分类：Selected

What Is Democracy? Livelihood? Equality? Democracy Is Article 35 of the Constitution

Culture & Public Commentary2011.03.02
What Is Democracy? Livelihood? Equality? Democracy Is Article 35 of the Constitution
This article had been planned before winter vacation, but in a moment of inattention it has dragged on until now. Let me finish a section first: I previously posted a status update, and although it seemed to get stuck on follow5 for quite a while, it finally synced successfully: “In my view, democracy is neither universal suffrage nor some kind of equality. Democracy is Article 35 of the Constitution. Freedom of speech and freedom of association. That is the core of democracy. Electoral systems and distributive systems are separate issues. Democracy is a matter of power, not of rights.” There were a few replies on the school intranet, but…
culture freedom democracy trust
阅读全文

2011年3月2日
[Draft] Several Issues in the Philosophy of Science from the Perspective of Media Ontology—Scientific Method, Causality, and Realism

History of Science & Scholarship2011.02.17
[Draft] Several Issues in the Philosophy of Science from the Perspective of Media Ontology—Scientific Method, Causality, and Realism
I had originally planned to write a paper that would re-interpret some issues in traditional philosophy of science from the perspective of media ontology (phenomenology). I tried to “translate” certain discussions in traditional philosophy of science from the standpoint of media theory, and thereby raise the questions anew. Roughly speaking, there were several lines of inquiry: first, realism (and so-called instrumentalism); second, causality and scientific explanation; third, scientific method and the demarcation of science. But in actual writing I dragged on for N long, and to this day still have nowhere to start. With the first report of the new term looming, I am frankly uneasy, so I decided to…
science philosophy of science media Heidegger
阅读全文

2011年2月17日
What Can Chinese Tradition Bring to Modern Politics?

Chinese Civilization & the Way of Chinese2010.12.21
What Can Chinese Tradition Bring to Modern Politics?
Of course, restoring China’s traditional Confucian ritual order and bureaucratic politics is impossible. That would first require the restoration of the imperial system and the revival of the clan order. A wholesale return to the old is hopeless, and unnecessary as well. No matter how Chinese politics develops in the future, it is bound to be Westernized and modernized. So, amid all this, what can Chinese tradition still bring, what elements can it still provide? Of course, you may think that not a single element of so-called Chinese tradition is needed at all, and that it would be enough simply to introduce Western modern democratic institutions. But a complete…
culture China democracy Arendt
阅读全文

2010年12月21日
Civilization History as History of Science—A Review of Sarton’s Ancient Science in the Golden Age of Greece

History of Science & Scholarship2010.10.24
Civilization History as History of Science—A Review of Sarton’s Ancient Science in the Golden Age of Greece
As the founder of the discipline of the history of science, George Sarton was the first generation of professional historians of science, and he is by no means unfamiliar to scholars in China. In 2007, Jiang Xiaoyuan and Liu Bing edited Sarton’s History of Science Series, bringing Sarton’s ideas on historiography into the Chinese context in a comprehensive way. One of the monumental representative works that reflects Sarton’s achievements in the history of science, Ancient Science Through the Golden Age of Greece, has also recently been introduced by Xiangxiang Press. Regarding Sarton’s value, the translator Lu Xudong says in the preface: “Anyone reading the history of science cannot but read…
book reading history of science Aristotle book review
阅读全文

2010年10月24日
Theses on Media Ontology

History of Science & Scholarship2010.08.09
Theses on Media Ontology
Abstract: As a philosophical program, media ontology points to a new philosophical line of thought whose origins lie in traditions associated with thinkers such as Heidegger and McLuhan. Media ontology develops its thinking around the everyday meaning of the concept of media, but it seeks to go beyond the everyday understanding of media as a neutral conduit for transmitting messages. Media, as the “extension of man,” also prompts us to rethink media as a way of understanding human nature. Media ontology implies an anthropology that transcends traditional dualism, and it is both a continuation and a surpassing of the Western classical philosophical tradition. Modern philosophy “discovered media,” but media ontology…
philosophy media Heidegger phenomenology
阅读全文

