标签：rule of law

Bioethics and Legal System Building — Reflections on a Lecture by Zhang Daqing

History of Science & Scholarship2010.11.18
Bioethics and Legal System Building — Reflections on a Lecture by Zhang Daqing
Today Teacher Zhang Daqing talked about the birth and development of bioethics, introducing many of the ethical dilemmas brought about by modern medicine. What I paid particular attention to was the relationship between bioethics and legal system building. Teacher Zhang said that the development of bioethics in the West has, to a very large extent, been worked out through one lawsuit after another. In China, by contrast, this area is still quite lacking. Teacher Zhang encouraged hospitals and doctors to dare to “eat lawsuits”: when facing things that, although they violate existing rules, ought to be insisted upon on ethical grounds, then they should be done—even if one loses the…
China science law life
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2010年11月18日
A Few Words on “Olympic” — “Olympic Game”

Culture & Public Commentary2008.08.08
A Few Words on “Olympic” — “Olympic Game”
I had long said I would write some articles about the Olympics, but the reason I kept putting it off was mainly that I had read far too little, whether primary or secondary sources, on ancient Greece, so I would certainly be speaking without much confidence. Recently, in a last-minute dash, I read a few introductory books; of course that does not really solve anything, but in order to get something written before the opening of the Olympics, I could only make do. Though I lack confidence, I have always had ancient Greece and the “Olympic spirit” on my mind, and I have a large heap of related thoughts. Because…
culture freedom tradition religion
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2008年8月8日
A Loose Talk on “Reasonable” and “Lawful” — Why Is Violent Revolution Unreasonable?

Culture & Public Commentary2008.06.21
A Loose Talk on “Reasonable” and “Lawful” — Why Is Violent Revolution Unreasonable?
I want to note first that what I am saying is that violent revolution is “unreasonable,” not that I will never support violent revolution, but rather that there is no reason to support violent revolution. Although philosophy’s mission is to probe reasons, it is not the case that every one of a person’s preferences must be given reasons. For example, I like eating vegetables; then I like eating vegetables, that is enough, there is no need to come up with a whole lot of reasons to argue for the reasonableness of liking vegetables, as if those who do not like vegetables were somehow at fault. Even if 99% of the…
philosophy culture Kant language
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2008年6月21日
The Politics and Jurisprudence Behind the Philosophy of Science

History of Science & Scholarship2008.01.21
The Politics and Jurisprudence Behind the Philosophy of Science
From Plato onward, from the “freedom” of ancient Greece to the “Enlightenment” of the modern era, the issues of philosophy of science and political philosophy have always been entangled, impossible to disentangle. By the time we reach the “official history” of twentieth-century philosophy of science, we see this especially clearly: from Popper’s liberalism to Kuhn’s “revolution” and then to Feyerabend’s anarchism, the development of philosophy of science was practically a debate in political philosophy. Looking back at the history of thought from ancient Greece to the Enlightenment, we can be certain that philosophers of science borrowing political terminology is by no means merely a coincidence or a metaphor. Ancient Greece…
science politics Kant Plato
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2008年1月21日
[Repost] Related Discussion on “Zhang Tiankan: For Maglev, We Must Persuade the Public with Scientific Evidence zz”

History of Science & Scholarship2008.01.21
[Repost] Related Discussion on “Zhang Tiankan: For Maglev, We Must Persuade the Public with Scientific Evidence zz”
http://hps.phil.pku.edu.cn/bbs/read.php?tid=316&fpage=1&toread=1 It is obvious that the discussion in this thread is mainly aimed at Teacher Tian (the Lean Knight). Schopenhauer’s swagger is long gone; what is being displayed now is basically my own swagger. Personally, I find this sort of dispute quite interesting. Although such arguments are hard to develop into something profound, they can still expose problems fairly well. Many of the ways I now phrase things first emerged in similar disputes—in the past on Teacher Liu’s and Teacher Jiang’s blogs, and now with BBS as an even better venue. I’ve been eagerly hoping that someone would come to my blog too and “provoke” me. How interesting that would…
science discussion sociology scientism
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2008年1月21日
On the Peng Yu Case

Culture & Public Commentary2007.09.11
On the Peng Yu Case
About the Peng Yu case has recently become quite popular online; you can find it anywhere if you search casually, so I won’t quote much here: “On September 5, the Gulou District Court in Nanjing delivered its ruling in the Peng Yu case, deciding that Peng Yu should compensate the plaintiff for 40% of her losses, amounting to 45,876 yuan. The judgment said, ‘From common sense, it is more likely that Peng Yu collided with the old woman. If Peng Yu had not knocked down the old woman, he would have had no need at all to send her to the hospital.’ Once the verdict was announced, public opinion across…
China commentary sociology public sphere
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2007年9月11日
On the Problem of Wealth Inequality in China

Culture & Public Commentary2007.09.05
On the Problem of Wealth Inequality in China
The problem of China’s rich-poor gap is both a sharp short-term issue and the most crucial issue in the long-term strategic picture; how to handle this problem is vitally important to China’s economic and political future. What needs to be addressed is the problem of the rich-poor gap, not the elimination of the rich-poor gap. The rich-poor gap cannot be eliminated, neither in theory nor in reality; all one can do is figure out how to face it. China’s rapid economic development has, to a very large extent, been driven by a huge rich-poor gap, and the paradox is this: if the poor want to become a little richer, they…
culture China modernity rule of law
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2007年9月5日
A Brief Discussion of the Question of Euthanasia

History of Science & Scholarship2007.06.08
A Brief Discussion of the Question of Euthanasia
One piece counts as two pieces… though that is not right, I really can’t make it in time… A Brief Talk on the Issue of Euthanasia The Basic Definition of Euthanasia Euthanasia refers to “the act or practice of, out of mercy, killing patients or injured persons who have no hope of recovery by a relatively painless method, or allowing them to die.”[①] The above is only a dictionary definition, and in academic discussion there are naturally many imprecisions in it. However, I do not intend to offer a new definition. In what follows, I will mainly discuss euthanasia in relation to issues of life and death. “Euthanasia can be…
philosophy freedom paper death
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2007年6月8日
The Difference Between Ethics and Moral Standards and Legal Norms

Philosophy & Thought2007.03.24
The Difference Between Ethics and Moral Standards and Legal Norms
Ethics provides the basis for, or a justification of, law; law is the ethical minimum, and so on. Whether such claims are reasonable or not, they often tend to blur the essential difference between ethical-moral questions and questions of legal norms. The core of ethics is “the good,” or “virtue”; the core of jurisprudence is “justice,” or “order.” Ethics pursues “the good,” or seeks “virtue”; law proclaims “justice,” or safeguards “order.” “Justice,” at most, is only one aspect or one side of “the good”; and according to some other lines of thought, “justice” and “order” are even more often “evil.” “Norms” are the negation of self-discipline; “punishment” is the exercise…
philosophy virtue rule of law
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2007年3月24日
Science and Judgment

History of Science & Scholarship2006.05.26
Science and Judgment
Bacon believed that the purpose of science was to “torture out nature’s mysteries”; nature must be “pursued relentlessly as she wanders,” made into a “slave,” and “forced to render service.” (This paragraph is from the internet; the source is to be verified.) I For now I will not dwell on the “rape” metaphor for modern science, but instead note that the word “torture” is itself an extremely apt metaphor for a key feature of modern science. In the “rape” metaphor, science’s subject is implied to be “male domination,” while nature, though always “female,” has fallen from “mother” to “female slave”; the “method” of scientific research is “relentless pursuit,” its “attitude”…
science Scientific Revolution nature God
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2006年5月26日