标签：quantum mechanics

A General History of Science 16: The Revolution in Twentieth-Century Physics

History of Science & Technology2015.06.18
A General History of Science 16: The Revolution in Twentieth-Century Physics
Today is the final class, and we are talking about twentieth-century science. By “the twentieth century,” our main focus is on the scientific revolution in physics in the early twentieth century—that is, the rise of relativity and quantum mechanics. As for the scientific frontiers of the second half of the twentieth century and even the twenty-first century, we will not be dealing with them in this course. History can never be exhausted; any narrative strategy is, in the phrase, “to miss much while touching on little” (挂一漏万). The issue is not how to avoid omissions, but rather what manner of omission one adopts. The choices I have made in this…
course causality quantum mechanics Einstein
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2015年6月18日
Bitcoin and Mathematics: How Reliable Is Cryptography?

Web3 & Cypherpunks2014.07.27
Bitcoin and Mathematics: How Reliable Is Cryptography?
I haven’t written any Bitcoin-related articles for a long time. Before, I was busy with graduation, but recently, after graduating, I’ve actually become much less busy. On the one hand, I’ve been lazy; my efficiency has been low lately, and I’m in the process of getting myself back on track. I have a dozen accumulated articles that will have to be written out one by one. On the other hand, there really isn’t all that much more to say about Bitcoin. The knowledge that needed popularizing and the basic questions that needed answering have already been covered, so I haven’t had much desire to write anything new. As for the…
Web3 mathematics Bitcoin economy
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2014年7月27日
A Travelogue of the Hailar Conference

History of Science & Scholarship2010.08.24
A Travelogue of the Hailar Conference
The much-noticed Fourth National Conference on Phenomenology and Philosophy of Technology had already passed several days earlier. Teacher Wu asked me to write up the conference record, but I kept putting pen to paper very late. On the one hand I was being lazy; on the other hand, it was also hard to know where to begin. Faced with so many papers and trying to review them one by one, the job really made my head spin… Although I have written records of forums and talks before, the KeKe Forum, for example, was basically just one lecture: an hour of presentation, an hour of discussion, with a commentator in between…
philosophy media Heidegger phenomenology
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2010年8月24日
Quantum Mechanics: Did It Introduce the Observer, or Send God Away?

History of Science & Scholarship2010.03.26
Quantum Mechanics: Did It Introduce the Observer, or Send God Away?
Back when I was in high school, I became interested in philosophy, and to tell the truth it was also by starting with some popular books on quantum mechanics, just as Feynman said: if you think you understand quantum mechanics, then you don’t understand it. The astonishment that quantum mechanics brought me has stayed with me ever since. But then again, though I may be overstepping or even being presumptuous, I still feel that I have some understanding of quantum phenomena; especially after several years of studying philosophy, I have gained quite a few insights. From the standpoint of some of the philosophical ideas I have accepted, quantum phenomena are…
philosophy science God physics
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2010年3月26日
How Is Scientific Realism Possible?

History of Science & Scholarship2009.01.10
How Is Scientific Realism Possible?
Although every paper I write leaves me feeling revolted and miserable, it has been a long time since a paper made me this uncomfortable. After finishing it, I barely even read through it once before hastily printing it out and rushing to school to hand it in. The process of composing this paper was especially unpleasant too—I did read a lot of books: Quine, Dummett, Goodman, Putnam… all sorts of textbooks and handbooks on philosophy of science, metaphysics, epistemology… of course, all in Chinese translation. You ask why I still didn’t look for English materials? First, there wasn’t enough time; second, I really didn’t want to read them. I found…
history of science philosophy of science paper truth
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2009年1月10日
Classroom Presentation Script on Realism and Anti-Realism

History of Science & Scholarship2008.12.28
Classroom Presentation Script on Realism and Anti-Realism
Realism can be said to be one of the major questions in the history of science and a problem that reaches far back and ramifies widely. It can at least be traced to the dispute between Plato and Aristotle, and it was also one of the main topics of medieval scholastic philosophy. In contemporary philosophy of science, as well as in epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of religion, and so on, realism is also an inescapable theme. The definition of realism and anti-realism is likewise highly uncertain. What counts as realism from one angle may count as anti-realism from another. The treatment of realism in this material is rather…
science philosophy of science Aristotle truth
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2008年12月28日
[Archive] Keke Forum Lecture 64: How to Solve the Underdetermination Problem—A Case Study of Cushing’s Defense of Hidden Variables

Life & Notes2008.12.26
[Archive] Keke Forum Lecture 64: How to Solve the Underdetermination Problem—A Case Study of Cushing’s Defense of Hidden Variables
http://hps.phil.pku.edu.cn/bbs/read.php?tid=882 Time: Friday, December 26, 2008, 3:00–5:00 p.m. Place: Academic Lecture Hall, Center for Science and Society, Chengze Garden Speaker: Bai Tongdong, Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, Xavier University, USA Topic: How to Solve the Underdetermination Problem—Using Cushing’s Defense of Hidden Variables as an Example Commentator: Liu Huajie Although I couldn’t really raise any questions, and Monday’s report can’t really continue along this line, today’s lecture was quite interesting. What I found interesting was not the topic itself, but rather the many inspirations that Professor Bai mentioned in passing during his talk. As for the topic, my reaction was rather like that of the journal office supporting orthodox quantum mechanics—although…
everyday life philosophy of science Liu Huajie quantum mechanics
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2008年12月26日
On the Principle of Sufficient Reason

Philosophy & Thought2007.09.19
On the Principle of Sufficient Reason
Today in Schopenhauer class, at the very end, the discussion turned to the principle of sufficient reason. I couldn’t help interjecting a question; in fact, I haven’t even started reading Schopenhauer’s book yet, so I was really rather embarrassed~ Jingang said that Schopenhauer’s argument for the principle of sufficient reason is quite dogmatic, and I agree with that. As for the teacher, he more or less said that the principle of sufficient reason is a prerequisite for questioning and reasoning, and on that point I disagree. At the time I brought up quantum mechanics. I raised it as an example, not because I wanted to drag the cutting edge of…
philosophy causality quantum mechanics Einstein
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2007年9月19日
In Defense of Intuitionism

History of Science & Scholarship2006.08.15
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…
philosophy Aristotle mathematics paper
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2006年8月15日
A Rambling Talk on Science pp

History of Science & Scholarship2006.04.21
A Rambling Talk on Science pp
Preface The following lecture was written out completely before the actual talk. In the real presentation, because there was, first, no PPT to assist me and, second, my on-the-spot performance was not up to par, I ended up saying much less than I had intended, and did not do very well. Looking at this script should make up for some of that. 《Does God Play Dice》 can be read online at http://book.sina.com.cn/nzt/liangzishihua/. Let’s Begin Because I prepared too thoroughly—I had already written out the whole script—when speaking I might be a bit constrained, and since I can’t use PPT, I’ll have to keep glancing at the text, so please forgive…
science science communication quantum mechanics popularization
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2006年4月21日