Author: 胡翌霖

The Religious Questions I Care About

Philosophy & Thought2007.01.02
The Religious Questions I Care About
Clearly, my interest in and concern with religion is not limited to Christianity; it also includes other religions, and even the concept of religion itself. Tracing it back to its source, I first began to care about religious questions in high school. Back then I had already been thinking about the “crisis of faith” in contemporary society. At the time, I lamented the absence of faith in contemporary China—Confucian culture had been destroyed, and Marxism was also being neglected. Then I still styled myself a Marxist (strangely enough, to this day I still style myself a believer in Marxism; in a few days, if I get the chance, I’ll come…
philosophy religion Kant pluralism
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2007年1月2日
The Reformation and the Scientific Revolution

History of Science & Scholarship2007.01.01
The Reformation and the Scientific Revolution
The Protestant Reformation and the Scientific Revolution occurred and unfolded almost simultaneously—people discovered this obvious fact long ago and tried to guess at the inner connection between the two. Beginning with Francis Bacon, many tended to treat praise of science as part of an argument for the superiority of Protestantism. This raises a question: although there is clearly some connection between the Reformation and the Scientific Revolution, how exactly did that connection arise? And to what extent was it related to the differences between Protestantism and Catholicism? This essay will make some very preliminary inquiries into this question. The most conservative conclusion is this: Protestantism was more conducive to scientific…
science Scientific Revolution Christianity Copernicus
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2007年1月1日
The First Snow of 2006.

Life & Notes2006.12.30
The First Snow of 2006.
Suddenly, so many feelings surged up. I opened the blog, ready to write. And then I found that I was too lazy to write it after all…… Latest comments unic 2006-12-31 23:47:20 “Such feelings may yet be worth recalling later, but at the time one only feels bewildered……” “If you find that you’re too lazy to write it……” — if I analyze that a little, it means you don’t value it enough~~ Write it anyway; what’s the harm if it becomes stream-of-consciousness? No worries, this kind of thing can also be written in a non-public way, heheheehee…… I hope that when the first snow of 2007 comes, you’ll write something….
everyday life blog reason consciousness
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2006年12月30日
Run Lola Run and the Age of Games

Culture & Public Commentary2006.12.28
Run Lola Run and the Age of Games
The teacher and teaching assistant for the film appreciation course have hinted several times that there will be an essay question on the exam. Considering that the teacher has also said more than once that the questions will be fairly open-ended, it probably won’t come to a point where they specify a particular film for us to write about. Still, the teaching assistant also hinted that we should prepare from among the films we watched in class this semester. After much choosing, I still decided to prepare this one; if the exam question turns out to be maliciously tricky (for instance, if it only allows us to write a critique…
philosophy culture game
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2006年12月28日
The Globalization of Media Culture

AI & the Future of Technology2006.12.26
The Globalization of Media Culture
Abstract: In this article, the author attempts to argue that in the contemporary world, economy, politics, and culture alike have all become inseparable from (mass) media—that discussions of globalization cannot possibly proceed in depth while ignoring media technology; furthermore, the process of globalization and the expansion of media culture can almost be regarded as one and the same thing. The author holds that the significance of media culture lies in media itself as a kind of culture, rather than in the information that media disseminates. In the main text, the author lists eleven constituent elements or manifestations of culture: modes of communication and exchange; material entities/products; political/social order; entertainment; values;…
culture technology media modernity
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2006年12月26日
Recently in seclusion…

Life & Notes2006.12.20
Recently in seclusion…
Busy.
everyday life seclusion
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2006年12月20日
Christianity as I Have Seen It & Christianity as I Understand It & Christianity as I Imagine It

Life & Notes2006.12.06
Christianity as I Have Seen It & Christianity as I Understand It & Christianity as I Imagine It
Christianity as I Have Encountered It I came into a certain intimate contact with Christianity already in elementary school: the first four years of my primary education were spent at Sichuan South Road Primary School in Shanghai. The campus of that school was extraordinary: an iron-gated entrance with openwork filigree, with the three large characters “天主堂” (“Catholic Church”) engraved on top; beyond the gate was the playground; on the right stood a row of three-story Romanesque buildings of alternating red and gray brick, which were our classroom building; and straight ahead, solemn and stately, was a great cathedral. Although throughout my entire primary-school life I never once entered the church…
philosophy everyday life faith religion
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2006年12月6日
In the Epistle to the Romans, how did Paul understand Jesus’ Passion?

Philosophy & Thought2006.12.04
In the Epistle to the Romans, how did Paul understand Jesus’ Passion?
At the very opening of Romans, it is already said that “this gospel [is that] which God had before promised by his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was descended from David according to the flesh, and was declared with power to be the Son of God according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead. Through him we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the nations for his name” (1:2–5). We can see that Jesus’ death and resurrection are, first, the “promise,” second, the “declaration,” third, “grace,” and fourth, what teaches…
book reading notes faith Christianity
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2006年12月4日
Similarities and Differences Between Modern Science and Classical Greek Science

History of Science & Scholarship2006.11.30
Similarities and Differences Between Modern Science and Classical Greek Science
First of all, it is obvious that modern science and Greek classical science are both explorations and studies of “nature,” that is, natural philosophy or natural science. But this is also where the most fundamental difference between them lies—modernity and ancient Greece understood the concept of “nature” in very different ways. In ancient Greece, the word nature did not mean something like the modern “the totality of natural things”; rather, it meant “nature” in the sense of “essence,” which, according to Aristotle, is “the essence of a thing that has the source of its own motion within itself.” Yet “the discovery of nature” implies believing in an objectifiable world that…
philosophy science philosophy of science Aristotle
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2006年11月30日
A Brief Discussion of the Popularization of Philosophy (Final Published Version)

Philosophy & Thought2006.11.27
A Brief Discussion of the Popularization of Philosophy (Final Published Version)
Theoretical Weekly, Page 12, November 27, 2006, Guangming Daily http://www.gmw.cn/01gmrb/2006-11/27/content_513411.htm http://www.gmw.cn/01gmrb/2006-11/27/4453_b.htm In our country, work on the popularization of philosophy once received a high degree of attention and produced enormous influence, though of course it also had certain problems and shortcomings. Since the 1990s, owing to changes in philosophy’s status, work on popularizing philosophy has no longer been taken seriously, and an academicized orientation has become the sole pursuit, bringing with it even more problems. This article offers a few of my personal views, in the hope of prompting people to rethink this issue. Both philosophy and science need popularization; that is to say, they need to enable people outside…
philosophy scholarship education popularization
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2006年11月27日