标签：scientism

From the Altar to the Forum: The Practical Significance of the History of Science (A Review of Modern History of Science)

Culture & Public Commentary2022.01.27
From the Altar to the Forum: The Practical Significance of the History of Science (A Review of Modern History of Science)
This article was published in the April 2021 issue of Book City Magazine. It was a review from last year, but I forgot to repost it then. Since the magazine allows me to republish my own articles on my blog, I might as well put it here too. Making Science—An Over-the-Syllabus Title When Chinese publishers introduce foreign academic works, they often have the habit of changing the title. For example, A Short History of Modern Science: From the Steam Engine to Grebe Courtship, published by the Electronics Industry Press in 2018, had the original title “The Making of Modern Science: The Making of Modern Science: Science, Technology, Medicine and Modernity:…
book reading science history of science philosophy of science
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2022年1月27日
History of Science as a Nature Reserve—A Darwinian View of Science

History of Science & Scholarship2018.04.05
History of Science as a Nature Reserve—A Darwinian View of Science
Last Friday (March 30), I was invited to Shanghai Natural History Museum to take part in a “reading session,” where I introduced my own Outdated Wisdom. Although it was an internal event, there were quite a few listeners—more than 50 friends from museums and publishing houses took part. The title I set for my talk was “Outdated Wisdom and Its Contemporary Significance.” I heard that Liu Su was going as well, so I especially strengthened the Darwinian evolutionary logic in it, and won myself a remark: “Thought-provoking; I hadn’t expected it could be used that way.” I was pretty satisfied with that~ This talk was rather unusual for me, because…
science history of science philosophy of science Scientific Revolution
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2018年4月5日
Lecture Notes on the General History of Science 9: The Copernican Revolution

History of Science & Technology2015.04.30
Lecture Notes on the General History of Science 9: The Copernican Revolution
Last time we talked about printing as the technological environment of the Scientific Revolution. Starting from this lesson, we will formally enter the period of the Scientific Revolution. Last time we mentioned that, when talking about the Scientific Revolution, we must at least distinguish three lines of development: first, astronomy; second, physics. These two lines converge in Newton, and can together be called the tradition of the mathematical sciences; this also constitutes the so-called “main line” of the Scientific Revolution in the usual sense. The third is alchemy and magic. This line stretches back farther than Copernicus and Newton; although its emblematic result is the rise of chemistry, its significance…
history of science philosophy of science course Scientific Revolution
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2015年4月30日
On Communicating with Extraterrestrial Civilizations—A Snarky Commentary on Jiang Xiaoyuan’s Report

Culture & Public Commentary2011.12.04
On Communicating with Extraterrestrial Civilizations—A Snarky Commentary on Jiang Xiaoyuan’s Report
Forum on the History of Science, Technology, and Philosophy, Lecture 82: Jiang Xiaoyuan: Should We Talk to Strangers? — A Debate in the History of Science about the Search for Extraterrestrial Civilization This afternoon I went to listen to the Keke Forum. Quite a few people showed up this time; even the classroom was full. It seems that everyone still has high expectations for Teacher Jiang’s talk. Before this talk, when Teacher Wu mentioned it to us, he said that this time he especially wanted Teacher Jiang to say something “substantive.” In the past, whenever Teacher Jiang had been invited to speak, it was all rather “media-like,” or to put…
culture value modernity human nature
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2011年12月4日
Why Do We Need Protein? — The Pursuit of Relative Truth

Philosophy & Thought2011.03.14
Why Do We Need Protein? — The Pursuit of Relative Truth
A few days ago, when I was presenting the article “Media Realism—Looking at Scientific Realism from the Perspective of Media Ontology,” Senior Brother Botian mentioned that, in the final analysis, my position is still one of compromise: according to my line of thought, those contemporary scientific theories that have already succeeded are indeed “real,” and I can only compromise with them, unable to put forward a forceful claim like Teacher Tiansong’s “We Simply Do Not Need Protein.” Indeed, my position has always been “weak” from beginning to end, and I fully agree. Ever since my undergraduate days I have tried to reflect on science, but I have never thought of…
philosophy science tradition discussion
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2011年3月14日
Notes from Today’s Xindao Salon, 09-12-26

Life & Notes2009.12.26
Notes from Today’s Xindao Salon, 09-12-26
Last week was all normal; there just wasn’t much of anybody and nothing much going on, so I won’t record it. Next week will also continue as usual. Today, Guawang brought along a classmate. Though there weren’t many people, the discussion was still quite lively. We talked about the relationship between elites and the masses—whether some new idea becomes widespread because the public blindly follows a small number of authorities? We also mentioned the “pleasure machine (brain in a vat),” the choice between love and chemical substances? purpose and meaning, scientism, paradigm shifts, sympathy, departmental divisions… I don’t remember the specifics for the moment; I’ll fill them in again in…
everyday life the masses scientism elite
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2009年12月26日
Philosophy of Love: Introduction

Philosophy & Thought2008.02.18
Philosophy of Love: Introduction
https://yilinhut.net/2008/02/17/1855.html（Song of Scientism） This song grows more and more admirable the more I listen to it. Every line is so apt, so concise, and so vivid; and it portrays scientism so comprehensively that it says everything that needed to be said, without a single irrelevant word! The subtlety with which this song depicts scientism is something that ordinary scholars who oppose scientism can hardly hope to match. The question is: how was this done? Why is it that the lyricist of a pop song, composing a popular love song, could depict “scientism” so precisely? Of course, I think “he did not mean to”; he was not deliberately setting out to…
philosophy pursuit love philosophy talk
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2008年2月18日
This Episode’s Music: “The Song of Scientism” (Super Star)

Life & Notes2008.02.17
This Episode’s Music: “The Song of Scientism” (Super Star)
What is “scientism”? Anti-scientism can be said to be one of my basic positions, running through all my articles. But Unic still says: too vague. Come to think of it, that makes sense. I basically treat anti-scientism as a default orientation, and in concrete discussions I have never clearly and explicitly targeted the concept of “scientism.” Because philosophy of science is my main line of work, and views on this point especially need to be handled with caution, I do not want to define this thing called “scientism” explicitly for the time being. And I also do not want to get into “two armies confronting each other”; in such a…
everyday life philosophy of science science communication Liu Huajie
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2008年2月17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 a Discussion on Teachers’ Blogs: the Criterion of Truth, Pluralism, and Other Matters

Philosophy & Thought2007.07.07
On a Discussion on Teachers’ Blogs: the Criterion of Truth, Pluralism, and Other Matters
On the Discussion on the Teachers’ Blogs: Truth Standards, Pluralism, and Others Gu Ya 发表于 2007-07-07 14:02:46 Preface 2007-06-08 16:59:55 Since I ultimately stopped responding, let me add this here: pluralism is related to the metaphor of dumplings and noodles. When I say that anti-scientism is not anti-science, I do not merely mean that I support some other kind of science; rather, I mean that even with the science that exists now, I do not oppose it. On the contrary, mathematization is not something loathsome: mathematics is very beautiful, marvelous, and a mathematical world is awe-inspiring as well. What we oppose is only the elevation of one particular worldview—no matter…
philosophy philosophy of science truth pluralism
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2007年7月7日