标签：China

Exercises for Philosophy of Science: Chapter One

History of Science & Scholarship2006.03.09
Exercises for Philosophy of Science: Chapter One
[U.S.]Alex Rosenberg: *Philosophy of Science—A Contemporary Advanced Text*, trans. Liu Huajie, Shanghai Scientific & Technical Education Press, November 2004 Chapter 1 1 This chapter begins with a potentially controversial philosophical definition. Please propose another definition of philosophy, one that can reveal the unity of the different parts of this field, such as metaphysics, epistemology, logic, ethics and political philosophy, aesthetics, and so on. The “definition” at the beginning of this chapter is: “… philosophy of science is necessarily a central issue of concern to both philosophers and scientists. According to this definition, philosophy mainly considers questions that science cannot currently answer or perhaps can never answer, and further considers why…
philosophy China science history of science
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2006年3月9日
Medicine and Science—A Reflection on the Question of Whether Traditional Chinese Medicine Is Scientific

History of Science & Scholarship2006.02.28
Medicine and Science—A Reflection on the Question of Whether Traditional Chinese Medicine Is Scientific
Reflecting on the question of whether Chinese medicine is scientific, I found myself, quite involuntarily, drawn into the dispute over whether there was science in ancient China. That is not really off the point; many articles discussing whether there was science in ancient China also mention Chinese medicine. However, getting caught up in the discussion of Needham’s problem is not the only way to approach the question “Is Chinese medicine scientific?” In fact, even those who believe there was science in ancient China may still think Chinese medicine is “unscientific,” or at least “not scientific enough.” In discussing whether Chinese medicine is scientific, because of a difference in perspective, another…
China science history of science traditional Chinese medicine
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2006年2月28日
Preliminary Thoughts on Whether Traditional Chinese Medicine Is Scientific

History of Science & Scholarship2006.02.25
Preliminary Thoughts on Whether Traditional Chinese Medicine Is Scientific
Whether there was “science” in ancient China, and whether Chinese medicine is scientific—on these questions I had previously read a set of polemical articles, and I found myself more inclined to support Tian Song’s view. Of course, if one thinks carefully about this issue, it is extremely complicated. Neither Tian Song nor the other discussants, as a rule, made clear just what “science” actually is. I have given this question some thought myself, but have not arrived at a satisfactory answer. Today I will only try to write down some preliminary ideas, and may add more later. The question of whether “Chinese medicine” is scientific is in fact also a…
China science Wu Guosheng scientific spirit
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2006年2月25日
Liu Huajie: “China-like Science—From the Perspectives of Philosophy and Sociology”

Culture & Public Commentary2006.02.22
Liu Huajie: “China-like Science—From the Perspectives of Philosophy and Sociology”
Liu Huajie: *China-Style Pseudoscience—From the Perspectives of Philosophy and Sociology*, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press, January 2004 I will read this book again later; mainly because in it, Liu has “collected a great deal of precious historical documentary material” (p. 1, Wu Guosheng’s preface), and it “is a valuable attempt at research into the local social history of science” (ibid.). It is a bit of a pity that “this book has omitted some parts that are not yet suitable for public publication” (ibid.), and the names of many officials in the text are rendered as “×××.” I have absolutely no interest in those hidden names, but the fact that such…
book reading China notes Liu Huajie
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2006年2月22日
It Turns Out That the People Who Support the Market Economy Most Are the Chinese

Life & Notes2006.02.07
It Turns Out That the People Who Support the Market Economy Most Are the Chinese
I came across an article in yesterday’s Cankao Xiaoxi, and found the full text online: http://business.sohu.com/20060206/n241679830.shtml This passage is quite thought-provoking: For a long time, there have been statements internationally such as “Chinese are born knowing how to make money,” “Chinese are economic animals,” and “Overseas Chinese are the Jews of the East.” A recently released global public opinion survey seems to have, to some extent, confirmed these claims. The University of Maryland’s Program on International Policy Attitudes and the polling organization “Global Scan” jointly conducted a sampled public opinion survey in 20 countries around the world. The results found that Chinese people are even more enthusiastic about the free…
everyday life China economy trust
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2006年2月7日
“Keyword Fever Syndrome”

