标签：China

Results Obscure Process—”Science Literacy Benchmarks” and Melamine

Culture & Public Commentary2016.04.29
Results Obscure Process—”Science Literacy Benchmarks” and Melamine
Recently I took part in the commentary on the “Basic Standards for the Scientific Literacy of Chinese Citizens.” I was invited to write a piece for China Science Daily, and it was published together with interviews of many teachers; see here. Because of the word limit, I accidentally wrote too much, and when the article was published it was edited and cut. In fact, the cuts were quite well done: the key points were all retained, and the tone was made less aggressive. Still, I’ll post the unedited original here for reference~ The newly released “Basic Standards for the Scientific Literacy of Chinese Citizens” has stirred up a great…
China science history of science philosophy of science
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2016年4月29日
When Results Obscure Process — “Scientific Literacy Standards” and Melamine

Culture & Public Commentary2016.04.29
When Results Obscure Process — “Scientific Literacy Standards” and Melamine
Recently I participated in the commentary on the , and was invited to write a piece for *China Science Daily*, which was published together with interviews with many teachers; see here. Because of the word limit, I accidentally wrote too much. When the article was published, the editors cut and revised it; actually the revisions were quite good—they kept all the key points and reduced the aggressiveness. Still, I’ll post the unedited original here for reference~ The newly released has stirred up a great deal of controversy. Beyond simply laughing at it or picking holes in it, there has gradually also been some serious discussion by scientists and scholars…
China science history of science philosophy of science
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2016年4月29日
I, Too, Will Take a Shot at the “Chinese Citizens’ Scientific Literacy Benchmark”

Culture & Public Commentary2016.04.24
I, Too, Will Take a Shot at the “Chinese Citizens’ Scientific Literacy Benchmark”
Recently the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Central Propaganda Department released the latest Benchmarks for Scientific Literacy among Chinese Citizens, which drew a great deal of mockery. Out of curiosity, I looked it up too, and after reading it I could not help wanting to mock it as well, so I sat down and wrote this (I’ve been trying to stimulate my own will to act lately). At first I only intended to pick a few items that had not been mocked much online and talk about them, but after writing I discovered there were far more targets for ridicule than I had imagined. Before I knew it,…
China science history of science philosophy of science
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2016年4月24日
“It Must Be Rectification of Names” — Politics, History, and Science

Chinese Civilization & the Way of Chinese2016.04.20
“It Must Be Rectification of Names” — Politics, History, and Science
Recently, the issue of the extension of property rights on Chinese real estate has come to light, and many people have only then discovered that the so-called “automatic renewal” in the Property Law as they had understood it was merely a misunderstanding; “automatic,” it turns out, does not include the meaning of “free,” and moreover there is no fixed amount for how much one must pay to renew. Wenzhou said one would have to pay 30 percent of the housing price to renew, and then issued a clarification saying the matter was still under study. But the problem is: if the rules were already established long ago, why must the…
culture China commentary tradition
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2016年4月20日
Travel Notes from the Shenyang–Benxi Meeting (Benxi篇)

History of Science & Scholarship2015.10.24
Travel Notes from the Shenyang–Benxi Meeting (Benxi篇)
Continuing on from the previous post, there have recently been many things lined up and demanding to be finished, so I didn’t really have the mind to write the travel notes to completion. But in the end I discovered that if I didn’t finish the travel notes, I would always have this one thing hanging over my heart, and I wouldn’t be able to do anything else well either, so I still went ahead and filled them in…… After the first day’s sessions in Shenyang’s Xiaoshicheng, we arrived in Benxi, where the conference’s final two days were held. The morning of the 26th saw the start of Session 4, themed…
philosophy China technology phenomenology
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2015年10月24日
Natural History or Natural Records?

History of Science & Scholarship2015.09.23
Natural History or Natural Records?
Last Friday, Professor Wu gave a lecture titled “What Is Natural History?” As for the Chinese translation of natural history, Professor Wu and I had been debating it long ago. I argued that it should be translated as “ziran shi” (“natural history”). This dispute over terminology later opened out into more layers of meaning, especially our understanding of the origins of modern science. In this lecture, Professor Wu formally expressed a willingness to yield: he no longer insisted that “bowuxue” was the only correct translation, acknowledged that my view had merit, and ultimately supported using “ziran zhi” in academic contexts, while continuing to use “bowuxue” in popular contexts. Of course,…
China science history of science nature
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2015年9月23日
Philosophical Ramblings [Episode 1]: Freedom Is Like Treating Someone to a Meal

Enlightenment & the Spirit of Freedom2015.08.07
Philosophical Ramblings [Episode 1]: Freedom Is Like Treating Someone to a Meal
Since I wanted to launch the “Philosophy Commentary” column, I had long been bursting with topics I wanted to write about, but when it came time to write, I no longer knew where to begin. Might as well start with an old topic: “freedom.” As for freedom, I have already written many articles discussing it; in fact, everything that needed saying has more or less already been said. But related discussions often involve the similarities and differences between freedom and equality, as well as specific issues such as freedom of speech, and they are not written in a very accessible way either. Here, I want to offer a popular-style commentary…
philosophy China freedom language
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2015年8月7日
Stock Market Musings: Freedom and Stability

Culture & Public Commentary2015.07.26
Stock Market Musings: Freedom and Stability
Recently China’s stock market has been wildly up and down. After an unprecedented “stock-market crash,” the central authorities have again stepped in with unprecedented force to maintain stability. The reason I thought of writing this article is not to play the prophet and predict market movements. On the one hand, I want to gather together some of my previous statements and thoughts; on the other hand, the stock market also has relations to political philosophy and natural philosophy. Besides, I believe this stock-market crash will have very far-reaching historical significance; in any case, it will become a landmark event. Although I have all along been promoting Bitcoin, and have always…
culture China freedom commentary
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2015年7月26日
How Should the General History of Science Be Told? — Course Summary for “General History of Science”

Teaching & Courses2015.07.16
How Should the General History of Science Be Told? — Course Summary for “General History of Science”
In addition to the philosophy department’s required course “Guide to Academic Research,” the main thing I had to deal with this semester was this university-wide elective, “General History of Science.” Grading It must be said that Beishida’s elective-course system is not all that great either. Although course offerings are very free, the credit requirement for electives seems to be extremely low, so many classmates take a take-it-or-leave-it attitude toward them. Not only did several classmates never come to class at all, but in the end they simply did not submit the final paper either, adopting the attitude that if they fail, they fail. As a result, out of the 15…
philosophy China history of science history
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2015年7月16日
Lecture Notes on the General History of Science 6: Special Topics in the History of Chinese Science

History of Science & Technology2015.04.09
Lecture Notes on the General History of Science 6: Special Topics in the History of Chinese Science
This time we are treating the history of Chinese science as a special topic. This subject does not lie within the lineage of Western science, so it is relatively difficult to discuss: there is a great deal of material on the history of Chinese science, but it is itself very scattered, and it is hard to summarize or to筛选 out what counts as core content. So this class may also be relatively free-ranging; what I mainly select are some points that can be set in contrast with the formation of Western science. We know that ancient China achieved a great many scientific accomplishments. Our primary and secondary education, as well…
China history of science course Scientific Revolution
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2015年4月9日