标签：environment

History of Science as a Nature Reserve—A Darwinian View of Science

History of Science & Scholarship2018.04.05
History of Science as a Nature Reserve—A Darwinian View of Science
Last Friday (March 30), I was invited to Shanghai Natural History Museum to take part in a “reading session,” where I introduced my own Outdated Wisdom. Although it was an internal event, there were quite a few listeners—more than 50 friends from museums and publishing houses took part. The title I set for my talk was “Outdated Wisdom and Its Contemporary Significance.” I heard that Liu Su was going as well, so I especially strengthened the Darwinian evolutionary logic in it, and won myself a remark: “Thought-provoking; I hadn’t expected it could be used that way.” I was pretty satisfied with that~ This talk was rather unusual for me, because…
science history of science philosophy of science Scientific Revolution
阅读全文

2018年4月5日
The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Garbage (Postdoctoral Exit Report): Lecture Notes

History of Science & Scholarship2017.01.07
The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Garbage (Postdoctoral Exit Report): Lecture Notes
This is the postdoctoral exit report I did together with Teacher Tian Song. To be honest, it was done somewhat half-heartedly; many interesting threads were not able to be developed in depth. But the question itself should still be a pretty good one. First let me explain the title. In the article I did not explicitly spell out what this title meant, and some of the wording may well have caused misunderstanding. I only noticed this omission after seeing Teacher Wu Tong’s review comments, so my live report began with a remedial explanation. My “The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Garbage” obviously imitates Bert’s work The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical…
Heidegger phenomenology environment modernity
阅读全文

2017年1月7日
Lecture Notes on The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Garbage (Postdoctoral Exit Report)

History of Science & Scholarship2017.01.07
Lecture Notes on The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Garbage (Postdoctoral Exit Report)
This is the postdoctoral exit report I did with Teacher Tiansong. To be honest, it was done rather half-heartedly; many interesting parts were not developed in depth, but the problem itself should still be a good one. First let me explain the title. I did not make the meaning of this title explicit in the article, and some of the phrasing may well have caused misunderstandings. I only noticed this omission after reading Teacher Wu Tong’s evaluation, so my live report began with a remedial explanation. My “The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Garbage” is obviously modeled on Bert’s book The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science, which was my introduction…
Heidegger phenomenology environment modernity
阅读全文

2017年1月7日
The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Garbage

History of Science & Scholarship2016.12.01
The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Garbage
Introduction: From Philosophy of Technology to Philosophy of Garbage 1. The Historical Absence of a Philosophy of Garbage 2. How Is Garbage Possible? 3. Garbage Has Existed Since Ancient Times 4. The Modernity of Garbage I. The World of Ideas That Rejects Decay 1. The Age of the World Picture 2. The One-Sidedness of the World Picture 3. Plato’s World of Ideas 4. Aversion to Mortality II. Intellectual Purism That Rejects Ambiguity 1. Binary Opposition 2. Is and Ought 3. Identity and Garbage 4. Kant’s “Discarding Method” III. Foundationalism That Rejects Recycling 1. The Triple Synthesis 2. Memory and Its “Recycling” 3. Learning and Technology 4. The Cycle of History…
technology media Heidegger phenomenology
阅读全文

2016年12月1日
The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Garbage

History of Science & Scholarship2016.12.01
The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Garbage
Introduction: From Philosophy of Technology to Philosophy of Garbage 1. The Historical Absence of a Philosophy of Garbage 2. How Is Garbage Possible? 3. Garbage Has Existed Since Ancient Times 4. The Modernity of Garbage I. The World of Ideas That Rejects Decay 1. The Age of the World Picture 2. The One-Sidedness of the World Picture 3. Plato’s World of Ideas 4. Aversion to Mortality II. Intellectual Purism That Rejects Ambiguity 1. Binary Opposition 2. Is and Ought 3. Identity and Garbage 4. Kant’s “Discarding Method” III. Foundationalism That Rejects Recycling 1. The Triple Synthesis 2. Memory and Its “Recycling” 3. Learning and Technology 4. The Cycle of History…
technology media Heidegger phenomenology
阅读全文

