Author: 胡翌霖

This Issue’s Music: Händel Harp Concerto, Op. 4 No. 6 – Allegro

Life & Notes2009.03.12
This Issue’s Music: Händel Harp Concerto, Op. 4 No. 6 – Allegro
http://www.mydrdr.com/12%20Harp%20Concerto,%20op.4%20no.6.mp3 Bach, Vivaldi—next should be Handel, right? So recently the space on my MP3 player has gradually been taken over by Handel. I had posted Handel’s “Arrival of the Queen of Sheba” once before, but back then I wasn’t yet listening to Handel in any focused way. Recently what I’ve mainly been listening to are Handel’s chamber music collection and his organ concerto collection. After so long, the organ continues to be astonishing. And I’ve found that Handel’s organ concertos seem to sound even more appealing to me than Bach’s—oh my God~ As for organ concertos, they sound richer than solo organ pieces; otherwise that music is too otherworldly. A…
everyday life music
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2009年3月12日
On Women Philosophers and the Top-Bottom Dichotomy

Philosophy & Thought2009.03.11
On Women Philosophers and the Top-Bottom Dichotomy
Here are some of the things I was forced to say in my comments after “I Won’t Date in a Café”; since I’ve written them down, they’re now black on white, and there’s nothing I can do about it. Given that this is no small topic, I’m setting aside a new post here for the archive. Later, my classmate Chern, who is even more evil than I am, said that mine was a “female philosopher cultivation plan.” That’s an interesting title, but it’s too liable to cause misunderstanding. My conspiracy is extremely complex: it is neither to seduce mm, nor to cultivate female philosophers, nor even to find an mm…
philosophy culture discussion pursuit
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2009年3月11日
The Moral Law Above My Head and the Starry Sky in My Heart

Life & Notes2009.03.10
The Moral Law Above My Head and the Starry Sky in My Heart
This semester I’m preparing to start gnawing on Kant’s third Critique. Every time I come to the café I bring that brick with me, but unfortunately I still haven’t yet felt the impulse to open it up, so… let’s talk about it later… In any case, in recent days Kant’s ghost seems to have been hovering around me all the time, poking me from time to time, as if complaining about how I’ve been neglecting him… When I was a sophomore, I wrote “The Same Starry Sky” to discuss Kant’s science and religion, marking the moment when I was truly lured through the door of philosophy; When I was a…
philosophy autobiography Kant ecology
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2009年3月10日
Introduction to the Dialogues of Xindao

Life & Notes2009.03.07
Introduction to the Dialogues of Xindao
I haven’t updated the blog much these past several times. On the one hand, it’s because lately I’ve been busy with all sorts of miscellaneous things and haven’t had any mental free time; on the other hand, because some time ago I suddenly had the urge to write in a “dialogue” form, but got stuck halfway through. Only today did I finally rekindle the urge to write, and I’ve now finished the previously stuck draft of the No. 〇 piece, but I still have no motivation to write the first piece (though I already have the title). According to my plan, all of these “dialogues” will be written by me…
everyday life culture blog Plato
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2009年3月7日
New Island Dialogues, Zero: Cafés and Scholarship

History of Science & Scholarship2009.03.07
New Island Dialogues, Zero: Cafés and Scholarship
A Niu: Hello, everyone! Thank you for coming to open my event. Xiaoming: Hello, Senior Brother Niu! A Niu: Hmm… what should we talk about? … Let me start by asking about your purpose for coming—what exactly were your intentions or thoughts in coming here to look for me? Xiaoming: Ah, actually I still haven’t figured out what kind of event this is. I just heard that, in legend, Senior Brother Niu was here, so I specially came to pay my respects… A Niu: How polite. It would be better to say you came to visit. I feel a bit like an absurdly ugly wild buffalo in a zoo—nothing much…
philosophy scholarship Aristotle discussion
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2009年3月7日
On “吐嘈”

Philosophy & Thought2009.02.22
On “吐嘈”
Recently I’ve had a way of putting it that philosophy is a kind of act of “tucao.” I’m going to boldly adopt this “term” in my own philosophy; it really is strikingly apt. Anyone who often watches Japanese anime will know the word “tucao,” but “outsiders” and beginners probably won’t quite understand what it actually means, so let me explain it roughly. The explanations circulating online seem all to be copied and pasted from a passage by the POPGO subtitle group. That’s really quite lazy. You can look it up on Baidu Baike or the like. I’ll combine some easily found online materials and briefly restate it in my own…
philosophy language anime ranting
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2009年2月22日
Yu Zemin: “Seeing Europe in Cafés,” Shandong Pictorial Publishing House, 2007

Culture & Public Commentary2009.02.21
Yu Zemin: “Seeing Europe in Cafés,” Shandong Pictorial Publishing House, 2007
Page 34 In the small cafés of English towns, there is still a custom in which one customer “pays for” another. If one traces it to its source, one finds that the English picked up the habit from the Turks. In Turkey, when you walk into a café and have just ordered your coffee, you may suddenly hear someone in the room shout, “It’s on me!” The proprietor will then put your bill on the account of the customer who called out. Perhaps he is your friend, perhaps he wants to get acquainted with you… At that point, you not only have to walk over and thank her, but also greet…
book reading notes Newton Einstein
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2009年2月21日
Bach’s Cantata No. 211, “Coffee”

Life & Notes2009.02.21
Bach’s Cantata No. 211, “Coffee”
I couldn’t find a suitable MP3 link, so I won’t use background music. It’s on YouTube, so I’ll paste it here to share. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzX2LBfVcUg The following introduction is reprinted from http://www.yyjy.com/yybk/mqhc/qt/200601/12945.html 《"Coffee" Cantata》 was written in 1732 for the “Music Society” in Leipzig. In Bach’s time, drinking coffee was fashionable in German cities; coffeehouses became social venues, bustling with activity and also offering musical performances. However, coffee was expensive, and ordinary citizens often restricted the young people in their households from indulging in coffee. Bach set this social trend as the backdrop and composed this “Coffee” Cantata. The whole piece has three roles and no chorus. In the…
everyday life music
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2009年2月21日
zz Liu Suli: European Cafés—The Cradle of the Birth of Modern Society

Culture & Public Commentary2009.02.21
zz Liu Suli: European Cafés—The Cradle of the Birth of Modern Society
The Cradle of Modern Society http://dzb.sznews.com/szwb/content/2007-11/05/content_1628691.htm ■ Liu Suli (book reviewer, founder of Wangshang Bookstore, Beijing) *Looking at Europe from the Café*, by Yu Zemin, published by Shandong Pictorial Publishing House in October 2007. If you take the book in your hand and regard it only as a guide map to cafés, then you have made a 50 percent mistake; if you take it as an ordinary book for leisure and diversion, then you have made a further 25 percent mistake. To each his own. What I read in the book was this: the European café—the cradle of the birth of modern society. I do not need to repeat all…
book reading culture notes history
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2009年2月21日
What Is Questioning? — On the Search for Possibility, Again

Philosophy & Thought2009.02.21
What Is Questioning? — On the Search for Possibility, Again
We often say that the core of philosophy is “questions,” and that philosophy’s mission is “to ask,” and so on, but what sort of activity is philosophical questioning, exactly? A question like “What’s for dinner tonight?” does not seem to be philosophy’s concern, so what, precisely, is philosophical questioning? I have touched on related topics in earlier essays. This article may not offer much that is new; perhaps it is just a review or a summary. First, people often talk about so-called “problem consciousness.” This term is used far too loosely, but what does it actually mean? In some places it is simply used as if it were identical with…
philosophy freedom pursuit reason
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2009年2月21日