Year: 2015

What Does the Mobile Phone Have to Do with Cooking? — The One and the Many of Technology

AI & the Future of Technology2015.11.12
What Does the Mobile Phone Have to Do with Cooking? — The One and the Many of Technology
The previous post mentioned one of Wu’s core objections, namely, his view that science is singular, whereas technology is plural. At the time he gave an example: branches of science such as physics, chemistry, and biology ultimately promise that they can be reduced to a unified foundation, and therefore their historical development is also interconnected. But what about the relations among various technologies, such as between mobile phones and cooking technology? If various concrete technologies are mutually independent, then where does their unity in history come from? My brief reply at the time was this: the reason various technologies can be “unified” is that “life” is unified. And I also…
technology everyday life history of science media
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2015年11月12日
The Structure of the Technological Revolution (Draft)

AI & the Future of Technology2015.11.10
The Structure of the Technological Revolution (Draft)
This is the article I presented at last week’s Wumen seminar. The article itself is very incomplete—not only has it not been finished in form, but the key problem is the lack of basic literature: in academia, the issues related to “technological revolution” seem to lack discussions worth citing. Of course, this gives reason to suspect that there may be problems with the very legitimacy of my topic; Teacher Wu also questioned it quite strongly. But I myself still think this question is legitimate, and that the concept of “technological revolution” is indeed worth probing in depth. My article itself merely makes a superficial correspondence with Kuhn; this correspondence is…
technology history of science philosophy of science history of technology
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2015年11月10日
Travel Notes from the Shenyang–Benxi Meeting (Benxi篇)

History of Science & Scholarship2015.10.24
Travel Notes from the Shenyang–Benxi Meeting (Benxi篇)
Continuing on from the previous post, there have recently been many things lined up and demanding to be finished, so I didn’t really have the mind to write the travel notes to completion. But in the end I discovered that if I didn’t finish the travel notes, I would always have this one thing hanging over my heart, and I wouldn’t be able to do anything else well either, so I still went ahead and filled them in…… After the first day’s sessions in Shenyang’s Xiaoshicheng, we arrived in Benxi, where the conference’s final two days were held. The morning of the 26th saw the start of Session 4, themed…
philosophy technology China phenomenology
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2015年10月24日
Travel Notes from the Shenyang–Benxi Conference (Shenyang Section)

History of Science & Scholarship2015.10.08
Travel Notes from the Shenyang–Benxi Conference (Shenyang Section)
The annual conference on phenomenology and philosophy of technology has once again come to a successful close. This year it was hosted by Northeastern University and held in Shenyang and Benxi from September 24 to 28. In my travel notes from the Lushan conference in 2013, I wrote: Since going to Nanning in 2009 to attend the Third Conference on Phenomenology and Philosophy of Technology, I have now participated in five consecutive conferences. Apart from Nanning, where I only wrote a little “miscellaneous notes,” I wrote full-on conference takedowns for Hailar, Yangma Island, and Guangzhou. It has already become a case of riding a tiger and finding it hard to…
technology media phenomenology Scientific Revolution
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2015年10月8日
Natural History or Natural Records?

History of Science & Scholarship2015.09.23
Natural History or Natural Records?
Last Friday, Professor Wu gave a lecture titled “What Is Natural History?” As for the Chinese translation of natural history, Professor Wu and I had been debating it long ago. I argued that it should be translated as “ziran shi” (“natural history”). This dispute over terminology later opened out into more layers of meaning, especially our understanding of the origins of modern science. In this lecture, Professor Wu formally expressed a willingness to yield: he no longer insisted that “bowuxue” was the only correct translation, acknowledged that my view had merit, and ultimately supported using “ziran zhi” in academic contexts, while continuing to use “bowuxue” in popular contexts. Of course,…
China history of science science Wu Guosheng
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2015年9月23日
On Small-Class Teaching

Teaching & Courses2015.09.20
On Small-Class Teaching
I once supervised the small-group discussion section attached to the course “What Is Science?,” and at the time I also talked about related experiences and thoughts. But I did not say much. Recently, it seems that the Peking University Yuanpei Program hopes to promote small-group teaching across the board, and Teacher Wu hopes that I will once again systematically sort out my thoughts on the matter, so I am writing another piece here. Form By small-group teaching here I mainly mean the form of a small-group discussion class led by teaching assistants as an adjunct to large-class teaching. And unlike the “problem-solving sessions” attached to the usual foundational courses in…
scholarship course education Peking University
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2015年9月20日
The Definition of “Technology” — A Means to an End, or Something That Can Be Learned?

AI & the Future of Technology2015.08.28
The Definition of “Technology” — A Means to an End, or Something That Can Be Learned?
Recently I have been preparing an article on the historiographical program for a general history of technology to present at this year’s conference on phenomenology and the philosophy of technology. The article has been somewhat hard to bring to term; in fact, I am trying, through this project, to reconsider anew what the essence of “technology” actually is. Here I will first deviate from the paper’s theme and write down some of my recent thoughts. In Heidegger’s mode of approach, we always have to begin by finding an everyday definition, affirming its reasonableness, but questioning its thoroughness, and then, by following the thread, sorting out its more original meaning. Heidegger’s…
technology phenomenology Heidegger General History of Technology
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2015年8月28日
Philosophical Commentary [Episode 2] “What Nice Weather” (Part I): The True Is the Point of Emphasis

Philosophy & Thought2015.08.12
Philosophical Commentary [Episode 2] “What Nice Weather” (Part I): The True Is the Point of Emphasis
The previous installment may still have been a bit too academic in style, so this time I’ll try to speak a little more casually, offering only some prompts and not taking responsibility for digging too deeply. Today I’ll start from an ordinary phrase: “The weather is really nice.” Originally I wanted to write “Beauty, the weather is really nice today,” and discuss truth, goodness, beauty, heaven, earth, and humanity, but it felt like that would involve too much, so I narrowed it down to this one sentence and will talk only about “truth” and “goodness.” “Truth, goodness, and beauty” seem like the most solemn and sacred of all “big words,”…
philosophy phenomenology environment intentionality
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2015年8月12日
Philosophical Ramblings [Episode 1]: Freedom Is Like Treating Someone to a Meal

Enlightenment & the Spirit of Freedom2015.08.07
Philosophical Ramblings [Episode 1]: Freedom Is Like Treating Someone to a Meal
Since I wanted to launch the “Philosophy Commentary” column, I had long been bursting with topics I wanted to write about, but when it came time to write, I no longer knew where to begin. Might as well start with an old topic: “freedom.” As for freedom, I have already written many articles discussing it; in fact, everything that needed saying has more or less already been said. But related discussions often involve the similarities and differences between freedom and equality, as well as specific issues such as freedom of speech, and they are not written in a very accessible way either. Here, I want to offer a popular-style commentary…
philosophy China freedom intentionality
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2015年8月7日
Philosophical Commentary and Quips [Column Introduction] Philosophy and Life

Philosophy & Thought2015.07.28
Philosophical Commentary and Quips [Column Introduction] Philosophy and Life
I have always used the “history-thought-poetry” classification system, corresponding to three kinds of textual form: reflection, record, and lyricism. This classification system is logically sound, but for me personally it is not very practical: some categories have especially many articles, while others remain in a state of abandonment year after year. Recently I have been thinking about building a classification system centered on “columns,” no longer subdividing things into specific directories. If you need to search, just use keywords. But we can also establish some “columns”; not every article has to belong to one. The articles under a column would be selected pieces or serialized pieces with a specific theme….
philosophy everyday life game philosophy talk
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2015年7月28日