Year: 2011

On the First Assignment for History of Science and Technology: Basic Features of Hellenistic Science Seen Through Ptolemaic Astronomy

Teaching & Courses2011.10.13
On the First Assignment for History of Science and Technology: Basic Features of Hellenistic Science Seen Through Ptolemaic Astronomy
The first assignment has basically been graded; let me summarize it. First, about the scores. This semester each assignment is worth only 10 points, and I was thinking of grading in 0.5-point increments. The highest score, 9.5, should be kept to a very small number—about one per class on average, and it can even be left unused; the teaching assistants can compare the best papers and then decide. Excellent papers get 9; good ones, 8 or 8.5; passing ones, 7 or 7.5; rather poor ones, around 6; abysmal ones, below 5; and plagiarism or failure to submit, 0. As for late submissions—strictly speaking, this course does not even have the…
course Peking University Greece astronomy
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2011年10月13日
Is the University a Public Sphere? — Further Thoughts on Publicly Posting Grades and Publicly Critiquing Assignments

History of Science & Scholarship2011.10.10
Is the University a Public Sphere? — Further Thoughts on Publicly Posting Grades and Publicly Critiquing Assignments
It’s once again time for grading in the history of science survey course. This course has always had the tradition of publishing grades, and this time should be no exception. Of course, I seem to be getting softer and softer lately; the harsh roasting of bad assignments may more likely be shifted into private messages rather than being publicly posted under real names. But the excellent students still absolutely deserve public praise. Last year I explained: Why post the grades? Now that I’ve recently finished reading Arendt, it may be worth giving that earlier account a further interpretation. It is said that American universities place enormous emphasis on “privacy”; information…
scholarship freedom public sphere university
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2011年10月10日
Arendt Reading Notes

Culture & Public Commentary2011.09.28
Arendt Reading Notes
Finally finished reading Arendt’s The Human Condition, and feel immensely relieved… Let me make some notes.. Wang Yinli’s Chinese translation of The Human Condition is basically pretty good. Though I didn’t compare it line by line with the English original, on the whole I could make sense of it, and there probably won’t be any major misunderstandings. The problem, however, is that her translation is still rather awkward. In the translator’s afterword, she also writes that she follows the principle of “literal translation,” saying that “literal translation has already become a consensus in the translation of academic works,” and so she tries not to change the original word order. I…
book reading notes freedom Aristotle
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2011年9月28日
My New Mobile Device: HTC Flyer

Life & Notes2011.09.08
My New Mobile Device: HTC Flyer
The smartphone (HTC G7) I bought half a year ago got lost a few days ago, and the Xiaomi phone still hadn’t come out, so I had no choice but to find another way… and that’s how I ended up with this HTC Flyer. I hadn’t originally planned to buy a tablet so early. I was biding my time, waiting for the open-source release of Android 3.X, or for Amazon to make some new move with a tablet or reader, and I was also keeping an eye on Asus’s new models—Asus’s Eeepad sits somewhere between a tablet and a laptop. If my phone had still been around, I would have been…
everyday life knowledge script printing
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2011年9月8日
Revisiting “Natural History” (Natural Science) as a Historiographical Program

Culture & Public Commentary2011.08.26
Revisiting “Natural History” (Natural Science) as a Historiographical Program
I previously wrote “Natural History as a Historiographical Program—Thoughts on Liu Huajie’s Lecture,” where I briefly raised this idea. I noted that although what I call natural history as a historiographical program differs from Liu Huajie’s “historiographical program of natural history” only in translation (I argue that Natural History should be translated as “自然史” rather than the more usual “博物学”), my conception of this way of writing history is quite different from Liu’s. Recently I chatted again with my student Wang Liang about related topics, and then I saw a conversation record between Liu and Jiang Xiaoyuan, Liu Bing, and the others about “the good should be attributed to natural…
philosophy history of science history knowledge
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2011年8月26日
Was Heidegger a Technological Pessimist?

History of Science & Scholarship2011.08.19
Was Heidegger a Technological Pessimist?
This article is a rewriting based on the earlier Heidegger’s Thinking on Technology. In fact, very little was changed, but after changing the title it suddenly became much more to the point and more complete. What I presented at this year’s Yangma Island conference was this very article, so before posting the conference record, let me post this article first. Is Heidegger a Technological Pessimist? Hu Yilin, Department of Philosophy, Peking University Abstract: Heidegger’s philosophy of technology is often described as a typical kind of pessimism. Starting from the question of whether Heidegger is in fact a technological pessimist, this article selectively expounds Heidegger’s analysis of modern…
philosophy technology Heidegger Introduction to Philosophy of Technology
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2011年8月19日
What Does the Red Cross Do? What Do Public Welfare Organizations Do?

Culture & Public Commentary2011.08.09
What Does the Red Cross Do? What Do Public Welfare Organizations Do?
The Guo Meimei incident has been making quite a stir for a while now, and I should probably write one or two pieces about it. But as for Guo Meimei herself and the whole affair, I actually don’t have all that much to say. The significance of Guo Meimei lies in the fact that she brought this issue to light and got people to pay attention to the Red Cross Society and other public-interest organizations. But the problems of China’s public-interest organizations are deeply rooted; they have nothing to do with whether or not someone was keeping a Guo Meimei as a mistress, and they even have nothing to do…
China culture commentary government
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2011年8月9日
On “Knowledge Changes One’s Destiny”

Culture & Public Commentary2011.08.08
On “Knowledge Changes One’s Destiny”
Recently I saw an article in Southern Weekend, “Do Poor Children Have No Spring? — Why Are Students from Humble Families Increasingly Farther Away from First-Rate Universities?” In the past few days, while eating with my family and relatives, this kind of topic has also come up often. Today someone mentioned that Fudan University may completely abolish admissions through straight Gaokao scores next year—that is, you would have to get in through independent admissions or other such routes. Such a move will of course further increase the difficulty for students from impoverished regions to enter top universities. Just the round-trip transportation and lodging costs for making a special trip to…
China culture scholarship education
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2011年8月8日
The Difference Between Pirates and Heroes?

Life & Notes2011.08.05
The Difference Between Pirates and Heroes?
The “hero” in the ancient Greek sense is roughly the same as a pirate, but the “hero” in the modern sense refers more to those warriors who possess great moral integrity, sacrifice themselves bravely, and save others. Although in my youth I of course also longed for heroes and sages, the “Pirate King” I now long for does not give me that feeling at all. What, then, is the difference? In the latest episode of One Piece, Luffy offered a perfect explanation. Although my philosophical reading of One Piece will have to wait at least until it ends before I begin, I can’t help but bring up this passage first……
philosophy autobiography anime One Piece
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2011年8月5日
Access Statistics of the History of Science, Philosophy, and Technology BBS Since Its Launch..

Site Matters2011.08.05
Access Statistics of the History of Science, Philosophy, and Technology BBS Since Its Launch..
The History of Science, Technology, and Philosophy Forum was launched around July 12, and it’s now almost been a month. The number of visitors has been declining in a straight line; at this rate, it will probably drop to zero in a few days…… There haven’t been any new posts recently, though there are still a few new users registering. The vast majority of registrants, including the contact person who helped organize this conference, have been so miserly that they won’t even post a single check-in thread. To be honest, that’s pretty disheartening. Of course, the BBS is my own wishful construction, but after all, everyone did support it during…
China blog website conference review
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2011年8月5日