标签：modernity

The Flush Toilet: City, Civilization, Modernity

AI & the Future of Technology2012.05.26
The Flush Toilet: City, Civilization, Modernity
Yesterday, Professor Jiang Jinsong came to Chengze Garden to give a talk titled “Observations and Reflections on the Flush Toilet,” and Professor Tian Song offered comments. Professor Jiang did not say very much, and Professor Tian’s comments were also rather hurried, but the discussion was still very lively. Indeed, the flush toilet can be counted as one of the greatest achievements of modern civilization. It is not only a device that makes “going to the bathroom” more convenient, but also a hub that helped assemble the whole modern urban way of life and the entire urban system. Professor Wu commented that Professor Jiang’s presentation should be divided into the issue…
technology value modernity human nature
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2012年5月26日
Do the People Have the Right to Be Ignorant? — With a Discussion of Enlightenment and Unconcealment

Enlightenment & the Spirit of Freedom2012.05.14
Do the People Have the Right to Be Ignorant? — With a Discussion of Enlightenment and Unconcealment
People have the right to stupidity—this is Tian Song’s claim: “The people have the right to stupidity; if they are deprived of the right to stupidity, they will only have the right to be made stupid. The key question is: who has the authority to draw the line between civilization and stupidity?” Back then (almost six years ago now—terrifying), I already had reservations about this, though I did not discuss it in detail. Yesterday Jing Qi raised this claim again, and recently I have also been paying attention to pedagogical questions, so this is a good moment to talk through my thoughts. First of all, Teacher Tian, including Teacher Liu,…
China science freedom education
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2012年5月14日
Freedom vs. Equality — I Am a Right-Wing Socialist

Enlightenment & the Spirit of Freedom2012.01.17
Freedom vs. Equality — I Am a Right-Wing Socialist
Last month I posted an article talking about my impressions of the two Wu teachers’ gathering, and as a result a commenter who was criticizing Professor Wu Tong showed up and we exchanged several rounds in the thread below. It’s not that I absolutely had to defend Professor Wu Tong; after all, my dealings with him have mostly been public and not much private, and I wouldn’t dare pound my chest and guarantee that he himself is beyond reproach. But taking the matter strictly on its merits, and judging only from the circumstances presented by the accuser, I still couldn’t help wanting to defend him: not only Professor Wu Tong,…
freedom politics autobiography value
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2012年1月17日
From Technical Code to Virtue Ethics: Table or Div? — Starting from the Ministry of Railways Ticketing Website

AI & the Future of Technology2012.01.05
From Technical Code to Virtue Ethics: Table or Div? — Starting from the Ministry of Railways Ticketing Website
The Ministry of Railways has finally rolled out an online ticketing system, and that alone is worth encouraging. Of course, it is debatable whether moving the advance-sale period for online tickets up by two days is a good idea; for migrant workers and other vulnerable groups who lack access to the internet, this is not very fair. I have already booked train tickets on this website three times (the first two times were round trips to the Winter Solstice conference), and each time I ran into one problem or another. Even when the Winter Solstice conference was still very much in the off-season for train tickets, I still encountered network…
technology China media commentary
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2012年1月5日
On Communicating with Extraterrestrial Civilizations—A Snarky Commentary on Jiang Xiaoyuan’s Report

Culture & Public Commentary2011.12.04
On Communicating with Extraterrestrial Civilizations—A Snarky Commentary on Jiang Xiaoyuan’s Report
Forum on the History of Science, Technology, and Philosophy, Lecture 82: Jiang Xiaoyuan: Should We Talk to Strangers? — A Debate in the History of Science about the Search for Extraterrestrial Civilization This afternoon I went to listen to the Keke Forum. Quite a few people showed up this time; even the classroom was full. It seems that everyone still has high expectations for Teacher Jiang’s talk. Before this talk, when Teacher Wu mentioned it to us, he said that this time he especially wanted Teacher Jiang to say something “substantive.” In the past, whenever Teacher Jiang had been invited to speak, it was all rather “media-like,” or to put…
culture value modernity human nature
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2011年12月4日
Printing, Natural History, and the Birth of Modern Science

History of Science & Scholarship2011.10.24
Printing, Natural History, and the Birth of Modern Science
Introduction This article attempts to point out a certain connection among the three things named in the title—what is the relation between the invention of printing, the revival of natural history, and the birth of modern science? Is there perhaps some profound link among them, such that if we want to understand the essence of modern science and even “modernity,” we must begin by examining the influence of printing? Among these three matters, the date of printing’s appearance in Europe is the clearest: in the 1440s, Gutenberg in Mainz, Germany, invented movable-type printing. Whether or not Chinese printing indirectly influenced Gutenberg’s invention, the fact that the era of print in…
history of science scholarship media knowledge
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2011年10月24日
Arendt Reading Notes

Culture & Public Commentary2011.09.28
Arendt Reading Notes
Finally finished reading Arendt’s The Human Condition, and feel immensely relieved… Let me make some notes.. Wang Yinli’s Chinese translation of The Human Condition is basically pretty good. Though I didn’t compare it line by line with the English original, on the whole I could make sense of it, and there probably won’t be any major misunderstandings. The problem, however, is that her translation is still rather awkward. In the translator’s afterword, she also writes that she follows the principle of “literal translation,” saying that “literal translation has already become a consensus in the translation of academic works,” and so she tries not to change the original word order. I…
book reading freedom notes Aristotle
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2011年9月28日
Was Heidegger a Technological Pessimist?

History of Science & Scholarship2011.08.19
Was Heidegger a Technological Pessimist?
This article is a rewriting based on the earlier Heidegger’s Thinking on Technology. In fact, very little was changed, but after changing the title it suddenly became much more to the point and more complete. What I presented at this year’s Yangma Island conference was this very article, so before posting the conference record, let me post this article first. Is Heidegger a Technological Pessimist? Hu Yilin, Department of Philosophy, Peking University Abstract: Heidegger’s philosophy of technology is often described as a typical kind of pessimism. Starting from the question of whether Heidegger is in fact a technological pessimist, this article selectively expounds Heidegger’s analysis of modern…
philosophy technology Heidegger Introduction to Philosophy of Technology
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2011年8月19日
Heidegger’s Thought on Technology

AI & the Future of Technology2011.06.27
Heidegger’s Thought on Technology
As everyone knows, “technology” is a core concept in Heidegger’s later thought. Heidegger’s meditation on technology exerted a major influence on both the critique of modernity and the unfolding of postmodern currents, and it pointed the way for the “philosophy of technology” that emerged in the second half of the twentieth century; Heidegger has even been retrospectively canonized as a model “philosopher of technology.” Yet this emblematic image of Heidegger is often painted as that of a reactionary resister, pessimistic or romantic: it is said that he denied “the exaltation of human subjectivity”[1], ignored the “promoting role”[2] of modern technology, and was a “romantic” afflicted with “nostalgia”[3]. These judgments are…
philosophy technology media Heidegger
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2011年6月27日
The Qufu Church and the Time and Space of Chinese Tradition

Culture & Public Commentary2011.01.13
The Qufu Church and the Time and Space of Chinese Tradition
Today (yesterday), I was dragged by Classmate Slim to take part in a salon event, where we discussed the question of Confucianism and Christianity, East and West, using the incident of building a church in Qufu as our thread. Although I’ve lately been rather lazy and reluctant to move, I still went, after all, academic salons are activities I’ve always highly esteemed, and since a classmate was organizing it and had actively come to invite me, there was no reason to demur. I had originally planned merely to go along and make up the numbers, but when I arrived I discovered that there were in fact fewer participants than expected,…
China culture history modernity
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2011年1月13日