标签：public sphere

Do the People Have the Right to Be Ignorant? — With a Discussion of Enlightenment and Unconcealment

Enlightenment & the Spirit of Freedom2012.05.14
Do the People Have the Right to Be Ignorant? — With a Discussion of Enlightenment and Unconcealment
People have the right to stupidity—this is Tian Song’s claim: “The people have the right to stupidity; if they are deprived of the right to stupidity, they will only have the right to be made stupid. The key question is: who has the authority to draw the line between civilization and stupidity?” Back then (almost six years ago now—terrifying), I already had reservations about this, though I did not discuss it in detail. Yesterday Jing Qi raised this claim again, and recently I have also been paying attention to pedagogical questions, so this is a good moment to talk through my thoughts. First of all, Teacher Tian, including Teacher Liu,…
China science freedom education
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2012年5月14日
Bottom-Up Reform

Culture & Public Commentary2012.02.02
Bottom-Up Reform
During the “onlookers biting Han” incident (see my previous two articles), I took the opportunity to skim through the legendary “Han Three Essays.” I have to say, Han Han really is better suited to snark than to building arguments… But on the basic attitude toward these three big concepts, I completely support Han Han: oppose revolution, be cautiously skeptical of democracy, and emphasize and fight for freedom. Why am I “anti-revolutionary”? In middle school, I did indeed hold some sort of “quality theory” position: the civic quality of the Chinese people was still far too low, there was a lack of self-discipline, and once things got chaotic they would be…
China culture freedom politics
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2012年2月2日
Huaxia Mingwang’s hosting failure rate is too high…

Site Matters2011.10.31
Huaxia Mingwang’s hosting failure rate is too high…
Today Suixuan and the Forum on the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology were down again for most of the day, and the quality of customer service was also quite worrisome. After submitting a support ticket, the customer service staff who solve technical problems always respond only after the issue has been fixed, so I can hardly find out what exactly went wrong; as for the front-desk customer service on the web interface, they are often totally clueless, and even when I inquire about purchasing services, they respond slowly, with a poor attitude, and still know nothing about anything. What should one do if the host failure rate is…
China blog education internet
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2011年10月31日
Is the University a Public Sphere? — Further Thoughts on Publicly Posting Grades and Publicly Critiquing Assignments

History of Science & Scholarship2011.10.10
Is the University a Public Sphere? — Further Thoughts on Publicly Posting Grades and Publicly Critiquing Assignments
It’s once again time for grading in the history of science survey course. This course has always had the tradition of publishing grades, and this time should be no exception. Of course, I seem to be getting softer and softer lately; the harsh roasting of bad assignments may more likely be shifted into private messages rather than being publicly posted under real names. But the excellent students still absolutely deserve public praise. Last year I explained: Why post the grades? Now that I’ve recently finished reading Arendt, it may be worth giving that earlier account a further interpretation. It is said that American universities place enormous emphasis on “privacy”; information…
scholarship freedom public sphere university
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2011年10月10日
Arendt Reading Notes

Culture & Public Commentary2011.09.28
Arendt Reading Notes
Finally finished reading Arendt’s The Human Condition, and feel immensely relieved… Let me make some notes.. Wang Yinli’s Chinese translation of The Human Condition is basically pretty good. Though I didn’t compare it line by line with the English original, on the whole I could make sense of it, and there probably won’t be any major misunderstandings. The problem, however, is that her translation is still rather awkward. In the translator’s afterword, she also writes that she follows the principle of “literal translation,” saying that “literal translation has already become a consensus in the translation of academic works,” and so she tries not to change the original word order. I…
book reading freedom notes Aristotle
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2011年9月28日
Why Create Such a Forum?

Site Matters2011.07.18
Why Create Such a Forum?
This newly launched “Forum for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology” is part of the “Beijing Graduate Academic Forum on the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology,” which will be held this coming November. This graduate forum was founded last year; Tsinghua took charge of it last year, and this year it is our turn. So the heavy responsibility of overall coordination has landed on my shoulders. As a shut-in, I have never been good at organizing affairs, nor am I good at socializing. Of course, under Professor Wu, people who are particularly good at organizing social activities have always been rather scarce, so I could only…
scholarship media internet Introduction to Philosophy of Technology
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2011年7月18日
A Few Words on “What Is Science” at the Start of the Course

Life & Notes2010.09.20
A Few Words on “What Is Science” at the Start of the Course
“Science What Is” is a general elective offered this semester; you can find the course description on the Keke forum. In brief, this course is jointly chaired by Rao Yi from the School of Life Sciences and Teacher Wu, with a dozen eminent professors from various disciplines invited to give lectures, and then several teaching assistants organizing discussion sections. The lecture lineup for this course is formidable. Headlining the roster are Yang Zhenning and Yao Qizhi, the latter being a winner of the Turing Award (the Nobel Prize of information science), followed by a whole host of well-known professors from Peking University’s various departments. The pull of celebrity is indeed…
everyday life science scholarship Peking University
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2010年9月20日
The Political Mission of College Students?

Culture & Public Commentary2010.06.03
The Political Mission of College Students?
A few days ago I discussed this question with someone: is a college student’s mission to study diligently, or should one play some kind of political role? Of course, a university is not merely a vocational technical school; it is not meant to cultivate “talent” but to cultivate “persons,” and as a fully developed person, one naturally includes one’s social and political role as well as one’s historical mission. There is no question about that. However, when students bring up college students’ political role, what comes to mind are only all kinds of thunderous “student movements”; in other words, if one says that students should bear a political mission, it…
culture scholarship freedom politics
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2010年6月3日
Notes from Today’s Xindao Salon 09-09-26

Life & Notes2009.09.26
Notes from Today’s Xindao Salon 09-09-26
Today we had a new guest drop by—welcome, Chi Gua Wang! On the intrinsic connection between philosophy of technology and the history of scientific thought (nature—science—technology) On ancient Greek public spaces (the agora), athletics (athletic schools and the Olympics), and the origins of the Greek spirit. To trace the original causes and conditions, one often has to resort to geographical explanations, though this is not geographical determinism. The various factors are causally interwoven. World picture—perspective—visual centrism; glass, clocks. The translation of “Natural History”: Chi Gua Wang: “natural history”; After Chi Gua Wang left, there was only a group of people with no aspirations left, discussing Three Kingdoms Kill…… Next week…
everyday life history of science Introduction to Philosophy of Technology public sphere
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2009年9月26日
Xindao Salon Will Experimentally Resume on August 29

Life & Notes2009.08.20
Xindao Salon Will Experimentally Resume on August 29
The New Island Salon Will Experimentally Restart on August 29 Still atthe Suzhouqiao subway station entrance, at the Zhongguancun branch of New Island Coffee, at the easternmost window seat in the non-smoking area. I’ll still go in the morning, though I may not get there exactly at 9, and in the evening I’ll probably leave around nine or ten. As for the time and place next semester, those may still be adjusted; we’ll talk about it then. A little incidental commemoration of today @_@ Latest Comments unic 2009-08-30 18:06:46 Anonymous 115.155.143.75 Seeing pink text on Suixuan is a rare thing~
everyday life blog public sphere conference review
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2009年8月20日