Year: 2009

Translating “natural history” as “natural history” is also not bad

History of Science & Scholarship2009.04.23
Translating “natural history” as “natural history” is also not bad
PS: It was very, very long ago, when I was writing “Natural History and History,” that I first began to think that translating it as “natural history” might also be quite good. At the time, I had just listened to lectures on natural history by Professors Wu, Liu, and Su, and felt that Professor Wu’s rejection of “natural history” was somewhat too categorical. Back then I wrote to Professor Liu and Professor Su about some of my thoughts; it seems Professor Liu replied that he thought “natural history” was not out of the question after all. But at that point I still did not dare to write to Professor Wu…
science history Wu Guosheng historiographer
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2009年4月23日
Notes from the Xindao Salon, 09-04-18

Life & Notes2009.04.19
Notes from the Xindao Salon, 09-04-18
· Today’s salon had some newcomers dropping by, though the meaning of the café had not yet fully revealed itself to them. Welcome, friends, please keep spreading the word~ · The little ones were calling for Senior Brother Bu Tianshi, hmm~~ · In my view, a double major and a minor are not very meaningful. If you want to sit in on classes, it would be better to use the electives allotted by your own department to choose courses. But I won’t say too much about this either. · As for questions like course selection guidance, it is better to ask senior students than to ask your advisor~ · Science…
philosophy everyday life knowledge Plato
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2009年4月19日
Notes from Today’s Xindao Salon 09-04-11

Life & Notes2009.04.11
Notes from Today’s Xindao Salon 09-04-11
The previous few times I was rather lazy; starting today I’ll try to jot down a few fragments after every salon, so friends who didn’t take part may be able to get a rough idea of what we talked about indirectly (of course I won’t record everything), and friends who did take part may be able to consolidate what they gained, or find a few more hints on related topics (things I didn’t mention on the spot will be marked in bold). First of all, friends who have no particular topic they especially want to hear or speak about are welcome to come as they please (if you’re worried the…
philosophy everyday life language Plato
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2009年4月11日
[A Quick Science Explainer][Repost] Allergic Rhinitis

Life & Notes2009.04.10
[A Quick Science Explainer][Repost] Allergic Rhinitis
http://baike.baidu.com/view/83.htm Allergic rhinitis is also called vasomotor rhinitis; it is an allergic disease of the nasal mucosa and can cause a variety of complications. There is also a type triggered by nonspecific irritation, with no specific allergen involved and not an immune reaction process, but whose clinical manifestations are similar to the above two types of allergic rhinitis; this is called vasomotor rhinitis, or neuroreflex rhinitis. The irritants may come from outside the body (physical or chemical factors), or from within the body (endocrine or psychological factors). For this reason, some people regard it as essentially allergic rhinitis; however, because there is no antigen-antibody reaction in the body, desensitization therapy,…
everyday life tradition children medicine
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2009年4月10日
On the Original Content of My Philosophy

Philosophy & Thought2009.04.07
On the Original Content of My Philosophy
First of all, I myself have never cared about what so-called original content my philosophy may have. What matters is that my philosophy belongs to me; even to say that my philosophy is myself is enough. What I pursue is self-knowledge and self-improvement, and all the works that take textual form and flow outward are merely “traces” of that pursuit, not the pursuit itself. No matter how important those things may be to me, whether treated with indifference like excrement or treasured and worn like a diamond ring, they are not in themselves all that important. It is like pursuing a love affair: in the process, there will be memories,…
philosophy blog self truth
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2009年4月7日
Remembering Illness While Ill

Life & Notes2009.04.06
Remembering Illness While Ill
The previous stretch was all nostalgia; it seemed even my body had gotten nostalgic, too. A bout of the flu has risen and fallen with the fluctuations in temperature, dragging on for more than two weeks, and even today it still hasn’t fully cleared up…… Although I’ve had quite a few colds in recent years, they usually pass in three to five days, and I’ve never had that up-and-down relapse of getting better and worse again. That sort of condition was actually quite common when I was little. As a child I had very poor constitution; I caught colds all the time, took sick leave more than a few times,…
everyday life emotion traditional Chinese medicine childhood
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2009年4月6日
On How to Write a Book Report

History of Science & Scholarship2009.04.03
On How to Write a Book Report
Today someone asked me over QQ about the “format” of a reading report, and someone else on the department forum raised the same question too. I happened to say a few words about my personal view, so I’m reposting it here: —————————————————— When you quote something, cite the source. Don’t think too much about the rest. This is not writing in an ossified eight-part style; the form of the essay is flexible. Sort out your thinking in whatever way seems clearest and most straightforward to you, and it is best to have a clear thread. A reading report does not necessarily have to summarize every single point in the original…
scholarship writing reading
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2009年4月3日
My philosophy lacks healing power

Life & Notes2009.04.02
My philosophy lacks healing power
What can either I or my philosophy say to those who are mired in hardship? Of course, although my philosophy leans toward “black magic,” it is not incapable of providing positive force. But to be precise, what philosophy can provide is a certain immunity or resistance, so that once I encounter a difficult situation, I will be more likely to face it with calm, composure, or humor. Yet I know very well that it is not an effective cure, let alone an all-purpose tonic that can cure every illness. It is like getting a vaccination: only when you are in good health, or when the disease has not yet broken…
philosophy autobiography love fate
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2009年4月2日
Speaking of Childhood’s First Dream

Life & Notes2009.03.31
Speaking of Childhood’s First Dream
Recollecting something that came to mind in passing when thinking back on childhood, it is worth adding as a postscript. This thing does not count as a deeply memorable “scene,” because my recollection of it now is actually indirect; it is only because I later remembered and spoke of it many times that I am certain it really happened. From primary school all the way to senior year of high school, if you asked me what I wanted to do in the future, my answer would probably have been: “scientist.” More specifically, in primary school and junior high I was mainly influenced by Olympiad mathematics, so I leaned toward being…
philosophy science autobiography mathematics
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2009年3月31日
Several Scenes from Childhood Memory: Cats, Rain, Streets, Beads, and Chess

Life & Notes2009.03.30
Several Scenes from Childhood Memory: Cats, Rain, Streets, Beads, and Chess
Looking back over my growing-up years, one can sketch out a “clear line,” roughly including abacus, olympiad math, Schrödinger’s cat, the philosophical grand unification, ecological philosophy, Kant, and so on. Each of these events marks some obvious turning point or development. But perhaps the more important events are not those whose influence was immediately visible, but those experiences that, though they seemed to have little effect at the time, nevertheless seemed to have imprinted themselves on my heart and have continued to exert certain secret influences on me ever since. The experience of the starry sky in the observatory at Shanghai Gezhi High School is of course one example, and…
philosophy autobiography childhood
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2009年3月30日