Suixuan

Year: 2005

  • Keep a Proper Mindset!

    Life & Notes

    Keep a Proper Mindset!

    Thanks to Chong-ge for the criticism. First of all, there is indeed a problem with my writing style. If all my articles were posted on some philosophy forum, then I would not really be all that different from the “folk philosophers,” and so now it really is necessary to give serious attention to the problem of style. In the final analysis, the problem of style is still a problem of attitude. I do indeed need to seriously reflect on whether I have truly put “humility” into practice rather than leaving it at the level of words. I believe that my experience under the stars arises from the heart, and therefore…

    philosophyeveryday lifefolk philosophy
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  • The Greatest Root of Nihilism

    Culture & Public Commentary

    The Greatest Root of Nihilism

    Nihilism, especially moral nihilism, is a conspicuous predicament of the present age. But what is the source of nihilism? In China, we say that from the May Fourth era to the Cultural Revolution, traditional values were comprehensively overthrown; in the West, we say that science shattered the authority of Christianity and plunged us into the predicament of God is dead. Yet these are only concrete manifestations of the problem; they do not strike at its root. Why are we unable to persuade nihilists? In fact, once the original authoritative value system has been toppled, we might be able to build a society of value pluralism, where different people can believe…

    culturesciencetraditionConfucianism
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  • “Keyword Fever Syndrome”

    Culture & Public Commentary

    “Keyword Fever Syndrome”

    The other day I mentioned that there is a kind of epidemic in Chinese society today, which I have temporarily called “keyword fever syndrome.” In fact, it seems that scholars have already proposed something like this long ago, but I can’t quite recall it at the moment, so let me first talk about my own view! What is meant by “keyword fever syndrome” is this sort of mentality: people do not care about the preface and aftermath of a sentence, about signification and reference, about connotation and denotation, and so on. As long as they see some “keywords,” they immediately become mentally aroused. For example, the case mentioned in a…

    cultureChinamodernity
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  • Caution in Speech and Writing

    Life & Notes

    Caution in Speech and Writing

    I have always placed great emphasis on “慎言” — caution in speech. You can tell from my article “I Despise Plagiarism in Papers” that I attach great importance to being responsible for one’s own words. I believe that every extra piece of writing left in the world is an extra responsibility taken on; things in black and white cannot be denied simply because one wants to deny them. I will have to be responsible for everything I have ever written for my whole life. If one day I discover that something I wrote before is problematic, I cannot just toss off a line like, “That was what I wrote back…

    everyday lifeblogautobiographywriting
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  • The 100th Blog Post~

    Site Matters

    The 100th Blog Post~

    Unknowingly, I’ve already written so many blog posts—within less than half a year, and mostly in just this past month. Most of my blog posts are long, really long; quite a lot of them run to one or two thousand characters, and everyone says I’m “prolific.” Too bad the comments are really scarce—only 44 posts in total… Seeing Chong Ge’s piece with just six Chinese characters rack up more than eighty replies, sigh… But then again, my blog really is rather boring. Unlike most blogs, which write diary entries, impressions, very everyday things, I spend whole posts writing out my thoughts; of course that would be dull. It’s not that…

    blogwebsiteselfwriting
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  • My View of Life (and Supplement)

    Life & Notes

    My View of Life (and Supplement)

    “Life is to be lived through clearly, not thought through clearly!” — I forget whom I heard this from, but it feels immensely true. Questions such as the meaning of life and the purpose of life: when our lives reach their end, life itself will give us the answers. To puzzle over them while still young only brings suffering upon ourselves, and yields no answer worth the name. Even if we do arrive at some answer, that answer often dissolves with the passage of time; when we look back in old age, it may no longer be quite the same thing at all. But the question of life’s meaning is…

    faithautobiographyKanthuman nature
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  • Why I Chose Philosophy of Science

    Life & Notes

    Why I Chose Philosophy of Science

    This was also a topic discussed with ZW last night.  Q: Why is philosophy of science, unlike philosophy of history, political philosophy, and so on, able to become an independent second-level discipline? A: The philosophy of science became an independent second-level discipline for both historical and contemporary reasons. The historical reason is that philosophy of science was originally what was called “dialectics of nature”; in that era, it was an attempt to provide methodological “guidance” for science, and this is an institutional arrangement left over from history. The contemporary reason is this: ours is precisely the age of so-called “science and technology”; almost all the problems this age faces—questions of…

    history of sciencephilosophy of scienceautobiographypluralism
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  • Philosophy’s Critical Spirit and the “Critical” Spirit of Folk Philosophy

    History of Science & Scholarship

    Philosophy’s Critical Spirit and the “Critical” Spirit of Folk Philosophy

    Philosophy is the most meticulous about criticism and questioning. Every great thinker possesses a strong sense of skepticism and a critical spirit. Marx said, “doubt everything,” and Kant also carried out a comprehensive critique of traditional metaphysics in three massive volumes; Mr. Lu Xun, meanwhile, thoroughly exposed the inferiority of the Chinese national character… Many people find this immensely satisfying and gratifying; criticism, exposure, nitpicking—these became a kind of fashion, and “cursing and swearing at every turn” became trendy… Someone says: criticism is always a good thing, isn’t critique the most important philosophical spirit of all? Little do they know that this critique is not that critique; the so-called “critique”…

    philosophyChinascholarshiptradition
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  • Under the Same Starry Sky—Kant’s Views on Science and Religion

    History of Science & Scholarship

    Under the Same Starry Sky—Kant’s Views on Science and Religion

    The Same Starry Sky—Kant’s View of Science and Religion: The Origins Xingding posted on 2005-12-26 14:48:15 Origins… 1 I have no choice but to suspend knowledge… 1 So as to make room for faith… 5 The limits of speculative reason… 5 The grounds of faith… 7 One must posit a God… 8 The meaning of the church… 9 On a clear night, gazing up at the starry sky… 10 Main references… 12 Origins Kant occupies a special position in the history of Western philosophy, bridging the past and the future. As the Japanese scholar Abe Yoshinari put it, “Kant is a reservoir: all philosophy before him flows into him, and…

    sciencephilosophy of sciencereligionKant
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  • Kant: On a clear night, gazing up at the starry sky…

    Philosophy & Thought

    Kant: On a clear night, gazing up at the starry sky…

    Kant: An Introduction to the History of the Development of the Universe, translated by Quan Zengjia, proofread by Wang Fushan, Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 2001 Stars are fixed Posted on 2005-12-25 18:55:01 Page 142, concluding remarks …. In fact, if one’s feelings are satisfied by such inquiries and by everything said above, then on a clear night, gazing up at the starry sky, one will experience a kind of delight that only a noble soul can truly feel. In the stillness of all sounds and the repose of the senses, the latent cognitive powers of the immortal spirit will, in a mysterious language, hint to us at certain concepts not…

    book readingnotesKantconsciousness
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