Year: 2009

(Expired) Unless something comes up, every Saturday I’ll be in the window-side corner of the non-smoking area at Xindao

Life & Notes2009.03.29
(Expired) Unless something comes up, every Saturday I’ll be in the window-side corner of the non-smoking area at Xindao
Unless something unexpected happens, I’ll be at the corner by the window in the smoke-free section of Xindao every Saturday. If you’re coming, there’s no need to text me in advance or anything like that; when I’m in the café, I often can’t hear my phone ring. If some special situation arises and I need to suspend this, I’ll announce it in advance on my blog and on campus. For example, every year I have to go back to Shanghai twice or so. There will definitely be a notice before any suspension, so please rest assured. If there’s no explanation either on the blog or on campus, and you come…
everyday life blog
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2009年3月29日
On “Fate”

Life & Notes2009.03.25
On “Fate”
As I mentioned earlier, I feel as though I am being teased kindly by “fate,” and I may have used similar rhetoric in earlier essays as well. Well, this is similar to my saying things like “the ghost of Kant is poking me from behind” — it is simply a metaphorical way of expressing a “feeling,” and does not mean that I believe in “fate”; nor, of course, does it mean that I do not believe in fate. For an ill-defined concept, making an yes/no judgment about it is always pretty meaningless. First of all, I would like to declare that, with regard to the transcendental world of deities, I…
philosophy autobiography consciousness choice
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2009年3月25日
Relationism and the Philosophy of Communication

Philosophy & Thought2009.03.24
Relationism and the Philosophy of Communication
Thinking of the “banner” of the latest version of old-school philosophy. It could be called “relationalism” or “communication philosophy.” Earlier, I preferred “pluralism” and “perspectivism,” and felt that “relativism” was too extreme or too forceful. But now it suddenly strikes me: why not translate “relativism” as “relationalism”? That better matches the original meaning of “relate,” and it can also express a line of thought that suits my taste more. When people hear “relativism,” they’re likely to shout: “Huh? Everything is relative?” But if I say “everything is related,” doesn’t that feel rather different? If “absolutism” pursues the “absolute,” then what does “relativism” pursue? What does it mean to “pursue the…
philosophy discussion pluralism relativism
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2009年3月24日
[German] Josef Pieper: “Leisure: The Basis of Culture” — ★

Culture & Public Commentary2009.03.22
[German] Josef Pieper: “Leisure: The Basis of Culture” — ★
[German]Josef Pieper: “Leisure—the Basis of Culture.” Liu Senyao trans., Xinxing Press2005. I often have the feeling of being mischievously—though benevolently—teased by fate: people, classes, books, and so on keep crossing my path at one奇妙 moment or another. As far as books are concerned, it is often just when a set of ideas has taken shape in my mind that a book appears before me that seems as if I myself had written it. Friends who heard me talk about my philosophical views at Xindao yesterday afternoon will probably feel quite亲切 when they see some of the quotations below, as if they were simply repeating what I said yesterday. But this…
philosophy book reading notes human nature
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2009年3月22日
Philosophical Style and Attitudes Toward Love

Life & Notes2009.03.19
Philosophical Style and Attitudes Toward Love
I always say that my philosophy “starts from the classical,” specifically, more or less from Kant and those around him. But that is only an external explanation; as for what this “classical” actually contains, I have my own understanding. In my view, so-called “classical philosophy” represents a style and an attitude, one marked by an entire era. Roughly speaking, the history of Western philosophy can be divided into four eras: antiquity (ancient Greece), the Middle Ages, the classical period, and modernity.—Of course, my “classical” here is classical rather than ancient, the sense of “canonical.” A rougher division would be simply classical and modern; a finer one could add primordial times…
philosophy autobiography pursuit Greece
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2009年3月19日
Chen Jiaying: The Influence of Translations of Western Thought on Contemporary Chinese Reasoning

