Year: 2007

Supplementary Questions from the Marx Lecture in the Philosophy of Technology Class

AI & the Future of Technology2007.03.16
Supplementary Questions from the Marx Lecture in the Philosophy of Technology Class
Supplement to the classroom questions: My confusion arose because I had first listened to Professor Wu’s lecture at Tsinghua and read the transcript of Professor Wu’s remarks on “Technology as the difference of being,” and only then looked at Marx, where everything felt extremely, extremely familiar—so familiar that it seemed Marx and Professor Wu were basically saying the same thing! First let me talk about my reading of some of Marx’s views on “human essence” in the 1844 manuscripts: Marx says: “The externalization of labor appears … first, that labor is external to the worker, that it does not belong to his essence; that therefore he does not affirm…
technology freedom Wu Guosheng Marx
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2007年3月16日
Jiang Xiaoyuan, Liu Bing: “A Babel of Voices—A Dialogue on the Relationship between Science and Culture”

History of Science & Scholarship2007.03.15
Jiang Xiaoyuan, Liu Bing: “A Babel of Voices—A Dialogue on the Relationship between Science and Culture”
Jiang Xiaoyuan, Liu Bing: South Accent, North Tune——A Dialogue on the Relationship between Science and Culture, Peking University Press, 1st edition, January 2007, 32 yuan—☆ As soon as I arrived in Beijing this semester, I went to the bookstore to look for this book (of course I also bought many other new books). I read it as soon as I bought it, but after reading half of it in one sitting, for some reason I put it aside. Today, when I thought of it, I read the second half in one sitting as well. An introduction to this book can be found on Teacher Liu Huajie’s blog http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/485ea879010006j1. What I…
book reading culture notes Liu Huajie
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2007年3月15日
[U.S.] Steve Silverman: “Einstein’s Refrigerator—A Different Kind of Story Collection”

History of Science & Scholarship2007.03.13
[U.S.] Steve Silverman: “Einstein’s Refrigerator—A Different Kind of Story Collection”
[U.S.] Steve Silberman: *Einstein’s Refrigerator—An Alternative Collection of Stories*, translated by Yang Rongxin, Nanhai Publishing Company, March 2003 I recently discovered that the special-price books sold by Welan are pretty good. Many worthwhile academic books—the ones that sell at a 25% discount at places like Boyatang, and so on—are marked down to 35% off; even more books that are normally sold at 50–60% off in ordinary discount bookstores (for example, books from Jiangsu People’s Publishing House) are sold at 70% off. Well worth picking up a batch~~ Among them there is one very interesting book, and as soon as it arrived I read it at once: *Einstein’s Refrigerator*. In fact,…
book reading notes Einstein invention
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2007年3月13日
Excerpts from My Reading of Marx in the Philosophy of Technology Course

Philosophy & Thought2007.03.13
Excerpts from My Reading of Marx in the Philosophy of Technology Course
Excerpts from Marx Readings in the Philosophy of Technology Class I looked up The German Ideology on my own in order to verify Marx’s understanding of the concept of the human being and of human freedom. The remaining materials all come from the electronic file distributed by Wu-laoshi. What follows is only a transcription of the original text; I am not commenting for the time being. The underlines and boldface are all my additions. “The German Ideology (Selected Excerpts),” People’s Publishing House, 2003: The constraint of the level of development of productive forces on freedom (Chinese first edition of the Complete Works, Vol. 3, pp. 506–508) The problem as Sancho…
book reading notes freedom Marx
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2007年3月13日
Going to Tsinghua to Hear Teacher Wu Talk About Philosophy of Technology

Life & Notes2007.03.10
Going to Tsinghua to Hear Teacher Wu Talk About Philosophy of Technology
Last semester, because I had so many classes on Fridays, I never went to listen to the KeKe Forum, and that dragged me along so that I never quite had the nerve to come to Tsinghua to hear the salon either… This semester I’m planning to show up much more often~ The first time I met Teacher Jiang (in the flesh), my situation was rather embarrassed. Relying on the fact that I had been to Tsinghua a few times before, I didn’t even look at a map, and as a result it took me half an hour just to find the library; after arriving at the library, I then somehow…
philosophy everyday life Wu Guosheng philosophy talk
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2007年3月10日
Philosophy of Science as a Disciplinary Philosophy and as a Philosophical Character?

