标签：book reading

Neil Postman: Amusing Ourselves to Death, translated by Zhang Yan, Guangxi Normal University Press, 2004

AI & the Future of Technology2006.11.11
Neil Postman: Amusing Ourselves to Death, translated by Zhang Yan, Guangxi Normal University Press, 2004
In buying books and reading books, there often turn up certain experiences that can be explained as “mystical”: when, during a certain period, I have been thinking about some questions, then one day I suddenly wander into a bookstore and find a certain book in a spot I usually seldom pay attention to; I buy it on all sorts of other impulses, and when I bring it home and browse through it, I slap the table and say, “Isn’t this exactly what I’ve been wanting to say?” As if the book had been written by me in the past, and some kind of revelatory power had led me to find…
book reading notes media book review
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2006年11月11日
[Eng.] McGrath: Introduction to Christianity, translated by Ma Shulin and Sun Yi, Peking University Press, 2003

Philosophy & Thought2006.11.05
[Eng.] McGrath: Introduction to Christianity, translated by Ma Shulin and Sun Yi, Peking University Press, 2003
It’s been a long time since I last wrote a reading note… I don’t even know whether lately I’ve been lazy, decadent, irritable, depressed, fallen, or just down in the dumps… On the one hand, I’ve been reading much less, and when I do read I can’t be bothered to jot down any notes or impressions; at most I just use a highlighter to mark things directly in the book, sigh…… This is a book worth recommending. The author of this book is the same person who wrote *An Introduction to Science and Religion*. The book is not thick, and in four parts it introduces the core of Christianity (Jesus),…
book reading notes faith religion
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2006年11月5日
Nineteen Eighty-Four

Culture & Public Commentary2006.09.20
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Orwell: Nineteen Eighty-Four, translated by Dong Leshan, Liaoning Education Press, March 1998 At last I’ve finished this book. Let me say it plainly: personally, I find it not as good as Brave New World, and I even think it is less interesting than Orwell’s Animal Farm. Of course, it is still a good book. I don’t know much about literary criticism; perhaps Orwell’s writing is better than Huxley’s, but I’m not very sensitive to that. In any case, both books are very well written. Some people say Orwell writes in a more “human-centered” way, with a deeper insight into human nature. Huxley, they say, is too cold. In a sense…
book reading notes politics
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2006年9月20日
Some Fun Problems, Parts 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9

History of Science & Scholarship2006.09.05
Some Fun Problems, Parts 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9
Some Amusing Puzzles, III: Taking an Inch and Then a Mile, Cleverly Guessing a Go Piece, a Chaotic Village, Things That Can Only Be Said on Tuesday, and a Super BT Problem Xingding posted on 2006-09-05 13:39:14 Taking an Inch and Then a Mile At a dance, Luoji saw a beautiful woman, so he went up to chat her up and invited her to dance with him. The beautiful woman said, “I hate dishonest people. Tell you what: I’ll listen to one sentence from you. If it’s true, I’ll dance with you; if it’s false, I’ll never speak to you again!” Luoji thought for a moment and said a sentence….
book reading notes mathematics logic
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2006年9月5日
Selected Philosophical Aphorisms

Philosophy & Thought2006.09.02
Selected Philosophical Aphorisms
《蔡志忠哲理漫画》系列，三联书店 Montesquieu: Everyone has a sense of shyness! But one must know how to overcome it, and never abandon it. ////—To overcome it without abandoning it: nicely put. Pascal: It is no shame for a person to yield to pain; it is shameful to yield to pleasure. ////—Much admired. Pascal: Man’s greatness lies in the fact that humanity knows itself to be unhappy; a tree does not know itself to be unhappy. Thus, to know oneself unhappy is unhappiness, but man’s greatness lies precisely in knowing himself unhappy. Pascal: Man is like a reed, the most fragile thing in nature, yet a thinking reed. In the universe, anything can destroy…
philosophy book reading notes faith
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2006年9月2日
It is when the sky is darkest that people see the stars. — Emerson

Life & Notes2006.08.31
It is when the sky is darkest that people see the stars. — Emerson
As the title says.
book reading notes nature stars
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2006年8月31日
The Mathematical Roots of Postmodern Thought

History of Science & Scholarship2006.08.25
The Mathematical Roots of Postmodern Thought
[Addendum] Vladimir Tasic: _The Mathematical Roots of Postmodern Thought_, translated by Cai Zhong and Dai Jianping, Fudan University Press, October 2005 Page 5: I think we can subdivide the theoretical edifice of postmodernism. First, one may regard postmodernism as influenced by Romanticism, as a revival—or, to use slightly different terminology, a reinvention—of the ideas of those mathematicians who once challenged logical inductivism; second, one may regard postmodernism as an extreme departure from Romantic humanism, a departure whose roots can in part be traced back to mathematics, and whose postmodern version has become a rather extreme form of formalism. ////——Tasic’s perspective is highly distinctive. Indeed, whenever philosophy discovers that something has…
philosophy book reading notes mathematics
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2006年8月25日
A Sand County Almanac

History of Science & Scholarship2006.08.23
A Sand County Almanac
[U.S.] Aldo Leopold: Sand County Almanac — Leopold’s Meditations on Nature, translated by Wu Meizhen, revised by Wang Ruixiang, China Social Sciences Publishing House, March 2004 This is the Taiwanese edition of Sand County Almanac (Leopold); it seems to include the most complete set of essays, and should be the best version. From whatever angle you look at it, this book is essential reading. It is praised, together with Walden, as a model of nature-and-humanity writing; it was selected by the New York Public Library as one of the ten must-read books in the humanities in its “Books of the Century” list; it has been called the Bible of ecologism;…
book reading notes humanities natural history
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2006年8月23日
Brave New World

Culture & Public Commentary2006.08.18
Brave New World
[English] Aldous Huxley: *Brave New World*, translated by Wang Bo, Chongqing Publishing House, June 2005 I’d long heard of it, and Teacher Liu had recommended it too, but I still hadn’t read it. Probably just laziness. I really ought to read some literary works too. I’ve always admired and emphasized literature, but that can’t just remain lip service forever, can it? After being reminded once again, I decided to show some decisiveness in my reading—if I think of reading it, I buy it; if I buy it, I read it. The book was just delivered this afternoon, and I finished it in one sitting. It really is excellent—very excellent! Well…
philosophy book reading notes faith
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2006年8月18日
Some Interesting Problems, II: To Change or Not to Change?

History of Science & Scholarship2006.08.13
Some Interesting Problems, II: To Change or Not to Change?
Change or not change? This isn’t a logic puzzle in the strict sense, but it is still a very interesting strategy problem. It suddenly occurred to me: It goes something like this: you are taking part in a game show such as “Lucky 53,” and, fortunately, you win a prize. The host takes you to three boxes and tells you that one of them contains the grand prize—say, a luxury villa—while the other two contain only consolation prizes—say, a jar of doubanjiang. You may choose any one box at will. You choose a box, say Box No. 1. At this point the host opens, say, Box No. 3, and lets…
book reading notes mathematics choice
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2006年8月13日