分类：Life & Notes

Annotations on the Analects…………

Life & Notes2005.12.13
Annotations on the Analects…………
Today I picked up a strange book at the Inward Bookstore and ended up reading it until I was almost out of breath…… Peking University Department of Philosophy Class of 1970 worker-peasant-soldier students: Annotations to The Analects, Zhonghua Book Company, 1974 Below I randomly excerpt two relatively short “criticisms”: 10·22 A friend dies, with nowhere to turn, and he says: “It is for me to bury him” [Notes] 1 Friend — refers to someone who shared Confucius’s aspirations and path; this person died and nobody took care of him, clearly a decadent aristocrat. [Translation] (Confucius’s) friend died, and no one took responsibility for him; (Confucius) said: “Let me take charge…
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2005年12月13日
I’ve kind of regained the feeling of writing essays in high school~

Life & Notes2005.12.09
I’ve kind of regained the feeling of writing essays in high school~
Recently I’ve managed to churn out so many essays in one go, all of them scribbled casually on paper during self-study and then typed up directly when I got back. It reminded me of high school, when every week I had to write an essay for my Chinese teacher; in fact, these recent pieces have hardly improved on what I wrote back then. At the time, the weekly essay was usually just a little over a thousand characters, and I would generally riff on assorted issues from heaven and earth, antiquity and the present, the universe and human life. It was probably not much different in style from what I’ve…
everyday life education Chinese writing
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2005年12月9日
Heh-heh, an essay from middle school days…

Life & Notes2005.12.08
Heh-heh, an essay from middle school days…
There are two origins for this piece. One is that a couple of days ago, on the Philosophy board of a BBS, I saw someone post Marx’s essay written when he was seventeen and graduating from high school, “The Consideration of a Young Person in Choosing a Profession,” and I was suddenly moved by a flood of emotion… The other is that just now Chongge recommended me an article; I haven’t read it closely yet, but merely seeing the phrase “the germination of capitalism” in it set off some associations… In fact, I had only suddenly recalled some of my own ideas from middle school—that is, by the time I…
philosophy everyday life China Marx
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2005年12月8日
Kant’s Space-Time and Hawking’s Universe — Kant’s View of Science and Modern Physics

Life & Notes2005.12.07
Kant’s Space-Time and Hawking’s Universe — Kant’s View of Science and Modern Physics
Abstract Kant is one of the greatest philosophers of all time. Some have said, “Kant is like a reservoir: all the philosophy of the past flows into him, and all the philosophy that comes afterward flows out from him.”[①] Kant’s philosophy has an influence so far-reaching that it is beyond dispute. However, the significance of his doctrine of space and time and his understanding of the natural sciences has been widely underestimated. What I want to show is this: although science appears to have undergone earth-shaking changes, from Newton’s classical system to modern physics represented by relativity and quantum theory, scientific method has not changed qualitatively, and modern people’s understanding…
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2005年12月7日
Science Has No Absolute Truth… But Is There Absolute Error? (And a Supplement)

Life & Notes2005.12.03
Science Has No Absolute Truth… But Is There Absolute Error? (And a Supplement)
Feynman points out: “Any scientific concept lies on some point along the scale between absolute error and absolute truth, and will not be at either end.”[①] It is easier for us to understand this: there is no absolutely correct scientific theory; but is there such a thing as absolute error? Should those scientific theories that have been “falsified” count as absolute errors? Why does Feynman say there are no absolute errors? Let us take an example of a scientific theory—“the geocentric theory.” Obviously, today the geocentric theory is widely recognized as an “incorrect” theory; but is this “incorrectness” absolute? In fact, before Copernicus, the geocentric theory had never had any…
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2005年12月3日
What I Want to Build Is a Garden

Life & Notes2005.12.01
What I Want to Build Is a Garden
Yet again, the topic of how to begin philosophy comes up. Many philosophy teachers emphasize the need to “stand on the grand” and “start from a high point.” This tendency exists in philosophy, in logic, and in religion alike: teaching first-year students is treated as if the goal were to train academic specialists, so last year in philosophy introduction we were told to start by reading pure criticism, and in logic class we were immediately taught highly advanced mathematical logic, while the cultivation of interest was neglected. It is like showing elementary school children who have just encountered mathematics calculus and linear algebra—there is no benefit other than scaring the…
philosophy autobiography
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2005年12月1日
I despise plagiarism in academic papers!

Life & Notes2005.11.22
I despise plagiarism in academic papers!
There are two reasons for writing this blog post. First, someone said that I had put some papers and such on my blog, which was not very good; second, someone suggested borrowing a paper from me to read, in order to help his classmate write a paper. I’m not afraid of plagiarism for the papers I post on my blog—if you want to plagiarize, then go ahead. If this paper is not very well written, then—obviously, my writing level a couple of years from now should still improve, and the paper you plagiarize can only ever reach my past level; if this paper is written extremely well, then I’m even…
everyday life scholarship writing plagiarism
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2005年11月22日
On Fate

Life & Notes2005.11.08
On Fate
When people ask me whether I believe in fate, I say no, yet I also say that what I believe in most is serendipity. In fact, the meanings of these two words are quite different. When fate is mentioned, it generally gives people the sense of being “limited” or “fixed,” as if your future were under the control of some force. People usually speak of fate in terms like “defying fate” or “struggling against fate,” and so on. I like to let things take their natural course; if fate really exists, I would not fight against it. But that would mean entrusting my own life to some mysterious force I…
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2005年11月8日
The Twin Dragons of the Great Tang

Life & Notes2005.10.14
The Twin Dragons of the Great Tang
It’s been a long time since I last wrote a reading note…… At the Di Tan book market, I bought a complete set of *The Legend of the Twin Dragons of Great Tang*, a wuxia saga running to several million characters. Back when Huang Yi’s serialization was nearing its end, I read it once online; later I bought a pirated copy and read it again. This time, though still pirated, the quality is much better than the one I bought before: there are no missing sections, and it reads much more smoothly. And yet my reading speed for this book has gotten slower each time; in fact, I now read…
everyday life China book review Chinese
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2005年10月14日
What makes us human is, quite simply, that only humans can restrain beastliness with reason, thereby sublimating human nature into sensibility.

Life & Notes2005.10.08
What makes us human is, quite simply, that only humans can restrain beastliness with reason, thereby sublimating human nature into sensibility.
RT Unless otherwise noted, all are original articles by Gu Chu; please indicate when reprinting: reprinted from Suixuan. Or refer to the copyright statementThis article link address: https://yilinhut.net/2005/10/08/109.html
philosophy everyday life value human nature
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2005年10月8日