Year: 2008

Ways of Creating Concepts (Jottings)

Philosophy & Thought2008.08.09
Ways of Creating Concepts (Jottings)
Passive creation (mass communication) and active creation (scholarly invention). There are two active modes of creation: the natural-history style of “defining by pointing to the thing” and defining concepts through concepts. The latter is a way of abbreviating some meaning that was originally associated with a long string of concepts like A, B, C, D, E, F, or even with an allusion, or even with an entire philosophical system, into a convenient concept. Why create new concepts? Very simple: because the old concepts are not enough. If an intuition is so unfamiliar that people cannot naturally and smoothly place it in its proper position within the net of concepts, then…
philosophy knowledge Chinese language
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2008年8月9日
A Few Words on “Olympic” — “Olympic Game”

Culture & Public Commentary2008.08.08
A Few Words on “Olympic” — “Olympic Game”
I had long said I would write some articles about the Olympics, but the reason I kept putting it off was mainly that I had read far too little, whether primary or secondary sources, on ancient Greece, so I would certainly be speaking without much confidence. Recently, in a last-minute dash, I read a few introductory books; of course that does not really solve anything, but in order to get something written before the opening of the Olympics, I could only make do. Though I lack confidence, I have always had ancient Greece and the “Olympic spirit” on my mind, and I have a large heap of related thoughts. Because…
culture freedom tradition religion
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2008年8月8日
A “Systematic Study” Plan for Philosophy of Science

History of Science & Scholarship2008.08.05
A “Systematic Study” Plan for Philosophy of Science
Recently, a number of friends have gradually found me through KKBBS and blogs and the like, hoping to consult me about the graduate entrance examination and about systematic methods for studying philosophy of science and technology. I’m sorry to say that, as a lazy student admitted by recommendation, I know virtually nothing about the graduate entrance examination; as for studying philosophy of science and technology, while I can hardly claim to have no experience at all, I am still, after all, only at the beginner stage—at most I can offer and share some beginner’s-beginner experience. But most of the people who come seeking help need guidance at the beginner level…
China science scholarship philosophy of science
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2008年8月5日
What Is the Difference Between Philosophy and Natural History?

Philosophy & Thought2008.08.03
What Is the Difference Between Philosophy and Natural History?
Today I was asked a question that, at first hearing, seemed baffling: “What is the difference between philosophy and natural history?” The questioner felt that philosophy deals with everything, and natural history also touches on everything, so the two seemed more or less the same… My answer was: philosophy is directed toward problems, whereas natural history faces things. Or, to put it another way, philosophy asks after the ultimate meaning of concepts—such as “What, ultimately, is science?” “What, ultimately, is essence?”—these are the ways philosophy poses its questions. A typical way natural history poses a question is: point at a tree and ask, “What is this?”—“A poplar.” That sort of…
philosophy scholarship knowledge natural history
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2008年8月3日
Thinking of EVA

Culture & Public Commentary2008.07.27
Thinking of EVA
Another anime song post? What can I do—recently in Shanghai, because I didn’t have speakers and for other reasons, I haven’t really been listening to music at all, and the only melodies I could summon up from memory just happened to be anime songs. I was reminded of EVA that day when I went to a relative’s house and saw the latest domestic animated film, “Qin Shi Mingyue.” Its gaudy 3D visuals only served to throw its shallowness into sharper relief; if this animation has made any progress at all, I’m afraid it is progress in a disappointing direction. Thinking of the difference between Chinese and Japanese animation, I couldn’t…
culture anime children death
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2008年7月27日
Human Flesh Search Is Terrifying

Life & Notes2008.07.23
Human Flesh Search Is Terrifying
Today I saw CCTV’s program “The Roundup of Human Flesh Search” on Everybody Talks Law, and it was truly astonishing. Too terrifying. Before, I had only witnessed the “power of Chinese netizens” in the Zhou Laohu affair; that power was indeed formidable, and its effects seemed positive as well, but even then my comments were anything but optimistic. Looking again at these “human flesh search” cases, they also serve to confirm my longstanding judgment: the Cultural Revolution is still continuing. The essence of the Cultural Revolution is not dictatorship or autocracy, but mob violence, the uproar of “justice.” When we see Chinese netizens, so “full of a sense…
everyday life China internet sociology
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2008年7月23日
Following the Grain and Finding Order: “Li means to work jade.”

Philosophy & Thought2008.07.22
Following the Grain and Finding Order: “Li means to work jade.”
“Wen” and “li” have undergone thousands of years of evolution in China, and then, further reshaped by modern Western languages and influenced by modern science, they long ago became unrecognizable. Hence the talk of choosing between the humanities and the sciences, of emphasizing li over wen, of the integration of wen and li, and so on. But what exactly is wen, and what exactly is li? These notions have long since become ambiguous and obscure, seeming to be something and yet not quite. In people’s minds, “li” probably means mathematics and physics, or more generally those activities that resemble “calculation”; while “wen” seems to mean handling brush and ink, or…
philosophy China Heidegger tradition
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2008年7月22日
Scattered Reflections on Love and Hate During My Retreat

Life & Notes2008.07.22
Scattered Reflections on Love and Hate During My Retreat
To write a long essay on the idea of “love,” the conception of this project began at least three years ago. But because of fluctuations in my thinking and other factors, I could not bring myself to start. Only just before my period of seclusion did I finally set down an “introductory note” and begin formally brewing this essay. What I post below is a tiny germ produced in the course of that brewing. The formulations here mainly come from the opportunity to exchange views with UNIC, and those exchanges also led to her distancing herself from me. Of course, all contextual information has been cut away; in any case,…
philosophy autobiography Marx Plato
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2008年7月22日
“‘Pen’ Notes” During My Retreat in 2008

Life & Notes2008.07.20
“‘Pen’ Notes” During My Retreat in 2008
This “Notes” was written from the beginning, when I announced on February 22, 2008 that I was going into seclusion and locking up the blog, all the way to early July, and it was recorded in a notebook I carried with me. It really was because I had shut down the blog as a channel for pouring things out that I had no choice but to switch to another form. Writing by hand feels obviously different from typing, and the articles you produce that way feel different too. The train of thought and the structure both seem more obstructed and less fluent. But being able to jot down, in an…
philosophy everyday life notes history
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2008年7月20日
Writing Is a Kind of Outpouring

History of Science & Scholarship2008.07.18
Writing Is a Kind of Outpouring
I often hear people say “write, leak.” This is not merely a coincidence of shape; in fact, “write” and “leak” were originally the same character. Jinshan Ciba says: “写，置物也。——《说文》。俗字亦作泻。” Perhaps the evolution of “写” into the meaning of writing merely stems from its original sense of “to place,” but Chinese characters are, after all, endlessly subtle. Whether or not this is a coincidence, these two characters have in any case been deeply bound together. People say good prose is “flowed out,” and I know that my own articles really are flowed out. In this way, I suppose they at least satisfy the necessary but not sufficient condition for becoming good…
scholarship Chinese language writing
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2008年7月18日