标签：philosophy

The Significance of Psychology for the Philosophy of Science and Technology

History of Science & Scholarship2006.02.24
The Significance of Psychology for the Philosophy of Science and Technology
Today, when I went to the academic affairs office to register, I casually asked: aside from math, physics, chemistry, and biology, what else does the “natural science” category of courses required for the philosophy of technology track include—for example, do computer science and psychology count? The answer was: computer science probably counts, but psychology clearly does not. And yet when I once asked a classmate majoring in psychology, I was explicitly told that “psychology belongs to the natural sciences”! In people’s minds, psychology is the sort of thing discussed together with philosophy—in Peking University’s general education course center, psychology and philosophy are placed in the same category, and the building…
philosophy science philosophy of science sociology
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2006年2月24日
Brief Notes from the First/Third/Fourth Day of Classes in the New Semester

Life & Notes2006.02.23
Brief Notes from the First/Third/Fourth Day of Classes in the New Semester
A Brief Note on the First Day of the New Semester’s Classes Xingding posted on 2006-02-20 22:12:01 1. Liu Zhuanghu: Set Theory — Teacher Liu is very likable. Unlike Xing Taotao, who paced back and forth slowly in front of the blackboard, Teacher Liu dashed rapidly back and forth… I copied the textbook; at first glance, set theory still seems like a difficulty one can bear. Set theory is quite important. If one is studying philosophy of science and technology, one must understand science; it is unacceptable to stand on a humanistic position and speak in airy abstractions while having no understanding of science at all. One can begin to…
philosophy everyday life philosophy of science religion
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2006年2月23日
The Significance of Mathematics and Logic for Philosophy of Science

History of Science & Scholarship2006.02.22
The Significance of Mathematics and Logic for Philosophy of Science
The mission of philosophy of science and technology is to “reflect” on science and technology. It is to use philosophical thought to explore topics such as the meaning, foundations, significance, value, and influence of science and technology. Of course, an important prerequisite for carrying out reflection is that one must have some understanding of scientific activity. As the saying goes, “One does not know the true face of Lu Mountain, because one is in the mountain itself” (不识庐山真面目，只缘身在此山中): even the most seasoned natural scientist may not necessarily have a complete understanding of the question of what science is. And to step outside science in the narrow sense and observe it…
philosophy science philosophy of science mathematics
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2006年2月22日
Winter Vacation Reading Notes, 2006: Introduction / Conclusion / Contents

Life & Notes2006.02.19
Winter Vacation Reading Notes, 2006: Introduction / Conclusion / Contents
2006 Winter Vacation Reading Notes: Preface/Conclusion/Contents Last year, in order to write a paper on ecological philosophy, I “finished” 117 books within two months. It looked “fierce,” but in fact, aside from a little over a dozen books I read closely, the rest were mostly skimmed by reading the beginning, the end, and selected relevant passages, and that was that; it was not solid work, and the books I read then will need to be read again in the future. This winter vacation, however, I made a major change in style: for the vast majority of books I adopted a “read through” method, meaning that I made sure my eyes…
philosophy book reading science notes
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2006年2月19日
[U.S.] Thomas Nagel: “Your First Philosophy Book”

Philosophy & Thought2006.02.18
[U.S.] Thomas Nagel: “Your First Philosophy Book”
[U.S.] Thomas Nagel: Your First Book of Philosophy, translated by Bao Shu, Contemporary China Publishing House, February 2005 Today I had a lot going on, and I didn’t finish the reading task I had planned. To barely make it up to one book a day, I dug out this tiniest of philosophy books and read it straight through. This book is really far too short. I found its English electronic edition online; the English text is just a little over 20,000 words, and the Chinese edition is priced at 15 yuan. Alas… Still, this book isn’t bad. You can tell from the Chinese title alone (the English title is What…
philosophy book reading notes reason
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2006年2月18日
[U.S.] Lynn Margulis, Dorion Sagan: “Tilted Truth—On Gaia, Symbiosis, and Evolution”

