Suixuan

标签：philosophy

  • Brave New World

    Culture & Public Commentary

    Brave New World

    [English] Aldous Huxley: *Brave New World*, translated by Wang Bo, Chongqing Publishing House, June 2005 I’d long heard of it, and Teacher Liu had recommended it too, but I still hadn’t read it. Probably just laziness. I really ought to read some literary works too. I’ve always admired and emphasized literature, but that can’t just remain lip service forever, can it? After being reminded once again, I decided to show some decisiveness in my reading—if I think of reading it, I buy it; if I buy it, I read it. The book was just delivered this afternoon, and I finished it in one sitting. It really is excellent—very excellent! Well…

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  • In Defense of Intuitionism

    History of Science & Scholarship

    In Defense of Intuitionism

    In Defense of Intuitionism Abstract: From the perspective of defending intuitionism, the author explains intuitionism’s claims in the philosophy of mathematics and the philosophy of logic. The basic position of intuitionism is that mathematics is a creation of the human mind. Intuitionism rejects assigning any mathematical object a transcendent existence beyond mind and matter; intuition and creation, rather than proof and deduction, are the most important mathematical methods, the life of mathematics; the meaning of mathematics, like that of the other sciences, lies in discovering problems worth studying, touching the mysteries of nature, and ceaselessly pursuing truth. In the first half of this essay, the author sorts out intuitionism’s resistance…

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  • God and Immortality

    Philosophy & Thought

    God and Immortality

    Do Not Enter by Mistake if You Dislike This God and immortality—understood respectively as “ultimate or unconditional certainty” and “some kind of infinity or eternity”—are deeply rooted, ineradicable desires and demands of the human intellect. The unrestrained questing and questioning of human reason will ultimately and inevitably touch upon God and immortality—that is, it will touch upon the question of religion. Quite contrary to the common understanding, indulging reason will lead to religion; if one wishes to shake off or keep religion at a distance, one must resort to the intervention of the irrational. A moderate amount of irrationality and a moderate amount of rationality are both healthy for an…

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  • On “Gu Chi”

    On “Gu Chi”
    Life & Notes

    On “Gu Chi”

    “Gu Chu” is my primary pen name, that is to say, the one I prefer first, like best, and use most often. Of course, if there is a primary pen name, then there is naturally a secondary one as well: the default “Xingding” under which I post articles here. Its original purpose was simply to keep search engines from finding my Suixuan so easily, because the word “Gu Chu” is probably unique in the whole world—search it and everything you get is me—so I used the word “Xingding,” which when searched turns up all sorts of random odds and ends, instead. But now that I think about it, it hardly…

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  • Preliminary Thoughts on “Intuitionism”

    Philosophy & Thought

    Preliminary Thoughts on “Intuitionism”

    My term paper for my class on logical paradoxes has now been decided: I’m going to write on intuitionism and the foundations of mathematics. At first I had been dead set on writing about inductive logic, and I read a lot of books, but the more I read, the fewer ideas of my own I seemed to have left; in the end they were almost completely buried. Writing an article that simply surveys the various schools of thought isn’t very interesting either, and I also seem unable to sort out any ideas of my own in such a short time, so in the end I had no choice but to…

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  • A Dialogue on the Fourth Floor of a Building Without a Fourth Floor

    History of Science & Scholarship

    A Dialogue on the Fourth Floor of a Building Without a Fourth Floor

    Oh, God, why is two plus two equal to four? —Alexander Pope Luo Ji: I hear a new bookstore has opened on the 5th floor? Bei Lun: Yes. Luo: Then I must go have a look. Bei: Fine, we’re on the 2nd floor now. Go up three more escalators and we’ll be there…… Luo: Why? Bei: ……Why what? Luo: I’m asking why going up three more escalators gets us there? Bei: ……Because we’re on the 2nd floor now. Luo: I’m asking why going up three floors from the 2nd floor makes the 5th floor? Bei: This…… because…… because 2+3=5! Come on, let’s go, hurry up—I really regret indulging you just…

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  • Reason and Ultimate Concern—An Attempt to Examine Why Mature Rational People Seek Religion

    Philosophy & Thought

    Reason and Ultimate Concern—An Attempt to Examine Why Mature Rational People Seek Religion

    Introduction The relationship between reason and religious faith has always been a vexed issue in theology, philosophy of religion, and sociology of religion: are reason and faith mutually supportive, complementary, or incompatible? Is religious faith merely the choice of people who are ignorant or not intellectually mature enough? If so, why do so many people who at least appear to have sound psychology and mature intellect—such as even many of the most outstanding natural scientists of the contemporary era[①]—still piously believe in religion? The sociologist of religion Stark complained: “The idea that humans are essentially rational animals is the common foundation of mainstream modern social science. Religion is the only…

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  • The Paradox of Boring Games

    Philosophy & Thought

    The Paradox of Boring Games

    Someone in the paradox studies course was planning to talk about some chess sophistry, saying that chess is a boring game, but his reasoning has serious problems. Let me reinforce it a bit: I’ll first offer a chess variant with slightly altered rules, and start with a math problem: **Two-move chess:** Modify the rules of chess so that in each round each player may make two consecutive moves, with everything else unchanged. Prove that the player to move first has a strategy of at least a draw. The proof is very simple: Proof by contradiction. Assume the first player has no strategy of at least a draw. That is, no…

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  • A New Beginning That Is Increasingly Disappointing

    Life & Notes

    A New Beginning That Is Increasingly Disappointing

    Nowadays young people…… why are they all so practical, so mature? Lately I’ve begun interacting again with the incoming class of 2006 in the Philosophy Department. I have never lost my enthusiasm for wandering around the Weilai Beida Ren community; I like interacting with new students. One reason I like wandering around the Weilai Beida Ren community is this: my own entrance into Peking University, into the Philosophy Department, was really a matter of pure chance, and for that I especially need to thank one teacher in Peking University’s admissions office. I think the best way to express gratitude is precisely this: in a certain sense I too do work…

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  • Summer Reading Notes, 2006

    Life & Notes

    Summer Reading Notes, 2006

    2006Summer Reading Notes After wasting a good while, the summer reading plan is finally going to get underway in earnest. But even during that utterly wasted stretch, I still read quite a few books; however decadent one may be, it’s not as if one can stop reading altogether, ha. Today I’ll first finish up the notes on the books I read during the wasted period, and tomorrow I’ll begin to get back on track~ [German]Suzanne Paulson: Eating the Sun, translated by Chen Ying, Sanlian Bookstore, December 2005 Just from the title alone, this book is already incredibly lovely, isn’t it? And indeed it is a lovely book: the prose is…

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