分类：Culture & Public Commentary

On Patent and Copyright Protection

Culture & Public Commentary2006.09.07
On Patent and Copyright Protection
This was originally a comment in response to the blog http://mistgalaxie.blogspot.com/2006/09/gnu-gnu-gpl.html, but after posting several times I still couldn’t get it through; it kept prompting, “We're sorry, but we were unable to complete your request. ” I don’t know why. Since I’ve already written so much, and it would be a waste not to post it, let me put it here for now: An appropriate system of patents and copyrights makes sense both from the standpoint of justice and from the standpoint of practicality. If a new technology developed by an institution through countless hours and immense effort were given no protection at all, and immediately turned into a public…
culture science economy innovation
阅读全文

2006年9月7日
Revere Without Worshipping, Believe Without Reciting, Transmit Without Teaching

Culture & Public Commentary2006.09.07
Revere Without Worshipping, Believe Without Reciting, Transmit Without Teaching
“Revere Without Worshipping, Believe Without Dwelling on It, Pass On Without Teaching”
culture faith tradition Confucianism
阅读全文

2006年9月7日
Everything Is Unprepared, Yet the East Wind Blows Quite Fiercely—Disappointed Once Again in Education Reform

Culture & Public Commentary2006.08.30
Everything Is Unprepared, Yet the East Wind Blows Quite Fiercely—Disappointed Once Again in Education Reform
Hayek: In this world, there is always a difference between treating people equally and trying to make them equal. The former is a prerequisite of a free society, while the latter, as Tocqueville described it, means “a new form of servitude.” This passage is truly well put. Freedom, democracy, equality—these concepts sound stirring, and of course they are all good words. Yet how exactly are they to be understood, and how are they to be pursued? That is a big question. The United States, waving the banner of freedom and democracy, carries out its “new form of servitude” across the globe, and in China, too, the concept of equality is…
freedom commentary education equality
阅读全文

2006年8月30日
Spoofs, Media, and Random Reflections

Culture & Public Commentary2006.08.24
Spoofs, Media, and Random Reflections
The biggest advantage of being in Shanghai is being able to enjoy air conditioning; the second is being able, now and then, to watch the TV news. I just saw two news items that were rather interesting. One was the “first blog lawsuit in China,” saying that an associate professor at some university had sued Blogcn because, in a certain blog post, someone had insulted him and attacked him personally by name…… In fact it was just a little log entry of three to five hundred characters, with a title like “Rubbish Book, Rubbish Person” or something of the sort. It said: today there’s an exam, so hurry up and…
culture blog internet
阅读全文

2006年8月24日
Better to Be a Hypocrite Than a Real Villain

Culture & Public Commentary2006.08.23
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…
culture human nature Confucianism virtue
阅读全文

2006年8月23日
Brave New World

Culture & Public Commentary2006.08.18
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…
philosophy book reading notes faith
阅读全文

2006年8月18日
Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Culture & Public Commentary2006.06.21
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
[U.S.] Richard Bach: Jonathan Livingston Seagull, translated by Guo Hui, Nanhai Publishing Company, April 2004 I first heard about this book in The Tree of Philosophy. In The Tree of Philosophy, it was not merely “mentioned” that seagull Jonathan existed; rather, nearly an entire class period was spent discussing it—as the introduction to the section on “philosophy of science.” The Tree of Philosophy provides countless excellent reference books as post-class reading, yet the only one assigned as a classroom task and directly discussed in class was this marvelous literary work. Freedom, pursuit, mind, wings, infinity… As for literary works, I am not very fond of writing analysis or criticism, nor…
philosophy book reading notes freedom
阅读全文

2006年6月21日
The Spirit of Sport and Human Culture

Culture & Public Commentary2006.05.07
The Spirit of Sport and Human Culture
When I was little, I didn’t like sports. On the one hand, I was lazy and didn’t feel like moving; on the other, I thought sports were too “violent,” nowhere near as quiet and elegant as intellectual activities. As a child, I did like playing chess, but what I never really understood was—why does chess count as “sports” too? As I grew older, I gradually came to understand what sports and chess have in common, and I also came to feel more and more deeply the charm of sports. Sports are not merely “exercise,” and even less merely a kind of “violence.” They can stand alongside philosophy, science, religion, and…
philosophy culture religion art
阅读全文

2006年5月7日
Natural History and History

Culture & Public Commentary2006.04.18
Natural History and History
Today’s forum on “The Contemporary Significance of Natural History” left me wanting more. It’s my fault that I asked my question too early at the beginning; later, when I wanted to say a few things of my own, there was no further chance. Hearing some classmates ask about natural history and anthropology, others mention history, and others ask what natural history is, I had a few associations. Natural history is not a single discipline, just as “experimental science” is not a specialized discipline, but rather a spirit, a tradition, a method, a way of thinking, an attitude, and so on. Advocating these features of natural history serves as a certain…
history historiography natural history Rickert
阅读全文

2006年4月18日
Education, Reform, and Egalitarianism

Culture & Public Commentary2006.04.13
Education, Reform, and Egalitarianism
A while ago, the presidents of Renmin University and other universities raised the issue that the government’s policies toward Peking University and Tsinghua University are too heavily tilted in their favor. The government’s preference for Peking University and Tsinghua is indeed very obvious, showing up not only in financial support but mainly in the enormous tilt of admissions policy. This tilt in admissions is especially evident in Shanghai’s college entrance examination system: in Shanghai, Peking University and Tsinghua are the so-called “zero-choice” option, separate from the other preferences, with applications first processed for the zero-choice option and only afterward allocated among the others. In other words, you might as well…
culture China education mathematics
阅读全文

2006年4月13日