History of Science & Scholarship2007.03.09
Philosophy of Science as a Disciplinary Philosophy and as a Philosophical Character?
Regarding “XX philosophy,” I once said that, in general, its core question is “What is XX?” But after listening to Wu-laoshi speak, I suddenly realized that this kind of philosophy often has two layers of meaning: one is philosophy as a departmental discipline, and the other is philosophy as a basic philosophical disposition. The so-called core question of “XX philosophy” being “What is XX?” refers mainly to it as a departmental philosophy—that is to say, as one part of “philosophy,” one field among others, where, because philosophers have their own specialized areas, some people focus on discussing topics related to technology. But the other kind, which is often the form…
science philosophy of science Scientific Revolution Kant
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2007年3月9日
On Feminism

Philosophy & Thought2007.03.08
On Feminism
It has been quite a while since I last really put pen to paper. The two books I finished reading, I was too lazy to jot down even notes on them; it seems my state has again fallen into a slump… Today is March 8, International Women’s Day, so let me write down some thoughts. I have said before that I am a kind of “female feminism of a male chauvinist sort.” If one were to look at some of the concrete views I call feminist, they might still seem, in the eyes of many women, to be utterly male chauvinist; yet I believe that male chauvinism is still this…
philosophy culture The Two Cultures women
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2007年3月8日
Finally Conquered CET-4

Life & Notes2007.03.04
Finally Conquered CET-4
It seems the Fourth Level exam really is as ridiculously easy as they say… Exam type: > English CET-4 Admission ticket number: > 110010062100828 > Your total score: 539 (More score information…) Listening: 205 Reading: 205 Comprehensive: 54 Writing: 75 Latest comments unic 2007-03-04 15:12:33 Congratulations!! A tutor who once taught me said~ I passed the CET-4 easily~~~~ Who knows~~~ Gu 2007-03-04 18:34:56 This CET-4 thing is just high-school level, more than enough; even someone like me, whose English probably hasn’t even reached the level of the college entrance exam, can still get through it… Little beast 2007-03-10 22:40:40 Sorry, walked into the wrong toilet! No wonder it smells so…
everyday life
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2007年3月4日
What Is the Story Behind Kant’s Hundred Thalers?

Philosophy & Thought2007.03.01
What Is the Story Behind Kant’s Hundred Thalers?
What’s the Story with Kant’s One Hundred Thalers? Xingding posted on 2007-03-01 22:12:32 What’s the Story with Kant’s One Hundred Thalers? At last, the grades for last semester’s courses finally all came out. Political Theory and the general elective were both3.0; both courses in religious studies were3.7; General History of Science, Research on Globalization Issues, and Popper’s Philosophy of History were all4.0. All in all, it was still very satisfying. Who would have thought that the grade for the last course to appear—Metaphysics—was only2.0, instantly canceling out the0.03 points ofGPA I had so painstakingly clawed my way up to. The reason this course’s grade came out so late was that…
philosophy Kant Kuhn analytic philosophy
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2007年3月1日
[Eng] Thomas Marent: “The Rainforest—A Photographer’s Footsteps”

History of Science & Scholarship2007.02.14
[Eng] Thomas Marent: “The Rainforest—A Photographer’s Footsteps”
[Eng.] Thomas Marent: "Rainforest—A Photographer’s Footsteps" Xingding posted on 2007-02-14 21:49:20 [Eng.] Thomas Marent: "Rainforest—A Photographer’s Footsteps," translated by Hao Xiaojing, Hope Publishing House, October 2006 http://www.joyo.com/static/lll_061107_bk_rdyl.asp?source=w-90003370 I quite like books like photographic collections, though they’re usually expensive, so I rarely buy them. This book was an impulsive purchase, and it is very good-looking. The rainforest is a marvelous place. In the rainforests, which cover 6% of the Earth’s land area, live more than half of the world’s species; on a warm and humid night, in a not-too-large patch of rainforest, you can hear 80 different kinds of frogs croaking, while all of Europe has only 53 species of frogs;…
book reading notes environment nature
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2007年2月14日