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Year: 2006

Does Life Have Meaning or Not?

Philosophy & Thought2006.02.26
Does Life Have Meaning or Not?
I am an optimist. I love this world, filled as it is with beauty and ugliness; for me, life is of course meaningful, and meaningful in a sacred sense. Yet this belief that “life has meaning” is, for me, a “postulate”: it is unreasonable! And it is much like Euclid’s fifth postulate, or, more precisely, like the “law of excluded middle” in logic—“P or not P” is always true; how can there still be room for debate? Yet intuitionistic logic and certain many-valued logical systems do not accept this, and they can nevertheless construct a logically self-consistent system of their own. It is hard to determine, by argument within logic…
philosophy logic death nihilism
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Feb 26, 2006
Preliminary Thoughts on Whether Traditional Chinese Medicine Is Scientific

History of Science & Scholarship2006.02.25
Preliminary Thoughts on Whether Traditional Chinese Medicine Is Scientific
Whether there was “science” in ancient China, and whether Chinese medicine is scientific—on these questions I had previously read a set of polemical articles, and I found myself more inclined to support Tian Song’s view. Of course, if one thinks carefully about this issue, it is extremely complicated. Neither Tian Song nor the other discussants, as a rule, made clear just what “science” actually is. I have given this question some thought myself, but have not arrived at a satisfactory answer. Today I will only try to write down some preliminary ideas, and may add more later. The question of whether “Chinese medicine” is scientific is in fact also a…
China science Wu Guosheng scientific spirit
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Feb 25, 2006
The Significance of Psychology for the Philosophy of Science and Technology

History of Science & Scholarship2006.02.24
The Significance of Psychology for the Philosophy of Science and Technology
Today, when I went to the academic affairs office to register, I casually asked: aside from math, physics, chemistry, and biology, what else does the “natural science” category of courses required for the philosophy of technology track include—for example, do computer science and psychology count? The answer was: computer science probably counts, but psychology clearly does not. And yet when I once asked a classmate majoring in psychology, I was explicitly told that “psychology belongs to the natural sciences”! In people’s minds, psychology is the sort of thing discussed together with philosophy—in Peking University’s general education course center, psychology and philosophy are placed in the same category, and the building…
philosophy science philosophy of science sociology
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Feb 24, 2006
Brief Notes from the First/Third/Fourth Day of Classes in the New Semester

Life & Notes2006.02.23
Brief Notes from the First/Third/Fourth Day of Classes in the New Semester
A Brief Note on the First Day of the New Semester’s Classes Xingding posted on 2006-02-20 22:12:01 1. Liu Zhuanghu: Set Theory — Teacher Liu is very likable. Unlike Xing Taotao, who paced back and forth slowly in front of the blackboard, Teacher Liu dashed rapidly back and forth… I copied the textbook; at first glance, set theory still seems like a difficulty one can bear. Set theory is quite important. If one is studying philosophy of science and technology, one must understand science; it is unacceptable to stand on a humanistic position and speak in airy abstractions while having no understanding of science at all. One can begin to…
philosophy everyday life philosophy of science religion
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Feb 23, 2006
The Significance of Mathematics and Logic for Philosophy of Science

History of Science & Scholarship2006.02.22
The Significance of Mathematics and Logic for Philosophy of Science
The mission of philosophy of science and technology is to “reflect” on science and technology. It is to use philosophical thought to explore topics such as the meaning, foundations, significance, value, and influence of science and technology. Of course, an important prerequisite for carrying out reflection is that one must have some understanding of scientific activity. As the saying goes, “One does not know the true face of Lu Mountain, because one is in the mountain itself” (不识庐山真面目，只缘身在此山中): even the most seasoned natural scientist may not necessarily have a complete understanding of the question of what science is. And to step outside science in the narrow sense and observe it…
philosophy science philosophy of science mathematics
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Feb 22, 2006
Liu Huajie: “China-like Science—From the Perspectives of Philosophy and Sociology”

