标签：philosophy of science

The Structure of the Technological Revolution (Draft)

AI & the Future of Technology2015.11.10
The Structure of the Technological Revolution (Draft)
This is the article I presented at last week’s Wumen seminar. The article itself is very incomplete—not only has it not been finished in form, but the key problem is the lack of basic literature: in academia, the issues related to “technological revolution” seem to lack discussions worth citing. Of course, this gives reason to suspect that there may be problems with the very legitimacy of my topic; Teacher Wu also questioned it quite strongly. But I myself still think this question is legitimate, and that the concept of “technological revolution” is indeed worth probing in depth. My article itself merely makes a superficial correspondence with Kuhn; this correspondence is…
technology history of science philosophy of science Scientific Revolution
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2015年11月10日
Lecture Notes on the General History of Science 9: The Copernican Revolution

History of Science & Technology2015.04.30
Lecture Notes on the General History of Science 9: The Copernican Revolution
Last time we talked about printing as the technological environment of the Scientific Revolution. Starting from this lesson, we will formally enter the period of the Scientific Revolution. Last time we mentioned that, when talking about the Scientific Revolution, we must at least distinguish three lines of development: first, astronomy; second, physics. These two lines converge in Newton, and can together be called the tradition of the mathematical sciences; this also constitutes the so-called “main line” of the Scientific Revolution in the usual sense. The third is alchemy and magic. This line stretches back farther than Copernicus and Newton; although its emblematic result is the rise of chemistry, its significance…
history of science philosophy of science course Scientific Revolution
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2015年4月30日
Lecture Notes on the General History of Science 2: The Prehistory of Science

History of Science & Technology2015.03.12
Lecture Notes on the General History of Science 2: The Prehistory of Science
In the last class we mentioned the historiography of the history of science, including different historiographical strategies such as intellectual history and social history. We cannot take science as a ready-made, fixed standard and sit in judgment on history from the lofty vantage point of modern people. We need historical consciousness, and we should try to return to historical contexts in order to understand how things developed. The concept of “science” itself is not ready-made and fixed either; in different perspectives and different contexts, it has different meanings. Every historiographical strategy for the history of science embodies some understanding of what science is. For example, intellectual history tends to see…
history of science philosophy of science course civilization
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2015年3月12日
On Genetically Modified Organisms

History of Science & Scholarship2015.02.08
On Genetically Modified Organisms
Thanks to Xiao Cui’s efforts, the issue of genetically modified organisms has increasingly become a public topic, and the related controversies have increasingly been brought into the open—for example, the recent discussion forum held by Phoenix University Questions, which looked pretty good. Genetically modified organisms and traditional Chinese medicine have basically become a kind of litmus test for aligning with one camp or another; it seems that those strongly in favor of GMOs and against traditional Chinese medicine are the “scientific camp,” while those against GMOs or in favor of traditional Chinese medicine are the “mystical camp.” I have also been asked similar questions to “state my position,” but my…
technology science philosophy of science environment
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2015年2月8日
Copernicus and Nakamoto — A Paradigm Shift in the Technological Revolution

Web3 & Bitcoin2015.01.28
Copernicus and Nakamoto — A Paradigm Shift in the Technological Revolution
This article was submitted last year to Babit, and may have been included in a new book published by Babit. But so far I still haven’t seen it published. Recently, while writing an article, I happened to come across some related content, and remembered that this piece still hadn’t been made public, so I might as well publish it first~ In the earlier Southern Metropolis Daily Bitcoin interview questionnaire, when I reposted it on Babit and Bitren, I added the title “Bitcoin as a Paradigm Revolution.” After all, having a title makes it seem as though it will spread better. But in fact, as a paradigm revolution, it was only…
philosophy of science media Aristotle Web3
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2015年1月28日
A Summary of the Reading Group on The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

History of Science & Scholarship2014.12.10
A Summary of the Reading Group on The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
This semester, at the initiative of a few undergraduate students, with me leading the reading, we organized a reading group on Kuhn’s *Structure*. By last week, we finally finished *Structure* (skipping the postscript), and starting this week the reading group has begun *Being and Time*. This time around, leading *Structure* was quite a coincidence: just when Professor Wu went abroad, the undergraduate students in our department’s history and philosophy of science project were left without anyone to supervise them. These two students were especially eager to learn and spontaneously wanted to start a reading group, asking Professor Wu to find a teaching assistant to lead it. Professor Wu knew that…
philosophy book reading notes history of science
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2014年12月10日
The Rationality of Whig History and the Possibility of an Anti-Whig Approach

Culture & Public Commentary2013.09.18
The Rationality of Whig History and the Possibility of an Anti-Whig Approach
In the first week of the Wendao seminar at Wu, junior brother Liu Renxiang, a promising new talent, took the initiative to give a talk on “The Poverty of Anti-Whiggish Historiography.” There were many discussions in class at the time, and I even went up to the podium to draw a diagram, but afterward I kept busy writing my travel notes on Mount Lu and preparing my own seminar report, so I never got around to writing anything down. Still, this topic is quite important, so I’m taking a little time now to add some thoughts. Just from the title of Liu Renxiang’s article, you can tell that the junior…
science history of science philosophy of science history
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2013年9月18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 China technology philosophy of science
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2012年12月16日
Christian Creationism and the Rise of Modern Science

History of Science & Scholarship2012.06.14
Christian Creationism and the Rise of Modern Science
Abstract: The Christian doctrine of creation is the metaphysical foundation of modern science, and an important thread for sorting out the historical relationship between science and religion. Foster’s essay “The Christian Doctrine of Creation and the Rise of Modern Natural Science” represents a typical line of thought: it emphasizes the connection between God’s free will and the empirical tendency of modern science, though its argumentative details are open to question. The key is to clarify the general points of the Christian doctrine of creation and the ways these points correspond to the characteristic features of modern science. The doctrine of creation, at the very least, includes four aspects: 1. There…
science philosophy of science history religion
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2012年6月14日
[Repost] Call for Papers for the 6th National Academic Conference on Phenomenology and Philosophy of Science and Technology

Site Matters2012.01.14
[Repost] Call for Papers for the 6th National Academic Conference on Phenomenology and Philosophy of Science and Technology
The 6th National Academic Conference on Phenomenology and Philosophy of Technology will be held in mid-November 2012 at South China University of Technology in Guangzhou, and papers are now being solicited from the national philosophy of technology community. The “National Academic Conference on Phenomenology and Philosophy of Technology” is an annual academic conference initiated by fellow scholars in China’s philosophy of technology community who have a special fondness for phenomenology. It aims to promote the “philosophical” character within the discipline of philosophy of technology, to connect philosophy of science and philosophy of technology, to foster a “pure” academic atmosphere, and to prepare for the arrival of the era of “post-natural…
scholarship philosophy of science phenomenology Wu Guosheng
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2012年1月14日