Year: 2007

This Episode’s Music: Azurite (Heroic Age ED)

Life & Notes2007.10.10
This Episode’s Music: Azurite (Heroic Age ED)
The turn from late September to early October is a transitional period: the matters of graduate recommendation, grant papers, and so on have all come to a close, and a new era is about to unfold. At the same time, it also happens to be anime season-change time. Japanese anime is generally broadcast by the season, and many series are one season or two seasons long—around 13 episodes or 26 episodes. During this stretch from late September to early October, I happened to catch the endings of various new shows I was watching in sequence; for about a week before that I watched more than a dozen finales back to…
everyday life culture anime Japan
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2007年10月10日
Is Literature Human Studies? — A Response

Culture & Public Commentary2007.10.08
Is Literature Human Studies? — A Response
This is a response to UNIC; taking this opportunity, I’d like to briefly state my attitude toward conceptual analysis and inquiry. You want to say “literature is human studies,” and that’s fine; I do not object. Of course, this phrase is not your own invention, but already a widely used expression. I looked it up, and its source seems to be Gorky; it has also been used by many writers on different occasions. Every sentence has its context and must be judged within a specific context. Otherwise, a bald assertion dropped out of nowhere cannot be properly understood or assessed. For example, I say “the Earth is round.” Is that…
philosophy culture human nature humanities
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2007年10月8日
What Is “Literature”?

Culture & Public Commentary2007.10.08
What Is “Literature”?
I claim that this year I’m going to make a serious study of literature, so what exactly do I mean? What is literature? Although I understand that I’ll have more of a say on this question only after I’ve read more literary books, if I have no idea what “literature” is, then what exactly am I planning to read? Of course, the simplest method is to follow the categories already made by others and look for books on the literature shelf in a bookstore; that would count as reading literature. But as someone who does philosophy, I really shouldn’t be too lazy. Besides, this topic has come up recently anyway,…
philosophy culture scholarship literature
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2007年10月8日
[France] Michel Manson: “The Eternal Toy”

Culture & Public Commentary2007.10.06
[France] Michel Manson: “The Eternal Toy”
[French] Michel Manson: “The Eternal Toy,” translated by Su Qiyun and Wang Xinlian, Baihua Literature and Art Publishing House, August 2004, 26 yuan The reasons that attracted me to buy this book are as follows: first, it was on sale; second, it is serious scholarly work on something that appears to be an ordinary object. The seriousness of this is evident from the 46 pages of notes appended at the end of the book (the Chinese edition reproduces all the notes in facsimile, which was no small feat); third, I am very interested in this topic. After reading it, I found myself somewhat disappointed. Neither the writing nor the argument…
book reading technology notes children
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2007年10月6日
Peddling Philosophy of Science and Technology (III)

History of Science & Scholarship2007.10.03
Peddling Philosophy of Science and Technology (III)
The previous two “sales pitches,” as my senior brother put it, attacked only and defended not at all. In fact, philosophy of science and technology of course has its fatal weaknesses. What I want to emphasize is that anyone “can,” “may as well,” and “might as well” do philosophy of science and technology; however, I have not said that it is the most suitable choice for everyone. In fact, if a certain kind of work can be done well by anyone, then it is probably mediocre. The advantage of philosophy of science and technology is precisely its most fatal flaw—being too miscellaneous. Philosophy of science and technology runs through all…
science philosophy of science Kuhn Wittgenstein
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2007年10月3日
Restating Scientific Pluralism from a Classical Starting Point

Philosophy & Thought2007.09.29
Restating Scientific Pluralism from a Classical Starting Point
When I was being interviewed, Teacher Sun asked me how, after reading so much philosophy of science, I still hadn’t fixed a direction. I hemmed and hawed, dodged and bobbed, and in the end only said that I was interested in the whole field of meta-science, and that I would settle on a specific direction slowly. Was I really completely without a goal? No. Of the main direction I have in mind so far, or rather, of my academic ideal, of course I have one! I just didn’t dare say it during the interview. I only mentioned, “I’ve already made those grand claims in my personal statement,” and Wu-laoshi…
philosophy philosophy of science Kant pluralism
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2007年9月29日
This Episode’s Music: Bandari: Childhood

Life & Notes2007.09.29
This Episode’s Music: Bandari: Childhood
Hearing this piece of music is what made me remember that this was actually the piece I had intended to put on the blog last summer vacation; at the time, though, I searched for it on Baidu for ages and still couldn’t find it, so I put it aside. Later, when I posted Bandari’s “A Night in the Forest,” I was listening to it on “Heat Is On,” and recently, when I used WMP to shuffle through all the music on my hard drive, I happened to hear this piece, and it stirred up memories. Then I casually searched for it and, amazingly, found a link, so here it is….
everyday life music childhood
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2007年9月29日
I’m Still Just a Child~!

Life & Notes2007.09.29
I’m Still Just a Child~!
That day, during the interview, Teacher Sun said: how come that over your four years in college, you’ve already been studying according to our major, and yet still haven’t settled on a smaller academic direction? I said that these four years of college had already narrowed things down enough. Narrowed down to what degree? I said, isn’t it already determined as “Science Studies”? How is that not narrow? I said that in high school I liked math, physics, astronomy, geography, history, economics, and so on; hadn’t that already been a narrowing? Teacher Sun said that high school doesn’t count; that was still a child’s ideal. I said, hmm, I feel…
philosophy everyday life Ji Xianlin
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2007年9月29日
Plans for My Senior Year~~

Life & Notes2007.09.29
Plans for My Senior Year~~
I have never much liked making plans, nor do I really stick to so-called plans. What follows are basically just some ideas; whether I follow them is another matter. First, the legendary, much-maligned thing called English… this is definitely something that needs to be at least preliminarily taken care of before I officially enter graduate school, at the very least to make sure I won’t be dragged down by English again. Come to think of it, my ability to study English doesn’t seem all that bad either. For both the CET-4 and CET-6, I crammed like mad at the last minute and somehow scraped through. Now that there’s no…
everyday life history psychology literature
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2007年9月29日
[Repost] Do We Need a Revival of Faith? (Xu Youyu)

Life & Notes2007.09.29
[Repost] Do We Need a Revival of Faith? (Xu Youyu)
http://vip.bokee.com/20070924389448.html I happened upon this article quite by chance, and several passages are quite interesting. I might as well repost it here, and in passing introduce Xu Youyu’s blog as well—Xu Youyu’s blog was also discovered by me in a very accidental way, in a very accidental place, though now I only go there once in a great while… The blog column on “Blog China” really is a mess; not to mention all the clutter on the right side of the page, the articles themselves are full of all kinds of inexplicable automatic links that one has to check. The comments are also far too chaotic; in this state, it…
everyday life culture China faith
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2007年9月29日