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标签：Cassirer

Gathering All the Books in the World—Can the Library of Alexandria of the AI Era Endure?

AI & Scholarship2026.04.23
Gathering All the Books in the World—Can the Library of Alexandria of the AI Era Endure?
This article was published in China Science Daily (2026-04-23, p. 3, General), with the title changed to AI Can Now Read “All the Books in the World”; Do Humans Still Need to Read Books?. It was edited down and divided into sections at publication; the original draft is posted here: Around 295 BCE, Ptolemy I commissioned the Greek scholar Demetrius to build a magnificent library and Mouseion (an academic institution) in the city of Alexandria. Demetrius proposed the grand vision of “collecting all the books in the world,” and it received the continuing support of the Ptolemaic royal house. The first three Ptolemies carried the project forward one after another,…
scholarship commentary internet knowledge
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2026年4月23日
An Interview with China Discipline Inspection and Supervision News on Questions of Science and Technology

Culture & Public Commentary2020.09.24
An Interview with China Discipline Inspection and Supervision News on Questions of Science and Technology
The published version can be found here: http://www.jjjcb.cn/content/2020-09/24/content_95300.htm There are quite a lot of changes in the published version of my wording, but these changes were also reviewed and approved by me, so I suppose this counts as a necessary compromise. Of course I have my own more independent thoughts, but when dealing with official media, I am also willing to seek common ground while reserving differences, and take the opportunity to pass along a couple of things I want to say. It is quite obvious that the interviewer wanted to locate the cause of the “chokepoint” problem in the weakness of “basic science.” I agree with this point, but…
China technology commentary Scientific Revolution
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2020年9月24日
Lecture Notes on the General History of Science 7: The Middle Ages and Christian Science

History of Science & Technology2015.04.17
Lecture Notes on the General History of Science 7: The Middle Ages and Christian Science
After finishing with the Arabs and China, let us return to the West and talk about medieval science. As for the Middle Ages, I was wondering whether I should spend two classes on them, because traditionally this period has been rather neglected; people probably know very little about it, yet in fact it is extremely important. To discuss why modern science did not arise in the Arab world or in China, on the one hand we have to talk about what was lacking in Arab and Chinese civilization, and on the other hand we must also make clear what medieval Europe actually had. In this lecture we will mainly talk…
history of science scholarship education course
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2015年4月17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
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2010年8月9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…
philosophy book reading culture notes
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2006年1月29日