Culture & Public Commentary2006.02.22
Liu Huajie: “China-like Science—From the Perspectives of Philosophy and Sociology”
Liu Huajie: *China-Style Pseudoscience—From the Perspectives of Philosophy and Sociology*, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press, January 2004 I will read this book again later; mainly because in it, Liu has “collected a great deal of precious historical documentary material” (p. 1, Wu Guosheng’s preface), and it “is a valuable attempt at research into the local social history of science” (ibid.). It is a bit of a pity that “this book has omitted some parts that are not yet suitable for public publication” (ibid.), and the names of many officials in the text are rendered as “×××.” I have absolutely no interest in those hidden names, but the fact that such…
book reading China notes Liu Huajie
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Feb 22, 2006
A Few Metaphors About “Drawing Boundaries”—Reflections Organized from My Winter Vacation Reading in 2006 (1)

History of Science & Scholarship2006.02.21
A Few Metaphors About “Drawing Boundaries”—Reflections Organized from My Winter Vacation Reading in 2006 (1)
Reflections from Reading During the 2006 Winter Break I. Several Metaphors Concerning “Boundary Drawing” 1. “Pure Water” and “Soda Water” We know that human beings can never produce anything that is 100% pure; perhaps not even God could do so—for even in the imagined “absolute vacuum,” there must inevitably be virtual-real particle pairs produced along with quantum fluctuations. What we call “pumping out a vacuum” merely yields extreme rarity; it can never eliminate impurities. When factories manufacture “pure water,” at best it is only 99.99% pure, with a few more nines besides, and the very process of making pure water often adds new impurities that were not there before. So…
book reading notes history of science philosophy of science
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Feb 21, 2006
Winter Vacation Reading Notes, 2006: Introduction / Conclusion / Contents

Life & Notes2006.02.19
Winter Vacation Reading Notes, 2006: Introduction / Conclusion / Contents
2006 Winter Vacation Reading Notes: Preface/Conclusion/Contents Last year, in order to write a paper on ecological philosophy, I “finished” 117 books within two months. It looked “fierce,” but in fact, aside from a little over a dozen books I read closely, the rest were mostly skimmed by reading the beginning, the end, and selected relevant passages, and that was that; it was not solid work, and the books I read then will need to be read again in the future. This winter vacation, however, I made a major change in style: for the vast majority of books I adopted a “read through” method, meaning that I made sure my eyes…
philosophy book reading science notes
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Feb 19, 2006
Huang Aihe (Interview): “Drift—The Story of Peking University Scholar Liu Huajie”

History of Science & Scholarship2006.02.19
Huang Aihe (Interview): “Drift—The Story of Peking University Scholar Liu Huajie”
Huang Aihe (interview): “Drift—The Story of Peking University Scholar Liu Huajie,” Hebei University Press, September 2001 I happened upon this today in Guolinfeng, outside my reading plan, hehe~~ Ahem~~ Any fans of Liu Huajie out there~~? This book is so cute! Hehe, I’m not anyone’s fan, but I very much admire Teacher Liu~~ Page 4 Journalist: I saw in a newspaper that when you were little your family lived in a small mountain valley on Changbai Mountain? Liu Huajie: The full name was “Bahao, Seventeenth Team, Sidaojiang Brigade, Yuanyuan Commune, Tonghua City, Jilin Province.” My family wasn’t even in the team’s settlement area; we lived by ourselves in “Banmiao Valley,”…
book reading science notes philosophy of science
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Feb 19, 2006
[U.S.] Gerald Holton: “Science and Anti-Science”

History of Science & Scholarship2006.02.19
[U.S.] Gerald Holton: “Science and Anti-Science”
[US] Gerald Holton: “Science and Anti-Science,” translated by Fan Dainian and Chen Yanghui, Jiangxi Education Press, January 1999 P128 p. 161 On the other hand, “cyclicists” often imagine science as an activity that is not goal-directed, progressive, or cumulative.………… Cyclicists are more common among social scientists and historians; and, unlike linearists, they believe that science is driven conspicuously or even primarily by social processes. In extreme cases, they think that science is merely the performance of some general spirit of the age, or even chiefly the product of “social construction,” essentially no different from the game of chess. Generally speaking, for such views that are opposed in their fundamental aims,…
book reading notes philosophy of science faith
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Feb 19, 2006

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