Suixuan

Year: 2006

  • The Thinker Fixated on Expectation

    History of Science & Scholarship

    The Thinker Fixated on Expectation

    I do not reject a theory because its conclusion is absurd. What must be despised is its attitude and manner of expression.  Some time ago I read a younger schoolmate’s article on Confucius; now I am reading a younger schoolmate’s so-called “paper” on “desire studies.”  Some articles are unbearable, but I want everyone to know that at present I explicitly hold a pluralist position. The reason I reject some things is not because their views are “extreme.”  It does not matter if the views are extreme; others can refute them, and different views can be set side by side in contest. However, some people are also extreme in attitude, imagining…

    philosophyChinascholarshipdiscussion
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  • Causality and Scientific Explanation

    History of Science & Scholarship

    Causality and Scientific Explanation

    In discussing “causality,” people often consciously or unconsciously confuse it with the “principle of sufficient reason.” The principle of sufficient reason is the belief that for every event there exists a “sufficient reason” that makes it be thus rather than otherwise. This is actually a rather strong claim, and to take it as the basis of scientific explanation seems to set the starting point too high. Then what is “causality”? I think a weaker formulation is “connectedness among events,” that is, the belief that “the occurrence of any event is always associated with other events.” Of course, causality should not be conflated with mere connectedness either. When we speak of…

    philosophysciencephilosophy of sciencecausality
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  • Ancient Greek Natural Philosophy and the Scientific Spirit

    History of Science & Scholarship

    Ancient Greek Natural Philosophy and the Scientific Spirit

    It is generally believed that the beginning of modern natural science lies in the natural philosophy of ancient Greece, and that the rational spirit of Greek philosophy made science possible. So what, exactly, was distinctive about the speculative reason of the ancient Greek philosophers? And what significance does tracing those features have for the development of modern science? The specialist in the history of ancient science, Professor Lloyd, believes that the two important characteristics that make ancient Greek natural philosophy unique are “the discovery of nature” and “rational critical and debating activity.”[1] By “the discovery of nature,” Lloyd means “learning to distinguish ‘nature’ from ‘the supernatural,’” recognizing that natural phenomena…

    scienceAristotlenatureWu Guosheng
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  • Starting with Lottery Predictions

    History of Science & Scholarship

    Starting with Lottery Predictions

    In the past two years, if you flip open a newspaper, turn on the television, or click onto a webpage, you will find all kinds of “lottery prediction” programs growing increasingly hot. With the flourishing of the lottery industry, this “discipline” of “lottery prediction” has become lively, and a large group of “probability scientists” have found themselves a livelihood. Lottery prediction programs on television are generally broadcast right after the lottery drawing, and I, in my idle moments, have even watched a few episodes. The professional “lottery scholars” are quite formidable. They can spend dozens of minutes “analyzing” the numbers from the previous draws, know how to use computers to…

    sciencecausality
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  • Colors of the Wind

    Life & Notes

    Colors of the Wind

    Disney animated film 《Pocahontas》 theme song “Colors of the Wind,” a song of awe before nature~               Colors of the Wind You think I'm an ignorant savage and you've been so many places.                I guess it must be so but still I cannot see.  If the savage one is me, how can there be so much that you don't know, you don't know, you don't know.  You think you own whatever land you land on.  The earth is just a dead thing you can claim.  But I know every rock and tree and creature.  Has a life…

    everyday lifeculturefaithnature
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  • Causality, Premonition, Free Will, Paranormal Powers, Scientific Explanation

    History of Science & Scholarship

    Causality, Premonition, Free Will, Paranormal Powers, Scientific Explanation

    Watching the film Final Destination, I think about what causality is? Can “premonition” be given a “scientific explanation”? Can “supernormal abilities” be justified within scientific epistemology? 1.Laws, causality, time Hume pointed out that causality is only a “habit,” and he was not wrong. When we see “2, 4, 6, 8, ___, …,” even the dullest primary school student knows how to do this kind of “find the pattern and fill in the number” problem; they will unhesitatingly write “10” in the blank, while slightly cleverer students will sum it up into a universal “rule” — “the nth number is 2n.” This problem is far too simple, but its basic principle…

    sciencephilosophy of scienceAristotleKant
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  • The Superstition of Economics

    Culture & Public Commentary

    The Superstition of Economics

    Economics is also part of science, and economic superstition is a part of “scientific superstition”; however, economic superstition has its own distinctive features. In China, not only is scientific superstition very serious, economic superstition is also especially prominent. There are two reasons for superstition: first, ignorance of the object; second, the object displays some kind of powerful force. This is true of science, and even more so of economics. Since reform and opening up, China’s economic takeoff has displayed what seems to be the tremendous power brought by economics, while the public’s ignorance of economics is no less than its ignorance of science. Like scientific superstition, the effects of economic…

    cultureChinaeconomysuperstition
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  • On Zhang Weiying and Reform

    Life & Notes

    On Zhang Weiying and Reform

    Mingzi asked me to comment on this article http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/4836a351010002id#comment. Seeing the two keywords “Zhang Weiying” + “reform” really stirred up a lot of long-buried feelings. An excerpt from the comment follows: I don’t want to say very much, because ever since I first set foot at Peking University, the first Peking University professor I looked down on was Zhang Weiying. Under this intensely special emotional state, I can’t guarantee that my judgment is calm. Peking University is not trash, but even in the best place there will be trash, and Zhang Weiying is trash. I don’t understand economics very well. I “came to know” Zhang Weiying when, in my senior…

    everyday lifePeking University
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  • “A Pitch-Black Void”

    Life & Notes

    “A Pitch-Black Void”

      “Pitch-black!”  It is said that when I first said this sentence, it gave my mother quite a shock, and at the same time filled her with joy.  I can’t remember anything about the situation at the time… hmm, it was probably when I was three years old.  It must have been when my mother was carrying me down the stairs, with no lights on and everything very dark, and for some reason I suddenly blurted out that line. When I said it, my mother thought: Good heavens, this kid can hardly even talk yet, and he already knows how to use idioms! Hmm, he’s got a future; I must…

    everyday lifeChineselanguagechildren
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  • A Scientific Explanation of Rainbows

    A Scientific Explanation of Rainbows

    A Scientific Explanation of Rainbows
    History of Science & Scholarship

    A Scientific Explanation of Rainbows

      A Simple Explanation Excerpted from Baidu Zhidao: http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/4311857.html A rainbow is formed because sunlight strikes small nearly spherical water droplets in the air, causing dispersion and reflection. When sunlight enters a water droplet, it simultaneously enters at different angles and is also reflected within the droplet at different angles. Of these, reflection at angles of 40 to 42 degrees is the strongest, producing the rainbow we see. In producing this reflection, sunlight first undergoes one refraction as it enters the droplet, then reflects off the back of the droplet, and finally undergoes another refraction as it leaves the droplet. Because water disperses light, the refractive indices for light of…

    sciencepluralismscientific explanation
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