Next week (January 16) may be the final session of the Xindao Salon. How we’ll do things next semester, we can talk about it after the New Year~ My Xindao membership card has been pretty much used up, but amazingly there are still seventeen or eighteen free drinks left. So next week, come a few people and help me drink them up……
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Happy New Year, everyone~ Today the salon is still open as usual, but no one else came. For the next two weeks the salon will still be running as normal, and toward the end of January I may be heading back to Shanghai. The New Island Salon may then draw to a close, and next semester it should move somewhere else. When I came this morning, I was told that the non-smoking area was not open because it was a holiday and there were few people; there was no service, no lights, and no heating. Still, I insisted on sitting down inside. Luckily there was power and internet, so reading…
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Last week was all normal; there just wasn’t much of anybody and nothing much going on, so I won’t record it. Next week will also continue as usual. Today, Guawang brought along a classmate. Though there weren’t many people, the discussion was still quite lively. We talked about the relationship between elites and the masses—whether some new idea becomes widespread because the public blindly follows a small number of authorities? We also mentioned the “pleasure machine (brain in a vat),” the choice between love and chemical substances? purpose and meaning, scientism, paradigm shifts, sympathy, departmental divisions… I don’t remember the specifics for the moment; I’ll fill them in again in…
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Back when I was an undergraduate, I used to wander around Weiming Lake every few days. Over the past two years I’ve clearly become lax about it—not because I’ve gotten lazy (laziness has always been my constant), but because of changes in my surroundings and in my state of mind, I suppose. Of course, the change of residence is the main reason. I had long planned to return to Weiming Lake. By “return,” I mean not only finding time to come back and circle it, but also, crucially, circling it in a particular frame of mind. Though I haven’t exactly never gone around it during ordinary times, I also haven’t…
阅读全文Today B brought a little report, first talking about the theory of “subculture,” then briefly mentioning Weber, and we played a few rounds of Three Kingdoms Kill. Although a small turnout is normal, the recent salons do seem to be slipping into something of a lull. With the end of the term looming, let’s see whether this semester can manage one last dying burst of brilliance…… There are still a little over five hundred yuan left on the New Island membership card; what should we do after it’s used up? Today’s sightings here: byz/dr Possible topic for next time: “The Age of Enlightenment” Latest Comments Cheng Shan 2009-12-12 18:24:37 The…
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Last week’s salon took a break once; starting this week, it’s back to normal. However, today no one came to cough… Latest Comments benjaminbai 2009-12-06 06:05:44 Anonymous 219.234.81.110 [Reply] I’ll go next week~ Just in time to start preparing Fei-ge’s paper on religious anthropology. If I get it done before Saturday, I’ll present that one… probably Weber. By the way, there’s also a sociology paper on subculture that I finished writing this week, and I could show that as well… I feel like I haven’t been there in ages Asura 2009-12-07 19:40:07 Anonymous 118.229.147.153 [Reply] I’d like to go too. I wonder what will be discussed next time; could you…
阅读全文Today’s salon was quite lively after a long time. Besides dr, three web friends also came, and the long-absent xxj classmate made a splendid passing appearance~ Besides the eat-melon king (Institute for History of Natural Sciences, CAS) classmate, today’s two new friends were respectively from the computer science department of Forestry University and the School of Philosophy at Renmin University. Welcome, welcome—clap clap clap~ Besides chatting idly, as originally planned, I talked a bit about McLuhan; the effect is unknown… We also brought up the question of the meaning of philosophical thinking, and I still use games as a metaphor: for example, you have a box in your hands, and…
阅读全文Today I again sent out emails inviting the members of the “Science and Outlook on Life” group, but the result was still that almost no one came. Aside from Xiaozhou, there was one more group member, Mist, who showed up to lend support; quite a few old friends of the salon did come, though. I had a cold, so today I was in a rather listless state throughout. Fortunately, Xiaozhou and jr saved the day, so the salon did not end up with nothing to say at all. At first in the afternoon there were only four of us: me, B, M, and Xiaozhou. Seeing that no one was likely…
阅读全文![Notes from Today’s Xindao Salon, 09-10-10 [Part 1 of the Special Topic on “Science and the View of Life”]](https://yilinhut.net/wp-content/uploads/pic/tusiji/tt3.gif)
One of the themes in Science and View of Life Today’s plan was to kick off the activities of the “Science and View of Life” discussion group. Yesterday I sent a mass email to the students who had signed up with me for the group, saying that they were welcome to drop by my salon today for an informal chat. Although I had not set my expectations very high, I had still hoped that at least two or three of the twelve would come, so that there would be something to discuss. The result was regrettable: only Xiao Zhou showed up. Although Xiao Zhou was a newcomer, visiting the salon…
阅读全文In view of the possibility that someone might mistakenly think last week’s salon had been canceled, I’m adding a belated note on last week’s ramblings. It happened to be the Mid-Autumn Festival, so there was nobody around anywhere. The smoke-free area at Xin Dao was cordoned off; apparently the staff at Xin Dao were going to have a gathering, so I sat in a corner of the smoking area instead. But I wasn’t the only one—dr and jr both came to sit there too (thanks to jr for bringing mooncakes and crispy dates). We read, surfed the Internet, and dispersed after dinner. I heard that Classmate Guawang came looking for…
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