Author: 胡翌霖

What Does the Red Cross Do? What Do Public Welfare Organizations Do?

Culture & Public Commentary2011.08.09
What Does the Red Cross Do? What Do Public Welfare Organizations Do?
The Guo Meimei incident has been making quite a stir for a while now, and I should probably write one or two pieces about it. But as for Guo Meimei herself and the whole affair, I actually don’t have all that much to say. The significance of Guo Meimei lies in the fact that she brought this issue to light and got people to pay attention to the Red Cross Society and other public-interest organizations. But the problems of China’s public-interest organizations are deeply rooted; they have nothing to do with whether or not someone was keeping a Guo Meimei as a mistress, and they even have nothing to do…
culture China commentary government
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2011年8月9日
On “Knowledge Changes One’s Destiny”

Culture & Public Commentary2011.08.08
On “Knowledge Changes One’s Destiny”
Recently I saw an article in Southern Weekend, “Do Poor Children Have No Spring? — Why Are Students from Humble Families Increasingly Farther Away from First-Rate Universities?” In the past few days, while eating with my family and relatives, this kind of topic has also come up often. Today someone mentioned that Fudan University may completely abolish admissions through straight Gaokao scores next year—that is, you would have to get in through independent admissions or other such routes. Such a move will of course further increase the difficulty for students from impoverished regions to enter top universities. Just the round-trip transportation and lodging costs for making a special trip to…
culture China scholarship education
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2011年8月8日
The Difference Between Pirates and Heroes?

Life & Notes2011.08.05
The Difference Between Pirates and Heroes?
The “hero” in the ancient Greek sense is roughly the same as a pirate, but the “hero” in the modern sense refers more to those warriors who possess great moral integrity, sacrifice themselves bravely, and save others. Although in my youth I of course also longed for heroes and sages, the “Pirate King” I now long for does not give me that feeling at all. What, then, is the difference? In the latest episode of One Piece, Luffy offered a perfect explanation. Although my philosophical reading of One Piece will have to wait at least until it ends before I begin, I can’t help but bring up this passage first……
philosophy autobiography anime One Piece
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2011年8月5日
Access Statistics of the History of Science, Philosophy, and Technology BBS Since Its Launch..

Site Matters2011.08.05
Access Statistics of the History of Science, Philosophy, and Technology BBS Since Its Launch..
The History of Science, Technology, and Philosophy Forum was launched around July 12, and it’s now almost been a month. The number of visitors has been declining in a straight line; at this rate, it will probably drop to zero in a few days…… There haven’t been any new posts recently, though there are still a few new users registering. The vast majority of registrants, including the contact person who helped organize this conference, have been so miserly that they won’t even post a single check-in thread. To be honest, that’s pretty disheartening. Of course, the BBS is my own wishful construction, but after all, everyone did support it during…
China blog website conference review
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2011年8月5日
Is High Speed a Good Thing?

Culture & Public Commentary2011.07.29
Is High Speed a Good Thing?
I’ve taken the EMU back to Shanghai, the same D31 as before. But the schedule has changed: instead of leaving a little after 11 a.m., it now leaves a little after 8 a.m.; the speed has also been raised somewhat; the dwell times at each station have become much longer; and the stations served have all changed too, basically shifted to the new high-speed-rail stations. If someone hadn’t remembered to check yesterday, I still wouldn’t have noticed these changes, and I would have nearly missed the train. As for the EMU rear-end collision, I don’t want to say much. Of course, if one says that because of this incident one…
China technology commentary Introduction to Philosophy of Technology
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2011年7月29日
Recommended Introductory Readings in Philosophy of Technology

History of Science & Scholarship2011.07.26
Recommended Introductory Readings in Philosophy of Technology
The department’s magazine, *Qingqiu Yuan*, invited me to write a few recommendations of good books in philosophy of science and technology, mainly to provide some guidance for students who have not yet settled on a direction. I am very honored. In addition, I hope that all students interested in philosophy of science and technology will get in touch with me. On my blog (yilinhut.com) you can find my various contact details. Undergraduate philosophy majors are required to choose a supervisor and a direction in their freshman or sophomore year. At this stage, apart from introductory courses in Chinese philosophy, Western philosophy, and Marxist philosophy, students have relatively little knowledge of…
book reading science notes history of science
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2011年7月26日
The Internet Needs Scholarship; Scholarship Needs the Internet

Site Matters2011.07.22
The Internet Needs Scholarship; Scholarship Needs the Internet
The previous article mentioned that scholarship should actively confront the web; on the other hand, the web also needs scholarship. Through scholars’ active intervention in network media, on the one hand the possibilities for the development of scholarship will be expanded; on the other hand, distinctive elements will also be brought into the development of network technology. In an even earlier essay on the web, I cited Newell Castells’s historical review—“Internet culture” contains four layers: a technical elite culture that pursues knowledge and esteems excellence; a hacker culture that yearns for “freedom” and play; “virtual communists” who advocate sharing and practicality; and entrepreneurs in search of business opportunities. Of course,…
China technology scholarship value
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2011年7月22日
Why Create Such a Forum?

Site Matters2011.07.18
Why Create Such a Forum?
This newly launched “Forum for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology” is part of the “Beijing Graduate Academic Forum on the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology,” which will be held this coming November. This graduate forum was founded last year; Tsinghua took charge of it last year, and this year it is our turn. So the heavy responsibility of overall coordination has landed on my shoulders. As a shut-in, I have never been good at organizing affairs, nor am I good at socializing. Of course, under Professor Wu, people who are particularly good at organizing social activities have always been rather scarce, so I could only…
scholarship media internet website
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2011年7月18日
Call for Papers for the 2nd Beijing Graduate Academic Forum on the History of Science and Philosophy

Life & Notes2011.07.17
Call for Papers for the 2nd Beijing Graduate Academic Forum on the History of Science and Philosophy
Call for Papers for the 2nd Beijing Graduate Academic Forum on the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology In order to promote scholarship, foster exchanges among young scholars in the field of dialectics of nature at universities across the Beijing area, and create more opportunities for understanding and communication between senior and junior scholars, the Institute for Science, Technology, and Society Studies at the School of Humanities, Tsinghua University, together with the Center for Studies of Science and Society at Peking University and other institutions, jointly initiated and organized last year the Graduate Academic Forum of Beijing’s philosophy of science and technology circles. The inaugural forum was successfully held…
everyday life history of science scholarship philosophy of science
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2011年7月17日
Call for Papers, Meeting Summary, and BBS Homepage for the 2nd Beijing Graduate Academic Forum on the History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Science

Life & Notes2011.07.14
Call for Papers, Meeting Summary, and BBS Homepage for the 2nd Beijing Graduate Academic Forum on the History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Science
The first organizing meeting had already been held at the very end of June, but we never put out any promotional material, because we ran into a bit of trouble with the website construction. We have now decided to first set up a BBS platform using my own personal space, and then, once it matures later on, we can always migrate it somewhere else. The BBS is here: http://bbs.yilinhut.com The minutes of the first meeting are here: http://bbs.yilinhut.com/read.php?tid=2 Call for papers: http://bbs.yilinhut.com/read.php?tid=1 In addition to the annual conference, what we hope even more is to build a lasting and lively academic social platform for students of history of science, philosophy…
everyday life blog internet conference review
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2011年7月14日