Today’s salon was quite lively after a long time. Besides dr, three web friends also came, and the long-absent xxj classmate made a splendid passing appearance~
Besides the eat-melon king (Institute for History of Natural Sciences, CAS) classmate, today’s two new friends were respectively from the computer science department of Forestry University and the School of Philosophy at Renmin University. Welcome, welcome—clap clap clap~
Besides chatting idly, as originally planned, I talked a bit about McLuhan; the effect is unknown…
We also brought up the question of the meaning of philosophical thinking, and I still use games as a metaphor: for example, you have a box in your hands, and out of curiosity you open it to take a look. Why do you do that? You see a pile of blocks, so you try to build them up and see what happens, fiddling around with them. Why do you do that? After you finish building a structure, is that my achievement? If that structure is knocked down, is my achievement then lost? Games have certain internal aims and requirements—for example, the purpose of chess is to checkmate the opponent—but the meaning of the game itself is self-sufficient. Human nature and the world are placed before my eyes; we investigate them and tinker with them, and that is meaning. The truth sought by philosophers does not lie in that pile of scattered blocks, nor in any fixed structure formed by the blocks, but in the activity of tinkering with the blocks itself.
Could next week’s salon possibly be paused once? In any case, the week after next will still go on as usual. New and old friends are welcome to show up.
Today’s attendees: sxf/cgw/xxj/dr/ (and what was that Renmin University friend’s name again…)
Possible topic next time: may pause for one session
Latest Comments
- m@
2009-11-21 19:29:21 Anonymous 218.107.132.124 http://maxiaoxuan.com
My name is m@
- shishi
2009-11-21 21:41:37 Anonymous 61.232.0.216
Thank you, xg, for lunch; thank you for the book you gave me; thank you for the report you prepared over three days. xs sincerely apologizes for the question asked after the report ended, but there was absolutely no disrespect intended. There are many kinds of scholarship in the world, and it absolutely cannot be judged solely by whether it is useful or useless. I feel ashamed of my own poor expression, which made it impossible for everyone to understand. Fortunately, I had this opportunity to discover my shortcomings and quickly adjust.
Translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The original text is authoritative.
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