标签：experts

In Memory of Master Xianglong

Life & Notes2022.06.09
In Memory of Master Xianglong
Teacher Zhang Xianglong passed away yesterday… I was fortunate, as an undergraduate, to sit in on his introductory philosophy course, and later I also had quite a bit of academic and personal contact with him. I always got used to calling him Master Xianglong, because he was the first person who made me feel what the bearing of a master was really like: truly bringing together Chinese, Western, and Indian thought, and making one feel the profundity and richness of thought. Although Master Xianglong’s thought leaned toward antiquity, his horizon was broad and he kept up with the cutting edge. He insisted on reading the latest technology magazines, and when…
philosophy everyday life China Confucianism
阅读全文

2022年6月9日
The Meaning of “Conflation”: How the Public Can Participate in Scientific Communication

Culture & Public Commentary2020.02.06
The Meaning of “Conflation”: How the Public Can Participate in Scientific Communication
The third essay written amid the epidemic. I’ll say it again: things are tense, so please be cautious about sharing this among friends. From science popularization to public understanding of science to science communication, people in philosophy of science and technology have been talking about this for at least twenty years. The most traditional “deficit model” has long been widely questioned, but to this day, science communication and its significance still have by no means truly taken root in people’s minds. Simply put, the “deficit model” says that scientists possess scientific knowledge while the public lacks scientific knowledge, so science popularization is nothing more than scientists, from a position of…
science philosophy of science commentary politics
阅读全文

2020年2月6日
The “Two Cultures” Debate Is Long Outdated

Culture & Public Commentary2019.07.02
The “Two Cultures” Debate Is Long Outdated
Published in China Science Daily (2019-06-28, p. 5, Culture) In 1959, the British writer C. P. Snow proposed the thesis of the “two cultures” in a lecture, sparking intense debate. Even sixty years later, the topic is still with us, and seems not to have gone out of date. But I want to put forward a seemingly out-of-place claim: the two-cultures debate is already passé, and there is not much point in still fretting over the issue Snow raised. First, let us return to the context of the time and see just what split between what two cultures Snow was actually talking about. Nowadays, when many people talk about…
culture science sociology intellectuals
阅读全文

2019年7月2日
On the Backboard — A Phenomenology of Beat Saber

Phenomenology & Heidegger2018.09.28
On the Backboard — A Phenomenology of Beat Saber
Recently I’ve basically been grinding Beat Saber in VR, so I should count as having reached the expert level, right? Among the official songs, aside from standard mode where everything is A rank and Full Combo, I’ve recently started tackling no-arrow mode and one-handed mode, and in both modes I’ve also got 3 FC clears each~ Just the other day, in the introductory philosophy of technology class, we had just finished discussing Stiegler’s tertiary retention, and one of the links in that discussion was a phenomenological analysis of music. Applying that whole phenomenological analysis here is actually kind of interesting. When people first get into the game Beat Saber, many…
philosophy technology phenomenology Introduction to Philosophy of Technology
阅读全文

2018年9月28日
The “King of Invention” wasn’t called that for nothing—he was the one who invented “invention” itself

History of Science & Scholarship2017.11.24
The “King of Invention” wasn’t called that for nothing—he was the one who invented “invention” itself
This article was published in the November 24, 2017 issue of the *Science and Technology Daily* on the “Chang’e Supplement.” The original title was “Edison: The Invention of Invention”; the editor’s revised title is also quite good, so I am reposting it according to the edited version. What was Edison’s greatest invention? People usually think of the light bulb. But many people do not realize that, in fact, Edison was only an improver of the light bulb; decades before him there had already been light bulbs, and even in terms of commercial popularization, he was not the first. But Edison was still undeniably the king of invention. His contribution…
technology science history innovation
阅读全文

2017年11月24日
The Blame for “Health” Scams Shouldn’t Be Put on the Audience

Culture & Public Commentary2017.06.25
The Blame for “Health” Scams Shouldn’t Be Put on the Audience
Yet another commissioned piece from *China Science Daily*. Last time, I finished the commissioned piece in half a day; perhaps that efficiency left a good impression on the paper. This time they came looking for me again to write something, and lately I’ve been so busy I’m almost falling ill. I had originally meant to refuse, but after taking a look at the topic and thinking I’d probably be able to dash off something fairly quickly, I tried writing it. In the end I finished it in two hours, meals included. It was, after all, just an essay, so the standards didn’t need to be too high, and that was…
China science commentary science communication
阅读全文

2017年6月25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
阅读全文

2015年7月26日
Why Is the Three Gorges Dam Said to Be the Culprit Behind the Drought?

Culture & Public Commentary2011.06.06
Why Is the Three Gorges Dam Said to Be the Culprit Behind the Drought?
(Note: the image comes from Jandan’s Boring Pictures/original link, for amusement only~) The recent drought has once again made the much-controversial Three Gorges Dam the target of everyone’s criticism: some say the Three Gorges is the culprit behind the drought, earthquakes, and even all sorts of anomalies, while the pundits say that without the Three Gorges the drought would be even worse. So which is it? Obviously, the most “scientific” answer is: we don’t know! This is not like a hypothesis in physics, where we can design an experiment with controlled variables—holding all the other variables constant and looking separately at how things develop with and without the Three Gorges….
culture China technology environment
阅读全文

2011年6月6日
Who Has “Politicized” Google?

Culture & Public Commentary2010.03.25
Who Has “Politicized” Google?
Google ultimately still withdrew from the Chinese market. Whether this is good or bad, right or wrong, I do not want to comment at length; nor do I want to enshrine Google as a heroic fighter, much less regard it as a symbol of freedom and democracy. But in any case, Google’s withdrawal is bound to become a landmark event. At the very least, we can expect that some years from now, when we discuss issues such as politics, economics, morality, media, diplomacy, human rights, and so on in the Internet age, this case will always be cited. Here I only want to mention one interesting little problem that I…
China commentary politics experts
阅读全文

2010年3月25日
Communication and Chess

History of Science & Scholarship2009.09.12
Communication and Chess
At times, people put to me a question in different ways: in communication, how do I view or handle the status relation between the two sides of a dialogue? For instance, in speaking with teachers and elders, must one inevitably look up to them, or, correspondingly, when speaking with juniors, does one unconsciously have to look down from a position of superiority? This is especially so lately with some younger students who communicate with me: they cannot help but face such a contradiction. They expect some kind of equal dialogue and do not wish always to be in a weak position, yet to try to counter my own forcefulness in…
scholarship discussion equality experts
阅读全文

2009年9月12日