标签：book reading

Two Leisurely Books: “The Shards of God” and “The Universe of Spirit”

History of Science & Scholarship2006.02.09
Two Leisurely Books: “The Shards of God” and “The Universe of Spirit”
[U.S.] Scott Adams: *The Dilbert Principle: A Workplace Survival Guide*? No—this is actually Scott Adams: *The God Particle Residue—An Alternative Reflection on a Complex World*, translated by Gao Zimei, Xinjiang People’s Publishing House, January 2003 This is a book one can read straight through in fifteen minutes; it is entirely a throwaway diversion I picked up just to make up the numbers. The book claims to be “the world’s best-selling E-Book in history,” which I do believe, because I myself have bought no fewer than ten copies of it! That was simply because, back then, on Dangdang, the price of this book stayed at 1 yuan for a long time!…
philosophy book reading notes religion
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2006年2月9日
[Fr.] Poincaré: “Last Thoughts”

History of Science & Scholarship2006.02.09
[Fr.] Poincaré: “Last Thoughts”
[French] Poincaré: “The Last Reflections,” translated by Li Xingmin, proofread by Fan Dainian, Commercial Press, December 1996 Poincaré was such a great, even legendary, figure! Poincaré is widely regarded as the “last all-around mathematical genius,” comparable to Gauss; in fact, it would not be at all excessive to remove even the word “mathematical.” “Poincaré’s achievements in the four main branches of mathematics—arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and analysis—were all pioneering; in particular, he made outstanding contributions to branches such as function theory, algebraic geometry, number theory, the mathematics of strings, differential equations, and algebraic topology.” (p. ii) “In astronomy, Poincaré’s main work fell into three areas: the equilibrium shapes of rotating fluids;…
philosophy book reading notes philosophy of science
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2006年2月9日
Tian Song: “Don Quixote’s Lance”

History of Science & Scholarship2006.02.07
Tian Song: “Don Quixote’s Lance”
Tian Song: *Don Quixote’s Lance—Passing Through the Mist of Scientific Discourse*, Shanghai Science and Technology Education Press, December 2002 Preface: “Misunderstanding Science,” included in the first part on page xiv, is a work from the early 1990s. Looking at it now, there are many lines that make me inwardly embarrassed, for example: ………… these are things I would absolutely not dare to write now. One could add a few lines of mine that I often use to satirize others: fearing that others will say one lacks learning, one has no choice but to pretend to have learning, only to prove in the end that one lacks learning.…… ////——That satire is…
book reading notes faith scientific spirit
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2006年2月7日
Jin Kemu: “Candle Flame Ashes—The Melody of Thought”

Culture & Public Commentary2006.02.06
Jin Kemu: “Candle Flame Ashes—The Melody of Thought”
Jin Kemu: “Wind, Candle, Ash — The Melody of Thought,” Sanlian Bookstore, July 2002 Recommended by ZW. This was the last collection the old man personally compiled before his death, so naturally there is nothing to be said about its contents. ZW said I could learn from his style, but how on earth could I manage that?!? To write essays that come so effortlessly, so gracefully and fluently, one needs, beyond vast learning and a mind that remembers widely and knows both ancient and modern, China and the West, decades of hard practice as well. Besides, my own style is only suited to science or philosophy; I can’t do literature…
philosophy book reading notes scholarship
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2006年2月6日
[German] Feuerbach: “The Essence of Religion”

Philosophy & Thought2006.02.06
[German] Feuerbach: “The Essence of Religion”
Feuerbach [German]: The Essence of Religion, translated by Wang Taiqing, The Commercial Press, July 1999 2: pp. 1–2 Human trust is the basis of religion; and the object of this sense of dependence—that is, that on which human beings rely, and on which they also feel themselves to rely—is originally nothing other than nature. Nature is religion’s original primordial object; this is fully demonstrated by the history of all religions and all peoples. ////—This section states the central idea of the whole book: that the sense of dependence is the basis of religion, and that nature is religion’s original object. I agree with this. 3: p. 2 To say that…
philosophy book reading notes faith
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2006年2月6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
Roger G. Newton: “What Is Scientific Truth—Is the Moon There When No One Looks?”

Philosophy & Thought2006.02.03
Roger G. Newton: “What Is Scientific Truth—Is the Moon There When No One Looks?”
Roger G. Newton, *What Is Scientific Truth?—Is the Moon There When No One Looks?*, translated by Wu Jike, Shanghai Science and Technology Education Press, May 2001 I had read this book already in my first year of high school. At the time I found it hard to understand, but reading it again now, I realize that it is in fact a book about the philosophy of science. Its author is a quantum physicist, yet his familiarity with the philosophy of science, including scientific epistemology, history of science, sociology of science, and so on, is quite broad. The author criticizes sociologists of science who hold relativistic social constructivist views, and he…
book reading notes philosophy of science truth
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2006年2月3日
Fang Zhouzi: “Ulcer—Confronting Academic Corruption in China”

History of Science & Scholarship2006.01.31
Fang Zhouzi: “Ulcer—Confronting Academic Corruption in China”
Fang Zhouzi: “Ulcer—Confronting Chinese Academic Corruption,” Hainan Publishing House, June 2001 Pages 328–329 Q: Could you give a few examples to explain the corruption in Chinese academia? A: The corruption in Chinese academia mainly manifests itself in these several ways: 1. Plagiarism of papers. For example, Professor Yang Jing’an, director of the Artificial Intelligence Application Research Office at Hefei University of Technology, has plagiarized at least five foreign papers over the past few years, and basically copied them word for word from beginning to end, with not a single result of his own. His brazenness is shocking. 1. Plagiarism of papers. For example, Professor Yang Jing’an, director of the Artificial…
book reading notes scholarship philosophy of science
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2006年1月31日
[Eng] Martin Oliver: “The History of Philosophy”

Philosophy & Thought2006.01.31
[Eng] Martin Oliver: “The History of Philosophy”
[Eng] Martin Oliver: The History of Philosophy, translated by Wang Hongyin, Hope Publishing House, October 2003 This is neither a rigorous, in-depth academic book, nor a particularly illuminating or useful introductory guide; it is nothing more than an excessively flashy, so-called “illustrated” popular read. The only reason I thought of reading it was that I happened to pick it up and, since I had bought it before, figured I might as well read it rather than leave it unread; so I leafed through it once. Of course, although I would not recommend this book, it would also be wrong to say that it is merely all style and no substance….
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2006年1月31日
[German] Ernst Cassirer: An Essay on Man

Culture & Public Commentary2006.01.29
[German] Ernst Cassirer: An Essay on Man
[German] Ernst Cassirer: An Essay on Man, translated by Gan Yang, Xiyuan Publishing House, 2nd edition, July 2004 It seems I read this book a very long time ago, and it was the Shanghai Translation Publishing House edition; but I have forgotten almost everything I read. Now I happened to pick up a discounted copy bought somewhere for 30 percent of the original price, and I don’t even know whether it is genuine or pirated, a good edition or a bad one. In any case, I just picked it up and gave it another quick read. This book is also introductory in nature. In a not very long span of…
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2006年1月29日