History of Science & Scholarship2006.02.15
[U.S.] Lynn Margulis, Dorion Sagan: “Tilted Truth—On Gaia, Symbiosis, and Evolution”
[U.S.] Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan: *Tinkering Truths—On Gaia, Symbiosis, and Evolution*, translated by Li Jianhui et al., proofread by Su Xiangui, Jiangxi Education Press, October 1999 http://mqxx.mhedu.sh.cn/ebook/ZX/ZX/qxdzl/index.htm Chapter One: Sunday Visit to Oppenheimer P10~11 pp. 17~18 Karl, a little younger than I was, liked the feeling of magnifying his own importance. He grasped Copernicus’s lesson only superficially: Galileo’s views were accepted for logical reasons, not emotional ones. Although Ptolemaic thought had been obsolete for centuries, my ambitious astronomer acted as if the earth (especially Ravi) were the absolute center of the universe. His mother, endlessly circling around her son, would ask questions that were hard to answer: “Where did…
philosophy book reading notes evolution
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2006年2月15日
[U.S.] Edwin Arthur Burtt: “The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science”

History of Science & Scholarship2006.02.14
[U.S.] Edwin Arthur Burtt: “The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science”
[U.S.] Edwin Arthur Burtt: The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science, translated by Xu Xiangdong, Peking University Press, January 2003 P16 p. 2 The central place of epistemology in modern philosophy is by no means accidental; it is the natural inference from something deeper and more meaningful, namely, the concept of man, especially the idea of man’s relation to the world around him. P18 p. 3 For mainstream medieval thought, compared with the physical world, man occupied a more important and more definite position in the cosmos. But for mainstream modern thought, nature has a more independent, more definite, and more enduring status than man. P24 p. 11 Just as…
philosophy book reading notes Copernicus
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2006年2月14日
[Eng] F. Bacon: Essays

Philosophy & Thought2006.02.12
[Eng] F. Bacon: Essays
[English] Francis Bacon: Essays, translated by He Xin, revised edition, Hualing Publishing House, April 2001 This may well count as one of the oldest and most famous “self-help” books in the world. The edition I read is precisely one of the so-called “New Century Youth Self-Help Bookshelf” series; among the same series are Machiavelli’s The Prince, Adler’s Overcoming Self-Doubt, Schopenhauer’s On the Sufferings of Love and Gender, and Rousseau’s Reveries of a Solitary Walker. These sorts of “self-help” books are obviously far more meaningful than things like The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People or Live Happily and Wealthily All Your Life. Of course, as a rule I don’t read…
philosophy book reading notes value
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2006年2月12日
[German] Rickert: “Cultural Science and Natural Science”

History of Science & Scholarship2006.02.11
[German] Rickert: “Cultural Science and Natural Science”
[German] Heinrich Rickert: “Culture and Natural Science,” translated by Tu Jiliang, proofread by Du Renzhi, Commercial Press, March 1986 http://rwxy.tsinghua.edu.cn/rwfg/ydsm/ydsm-qw/j06/000.htm Page vi On the other hand, although the scope of any historical concept is limited by a certain object or phenomenon, it must itself necessarily contain something general. For example, although no one would doubt that Goethe was only a particular individual, that there was no second Goethe, does Goethe not have the same characteristics as others? Can one explain Goethe’s characteristics without using certain general concepts? Can historians give a scientific account of any historical figure without understanding the universal laws governing social and historical development? In fact, no…
philosophy book reading culture notes
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2006年2月11日
Two Leisurely Books: “The Shards of God” and “The Universe of Spirit”

History of Science & Scholarship2006.02.09
Two Leisurely Books: “The Shards of God” and “The Universe of Spirit”
[U.S.] Scott Adams: *The Dilbert Principle: A Workplace Survival Guide*? No—this is actually Scott Adams: *The God Particle Residue—An Alternative Reflection on a Complex World*, translated by Gao Zimei, Xinjiang People’s Publishing House, January 2003 This is a book one can read straight through in fifteen minutes; it is entirely a throwaway diversion I picked up just to make up the numbers. The book claims to be “the world’s best-selling E-Book in history,” which I do believe, because I myself have bought no fewer than ten copies of it! That was simply because, back then, on Dangdang, the price of this book stayed at 1 yuan for a long time!…
philosophy book reading notes religion
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2006年2月9日