Life & Notes2009.03.18
Chen Jiaying: The Influence of Translations of Western Thought on Contemporary Chinese Reasoning
http://hps.phil.pku.edu.cn/bbs/read.php?tid=523&fpage=1&toread=1 I suddenly remembered to post this. At the time I had only put up a link in “some text written on KKBBS during the period of seclusion,” and had not posted it in any more conspicuous way. In fact, that review is fairly important for explaining my philosophical ambitions—that is to say, how I view modern Chinese. I’m too lazy to write something new about that for the moment, so I’ll just put this old piece under the café column. Butian (Third Pole General Education Lecture) Chen Jiaying: The Influence of the Translation of Western Thought on Contemporary Chinese Reasoning Third Pole General Education Lecture (No. 83) “The way…
philosophy everyday life language translation
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2009年3月18日
[Let This Stand as a Record] Beijing Temperatures Are Skyrocketing; Today’s High Could Reach 23°C

Life & Notes2009.03.17
[Let This Stand as a Record] Beijing Temperatures Are Skyrocketing; Today’s High Could Reach 23°C
Beijing Temperatures Surge Today’s High May Reach 23℃ 2009-03-17 15:36:12 Editor: sam 【Font: Small, Medium, Large】 China Weather Network reports: Beijing’s sunny warmth is a little surprising; yesterday at 3 p.m. the temperature had already climbed to 20℃, and today it will keep rising, with the high possibly reaching 23℃. http://www.nmc.gov.cn/news/209761.html On the daytime of March 16, warm sunshine spread across the land, and it felt quite pleasant on one’s skin; compared with the temperatures of the previous few days, Beijing’s warming was somewhat unexpectedly rapid, with the daytime high climbing from 6℃ to 20℃ in just three days—a rise of 14℃! According to statistical records, the extreme high temperature…
everyday life China
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2009年3月17日
About Rainwater, Let Me Say a Few Mystical Things Too; I Haven’t Forgotten That I Am Rain

Life & Notes2009.03.16
About Rainwater, Let Me Say a Few Mystical Things Too; I Haven’t Forgotten That I Am Rain
The first, the most crucial, and the final question is respectively communication, communication, and communication. A flowing individual communicates flowing emotions with flowing words in a flowing world. Only when the flowing river receives the rain of the moment does it remain eternally undried. Latest Comments Guchen 2009-03-16 15:45:42 :“Dialectics” is just dialogue, or rather “communication studies.” I think “philosophy of communication” also sounds good. I feel that, whether one is speaking of how people get along with one another or of how people get along with the world, communication is both a premise, a means, and an end. physis 2009-03-22 23:24:34 anonymous 59.55.252.230 Saw an article that can echo…
philosophy everyday life truth Wittgenstein
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2009年3月16日
This Issue’s Music: Händel Harp Concerto, Op. 4 No. 6 – Allegro

Life & Notes2009.03.12
This Issue’s Music: Händel Harp Concerto, Op. 4 No. 6 – Allegro
http://www.mydrdr.com/12%20Harp%20Concerto,%20op.4%20no.6.mp3 Bach, Vivaldi—next should be Handel, right? So recently the space on my MP3 player has gradually been taken over by Handel. I had posted Handel’s “Arrival of the Queen of Sheba” once before, but back then I wasn’t yet listening to Handel in any focused way. Recently what I’ve mainly been listening to are Handel’s chamber music collection and his organ concerto collection. After so long, the organ continues to be astonishing. And I’ve found that Handel’s organ concertos seem to sound even more appealing to me than Bach’s—oh my God~ As for organ concertos, they sound richer than solo organ pieces; otherwise that music is too otherworldly. A…
everyday life music
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2009年3月12日
On Women Philosophers and the Top-Bottom Dichotomy

Philosophy & Thought2009.03.11
On Women Philosophers and the Top-Bottom Dichotomy
Here are some of the things I was forced to say in my comments after “I Won’t Date in a Café”; since I’ve written them down, they’re now black on white, and there’s nothing I can do about it. Given that this is no small topic, I’m setting aside a new post here for the archive. Later, my classmate Chern, who is even more evil than I am, said that mine was a “female philosopher cultivation plan.” That’s an interesting title, but it’s too liable to cause misunderstanding. My conspiracy is extremely complex: it is neither to seduce mm, nor to cultivate female philosophers, nor even to find an mm…
philosophy culture discussion pursuit
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2009年3月11日