标签：Aristotle

Reason and Ultimate Concern—An Attempt to Examine Why Mature Rational People Seek Religion

Philosophy & Thought2006.07.31
Reason and Ultimate Concern—An Attempt to Examine Why Mature Rational People Seek Religion
Introduction The relationship between reason and religious faith has always been a vexed issue in theology, philosophy of religion, and sociology of religion: are reason and faith mutually supportive, complementary, or incompatible? Is religious faith merely the choice of people who are ignorant or not intellectually mature enough? If so, why do so many people who at least appear to have sound psychology and mature intellect—such as even many of the most outstanding natural scientists of the contemporary era[①]—still piously believe in religion? The sociologist of religion Stark complained: “The idea that humans are essentially rational animals is the common foundation of mainstream modern social science. Religion is the only…
philosophy faith Aristotle religion
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2006年7月31日
A Tentative Account of the Problems Facing Contemporary Philosophy of Nature and Its Possible Directions of Development

History of Science & Scholarship2006.06.22
A Tentative Account of the Problems Facing Contemporary Philosophy of Nature and Its Possible Directions of Development
To try to expound the problems contemporary philosophy of nature faces and the directions in which it might develop — the essay question on the final exam in philosophy of nature. I’ll write a bit more about it when I have time in a few days. Sigh, this exam was really hard: ten term-definition questions: 1. In modern Chinese and Western languages, the word “nature” has two usages; what are they respectively? 2. Why did Plato think it was a misuse of terms to call the “sensible world” “nature”? 3. What is Aristotle’s topos? 4. What are Aristotle’s doctrine of the four causes and doctrine of the five elements? 5….
science Aristotle Christianity Newton
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2006年6月22日
The Expansion of “Matter”

History of Science & Scholarship2006.04.27
The Expansion of “Matter”
Whether in everyday language or in philosophy and science, the concept of “matter” is so basic that people mention it frequently, yet rarely probe its precise referent. Like time, space, and other concepts that have become habitual, people have not always agreed on the idea of “matter” throughout history. Today, “matter” as a physics term is usually understood to mean: “anything that has mass and can be perceived and measured; all matter is made up of atoms, and atoms in turn are made up of elementary particles.”[①] In everyday language and philosophical discussion, “matter” is often opposed to “spirit” and “thought,” and is close to, or even used interchangeably with,…
philosophy science history of science Aristotle
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2006年4月27日
On “Preaching the Gospel and Popularizing Science”

History of Science & Scholarship2006.03.25
On “Preaching the Gospel and Popularizing Science”
Professor Liu Huajie, in his essay “Preaching the Gospel and Doing Popular Science” (http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/485ea879010002nu), makes an interesting comparison between science communication and religious communication. My feeling is this: just as religion is not necessarily something loathsome, to say that scientific activity is similar to religious activity, or even that science in a certain sense has become a kind of religion, is not necessarily meant to demean science. If one were truly to spread science with the attitude of preaching the gospel, that devotion would be worthy of respect. However, just as superstition in religion is similar, many “believers” in science are merely “superstitiously” believing in science in a condition of…
philosophy science Aristotle religion
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2006年3月25日
Ancient Greek Natural Philosophy and the Scientific Spirit

History of Science & Scholarship2006.03.23
Ancient Greek Natural Philosophy and the Scientific Spirit
It is generally believed that the beginning of modern natural science lies in the natural philosophy of ancient Greece, and that the rational spirit of Greek philosophy made science possible. So what, exactly, was distinctive about the speculative reason of the ancient Greek philosophers? And what significance does tracing those features have for the development of modern science? The specialist in the history of ancient science, Professor Lloyd, believes that the two important characteristics that make ancient Greek natural philosophy unique are “the discovery of nature” and “rational critical and debating activity.”[1] By “the discovery of nature,” Lloyd means “learning to distinguish ‘nature’ from ‘the supernatural,’” recognizing that natural phenomena…
science Aristotle nature Wu Guosheng
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2006年3月23日
Causality, Premonition, Free Will, Paranormal Powers, Scientific Explanation

History of Science & Scholarship2006.03.19
Causality, Premonition, Free Will, Paranormal Powers, Scientific Explanation
Watching the film Final Destination, I think about what causality is? Can “premonition” be given a “scientific explanation”? Can “supernormal abilities” be justified within scientific epistemology? 1.Laws, causality, time Hume pointed out that causality is only a “habit,” and he was not wrong. When we see “2, 4, 6, 8, ___, …,” even the dullest primary school student knows how to do this kind of “find the pattern and fill in the number” problem; they will unhesitatingly write “10” in the blank, while slightly cleverer students will sum it up into a universal “rule” — “the nth number is 2n.” This problem is far too simple, but its basic principle…
science philosophy of science Aristotle Kant
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2006年3月19日
G. E. R. Lloyd: Early Greek Science—From Thales to Aristotle

Philosophy & Thought2006.03.01
G. E. R. Lloyd: Early Greek Science—From Thales to Aristotle
G·E·R·Lloyd: Early Greek Science—From Thales to Aristotle, translated by Sun Xiaochun, Shanghai Science and Technology Education Press, December 2004 pp. 62–63 Even so, one fundamental difference did in fact set most medical writers apart from philosophers, and this difference lay not in the kinds of theories they proposed, nor in the methods they used, but in the different motives behind their investigations. ………… Unlike philosophers, doctors ultimately had a practical goal before them, as the author of On Ancient Medicine says: medicine is a craft, and practitioners vary in their skill. The final aim in doctors’ minds was in fact to cure illness. p. 121 As I said at the…
book reading notes philosophy of science Aristotle
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2006年3月1日
“A Philosophical History of Poetry”: “A Feast of Thought”

Philosophy & Thought2006.02.05
“A Philosophical History of Poetry”: “A Feast of Thought”
Zhang Rulun, ed.: The Philosophical History of Poetry — Annotated Notes on Zhang Dongsun’s Poems on Western Philosophy, Guangxi Normal University Press, June 2002 Introduction Wanting to wash my tortoise-gut belly, I have not abandoned singing; the Xijiang has become a trickle under my feet. Laughing at the splendor that flits before the eye, I claim only half a day’s shade beneath a awning window. Thales Though all things differ, if they share one source, they may all return to what came from water. This man has turned back to the bottom of all processes, drawing a thousand men to draw again from the spring. Anaximander Only the boundless can…
philosophy book reading culture notes
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2006年2月5日