2010年8月9日
A Preliminary Exploration of Heidegger’s Media Ontology

History of Science & Scholarship2010.05.11
A Preliminary Exploration of Heidegger’s Media Ontology
I’ve once again squeezed this out at the very last moment… abstract and table of contents still pending… A Preliminary Inquiry into Heidegger’s Media Ontology 1 When Heidegger’s philosophy of technology is mentioned, what often comes first to mind is Heidegger’s late “question concerning technology,” the thought of technology as revealing, as a mode in which truth happens, as the consummated form of metaphysics, as well as propositions such as the fourfold of earth and sky, mortals and divinities, and poetic dwelling. Technology is unquestionably a keyword of Heidegger’s late thought. Yet the crucial significance of the technological question in Heidegger’s thought, and Heidegger’s important status as a philosopher of…
media Heidegger phenomenology paper
阅读全文

2010年5月11日
On CCTV’s Blocking of English Abbreviations

Chinese Civilization & the Way of Chinese2010.04.08
On CCTV’s Blocking of English Abbreviations
After all, the General Administration of Radio, Film, and Television has always been an institution that only knows how to issue bans. That said, it is not the case that I would automatically oppose, or even ridicule, every ban issued by the General Administration of Radio, Film, and Television. As for this particular ban, overall I am affirmative and supportive. If replacing foreign-language abbreviations with their full Chinese names does not involve much difficulty, then why not do it? If the difficulty is very great, and switching over and adapting is hard, then all the more reason there is for correction. One argument is that most people actually do not…
culture commentary tradition Chinese
阅读全文

2010年4月8日
The Debate between Science and Metaphysics in Educational Modernization: The Case of Zhang Junmai

Enlightenment & the Spirit of Freedom2009.12.30
The Debate between Science and Metaphysics in Educational Modernization: The Case of Zhang Junmai
【Abstract】To define the “Science-CXuan debate” in China’s modernization process as either a dispute between the ancient and the modern, or between East and West, misses the point. The Science-CXuan debate reflects a certain tension internal to the process of modernization itself. What the Xuanxue faction, represented by Zhang Junmai, was proposing was precisely the demand of modernization, or “enlightenment.” At the core of enlightenment lies the education of national character, the cultivation of a free will. What Zhang Junmai was concerned with was not whether science could explain a worldview, but how to cultivate and establish a new worldview. And the establishment of a new worldview, or a new culture,…
China education human nature paper
阅读全文

2009年12月30日
Solar Eclipse and Ritual

Chinese Civilization & the Way of Chinese2009.07.01
Solar Eclipse and Ritual
When the ruler’s conduct is irregular, and the dukes and ministers are unvirtuous, when the Yi and the Di are strong and invade, and all affairs are thrown into confusion, then the sun is eclipsed.——《Spring and Autumn Wei: Gan Jing Fu》 When the ruler indulges himself and does not follow the ancients, when he acts against Heaven and brutalizes things, calamity arises and then the sun is eclipsed.——《Spring and Autumn Wei: Yundou Shu》 When the ruler’s joy and anger are irregular, when he lightly kills the innocent, executes the guiltless, disrespects Heaven and Earth, and disregards ghosts and spirits, then the sun is eclipsed.——《Liyun Wei: Dou Weiyi》 When the…
culture China ritual astronomy
阅读全文

2009年7月1日
The Responsibility of the Communicator

Culture & Public Commentary2009.05.22
The Responsibility of the Communicator
Today, while riding my bike in the rain on the 21st, as usual my thoughts drifted about, and I connected up a few threads I had recently run into, and so I wrote this essay. As for my attitude toward plagiarism and literary theft, I already made it clear in my undergraduate post “Why Suixuan Is Not Afraid of Plagiarism and Theft.” Now that I compare my own writing to excrement, that too signals my attitude that I am not afraid of plagiarism. And yet, of course, I have always held a deep contempt for paper plagiarism. In a certain sense, plagiarism or theft in academic papers is, in my…
culture freedom media value
阅读全文

2009年5月22日