Year: 2017

Hu Yilin’s Recruitment Notice [Expired]

Life & Notes2017.04.16
Hu Yilin’s Recruitment Notice [Expired]
Tsinghua University has suddenly changed its policy again and taken back the admissions rights of all its tenure-track professors, so this admissions notice is temporarily invalid. Let’s wait until I’ve clawed my way to tenure before talking about it…… Following my teacher Wu Guosheng, I was extraordinarily lucky to join Tsinghua University as a faculty member, and just last month I became an assistant professor in the School of Humanities. At present I am still affiliated with the Department of Philosophy. Once the Department of the History of Science, being set up by Teacher Wu, is officially established, I will also belong to the Department of the History of…
history of science scholarship philosophy of science course
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2017年4月16日
Hu Yilin’s Recruitment Notice [Expired]

Life & Notes2017.04.16
Hu Yilin’s Recruitment Notice [Expired]
Tsinghua University has suddenly changed its policy again and taken back the admissions rights of all its tenure-track professors, so this admissions notice is temporarily invalid. Let’s wait until I’ve clawed my way to tenure before talking about it…… Following my teacher Wu Guosheng, I was extraordinarily lucky to join Tsinghua University as a faculty member, and just last month I became an assistant professor in the School of Humanities. At present I am still affiliated with the Department of Philosophy. Once the Department of the History of Science, being set up by Teacher Wu, is officially established, I will also belong to the Department of the History of…
history of science scholarship philosophy of science course
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2017年4月16日
When Reading Joseph Needham, Do Not “Buy the Casket and Return the Pearl” — A Review of *The Titration of Civilization*

History of Science & Scholarship2017.03.26
When Reading Joseph Needham, Do Not “Buy the Casket and Return the Pearl” — A Review of *The Titration of Civilization*
Titrating Civilization: Science and Society in East and West This book review was written last November. It was commissioned, but after I submitted it there was no response. I only asked about it recently and learned that it had not been used, so I’m posting it here first and then I’ll look for somewhere else to submit it~ Before Brother Bo Tianshi translated The Grand Titration, I had long heard of this book and read some introductions to it, but I never quite understood what the titration business was all about. Only after reading it myself did I begin to make some sense of it, and I feel it…
China book reading science history of science
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2017年3月26日
Is the threshold for “learning” Bitcoin higher? — Also on the Different Levels of Technical Knowledge

Web3 & Bitcoin2017.02.19
Is the threshold for “learning” Bitcoin higher? — Also on the Different Levels of Technical Knowledge
Recently on Weibo I again mentioned the issue of the learning threshold for Bitcoin: People always say Bitcoin has a high threshold and is hard to learn, and even some Bitcoin enthusiasts say so too. I think this is grossly misleading. In fact, it is not Bitcoin that has a high threshold, but old knowledge that has a high threshold, to the point that people who know a lot of old knowledge are unwilling to lower themselves and admit their own ignorance in order to learn new knowledge. If everyone were starting from zero, would understanding Bitcoin’s principles really be harder than learning all those M1, M2, interest-rate cuts, reserve-ratio…
philosophy technology Web3 Bitcoin
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2017年2月19日
On Political Correctness (I): Political Correctness and the God’s-Eye View

Culture & Public Commentary2017.02.10
On Political Correctness (I): Political Correctness and the God’s-Eye View
Trump, from the campaign to the inauguration, has been a hot topic in Chinese cultural circles, sparking countless polemics and splits. From the standpoint of enjoying a good spectacle, I actually quite welcome Trump taking office; after all, he has set off several fires just a few days into his term, and it’s been lively enough. Of course, I only want to watch the show; I do not want to take sides. If I had to say so, then from a personal standpoint I certainly look down on Trump as a person. The key issue is not so much his opposition to political correctness as his anti-intellectual tendency. But as…
culture freedom commentary politics
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2017年2月10日
The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Garbage (Postdoctoral Exit Report): Lecture Notes

History of Science & Scholarship2017.01.07
The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Garbage (Postdoctoral Exit Report): Lecture Notes
This is the postdoctoral exit report I did together with Teacher Tian Song. To be honest, it was done somewhat half-heartedly; many interesting threads were not able to be developed in depth. But the question itself should still be a pretty good one. First let me explain the title. In the article I did not explicitly spell out what this title meant, and some of the wording may well have caused misunderstanding. I only noticed this omission after seeing Teacher Wu Tong’s review comments, so my live report began with a remedial explanation. My “The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Garbage” obviously imitates Bert’s work The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical…
Heidegger phenomenology modernity environment
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2017年1月7日
Lecture Notes on The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Garbage (Postdoctoral Exit Report)

History of Science & Scholarship2017.01.07
Lecture Notes on The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Garbage (Postdoctoral Exit Report)
This is the postdoctoral exit report I did with Teacher Tiansong. To be honest, it was done rather half-heartedly; many interesting parts were not developed in depth, but the problem itself should still be a good one. First let me explain the title. I did not make the meaning of this title explicit in the article, and some of the phrasing may well have caused misunderstandings. I only noticed this omission after reading Teacher Wu Tong’s evaluation, so my live report began with a remedial explanation. My “The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Garbage” is obviously modeled on Bert’s book The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science, which was my introduction…
Heidegger phenomenology modernity environment
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2017年1月7日
Commemorating Bitcoin’s New High

Web3 & Cypherpunks2017.01.05
Commemorating Bitcoin’s New High
Bitcoin has just passed its eighth birthday, and its price has finally broken through its all-time high in one fell swoop (8,000 RMB). Let me post a Weibo message to mark the occasion. Today I went to Tsinghua to do a trial lecture, and tomorrow I’ll be at Beijing Normal University giving my postdoctoral exit report. My exit and hiring paperwork are finally nearing completion, and seeing the news of Bitcoin’s new high at this moment is, I suppose, quite fitting. Though I say that in a celebratory spirit, I’m actually rather wistful, because throughout 2016 my judgment on Bitcoin’s market was “buy, buy, buy,” and in just the past…
Web3 Bitcoin blockchain
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2017年1月5日