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

在本研究项目中，我从政治思想史的角度研究了现代英国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，政治、社会和文化条件引发了讽刺。(2)讽刺是一种社会性的文学形式，其目的是充分利用嘲讽对被讽刺的人进行道德上和政治上的矫正。(3)人们的意见和政治智慧体现在这一时期的讽刺中，乔纳森·斯威夫特就是其中的代表。这部文学作品包含了许多非政治性人物的政治审慎。

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.