Chen, Prasenjit Duara, Hsieh Mei-yu, Haiyan Lee, Mark Edward Lewis, Lin Chun, Viren Murthy, Lisa Rofel, Ban Wang, Wang Hui, Yiqun Zhou. (shrink)

ABSTRACT The epistemological and methodological wars that bedevil social science often pit those who follow in the footsteps of natural science and those who favor a more holistic, interpretive approach. Into this war-torn landscape, Mark Bevir and Jason Blakley have dropped a plea for interpretive social science that will surely serve as a touchstone for years to come. However, their anti-naturalism is of the methodologically ecumenical kind, with the qualitative toolkit cohabiting with mass surveys, large-N statistics, and other quantitative methods (...) under well-specified conditions. The book’s insights therefore dovetail with emerging ecumenical trends in international political economy and even economics. (shrink)

This paper presents an active fault-tolerant control strategy for quadrotor helicopters to simultaneously accommodate sensor faults and external disturbances. Unlike most of the existing fault diagnosis and fault-tolerant control schemes for quadrotor helicopters, the proposed fault diagnosis scheme is able to estimate sensor faults while eliminating the effect of external disturbances. Moreover, the proposed fault-tolerant control scheme is capable to eliminate the adverse effect of external disturbances as well by designing a disturbance observer to effectively estimate the unknown external disturbances (...) and integrating with the designed integral sliding-mode controller. In this case, the continuous operation of the quadrotor helicopter is ensured while avoiding the unexpected control chattering. In addition, the stability of the closed-loop system is theoretically proved. Finally, the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed scheme are validated and demonstrated through comparative numerical simulations of the quadrotor helicopter under different faulty and uncertain scenarios. (shrink)

t. 1. Sociologie de la nation.-t. 2. Le nationalisme et l'ordre de droit.