标签：Heidegger

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
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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
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2015年11月12日
The Definition of “Technology” — A Means to an End, or Something That Can Be Learned?

AI & the Future of Technology2015.08.28
The Definition of “Technology” — A Means to an End, or Something That Can Be Learned?
Recently I have been preparing an article on the historiographical program for a general history of technology to present at this year’s conference on phenomenology and the philosophy of technology. The article has been somewhat hard to bring to term; in fact, I am trying, through this project, to reconsider anew what the essence of “technology” actually is. Here I will first deviate from the paper’s theme and write down some of my recent thoughts. In Heidegger’s mode of approach, we always have to begin by finding an everyday definition, affirming its reasonableness, but questioning its thoroughness, and then, by following the thread, sorting out its more original meaning. Heidegger’s…
technology Heidegger phenomenology General History of Technology
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2015年8月28日
Art: The Margin of Technology

AI & the Future of Technology2013.10.19
Art: The Margin of Technology
**Art: The Margin of Technology** **Explanation:** This was a philosophy of technology talk I was invited to give to the young artists at the West Five Arts Center. The original title was “Toys and Art: The Margin of Technology,” but in the actual talk I still mainly talked about technology and art; toys were only mentioned in passing. So now I’ve changed the title a bit. What I call “margin” could also be called “defect.” To speak of art as technology’s defect sounds somewhat offensive, so “margin” sounds more positive. A defect always means something that can be supplemented; hitting a wall always means there is room to turn back….
philosophy technology Heidegger Aristotle
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2013年10月19日
Travel Notes on the Lushan Conference

History of Science & Scholarship2013.09.11
Travel Notes on the Lushan Conference
Departing on August 28 and returning to Beijing on September 4, this conference trip, counting from beginning to end, lasted a full week; it was the longest conference I have ever attended, practically a vacation. Ever since I went to Nanning in 2009 to attend the Third Conference on Phenomenology and Philosophy of Technology, I have now attended five consecutive conferences. Aside from Nanning, where I only wrote a little “Miscellaneous Notes,” I went on to write full conference gripe-sessions about Hailar, Yangma Island, and Guangzhou, and I am now in the awkward position of having ridden the tiger and being unable to get off; this time, too, I ought…
Heidegger phenomenology Kuhn Wittgenstein
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2013年9月11日
A Natural History of Media—McLuhan’s Method

History of Science & Scholarship2013.08.10
A Natural History of Media—McLuhan’s Method
1. Introduction: Literary Style or Research Method? Marshall McLuhan (1911–1982) was the most influential and at the same time the most controversial media thinker of the twentieth century. As a pioneer or founding figure of the media ecology school, his reputation rose and fell dramatically: he was once elevated to the altar, and then quickly neglected and forgotten. With the dawn of the network age, he came once again to be widely known in academic circles and indeed throughout the cultural world as a “prophet-sage,” yet some still regard him as a mountebank who merely uses gibberish to hoodwink the public. These two images are not really contradictory. So-called prophets…
media Heidegger paper McLuhan
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2013年8月10日
Human-Centricity or Humble Solipsism? — A Discussion of Whether Heidegger’s Philosophy Is a Philosophy of Subjectivity

Phenomenology & Heidegger2013.04.01
Human-Centricity or Humble Solipsism? — A Discussion of Whether Heidegger’s Philosophy Is a Philosophy of Subjectivity
Jing Qi reposted an article by Ran Shi, “Is Heidegger’s Early Philosophy a Philosophy of Subjectivity?,” as well as the related discussion—among the participants were Jing Qi, Ran Shi (who is this, anyway? His blog is rather interesting), Professor Meng Qiang, and Professor Li Zhangyin, among others. I also chimed in. My comments leaned toward Ran Shi, and were also endorsed by him, but as always I was still set in opposition to Jing Qi (which, of course, is a very good thing). For the context of the discussion before and after, you can go look on Jing Qi’s or Ran Shi’s blog; I won’t reproduce it here. I’ll simply…
philosophy Heidegger Aristotle environment
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2013年4月1日
Travel Notes from the Guangzhou Conference

History of Science & Scholarship2012.12.16
Travel Notes from the Guangzhou Conference
In Guangzhou I caught a cold, and after coming back I spent several days recuperating, so the task of writing up the trip was delayed by several days as well; I only began writing on December 8…… First, a bit of emotion: how time flies. In a daze, the annual conference on phenomenology and philosophy of technology has already been held six times, and this was the fourth conference I have attended. I took part in the Nanning conference as a master’s student, and in the blink of an eye I am almost done with my doctorate. As for these conference “takedowns” of “I love my teacher,” this is already…
philosophy technology China media
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2012年12月16日
On the Discussion of Intentional History and Actual History

Culture & Public Commentary2012.11.10
On the Discussion of Intentional History and Actual History
Recently the blog update has come almost to a standstill, mainly because three mountains are weighing on me: first, the discussion-group paper (which also doubles as a submission for the phenomenology and philosophy of technology conference, as well as part of the introduction to the doctoral dissertation); second, the plan to turn the blog posts into a book (*A History of Science and Culture*); and third, using WordPress to build the soon-to-be-relaunched website of the Center for History and Philosophy of Science. These things will probably all be finished within a week. Years of not updating have already caused my blog’s PR rating to drop…… Today, to celebrate my birthday,…
technology history of science media history
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2012年11月10日
A Philosophy of Cinema, Not a Philosophy About Cinema—Reading Technics and Time 3: The Problem of Cinema’s Time and the Pain of Existence

Phenomenology & Heidegger2012.09.17
A Philosophy of Cinema, Not a Philosophy About Cinema—Reading Technics and Time 3: The Problem of Cinema’s Time and the Pain of Existence
From robber to Pompidou director, the legendary Bernard Stiegler is also the hottest figure in French philosophy today after Derrida. All three volumes of his magnum opus Technics and Time have already been introduced into China by Yilin Press. Although this third volume was written after the first two, it can also be read independently; the author himself notes that, in a certain sense, this volume can serve as the “best introduction” to the first two. Compared with the subtitles of the first two volumes — The Fault of Epimetheus and Disorientation — the subtitle of the newly published third volume, The Time of Cinema and the Problem of the…
technology book reading media Heidegger
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2012年9月17日