Year: 2008

Text Is Principle

Philosophy & Thought2008.02.17
Text Is Principle
Earlier I mentioned the sciences, so here let me say a bit more about “wen” and “li.” The division between wen and li is a real situation. I do not want to erase the actual differences between theory and literature, but I do want to point out one thing: what is called “wen” — literature, writing, culture, the wen of the humanities — and what is called “li” — mathematics and the sciences, theory, ideals, principle — are in fact related at certain root levels, and were even originally one and the same. The present division of disciplines is: humanities versus science and engineering, as if the sciences and engineering…
philosophy China reason Chinese characters
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2008年2月17日
This Episode’s Music: “The Song of Scientism” (Super Star)

Life & Notes2008.02.17
This Episode’s Music: “The Song of Scientism” (Super Star)
What is “scientism”? Anti-scientism can be said to be one of my basic positions, running through all my articles. But Unic still says: too vague. Come to think of it, that makes sense. I basically treat anti-scientism as a default orientation, and in concrete discussions I have never clearly and explicitly targeted the concept of “scientism.” Because philosophy of science is my main line of work, and views on this point especially need to be handled with caution, I do not want to define this thing called “scientism” explicitly for the time being. And I also do not want to get into “two armies confronting each other”; in such a…
everyday life philosophy of science Liu Huajie science communication
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2008年2月17日
The Benefits of Mathematical and Logical Training for Studying Philosophy

Philosophy & Thought2008.02.15
The Benefits of Mathematical and Logical Training for Studying Philosophy
Although I entered the philosophy department as an undergraduate, I still unabashedly identify myself as “from a science background.” Of course, the current Chinese practice of splitting high school students into arts and sciences is very bad; the so-called “science students” in high school are not necessarily all that “scientific” in any meaningful sense—after all, most of them choose physics. And it is even harder to say how much “literature” arts students have actually come into contact with—how can middle-school history, politics, and the like be called “literature”? But when I say I am “from a science background,” I do not mean that I was a high school science student;…
philosophy scholarship mathematics analytic philosophy
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2008年2月15日
What Exactly Does Philosophy Study?

Philosophy & Thought2008.02.14
What Exactly Does Philosophy Study?
Returning home for the Spring Festival inevitably means family gatherings; family gatherings inevitably mean asking after one another, and asking after one another inevitably means asking about me. This time, I was asked: what on earth does philosophy study? Among this round of relatives, my uncle was a college student, and even now he still occasionally reads books; the rest were all the most ordinary people of the market streets and alleys—that is to say, people who do not read books. My uncle was very concerned about me. He mentioned that last time, in Shanghai Book City, he had specially gone looking for books on philosophy of technology. He said…
philosophy philosophy of science
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2008年2月14日
[Western] Ortega y Gasset: The Revolt of the Masses —☆

Culture & Public Commentary2008.02.14
[Western] Ortega y Gasset: The Revolt of the Masses —☆
[西]Ortega y Gasset: “The Revolt of the Masses,” translated by Liu Xunlian and Tong Dezhi, Jilin People’s Publishing House, October 2004, 16 yuan——☆ I read this book on the train while I was going home; thanks to a delay, I happened to finish it in one sitting. But the excerpts below were not entered into the computer until the last day before I returned to Beijing, which shows how completely I wasted my time at home. This is a wonderful book, so much so that I wanted to classify it as a “★” recommendation. After much hesitation, I lowered it by one grade, because I felt that the book’s mode…
book reading notes sociology the masses
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2008年2月14日
What Is the Meaning of Suixuan?

Site Matters2008.02.14
What Is the Meaning of Suixuan?
What, in the end, is the meaning of Suixuan? Why have I been running this blog? I have more or less forgotten these questions, because blogging has gradually become a daily habit: I write whenever I think of it, without needing any purpose or reason. But after setting it aside for a period of time, the question has surfaced again—why did I want to shut the blog down? And if I do not shut it down, then why should I continue blogging? I dug up a comment I myself left a year and a half ago: https://yilinhut.net/2006/03/24/350.html Gu 2006-07-07 01:59:06 The current orientation of this blog of mine is: First,…
philosophy blog website self
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2008年2月14日
Wishing Everyone a Happy Spring Festival!

Life & Notes2008.02.01
Wishing Everyone a Happy Spring Festival!
Before the Spring Festival, I’m too lazy to update the blog any further, so let me first wish all the friends who follow or happen to pass by my blog a happy Spring Festival and a happy New Year! To the friends who still plan to keep following this blog in the coming year: in the midst of your busy schedules, please be sure to leave a few words here by the way. Thanks for your support. Comments and replies s 2008-04-04 12:45:20 Anonymous 221.230.20.16 [Reply] Since Brother Gu has said so, then I’ll go register right now! Gu Zhuo 2008-04-02 12:51:08 [Reply] By the way,…
everyday life China
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2008年2月1日
The Train Was 7 and a Half Hours Late…

Life & Notes2008.01.28
The Train Was 7 and a Half Hours Late…
The Z21 express. It was scheduled to depart punctually at 7:30 and was supposed to arrive in Shanghai at 7:00 on the dot, but in the end it didn’t get there until almost 4 p.m. I suppose that counts as a free viewing of the snowy scenery… I really had never seen such a blizzard before; the snow piled up above the knees, and it was very fine and loose. I really felt like getting off the train and taking a walk. Latest comments Suíyuán 2008-01-29 19:55:29 Anonymous 124.17.18.213 [Reply] Hehe, Xiaogu has gone home for the New Year! Here I’d also like to…
everyday life Chinese travel
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2008年1月28日
On Feyerabend Quotations 5 (Philosophy, Science, and Language Games)

History of Science & Scholarship2008.01.26
On Feyerabend Quotations 5 (Philosophy, Science, and Language Games)
http://hps.phil.pku.edu.cn/bbs/read.php?tid=338 http://hps.phil.pku.edu.cn/bbs/read.php?tid=339 NewStudioOldJiang Selected Quotes from Feyerabend 5 “Catastrophes in the natural environment, war, the collapse of an ethical system that has been perfected, and political revolution, too, will transform human patterns of response, including important patterns of argumentation. Such transformation may well be a completely natural process, and the only function of rational argument may perhaps lie in this fact: it increases psychic tension, and this tension is the precursor of action’s eruption and the cause of that eruption.” (Against Method, 2) “An analysis of the relation between thought and action also shows that, in the growth of our knowledge and the growth of science, the roles played by…
science language game Wittgenstein
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2008年1月26日
Sense of Responsibility

Culture & Public Commentary2008.01.25
Sense of Responsibility
I remember that when I first entered the preparatory class in junior high school (sixth grade in elementary school), in the first “weekly journal” assigned by our homeroom teacher (the politics teacher) — that is, a way of “snitching” (though I always talked only about “problems,” never about any specific person) — I emphasized two concepts: “the sense of right and wrong” and “responsibility.” I thought teachers should focus on cultivating these two things in students. All along, my indignation toward my peers has been far greater than my indignation toward teachers. I thought that my classmates only knew how to mock and resist teachers’ discipline, that they were self-righteous,…
culture freedom responsibility power
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2008年1月25日