On 23 April 2022, the twenty-third edition of the School of Politics and International Relations "Common Sense" Reading Club started at 9:00am sharp. Seven students from the School of Politics and International Relations and the School of Arts participated in this reading group, which was hosted by Dr Luo Yixuan.The reading was on the French Enlightenment thinker Montesquieu's work On the Spirit of Law, and the scope of the reading was part of chapters 4 and 5.

After a short summary of the last reading, Dr Luo Yixuan led us back to the text, where in Chapter 4 Montesquieu gives his own interpretation of certain Greek customs. In response to Montesquieu's discussion, Dr. Luo Yixuan began by recommending Plutarch's Biography of a Famous Greco-Roman Man, in which the Biography of Lycurgus forms the background to this passage of Montesquieu's discussion. He explained that the fusion of "theft and a sense of justice" was reflected in the education of the Spartan boys.

Dr Luo also points out that in Chapter 5, Montesquieu's discourse is mainly in terms of the principles that sustain the different polities, but this does not mean that he approves of them. In grasping his attitude towards these polities, one should go back to the starting point of his discourse, namely natural law, and needs to look at whether these polities satisfy the need for individual or human self-preservation.