分类：History of Science & Scholarship

[U.S.] Lynn Margulis, Dorion Sagan: “Tilted Truth—On Gaia, Symbiosis, and Evolution”

History of Science & Scholarship2006.02.15
[U.S.] Lynn Margulis, Dorion Sagan: “Tilted Truth—On Gaia, Symbiosis, and Evolution”
[U.S.] Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan: *Tinkering Truths—On Gaia, Symbiosis, and Evolution*, translated by Li Jianhui et al., proofread by Su Xiangui, Jiangxi Education Press, October 1999 http://mqxx.mhedu.sh.cn/ebook/ZX/ZX/qxdzl/index.htm Chapter One: Sunday Visit to Oppenheimer P10~11 pp. 17~18 Karl, a little younger than I was, liked the feeling of magnifying his own importance. He grasped Copernicus’s lesson only superficially: Galileo’s views were accepted for logical reasons, not emotional ones. Although Ptolemaic thought had been obsolete for centuries, my ambitious astronomer acted as if the earth (especially Ravi) were the absolute center of the universe. His mother, endlessly circling around her son, would ask questions that were hard to answer: “Where did…
philosophy book reading notes evolution
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2006年2月15日
[U.S.] Edwin Arthur Burtt: “The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science”

History of Science & Scholarship2006.02.14
[U.S.] Edwin Arthur Burtt: “The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science”
[U.S.] Edwin Arthur Burtt: The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science, translated by Xu Xiangdong, Peking University Press, January 2003 P16 p. 2 The central place of epistemology in modern philosophy is by no means accidental; it is the natural inference from something deeper and more meaningful, namely, the concept of man, especially the idea of man’s relation to the world around him. P18 p. 3 For mainstream medieval thought, compared with the physical world, man occupied a more important and more definite position in the cosmos. But for mainstream modern thought, nature has a more independent, more definite, and more enduring status than man. P24 p. 11 Just as…
philosophy book reading notes Copernicus
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2006年2月14日
[German] Rickert: “Cultural Science and Natural Science”

History of Science & Scholarship2006.02.11
[German] Rickert: “Cultural Science and Natural Science”
[German] Heinrich Rickert: “Culture and Natural Science,” translated by Tu Jiliang, proofread by Du Renzhi, Commercial Press, March 1986 http://rwxy.tsinghua.edu.cn/rwfg/ydsm/ydsm-qw/j06/000.htm Page vi On the other hand, although the scope of any historical concept is limited by a certain object or phenomenon, it must itself necessarily contain something general. For example, although no one would doubt that Goethe was only a particular individual, that there was no second Goethe, does Goethe not have the same characteristics as others? Can one explain Goethe’s characteristics without using certain general concepts? Can historians give a scientific account of any historical figure without understanding the universal laws governing social and historical development? In fact, no…
philosophy book reading culture notes
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2006年2月11日
Noya Keiichi: “Kuhn—Paradigm”

History of Science & Scholarship2006.02.09
Noya Keiichi: “Kuhn—Paradigm”
[Japanese] Noya Keiichi: “Kuhn—Paradigm,” translated by Bi Xiaohui, proofread by Chen Huabei, Hebei Education Publishing House, January 2002 There are some books that one must read, cannot not read, books it is impossible to imagine not reading; for me, Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is a typical example. And yet I seem to have this lazy habit: since I will have to read it sooner or later, there is no harm in reading it a little later. And so, dragging it on, I still haven’t read it. Next semester I will officially begin studying philosophy of science, and the books that must be read have finally become impossible to…
book reading notes philosophy of science Scientific Revolution
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2006年2月9日
Two Leisurely Books: “The Shards of God” and “The Universe of Spirit”

History of Science & Scholarship2006.02.09
Two Leisurely Books: “The Shards of God” and “The Universe of Spirit”
[U.S.] Scott Adams: *The Dilbert Principle: A Workplace Survival Guide*? No—this is actually Scott Adams: *The God Particle Residue—An Alternative Reflection on a Complex World*, translated by Gao Zimei, Xinjiang People’s Publishing House, January 2003 This is a book one can read straight through in fifteen minutes; it is entirely a throwaway diversion I picked up just to make up the numbers. The book claims to be “the world’s best-selling E-Book in history,” which I do believe, because I myself have bought no fewer than ten copies of it! That was simply because, back then, on Dangdang, the price of this book stayed at 1 yuan for a long time!…
philosophy book reading notes religion
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2006年2月9日
[Fr.] Poincaré: “Last Thoughts”

