标签：modernity

The Practice-of-Medicine Model as the Modern Significance of Traditional Chinese Medicine — Reflections on Zhang Daqing’s Lecture

History of Science & Scholarship2010.12.10
The Practice-of-Medicine Model as the Modern Significance of Traditional Chinese Medicine — Reflections on Zhang Daqing’s Lecture
Today Teacher Zhang Daqing talked about the modernization process of Chinese medicine; yesterday’s class on “What Is Science?” happened to also be taught by Teacher Zhang, on the transformation of medical paradigms past and present; and tonight’s discussion class was about the modernizing problem of Chinese medicine. Taken together, let me talk a bit about my thoughts. What Teacher Zhang referred to as the modernization process of Chinese medicine was not the modernization of Chinese medicine itself, but rather the process by which Western modern medicine was introduced. The concept of “modernizing Chinese medicine” is different from “Westernizing” or “scientizing” it. Modernization first of all means a kind of boundary-drawing:…
philosophy science modernity practice
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2010年12月10日
Winter Vacation Miscellany I: What Is Modernity?

Culture & Public Commentary2010.02.01
Winter Vacation Miscellany I: What Is Modernity?
The blog has been neglected for quite a long time. I’ve been at home over winter break without much in the way of momentum, and before I knew it I was about to welcome the New Year in a state of neglect—that won’t do at all. No matter what, I should at least make an effort to update it a bit. Let me first write down some scattered bits and pieces I’d accumulated earlier but never got around to writing. Winter Break Essay No. 1: What Is Modernity? Back when the science-and-metaphysics discussion group was meeting, there was a classmate who rather arrogantly criticized everyone for talking at length about…
philosophy culture history modernity
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2010年2月1日
The replacement of “freedom” by “equality” is the common root of the predicament of modern science and modern democracy

Culture & Public Commentary2008.10.07
The replacement of “freedom” by “equality” is the common root of the predicament of modern science and modern democracy
This little essay was scribbled down when I had an itch to comment on a recent post by Professor Wu; see: http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_51fdc0620100bi39.html#cmt_1382340 Since the issues involved are rather important, I am not recording this passage in the usual “repost—archive” way, but tentatively pasting it here again. Since this passage is both rough and hasty, there is plenty of room for questions. ———————— Science and democracy can be said to be of the same origin and current, with their roots in ancient Greece, their modern versions in the Enlightenment, and their contemporary forms both taking the United States as a model. And their contemporary forms both differ markedly from ancient Greece….
culture freedom modernity equality
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2008年10月7日
How I Came to Approach Philosophy of Science (A Whig History)

Life & Notes2008.09.27
How I Came to Approach Philosophy of Science (A Whig History)
I didn’t write it well… not recommended reading.. Life is full of possibilities. In the course of my growing up, had it not been for those chance encounters and coincidences, I’m afraid I would not have set out on the road I’m on now—perhaps I would have gone into economics, or become a scientist; most likely, perhaps, I would have become some kind of amateur science nerd or armchair philosopher. But in the end I still ended up here: the philosophy of technology at Peking University. It was accidental, and yet somehow it also feels as though it came naturally, the most natural outcome of all. Looking back over my…
Peking University autobiography modernity mathematics
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2008年9月27日
Value and Rights—The Ethics of Reification

Philosophy & Thought2008.02.17
Value and Rights—The Ethics of Reification
This topic had already been discussed long ago in The Second Assignment for the Special Topic on Life and Death in Ethics: On the Value of Life and Outline for the First Discussion in the Introduction to Philosophy of Technology, but those earlier discussions were tucked away inside two assignments, and perhaps not prominent enough. Since this issue is quite important for my own “system of thought,” I am putting together a special post on it. I have not done any etymological detective work myself; I am simply going by Kingsoft PowerWord and a philosophical dictionary. The lineages of words like “value” and “right” are probably something like this: “to…
philosophy value modernity humanities
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2008年2月17日
The Difference Between “Argumentation” and “Bamboozling”

History of Science & Scholarship2008.01.22
The Difference Between “Argumentation” and “Bamboozling”
Sometimes, out of irony, I also call activities such as argument, persuasion, and admonition “brainwashing.” But if we really press the matter, I must insist that “argument” and “brainwashing” are by no means equivalent. In fact, we can all feel the difference between the two; otherwise we would not laugh at the “brainwashing” displayed in Zhao Benshan’s comic sketches. First of all, the purposes of “argument” and “brainwashing” are simply not the same. On the one hand, the former requires the other person to “actively” come to accept it, whereas the latter only requires the other person to “passively” receive it; on the other hand, the former is oriented toward…
scholarship modernity democracy science communication
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2008年1月22日
Relativism and Absolutism Are Birds of a Feather

Philosophy & Thought2008.01.07
Relativism and Absolutism Are Birds of a Feather
Some people fly the banners of relativism and postmodernism, claiming to oppose absolutism and universalism; in fact, they are unconsciously poisoned by absolutism, and at bottom they are nothing more than a further development of absolutism itself. Relativists will say one moment, “There is no absolute, universal, singular standard,” and then a moment later, either bluntly or obliquely, they say: “There is no standard”; one moment, “There is no interpretation beyond context,” and then a moment later, “interpretation is nothing but telling stories”; one moment, “Every argument has its limits,” and then a moment later they can, with righteous assurance and in complete ignorance of those limits, use their own…
philosophy scholarship modernity Kant
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2008年1月7日
Notes from Zhongguancun (1)

Life & Notes2007.11.24
Notes from Zhongguancun (1)
Zhongguancun is a wondrous place: Peking University is here, Wan Sheng is here, and so are Yecao, Boyatang, the Third Wave, and Fengrushong. The universities around here are simply too numerous to count. Sweep from north to south on a map: Peking University, Tsinghua University, Beijing Forestry University, China Agricultural University (East Campus), Beijing Language and Culture University, China University of Mining and Technology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (several institutes), China University of Petroleum, China University of Geosciences, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beihang University, Peking University Health Science Center, Capital University of Physical Education and Sports, Beijing Film Academy, Renmin University of China, Beijing Institute of Technology,…
everyday life culture Peking University modernity
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2007年11月24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 environment modernity
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2007年11月10日
On the Problem of Wealth Inequality in China

Culture & Public Commentary2007.09.05
On the Problem of Wealth Inequality in China
The problem of China’s rich-poor gap is both a sharp short-term issue and the most crucial issue in the long-term strategic picture; how to handle this problem is vitally important to China’s economic and political future. What needs to be addressed is the problem of the rich-poor gap, not the elimination of the rich-poor gap. The rich-poor gap cannot be eliminated, neither in theory nor in reality; all one can do is figure out how to face it. China’s rapid economic development has, to a very large extent, been driven by a huge rich-poor gap, and the paradox is this: if the poor want to become a little richer, they…
China culture modernity rule of law
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2007年9月5日