Year: 2015

Stock Market Musings: Freedom and Stability

Culture & Public Commentary2015.07.26
Stock Market Musings: Freedom and Stability
Recently China’s stock market has been wildly up and down. After an unprecedented “stock-market crash,” the central authorities have again stepped in with unprecedented force to maintain stability. The reason I thought of writing this article is not to play the prophet and predict market movements. On the one hand, I want to gather together some of my previous statements and thoughts; on the other hand, the stock market also has relations to political philosophy and natural philosophy. Besides, I believe this stock-market crash will have very far-reaching historical significance; in any case, it will become a landmark event. Although I have all along been promoting Bitcoin, and have always…
China culture freedom commentary
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2015年7月26日
How Should the General History of Science Be Told? — Course Summary for “General History of Science”

Teaching & Courses2015.07.16
How Should the General History of Science Be Told? — Course Summary for “General History of Science”
In addition to the philosophy department’s required course “Guide to Academic Research,” the main thing I had to deal with this semester was this university-wide elective, “General History of Science.” Grading It must be said that Beishida’s elective-course system is not all that great either. Although course offerings are very free, the credit requirement for electives seems to be extremely low, so many classmates take a take-it-or-leave-it attitude toward them. Not only did several classmates never come to class at all, but in the end they simply did not submit the final paper either, adopting the attitude that if they fail, they fail. As a result, out of the 15…
philosophy China history of science history
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2015年7月16日
On Writing Papers — Summary of the “Introduction to Academic Research” Course

History of Science & Scholarship2015.07.11
On Writing Papers — Summary of the “Introduction to Academic Research” Course
This semester I offered two courses at BNU, one a university-wide elective, “A General History of Science,” and the other a 1-credit specialized course in the Department of Philosophy, “Introduction to Academic Research.” Both courses ended up with exactly 15 students enrolled. Why I offered the courses The reason I decided to offer these two courses was, first, on Professor Tian’s suggestion; in a sense, it was also to accumulate a bit of output for the future, whether for staying on at the university or finding a teaching position elsewhere, and in a sense it was also a kind of internship experience. In any case, I myself feel that these…
philosophy scholarship course Peking University
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2015年7月11日
Compendium of Recommended Readings for a General History of Science

History of Science & Technology2015.06.19
Compendium of Recommended Readings for a General History of Science
A selection of recommended books at hand above ↑ (the missing ones are all those I’ve no idea where I stuffed them, so I haven’t found them for the moment…) General history category, overall recommendations: Wu Guosheng: 《The Course of Science》——I’ve put my advisor’s book in the first place. Among books by domestic authors on the same subject, this one is still the best, but after all it was first published quite early, and now it does have quite a few shortcomings. McClellan, 《A General History of Science and Technology in the World》——A rather standard general history of science, at least much better than Dampier’s, with the highlight being the…
history of science course Kuhn Copernicus
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2015年6月19日
A General History of Science 16: The Revolution in Twentieth-Century Physics

History of Science & Technology2015.06.18
A General History of Science 16: The Revolution in Twentieth-Century Physics
Today is the final class, and we are talking about twentieth-century science. By “the twentieth century,” our main focus is on the scientific revolution in physics in the early twentieth century—that is, the rise of relativity and quantum mechanics. As for the scientific frontiers of the second half of the twentieth century and even the twenty-first century, we will not be dealing with them in this course. History can never be exhausted; any narrative strategy is, in the phrase, “to miss much while touching on little” (挂一漏万). The issue is not how to avoid omissions, but rather what manner of omission one adopts. The choices I have made in this…
course causality God's-eye view Einstein
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2015年6月18日
Lectures on the General History of Science 15: A Special Topic in the History of Mathematics (The Mathematical Revolution)

History of Science & Technology2015.06.12
Lectures on the General History of Science 15: A Special Topic in the History of Mathematics (The Mathematical Revolution)
Today is the penultimate class, so let me first talk a little about the course assignments. For this course, the requirements are a midterm reading report (optional) + a final paper. I have currently received four midterm reading reports, and I should already have replied to all of them by email. If you sent one but did not receive my reply, please send it again, or try another email address. Under normal circumstances, I should send a confirmation reply within two or three days, and I may also discuss some specific issues in the assignment with you by email. The point of assigning the reading report is to encourage everyone…
history of science course Scientific Revolution mathematics
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2015年6月12日
Lecture Notes on the General History of Science 14: Science and the Industrial Revolution [Starting Next Week, We’ll Move to a Different Classroom]

History of Science & Technology2015.06.05
Lecture Notes on the General History of Science 14: Science and the Industrial Revolution [Starting Next Week, We’ll Move to a Different Classroom]
First, a quick notice: we still have two classes after this. The classroom will be changed for these two sessions; it seems that the entire Jiao Eight building has been requisitioned by the school. Next week and the week after next, we will move to Jiao Nine201for class. Last time we mentioned that in the eighteenth century, the development of theoretical science, experimental science, and industrial technology was still relatively independent; theoretical science did not directly drive the Industrial Revolution, and even theory and experiment were out of sync. Last time, one student raised an objection and showed me a clip from *The Rise of Great Powers* and…
history of science course Scientific Revolution Industrial Revolution
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2015年6月5日
Lectures on the General History of Science 13: Science in the Age of Enlightenment

History of Science & Technology2015.05.28
Lectures on the General History of Science 13: Science in the Age of Enlightenment
Today we are talking about eighteenth-century science. From the Glorious Revolution in England in 1688 to the French Revolution in 1789, the eighteenth century can be said to have been a century of transformation in history. The Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution both took place in this century, and the independence of the United States and the rise of Russia also both occurred in this century. But in terms of the history of science, the eighteenth century seems to have been a relatively uneventful period. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries before it were the sweeping and magnificent Scientific Revolution; and the nineteenth century is called the century of science, with…
technology history of science course Kant
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2015年5月28日
Lectures on the General History of Science 12: Discussion Session

Teaching & Courses2015.05.22
Lectures on the General History of Science 12: Discussion Session
This week was the long-anticipated discussion class, so there was no lecture script~ There are 15 students enrolled in this course, but in practice only about half can usually make it. This time was the same: a total of 7 students came, and only 6 actually took part in the discussion. Even so, the discussion turned out pretty well. At least everyone had something to say, and we used up the whole class period. What is somewhat regrettable is that I feel my course has had very little impact on the students. For example, one student asked why ancient Greek science, which also originated in a tendency toward theory, eventually…
history of science history course Christianity
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2015年5月22日
Lectures on the General History of Science 11: Alchemy and the Scientific Revolution [Next Week’s Class Discussion]

History of Science & Technology2015.05.14
Lectures on the General History of Science 11: Alchemy and the Scientific Revolution [Next Week’s Class Discussion]
Last class, we finished the mechanical revolution all the way up to Newton. The problems in physics provoked by Copernicus’s astronomical revolution were ultimately solved by Newtonian mechanics, but Newtonian mechanics itself implied a certain conceptual transformation amounting to sleight of hand: the distinction between nature and artifice, the distinction between inwardness and outwardness, and the boundary between physics and mechanics were all finally broken through, and the introduction of the concept of “force” ultimately substituted itself for people’s search for “cause.” We said that Newtonian mechanics is accidental in name; of course we could equally have had something like Empedology or Zhang San Dology, and F=ma could be replaced…
history of science course Scientific Revolution nature
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2015年5月14日