Suixuan

Author: 胡翌霖

  • Better to Be a Hypocrite Than a Real Villain

    Culture & Public Commentary

    Better to Be a Hypocrite Than a Real Villain

    The title is certainly not inverted. Those familiar with my consistent position, or those who have heard Yangzi’s history of Chinese philosophy, will not find this surprising. The phrase “Rather be a true villain than a hypocritical gentleman” is quite fashionable now; many people even quote it with the formulas “as the saying goes” and “there is a common saying.” What does it mean? The fact that this phrase has been enshrined as “common sense” reveals certain features of current fashion. “Hypocritical gentleman” is of course a pejorative term. If by hypocritical gentleman one means someone whose lips are honeyed but whose heart is a dagger, who acts one way…

    culturehuman natureConfucianismvirtue
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  • A Sand County Almanac

    History of Science & Scholarship

    A Sand County Almanac

    [U.S.] Aldo Leopold: Sand County Almanac — Leopold’s Meditations on Nature, translated by Wu Meizhen, revised by Wang Ruixiang, China Social Sciences Publishing House, March 2004 This is the Taiwanese edition of Sand County Almanac (Leopold); it seems to include the most complete set of essays, and should be the best version. From whatever angle you look at it, this book is essential reading. It is praised, together with Walden, as a model of nature-and-humanity writing; it was selected by the New York Public Library as one of the ten must-read books in the humanities in its “Books of the Century” list; it has been called the Bible of ecologism;…

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  • Brave New World

    Culture & Public Commentary

    Brave New World

    [English] Aldous Huxley: *Brave New World*, translated by Wang Bo, Chongqing Publishing House, June 2005 I’d long heard of it, and Teacher Liu had recommended it too, but I still hadn’t read it. Probably just laziness. I really ought to read some literary works too. I’ve always admired and emphasized literature, but that can’t just remain lip service forever, can it? After being reminded once again, I decided to show some decisiveness in my reading—if I think of reading it, I buy it; if I buy it, I read it. The book was just delivered this afternoon, and I finished it in one sitting. It really is excellent—very excellent! Well…

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  • Remembering the Observatorium of Gezhi Middle School

    Life & Notes

    Remembering the Observatorium of Gezhi Middle School

    For a long time I have always said that I had never truly gazed up at the brilliant starry sky—but then I suddenly remembered something: it turns out that, although it was only simulated, I really had once gazed upon a brilliant starry sky! I remember it was in fourth grade of primary school. At the time, I was in a cross-grade division of the Singapore Primary School Mathematics Olympiad and won third prize, which gave me the chance to visit Gezhi Middle School. Of course, this was Gezhi Middle School trying to recruit talent. The main guests were the fifth-graders who were about to choose a middle school, and…

    everyday lifeastronomystars
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  • Can You See a Rainbow Over the Sea?

    Life & Notes

    Can You See a Rainbow Over the Sea?

    For some reason I suddenly thought of this question: what would a rainbow on the sea look like? Maybe it’s because I’ve been thinking about the sea a lot lately in my head (perhaps triggered by a netizen’s qmd, perhaps by an animated film I watched earlier, perhaps by some inner factor—I’m not sure), and then the day before yesterday I saw a pop-up QQ news item saying that a rainbow had appeared in downtown Beijing—that meteorological “spectacle” somehow brought them together in my mind. When people are bored, they sometimes close their eyes and imagine themselves placed in some beautiful scene; I suppose others do this too? Anyway, I…

    everyday lifefaithpluralismnature
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  • In Defense of Intuitionism

    History of Science & Scholarship

    In Defense of Intuitionism

    In Defense of Intuitionism Abstract: From the perspective of defending intuitionism, the author explains intuitionism’s claims in the philosophy of mathematics and the philosophy of logic. The basic position of intuitionism is that mathematics is a creation of the human mind. Intuitionism rejects assigning any mathematical object a transcendent existence beyond mind and matter; intuition and creation, rather than proof and deduction, are the most important mathematical methods, the life of mathematics; the meaning of mathematics, like that of the other sciences, lies in discovering problems worth studying, touching the mysteries of nature, and ceaselessly pursuing truth. In the first half of this essay, the author sorts out intuitionism’s resistance…

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  • Some Interesting Problems, II: To Change or Not to Change?

    History of Science & Scholarship

    Some Interesting Problems, II: To Change or Not to Change?

    Change or not change? This isn’t a logic puzzle in the strict sense, but it is still a very interesting strategy problem. It suddenly occurred to me: It goes something like this: you are taking part in a game show such as “Lucky 53,” and, fortunately, you win a prize. The host takes you to three boxes and tells you that one of them contains the grand prize—say, a luxury villa—while the other two contain only consolation prizes—say, a jar of doubanjiang. You may choose any one box at will. You choose a box, say Box No. 1. At this point the host opens, say, Box No. 3, and lets…

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  • You chose it yourself, and you’ll still refuse to admit you were wrong

    Life & Notes

    You chose it yourself, and you’ll still refuse to admit you were wrong

    A true brave person will not regret the choices he made on his own; a coward, by contrast, is just the opposite: he finds it easier not to regret the choices someone else made for him, because in the end he can always dump the responsibility on somebody else. Weigh the options yourself, choose for yourself, decide for yourself, and bear it yourself. Listen appropriately to other people’s opinions, but never “seek help” from others, and even less should you depend on other people’s opinions. If the final result turns out as you wished, go thank those who selflessly offered you advice; if the final result is less than satisfactory,…

    freedomautobiographyselfresponsibility
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  • God and Immortality

    Philosophy & Thought

    God and Immortality

    Do Not Enter by Mistake if You Dislike This God and immortality—understood respectively as “ultimate or unconditional certainty” and “some kind of infinity or eternity”—are deeply rooted, ineradicable desires and demands of the human intellect. The unrestrained questing and questioning of human reason will ultimately and inevitably touch upon God and immortality—that is, it will touch upon the question of religion. Quite contrary to the common understanding, indulging reason will lead to religion; if one wishes to shake off or keep religion at a distance, one must resort to the intervention of the irrational. A moderate amount of irrationality and a moderate amount of rationality are both healthy for an…

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  • On “Gu Chi”

    On “Gu Chi”
    Life & Notes

    On “Gu Chi”

    “Gu Chu” is my primary pen name, that is to say, the one I prefer first, like best, and use most often. Of course, if there is a primary pen name, then there is naturally a secondary one as well: the default “Xingding” under which I post articles here. Its original purpose was simply to keep search engines from finding my Suixuan so easily, because the word “Gu Chu” is probably unique in the whole world—search it and everything you get is me—so I used the word “Xingding,” which when searched turns up all sorts of random odds and ends, instead. But now that I think about it, it hardly…

    philosophyautobiographyChineselanguage
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