标签：freedom

Whose Responsibility? — An Excerpt from a Case Study

Philosophy & Thought2007.11.18
Whose Responsibility? — An Excerpt from a Case Study
I’ve lately found myself from time to time recalling a passage in An Invitation to Philosophy; I might as well excerpt it here: Page 113 … responsibility is the necessary product of freedom, the opposite of freedom, or perhaps, as Hume pointed out, responsibility is itself the basis of the demand for freedom: actions must be free in order for it to be possible that someone be responsible for each action. The subject has the freedom to carry out a certain action, but not the freedom to escape the consequences corresponding to it. Both Sophocles and Shakespeare like to speak of a “guilty” freedom; this is by no means…
philosophy book reading notes freedom
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2007年11月18日
“Anthropocentrism” and “Pride” as the Root of Sin: A Collaborative Research Proposal

Philosophy & Thought2007.11.10
“Anthropocentrism” and “Pride” as the Root of Sin: A Collaborative Research Proposal
The team-based project topic mentioned last semester (see 团体研究可以考虑考虑) has finally begun to take shape. It seems that because there are hardly any people doing philosophy of science and technology, the teachers have roughly planned to support one project in political philosophy and one in religious studies. Since an excellent term-paper author is needed to take the lead, the religious-studies part is basically a matter for Yali. The elder brother recommended that I also join the religious-studies team, and I am very grateful for that. Of course, whether I can actually join still depends on their decision. Yali originally wanted to set up a project on investigating Haidian Church. Setting…
philosophy freedom human nature modernity
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2007年11月10日
Fragments, Episode 3

Philosophy & Thought2007.11.03
Fragments, Episode 3
l He—I—you; “I” — freedom; “you” — love; “he” — the real. (Don’t ask me; I don’t know just what I want to say.) l When you complain that others have not understood you, or even suffer because no one understands you, the first thing you should ask yourself is two questions: first, do you understand others (has anyone received your understanding, just as you hope others will for you); second, do you yourself understand yourself? If you never try to understand others, how can you deserve to expect understanding from others? And if even you cannot understand yourself (for example, if your thoughts are always hazy, ambiguous, changeable, so…
philosophy freedom Kant Schopenhauer
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2007年11月3日
[U.S.] Dan Brown: Digital Fortress

Culture & Public Commentary2007.07.26
[U.S.] Dan Brown: Digital Fortress
[U.S.] Dan Brown: *Digital Fortress*, translated by Zhu Zhenwu, Zhao Yongjian, and Xin Yan, People’s Literature Publishing House, September 2004, 25 yuan I’ve been reading light books lately; the reference books I’d planned to read for my research paper, as well as the bilingual reading materials, haven’t even been started. One reason is that the long renovation has meant the boxed-up books have remained impossible to dig out, so I can only choose from these relatively easy-to-reach books. Of course, it also has to do with my own squandering of time—vacation must always be at least half wasted. Still, this vacation has been a happy one, my state has been…
book reading notes freedom United States
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2007年7月26日
“A Peking University Person”

Life & Notes2007.07.16
“A Peking University Person”
Peking University’s school emblem was designed by Mr. Lu Xun. It consists of two side-profile human figures and one front-facing standing human figure, forming the characters “北大” (PKU). There are different explanations of its specific meaning. According to legend, in Lu Xun’s own view, the human figure at the bottom represents the teachers and staff, while the two human figures above refer to the students, roughly implying that the teachers and staff serve the students. Of course, this meaning cannot possibly be accepted by today’s university senior administrators, who are turning universities into duck farms—treating teachers as hired labor and students as ducks—but even according to Peking University’s current official…
everyday life freedom education Peking University
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2007年7月16日
A Brief Discussion of the Question of Euthanasia

History of Science & Scholarship2007.06.08
A Brief Discussion of the Question of Euthanasia
One piece counts as two pieces… though that is not right, I really can’t make it in time… A Brief Talk on the Issue of Euthanasia The Basic Definition of Euthanasia Euthanasia refers to “the act or practice of, out of mercy, killing patients or injured persons who have no hope of recovery by a relatively painless method, or allowing them to die.”[①] The above is only a dictionary definition, and in academic discussion there are naturally many imprecisions in it. However, I do not intend to offer a new definition. In what follows, I will mainly discuss euthanasia in relation to issues of life and death. “Euthanasia can be…
philosophy freedom paper death
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2007年6月8日
A Third Path One Can Choose—An Interpretation of Feenberg’s Philosophy of Technology

History of Science & Scholarship2007.05.31
A Third Path One Can Choose—An Interpretation of Feenberg’s Philosophy of Technology
The Third Path That Can Be Chosen—An Interpretation of Feenberg’s Philosophy of Technology Introduction American philosopher of technology Andrew Feenberg is a representative of contemporary Western Marxist philosophy of technology. His critical theory of technology seeks to open up a “third path” in philosophy of technology—Feenberg hopes to carve out a new route between the traditional optimism and pessimism about technology, inheriting the critique and reflection on modern technology found in the Frankfurt School, Heidegger, Ellul, and other pessimists, while also retaining something of the utopian ideal found in Marx and in theorists of technology as a tool. Feenberg believes that he will “preserve the strengths of both theories while…
technology freedom Heidegger paper
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2007年5月31日
I am the man who will become the Pirate King!

Life & Notes2007.03.24
I am the man who will become the Pirate King!
I Am the Man Who Is Going to Become the Pirate King! The One Piece anime has already reached episode 300. I only started watching it over this winter break, and I watched the more than 200 previous episodes and several theatrical films in one go. Of course, it is a very good anime. The first 200-odd episodes are the most exciting, especially the first few dozen. And like other very long anime series, the further it goes, the more the plot begins to feel drawn out, and the tension of the story lessens and less. This is probably due to the interference of commercialization. But I am still full…
philosophy freedom autobiography pursuit
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2007年3月24日
Supplementary Questions from the Marx Lecture in the Philosophy of Technology Class

AI & the Future of Technology2007.03.16
Supplementary Questions from the Marx Lecture in the Philosophy of Technology Class
Supplement to the classroom questions: My confusion arose because I had first listened to Professor Wu’s lecture at Tsinghua and read the transcript of Professor Wu’s remarks on “Technology as the difference of being,” and only then looked at Marx, where everything felt extremely, extremely familiar—so familiar that it seemed Marx and Professor Wu were basically saying the same thing! First let me talk about my reading of some of Marx’s views on “human essence” in the 1844 manuscripts: Marx says: “The externalization of labor appears … first, that labor is external to the worker, that it does not belong to his essence; that therefore he does not affirm…
technology freedom Wu Guosheng Marx
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2007年3月16日
Excerpts from My Reading of Marx in the Philosophy of Technology Course

Philosophy & Thought2007.03.13
Excerpts from My Reading of Marx in the Philosophy of Technology Course
Excerpts from Marx Readings in the Philosophy of Technology Class I looked up The German Ideology on my own in order to verify Marx’s understanding of the concept of the human being and of human freedom. The remaining materials all come from the electronic file distributed by Wu-laoshi. What follows is only a transcription of the original text; I am not commenting for the time being. The underlines and boldface are all my additions. “The German Ideology (Selected Excerpts),” People’s Publishing House, 2003: The constraint of the level of development of productive forces on freedom (Chinese first edition of the Complete Works, Vol. 3, pp. 506–508) The problem as Sancho…
book reading notes freedom Marx
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2007年3月13日