标签：nature

The Mediality of “Natural Seeing”

AI & the Future of Technology2012.03.21
The Mediality of “Natural Seeing”
Originally, I had planned to put up this article after the proposal defense, but while writing it I realized that in fact it was nothing more than citing some things I had written before, so I shelved it. But today a troll came by my Theses on Media Ontology, which just happens to give me a good occasion to post this article as a response. In fact, this troll’s objection was similar to the question Professor Sun raised back then. Of course, Professor Sun always poses his questions haughtily but without losing decorum, whereas internet trolls are different. I very much welcome criticism and questioning, especially the sort Professor Sun…
technology media phenomenology McLuhan
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2012年3月21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
Revisiting “Natural History” (Natural Science) as a Historiographical Program

Culture & Public Commentary2011.08.26
Revisiting “Natural History” (Natural Science) as a Historiographical Program
I previously wrote “Natural History as a Historiographical Program—Thoughts on Liu Huajie’s Lecture,” where I briefly raised this idea. I noted that although what I call natural history as a historiographical program differs from Liu Huajie’s “historiographical program of natural history” only in translation (I argue that Natural History should be translated as “自然史” rather than the more usual “博物学”), my conception of this way of writing history is quite different from Liu’s. Recently I chatted again with my student Wang Liang about related topics, and then I saw a conversation record between Liu and Jiang Xiaoyuan, Liu Bing, and the others about “the good should be attributed to natural…
philosophy history of science history knowledge
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2011年8月26日
The Naturalization of Mathematics — A Wordplay on the Mechanization of the World Picture

History of Science & Scholarship2010.01.15
The Naturalization of Mathematics — A Wordplay on the Mechanization of the World Picture
What is meant by “a mechanistic world-picture”? Dijksterhuis’s *The Mechanization of the World Picture* revolves around this question. He asks: “When we say this, are we thinking of the meaning of ‘tool’ or ‘machine’ implied by the Greek word μηχανή (that is, of viewing the world [whether or not it includes the human spirit] as a machine)? Or does it mean that natural events can be described by means of concepts and handled through the methods of mechanics, this branch of science (in which case the word is used in a very different sense from its original one, signifying the science of motion)?”[1] In the end, Dijksterhuis gives his answer:…
philosophy science Aristotle mathematics
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2010年1月15日
The God of Luck Appeared to Me~

Life & Notes2009.06.09
The God of Luck Appeared to Me~
The situation was like this: After being hit by a car last night, I spent today resting at home during the day. Most of my body has basically recovered, except that my right hand still lacks the strength to twist bottle caps open, my legs and knees are slightly sore, and the muscles in my arms are weak and depleted… For lunch I ordered takeout. For dinner I had originally planned to go downstairs and solve it with a 7-Eleven or Yoshinoya as usual. I casually threw on a long-sleeved outer layer before heading down, as I always do—this clothes is rather hot, but for a trip of less than…
everyday life nature pluralism feeling
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2009年6月9日
Reading Notes on “Science in Action” (Prepared for the classroom report on Latour: Drawing Things Together)

History of Science & Scholarship2009.04.27
Reading Notes on “Science in Action” (Prepared for the classroom report on Latour: Drawing Things Together)
[French]Bruno Latour: Science in Action, translated by Liu Wenxuan and Zheng Kai, Dongfang Publishing House, 2005 Although for the original course in the sociology of science the only assignment was to report on Latour: Drawing things together, if I had not first gone through this book, it would have been truly impossible to imagine myself managing to read that article… um… now I’ve finally figured out what Latour wants to do~~ 113[68] Any set-up or organizational structure, no matter how large or small, what sort of thing it is, or how much it costs, so long as it can provide any kind of visible display in a scientific text, I…
book reading notes nature instrument
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2009年4月27日
On the “Naturalness” of Laozi and Zhuangzi

Life & Notes2007.10.16
On the “Naturalness” of Laozi and Zhuangzi
Recently I helped a new first-year junior sister look over a paper, and in passing I jotted down a question here. This question is rather naive, but many people still make this mistake. Quite naturally, like many beginners and even some scholars who comment on Laozi and Zhuangzi only in part, she understood “自然” as the “自然” in “自然界” (“nature” as the natural world). But in ancient China and ancient Greece, the word “自然” did not have this meaning at all (see my earlier article “Ancient Greek Natural Philosophy and the Scientific Spirit”). Exactly what the word meant in ancient Greece may still require detailed textual verification, but in ancient…
everyday life China nature Confucianism
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2007年10月16日
The Rainbow Beside Me

Life & Notes2007.09.08
The Rainbow Beside Me
At noon today the sun was blazing overhead, and it was hot enough to be excruciating. I was riding my bike across campus. As I hurried along, I happened to see a couple by the roadside, embracing and looking at something. Following their gaze, I glanced over and saw that it was the automatic sprinkler in the landscaped area, spraying water. I had complained about this thing many times before; it was truly a waste of water resources. Besides, it was just sprinkling grass, not putting on a decorative fountain display—what was there to look at? Just as I was about to ride out of that stretch of road, I…
philosophy everyday life nature pluralism
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2007年9月8日
I Don’t Like Meditation; I Like Spacing Out

Life & Notes2007.05.24
I Don’t Like Meditation; I Like Spacing Out
Sitting cross-legged, eyes closed, gathering the spirit, meditating hard or thinking of nothing at all.—That doesn’t really suit me; I can’t sit still for very long. I like daydreaming. What is called daydreaming, unlike sitting in meditation, often involves staring fixedly at something. Staring at things that are at once moving and still. For example, staring at stars (stars are not motionless—they blink!), rain, water in a lake, grass, and trees. In Beijing there are very few stars and rain, so I like to stare at the wind and daydream. The wind is invisible, but the grass and trees that move with it can be seen. Stand under a big…
philosophy everyday life nature consciousness
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2007年5月24日
[Eng] Thomas Marent: “The Rainforest—A Photographer’s Footsteps”

History of Science & Scholarship2007.02.14
[Eng] Thomas Marent: “The Rainforest—A Photographer’s Footsteps”
[Eng.] Thomas Marent: "Rainforest—A Photographer’s Footsteps" Xingding posted on 2007-02-14 21:49:20 [Eng.] Thomas Marent: "Rainforest—A Photographer’s Footsteps," translated by Hao Xiaojing, Hope Publishing House, October 2006 http://www.joyo.com/static/lll_061107_bk_rdyl.asp?source=w-90003370 I quite like books like photographic collections, though they’re usually expensive, so I rarely buy them. This book was an impulsive purchase, and it is very good-looking. The rainforest is a marvelous place. In the rainforests, which cover 6% of the Earth’s land area, live more than half of the world’s species; on a warm and humid night, in a not-too-large patch of rainforest, you can hear 80 different kinds of frogs croaking, while all of Europe has only 53 species of frogs;…
book reading notes environment nature
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2007年2月14日