The Development of the Concept of Political Prudence in Modern Britain : A Study of Satire in the Perspective of History of Political Thought

本研究从政治思想史的角度考察了英国现代讽刺文学中政治审慎观念的发展。这项研究揭示了以下三点。(1)在英国的奥古斯都时代，有政治、社会和文化条件促使讽刺。(2)讽刺文学是一种社会文学形式，其目的是通过对被讽刺者的嘲笑，从道德上和政治上对被讽刺者进行矫正。(3)这一时期的讽刺作品表达了人们的观点和政治智慧，乔纳森·斯威夫特就是其中的代表人物。文学作品中包含了许多非政治人物的政治审慎。

In this research project, I studied the development of the concept of political prudence in the modern British satire from the viewpoint of history of political thought. This study revealed the following three points. (1) In the Augustan Age of Britain, there were political, social, and cultural conditions which prompted satire. (2) The satire took a social literary form, and its purpose was to rectify satirized people morally and politically by making full use of laughing at them. (3) People's opinions and political wisdom found expression in the satire of this period, a representative of which is Jonathan Swift. The literature involved much political prudence of non-political men.