2016年12月1日
On Garbage (1): From Discarded Things to Useless Things

AI & the Future of Technology2016.01.02
On Garbage (1): From Discarded Things to Useless Things
My postdoctoral research project at the time was to work on a history of garbage. I am ashamed to say that, although I have been collaborating with Professor Tian for more than a year, there has been little real progress under this topic, and whether I will ultimately be able to turn it into my exit report is somewhat worrying. One compromise would be to write the exit report on the history of technology or the philosophy of technology, while inserting discussions of garbage at appropriate points. My intention to study garbage was not a whim, nor did I think of this topic merely because I happened to collaborate with…
technology Heidegger Scientific Revolution value
阅读全文

2016年1月2日
What Does the Mobile Phone Have to Do with Cooking? — The One and the Many of Technology

AI & the Future of Technology2015.11.12
What Does the Mobile Phone Have to Do with Cooking? — The One and the Many of Technology
The previous post mentioned one of Wu’s core objections, namely, his view that science is singular, whereas technology is plural. At the time he gave an example: branches of science such as physics, chemistry, and biology ultimately promise that they can be reduced to a unified foundation, and therefore their historical development is also interconnected. But what about the relations among various technologies, such as between mobile phones and cooking technology? If various concrete technologies are mutually independent, then where does their unity in history come from? My brief reply at the time was this: the reason various technologies can be “unified” is that “life” is unified. And I also…
everyday life technology history of science media
阅读全文

2015年11月12日
Philosophical Commentary [Episode 2] “What Nice Weather” (Part I): The True Is the Point of Emphasis

Philosophy & Thought2015.08.12
Philosophical Commentary [Episode 2] “What Nice Weather” (Part I): The True Is the Point of Emphasis
The previous installment may still have been a bit too academic in style, so this time I’ll try to speak a little more casually, offering only some prompts and not taking responsibility for digging too deeply. Today I’ll start from an ordinary phrase: “The weather is really nice.” Originally I wanted to write “Beauty, the weather is really nice today,” and discuss truth, goodness, beauty, heaven, earth, and humanity, but it felt like that would involve too much, so I narrowed it down to this one sentence and will talk only about “truth” and “goodness.” “Truth, goodness, and beauty” seem like the most solemn and sacred of all “big words,”…
philosophy phenomenology environment language
阅读全文

2015年8月12日
On Genetically Modified Organisms

History of Science & Scholarship2015.02.08
On Genetically Modified Organisms
Thanks to Xiao Cui’s efforts, the issue of genetically modified organisms has increasingly become a public topic, and the related controversies have increasingly been brought into the open—for example, the recent discussion forum held by Phoenix University Questions, which looked pretty good. Genetically modified organisms and traditional Chinese medicine have basically become a kind of litmus test for aligning with one camp or another; it seems that those strongly in favor of GMOs and against traditional Chinese medicine are the “scientific camp,” while those against GMOs or in favor of traditional Chinese medicine are the “mystical camp.” I have also been asked similar questions to “state my position,” but my…
technology science philosophy of science environment
阅读全文

2015年2月8日
Media as Environment — A Rough Philosophical Reading of Media Ecology

History of Science & Scholarship2014.09.25
Media as Environment — A Rough Philosophical Reading of Media Ecology
This is the draft of the talk I’m preparing to give tomorrow at Tsinghua; by then I’ll basically plan to read straight from the script, of course after finishing I’ll probably also expand on certain parts extemporaneously depending on how things go… This talk aims to offer a brief and accessible overview of the basic claims of my dissertation. My dissertation involves many problems, and the relationships among its chapters are originally rather loose, so it is not very easy to distill. Here I can only focus on a few core concepts. Since I have avoided the most abstruse parts (ontology and transcendental philosophy) and the most concrete parts…
philosophy technology history of science media
阅读全文

2014年9月25日