标签：analytic philosophy

Personality Philosophy vs. Propositional Philosophy: On the Inevitability of the Decline of Continental Philosophy and the Immortality of Its Significance

History of Science & Scholarship2019.04.20
Personality Philosophy vs. Propositional Philosophy: On the Inevitability of the Decline of Continental Philosophy and the Immortality of Its Significance
I had mentioned this in passing on Weibo before, and because it was rather short, I didn’t plan to put it on the blog. Yesterday, at the small reading group, this question came up again, and after thinking it over I decided to post it after all, since it is ultimately a question about the basic orientation of philosophy. Byzantines Should Regard Themselves as Romans As a student of Wu, my philosophical position is of course inclined toward continental phenomenology, but in fact I am not very willing to call myself a phenomenologist or a continental philosopher. It is much like how, after the division of the Eastern and Western…
philosophy scholarship media philosophy of science
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2019年4月20日
AR Glasses and the “Brain in a Vat”

AI & the Future of Technology2018.10.26
AR Glasses and the “Brain in a Vat”
My doctoral student Yao Yu recently gave a presentation in the reading seminar, discussing a phenomenological reconstruction of Putnam’s “brain in a vat” thought experiment. He chose the topic himself, and I thought it could be done, but I was very dissatisfied with what he actually produced. I won’t repeat my criticisms here; I’ll just briefly note here my own understanding of the “brain in a vat.” First of all, the reason Putnam proposed the thought experiment of the “brain in a vat” was absolutely not to reintroduce some new version of “external-world skepticism.” In the skeptical sense, there is nothing novel about a brain in a vat. I think…
technology phenomenology VR analytic philosophy
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2018年10月26日
Selected Commentary on the Anji Conference

AI & the Future of Technology2018.09.03
Selected Commentary on the Anji Conference
Done with travelogues The “Phenomenology and Philosophy of Technology Conference” has, in the blink of an eye, already reached its 12th session. This year it was hosted by Zhejiang University and held at Baicaoyuan in Anji. I skipped last year’s conference in Xi’an and didn’t submit a paper this year either, but I still came, took on two commentaries, and so at least made some kind of contribution. In previous years, I would usually publish a very “sharp-tongued” long review of each conference, criticizing everyone’s presentation one by one. This tradition probably began with the Hailar conference in 2010. In fact, my first review was written at Wu’s request. I…
technology phenomenology AI self
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2018年9月3日
Chopsticks and Internet Addiction

AI & the Future of Technology2012.07.23
Chopsticks and Internet Addiction
A few days ago I ate two Western meals, using knife and fork, and thinking of chopsticks; I always felt that something was missing, and I was also very unaccustomed to it. So, am I addicted to chopsticks? Is a life in which one depends on chopsticks every day a kind of obsession? This way of putting it seems a bit absurd; I’m afraid no one would seriously reflect on a symptom like “chopstick addiction.” Besides chopsticks, there are things like showers, flush toilets, and so on: many things in our lives on which we depend even more, and without which we feel uncomfortable all over. They are fully embedded…
technology media internet pursuit
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2012年7月23日
A Further Discussion of “Formal Indication”

Phenomenology & Heidegger2012.06.25
A Further Discussion of “Formal Indication”
Watching Jing Qi struggle on the issue of “this” and formal indication, I can’t help but keep pushing back, and for that reason I have also read, intermittently, some material on Heidegger’s early concept of “formal indication,” gradually coming to some understanding. Basically speaking, I have never placed much weight on the concept of “formal indication” (formale Anzeige, 形式指引), for several reasons: first, the phrase feels too Westernized, too specialized, and is easily read as jargon, leaving outsiders completely baffled. If there is a more plain and straightforward way of putting it, then there is no need to go through this phrase at all; second, this concept belongs to the…
philosophy Heidegger mathematics space
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2012年6月25日
The Distanting and Severing of “This”

Philosophy & Thought2012.04.19
The Distanting and Severing of “This”
Today in the discussion session, Ban Jingqi gave a presentation, and I could clearly feel that Jingqi was in high spirits—especially at the very end, when he hoisted up the blackboard to discuss Heidegger, he looked full of swagger and dash, seeming even more spirited than before he fell ill. Congratulations, congratulations~ After the classroom discussion, Jingqi also sent emails and posted on Weibo to continue the discussion, and I wrote a long response as well. Since he is also happy to publish it publicly, I might as well repost it on the blog too~ As for Jingqi’s original text, I have directly pasted his long Weibo post here (see…
philosophy Heidegger phenomenology discussion
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2012年4月19日
Three Meta-Disagreements with Analytic Philosophy

Philosophy & Thought2011.05.13
Three Meta-Disagreements with Analytic Philosophy
Dialoguing with analytic philosophy is difficult, because what analytic philosophy does best is precise argument over fine details, and it is all too easy to get drawn into the minutiae of a specific problem. We can hold the opposite view from certain analytic philosophers, but by then we have often already walked into their trap. Just as there are surely all kinds of opposing views within analytic philosophy itself, endlessly debated with great fervor, they especially welcome opposing views; then you present your rigorous argument, accept refutation one point by one point, and still have to consider countless possible counterexamples not yet raised. In this way, once you have won…
philosophy phenomenology analytic philosophy logic
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2011年5月13日
Phenomenology Notes 4: Speech and Propositions, Ready-to-Hand and Present-at-Hand

Philosophy & Thought2010.04.29
Phenomenology Notes 4: Speech and Propositions, Ready-to-Hand and Present-at-Hand
I’ve read quite a lot over the past two weeks, but because I’ve been bottling up a paper I haven’t managed to write notes in time. Still, I’ll jot down a few lines offhand, since this may also have something to do with the paper I’m about to write (about Heidegger’s ready-to-hand and guidance, and so on), so I won’t follow the order of the books. In other philosophy, especially early analytic philosophy, language is often analyzed as proposition, and what is called “truth” is also taken to be some kind of proposition or something that corresponds to a proposition. For example, Tarski said, “‘It is raining’ if and only…
philosophy book reading notes Heidegger
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2010年4月29日
Notes from the Xindao Salon, 09-04-18

Life & Notes2009.04.19
Notes from the Xindao Salon, 09-04-18
· Today’s salon had some newcomers dropping by, though the meaning of the café had not yet fully revealed itself to them. Welcome, friends, please keep spreading the word~ · The little ones were calling for Senior Brother Bu Tianshi, hmm~~ · In my view, a double major and a minor are not very meaningful. If you want to sit in on classes, it would be better to use the electives allotted by your own department to choose courses. But I won’t say too much about this either. · As for questions like course selection guidance, it is better to ask senior students than to ask your advisor~ · Science…
philosophy everyday life knowledge Plato
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2009年4月19日
Philosophical Style and Attitudes Toward Love

Life & Notes2009.03.19
Philosophical Style and Attitudes Toward Love
I always say that my philosophy “starts from the classical,” specifically, more or less from Kant and those around him. But that is only an external explanation; as for what this “classical” actually contains, I have my own understanding. In my view, so-called “classical philosophy” represents a style and an attitude, one marked by an entire era. Roughly speaking, the history of Western philosophy can be divided into four eras: antiquity (ancient Greece), the Middle Ages, the classical period, and modernity.—Of course, my “classical” here is classical rather than ancient, the sense of “canonical.” A rougher division would be simply classical and modern; a finer one could add primordial times…
philosophy autobiography pursuit Greece
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2009年3月19日