History of Science & Scholarship2006.02.09
[Fr.] Poincaré: “Last Thoughts”
[French] Poincaré: “The Last Reflections,” translated by Li Xingmin, proofread by Fan Dainian, Commercial Press, December 1996 Poincaré was such a great, even legendary, figure! Poincaré is widely regarded as the “last all-around mathematical genius,” comparable to Gauss; in fact, it would not be at all excessive to remove even the word “mathematical.” “Poincaré’s achievements in the four main branches of mathematics—arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and analysis—were all pioneering; in particular, he made outstanding contributions to branches such as function theory, algebraic geometry, number theory, the mathematics of strings, differential equations, and algebraic topology.” (p. ii) “In astronomy, Poincaré’s main work fell into three areas: the equilibrium shapes of rotating fluids;…
philosophy book reading notes philosophy of science
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2006年2月9日
Tian Song: “Don Quixote’s Lance”

History of Science & Scholarship2006.02.07
Tian Song: “Don Quixote’s Lance”
Tian Song: *Don Quixote’s Lance—Passing Through the Mist of Scientific Discourse*, Shanghai Science and Technology Education Press, December 2002 Preface: “Misunderstanding Science,” included in the first part on page xiv, is a work from the early 1990s. Looking at it now, there are many lines that make me inwardly embarrassed, for example: ………… these are things I would absolutely not dare to write now. One could add a few lines of mine that I often use to satirize others: fearing that others will say one lacks learning, one has no choice but to pretend to have learning, only to prove in the end that one lacks learning.…… ////——That satire is…
book reading notes faith scientific spirit
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2006年2月7日
Fang Zhouzi: “Ulcer—Confronting Academic Corruption in China”

History of Science & Scholarship2006.01.31
Fang Zhouzi: “Ulcer—Confronting Academic Corruption in China”
Fang Zhouzi: “Ulcer—Confronting Chinese Academic Corruption,” Hainan Publishing House, June 2001 Pages 328–329 Q: Could you give a few examples to explain the corruption in Chinese academia? A: The corruption in Chinese academia mainly manifests itself in these several ways: 1. Plagiarism of papers. For example, Professor Yang Jing’an, director of the Artificial Intelligence Application Research Office at Hefei University of Technology, has plagiarized at least five foreign papers over the past few years, and basically copied them word for word from beginning to end, with not a single result of his own. His brazenness is shocking. 1. Plagiarism of papers. For example, Professor Yang Jing’an, director of the Artificial…
book reading notes scholarship philosophy of science
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2006年1月31日
Cao Tianyuan (Capo): “Does God Play Dice? — A History of Quantum Physics”

History of Science & Scholarship2006.01.16
Cao Tianyuan (Capo): “Does God Play Dice? — A History of Quantum Physics”
Cao Tianyuan (Capo): “Does God Play Dice?—A History of Quantum Physics,” Liaoning Education Publishing House, January 2006 Taking a hard-seat train home is really quite nice. I slept for six hours, read for six hours, and the whole night passed in a rather fulfilling way. That night I happened to finish this idle read. I have always not read popular science books on the cutting edge when they’re written by Chinese authors, but this one was an exception. What attracted me was the advertising copy on the cover: “A popular science book of super influence, hailed as ‘China’s A Brief History of Time’; strongly recommended by Dong Guangbi, Jiang Xiaoyuan,…
philosophy book reading notes quantum mechanics
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2006年1月16日
Philosophy’s Critical Spirit and the “Critical” Spirit of Folk Philosophy

History of Science & Scholarship2005.12.28
Philosophy’s Critical Spirit and the “Critical” Spirit of Folk Philosophy
Philosophy is the most meticulous about criticism and questioning. Every great thinker possesses a strong sense of skepticism and a critical spirit. Marx said, “doubt everything,” and Kant also carried out a comprehensive critique of traditional metaphysics in three massive volumes; Mr. Lu Xun, meanwhile, thoroughly exposed the inferiority of the Chinese national character… Many people find this immensely satisfying and gratifying; criticism, exposure, nitpicking—these became a kind of fashion, and “cursing and swearing at every turn” became trendy… Someone says: criticism is always a good thing, isn’t critique the most important philosophical spirit of all? Little do they know that this critique is not that critique; the so-called “critique”…
philosophy China scholarship tradition
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2005年12月28日