分类：Culture & Public Commentary

Marxist Human Studies / Text Excerpts from a Philosophy of Technology Class Presentation

Culture & Public Commentary2008.10.16
Marxist Human Studies / Text Excerpts from a Philosophy of Technology Class Presentation
I can’t finish it all…… （The essence of man… sensuous activity, that is, practice） The essence of man is freedom The first precondition of freedom is self-knowledge[①] Freedom is indeed the essence of man[②] Only when news publication is not the product of freedom, that is, not the product of human activity, can it be good. Seen this way, only animals or gods would be able to enjoy the right of news publication[③] Freedom includes not only what I live on, but also how I live; not only doing things that are free, but also doing those things freely. Otherwise, the difference between an architect and a beaver would…
philosophy book reading notes Introduction to Philosophy of Technology
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2008年10月16日
The replacement of “freedom” by “equality” is the common root of the predicament of modern science and modern democracy

Culture & Public Commentary2008.10.07
The replacement of “freedom” by “equality” is the common root of the predicament of modern science and modern democracy
This little essay was scribbled down when I had an itch to comment on a recent post by Professor Wu; see: http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_51fdc0620100bi39.html#cmt_1382340 Since the issues involved are rather important, I am not recording this passage in the usual “repost—archive” way, but tentatively pasting it here again. Since this passage is both rough and hasty, there is plenty of room for questions. ———————— Science and democracy can be said to be of the same origin and current, with their roots in ancient Greece, their modern versions in the Enlightenment, and their contemporary forms both taking the United States as a model. And their contemporary forms both differ markedly from ancient Greece….
culture freedom modernity equality
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2008年10月7日
An Essay on Freedom of Speech

Culture & Public Commentary2008.10.05
An Essay on Freedom of Speech
“Freedom of thought” is reflected at the social level as “freedom of speech,” and “freedom of speech” at the legal level appears as the principle that one can never be “punished for what one says.” It is necessary to distinguish “punished for what one says” from crimes committed by means of speech, such as incitement, defamation, insult, agitation, deception, and so on. There are countless offenses carried out through speech, and these convictions are not necessarily unreasonable. But one must always remain clear-headed in distinguishing this: none of these charges can be “punished for what one says”; the basis for conviction can never be the speech alone, but must rest…
culture freedom trust law
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2008年10月5日
Violent Sanctions Are a Helpless Compensation for the Limits of Reason

Culture & Public Commentary2008.09.09
Violent Sanctions Are a Helpless Compensation for the Limits of Reason
I once said, “Violent revolution is unreasonable”—because “violence” is always non-rational, and revolution is always illegal. Yet this gives rise to a still more severe problem: if violence may be lawful, then how is the rationality of law possible? We know that laws are made by the government (whether that so-called government represents God, the emperor, or all citizens), and the implementation of law often has to appeal to violence. It is hard to imagine a rule-of-law society maintained without violent institutions such as police and prisons. Even if a social order established without bodily violent sanctions is at least conceivable in theory, once a public “law” is instituted, it…
culture politics public sphere reason
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2008年9月9日
A Fourth Talk on the Olympics—Assorted Remarks and Miscellaneous Commentary

Culture & Public Commentary2008.08.26
A Fourth Talk on the Olympics—Assorted Remarks and Miscellaneous Commentary
l In the previous few installments I kept rambling farther and farther afield, so in the end I might as well just say a few odds and ends. l What was I doing during the Olympics? Apart from the daily new anime episodes, I basically had the TV on all day watching the Olympics. In the first half, I watched the Olympics while paging through books, mainly getting through 《大问题》 once. In the second half, I watched the Olympics while pedaling a stationary bike, with pretty good results; in the last few days I exercised nearly three hours a day on average. Unfortunately the Olympics ended, and in these past…
China culture history sociology
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2008年8月26日
A Third Discussion of the Olympics: Gold Medals and Patriotism

Culture & Public Commentary2008.08.25
A Third Discussion of the Olympics: Gold Medals and Patriotism
This “third essay” was begun not long after the “second essay” was finished, and then written fitfully until today, taking well over ten days in all. So there is no need to be surprised at the confusion of thought in this piece. Generally speaking, the faster I write an article, the more coherent and fluent its line of thought is — on the one hand, precisely because the thought is flowing smoothly, it becomes possible for it to pour out in a torrent; on the other hand, too many interruptions make a line of thought that was already not entirely smooth become even more fragmented. But in any case, since…
China human nature love Olympics
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2008年8月25日
A Second Discussion of the “Olympics” — the “Interestingness” of Games

Culture & Public Commentary2008.08.13
A Second Discussion of the “Olympics” — the “Interestingness” of Games
The “second talk” below is even less coherent, and in fact does not really talk about “Olympics” at all. It is simply continuing to talk about “games.” But since it nevertheless arises from the same occasion as the scattered essays before and after it—namely, the holding of the Olympic Games—I still name it “Second Talk on the Olympics.” Had I not written it at this moment, it might perhaps have been filed under the “nonsense” series. However, although it stands together in the title, the folder in which it is placed on the blog has been changed. The first piece, because it focused on the cultural style of ancient Greece,…
philosophy culture tradition human nature
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2008年8月13日
A Few Words on “Olympic” — “Olympic Game”

Culture & Public Commentary2008.08.08
A Few Words on “Olympic” — “Olympic Game”
I had long said I would write some articles about the Olympics, but the reason I kept putting it off was mainly that I had read far too little, whether primary or secondary sources, on ancient Greece, so I would certainly be speaking without much confidence. Recently, in a last-minute dash, I read a few introductory books; of course that does not really solve anything, but in order to get something written before the opening of the Olympics, I could only make do. Though I lack confidence, I have always had ancient Greece and the “Olympic spirit” on my mind, and I have a large heap of related thoughts. Because…
culture freedom tradition pursuit
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2008年8月8日
Thinking of EVA

Culture & Public Commentary2008.07.27
Thinking of EVA
Another anime song post? What can I do—recently in Shanghai, because I didn’t have speakers and for other reasons, I haven’t really been listening to music at all, and the only melodies I could summon up from memory just happened to be anime songs. I was reminded of EVA that day when I went to a relative’s house and saw the latest domestic animated film, “Qin Shi Mingyue.” Its gaudy 3D visuals only served to throw its shallowness into sharper relief; if this animation has made any progress at all, I’m afraid it is progress in a disappointing direction. Thinking of the difference between Chinese and Japanese animation, I couldn’t…
culture anime children Japan
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2008年7月27日
Seven Subjects of Moral Education (How to Do Moral Education?)

Culture & Public Commentary2008.07.17
Seven Subjects of Moral Education (How to Do Moral Education?)
Moral education is not the task of the university. By the time they enter college, most students are already adults, and their individual character has long since taken basic shape. A university ought to build a stage on which all kinds of different personalities can coexist, guiding each character to shine in its own distinctive way; it should not then try to remake students’ personalities. Primary and secondary education are different. Primary and secondary schools, together with parents, bear the mission of cultivating and shaping children’s character. The “not yet complete” in “minors” refers precisely to the fact that their personality and character have not yet taken shape, and their…
philosophy culture freedom education
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2008年7月17日