Culture & Public Commentary2005.12.29
“Keyword Fever Syndrome”
The other day I mentioned that there is a kind of epidemic in Chinese society today, which I have temporarily called “keyword fever syndrome.” In fact, it seems that scholars have already proposed something like this long ago, but I can’t quite recall it at the moment, so let me first talk about my own view! What is meant by “keyword fever syndrome” is this sort of mentality: people do not care about the preface and aftermath of a sentence, about signification and reference, about connotation and denotation, and so on. As long as they see some “keywords,” they immediately become mentally aroused. For example, the case mentioned in a…
culture China modernity
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2005年12月29日
Philosophy’s Critical Spirit and the “Critical” Spirit of Folk Philosophy

History of Science & Scholarship2005.12.28
Philosophy’s Critical Spirit and the “Critical” Spirit of Folk Philosophy
Philosophy is the most meticulous about criticism and questioning. Every great thinker possesses a strong sense of skepticism and a critical spirit. Marx said, “doubt everything,” and Kant also carried out a comprehensive critique of traditional metaphysics in three massive volumes; Mr. Lu Xun, meanwhile, thoroughly exposed the inferiority of the Chinese national character… Many people find this immensely satisfying and gratifying; criticism, exposure, nitpicking—these became a kind of fashion, and “cursing and swearing at every turn” became trendy… Someone says: criticism is always a good thing, isn’t critique the most important philosophical spirit of all? Little do they know that this critique is not that critique; the so-called “critique”…
philosophy China scholarship tradition
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2005年12月28日
On the Attitude Toward “Chinese Traditional Values” and “Western Modern Values”

Culture & Public Commentary2005.12.22
On the Attitude Toward “Chinese Traditional Values” and “Western Modern Values”
Modern society, especially contemporary Chinese society, is marked by one outstanding predicament: a crisis of faith, that is, a loss of values. To say that values have been lost is entirely different from saying that values have become “pluralized.” The pluralization of values is a good thing, but the problem is that people’s values today are not richer or more varied; rather, they are confused, depleted, and full of blank spaces. In modern times, in the industrial era and even the information age, the earth has become smaller and smaller, yet the distance between people has become greater and greater; the number of species humans recognize is greater than at…
philosophy culture China tradition
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2005年12月22日
He Qinglian: “We Are Still Looking Up at the Starry Sky”

Culture & Public Commentary2005.12.14
He Qinglian: “We Are Still Looking Up at the Starry Sky”
He Qinglian: “We Are Still Gazing Up at the Starry Sky,” Lijiang Publishing House, January 2001 edition, third printing in February 2001, print run: 20001–40000 I came across this book quite by chance at Boya Hall. Because it was on the economics shelf, and since entering university I have hardly read many books on economics anymore. Yet in my senior year of high school, books in this area were ones I was quite immersed in—eighth grade I read science (the first was A Brief History of Time), tenth grade philosophy (the first was Twentieth-Century Western New Marxism), eleventh grade history (Stavrianos’s A Global History and Huang Rennyu’s The Great Chinese…
book reading China notes economy
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2005年12月14日
Heh-heh, an essay from middle school days…

Life & Notes2005.12.08
Heh-heh, an essay from middle school days…
There are two origins for this piece. One is that a couple of days ago, on the Philosophy board of a BBS, I saw someone post Marx’s essay written when he was seventeen and graduating from high school, “The Consideration of a Young Person in Choosing a Profession,” and I was suddenly moved by a flood of emotion… The other is that just now Chongge recommended me an article; I haven’t read it closely yet, but merely seeing the phrase “the germination of capitalism” in it set off some associations… In fact, I had only suddenly recalled some of my own ideas from middle school—that is, by the time I…
philosophy everyday life China Marx
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2005年12月8日