标签：The Two Cultures

The “Two Cultures” Debate Is Long Outdated

Culture & Public Commentary2019.07.02
The “Two Cultures” Debate Is Long Outdated
Published in China Science Daily (2019-06-28, p. 5, Culture) In 1959, the British writer C. P. Snow proposed the thesis of the “two cultures” in a lecture, sparking intense debate. Even sixty years later, the topic is still with us, and seems not to have gone out of date. But I want to put forward a seemingly out-of-place claim: the two-cultures debate is already passé, and there is not much point in still fretting over the issue Snow raised. First, let us return to the context of the time and see just what split between what two cultures Snow was actually talking about. Nowadays, when many people talk about…
culture science sociology intellectuals
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2019年7月2日
Selected Commentary on the Anji Conference

AI & the Future of Technology2018.09.03
Selected Commentary on the Anji Conference
Done with travelogues The “Phenomenology and Philosophy of Technology Conference” has, in the blink of an eye, already reached its 12th session. This year it was hosted by Zhejiang University and held at Baicaoyuan in Anji. I skipped last year’s conference in Xi’an and didn’t submit a paper this year either, but I still came, took on two commentaries, and so at least made some kind of contribution. In previous years, I would usually publish a very “sharp-tongued” long review of each conference, criticizing everyone’s presentation one by one. This tradition probably began with the Hailar conference in 2010. In fact, my first review was written at Wu’s request. I…
technology phenomenology AI self
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2018年9月3日
“The Two Cultures”: Science and Literature, or Science and the Humanities? — Reflections on Liu Bing’s Lecture

History of Science & Scholarship2010.10.29
“The Two Cultures”: Science and Literature, or Science and the Humanities? — Reflections on Liu Bing’s Lecture
Today Teacher Liu Bing’s topic was “STS and Science Communication in Drama and Fiction.” He first introduced some background on what Snow called the “two cultures,” and then discussed three dramatic works: *Life of Galileo*, *The Physicists*, and *Copenhagen*. There wasn’t time to talk about the fiction section, and the presentation was mainly a display of examples rather than a line of argument, so I’ll write my reflections on one issue from the background material. When Snow spoke of the “two cultures,” he meant scientific culture and literary culture. Teacher Liu mentioned that nowadays we more often speak of “science and the humanities.” “Humanities” is much broader in meaning than…
culture science science communication Confucianism
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2010年10月29日
Notes from Today’s New Island Salon 09-12-12

Life & Notes2009.12.12
Notes from Today’s New Island Salon 09-12-12
Today B brought a little report, first talking about the theory of “subculture,” then briefly mentioning Weber, and we played a few rounds of Three Kingdoms Kill. Although a small turnout is normal, the recent salons do seem to be slipping into something of a lull. With the end of the term looming, let’s see whether this semester can manage one last dying burst of brilliance…… There are still a little over five hundred yuan left on the New Island membership card; what should we do after it’s used up? Today’s sightings here: byz/dr Possible topic for next time: “The Age of Enlightenment” Latest Comments Cheng Shan 2009-12-12 18:24:37 The…
everyday life Aristotle The Two Cultures salon
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2009年12月12日
Has the Development of the Internet Done More Harm Than Good to Literature?

Culture & Public Commentary2009.10.16
Has the Development of the Internet Done More Harm Than Good to Literature?
Recently my blog updates have nearly ground to a halt; next time I should make a point of reflecting on that. This time I’ll just casually write down the associations sparked by this title, and try to recover my feel for writing~ This title is one of the debate topics in the freshman cup debate contest that our department’s undergraduates will be taking part in this time, and I, in my role as “adviser,” was also honored to be consulted, so I suppose I should at least give some kind of answer. Seeing this topic, I first thought of a few articles I wrote before. One of them was a…
culture internet pluralism printing
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2009年10月16日
[U.S.] Deborah Tannen: “Men and Women in Intimate Conversation” — ★

Culture & Public Commentary2008.05.23
[U.S.] Deborah Tannen: “Men and Women in Intimate Conversation” — ★
[U.S.]Deborah Tannen: *You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation*, translated by Wu Xingyi, Nanfang Publishing House, 2008——★ During my period of seclusion, I didn’t read very many books, and I don’t want to go through them one by one. This one book, however, I am willing to spend some time excerpting, since it also has a direct bearing on what I am going to write next. Of course, this book is by no means the only one that talks about the differences between men and women. Before it, there had already been highly publicized books such as *Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus*, and books of…
book reading notes language pluralism
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2008年5月23日
The Benefits of Mathematical and Logical Training for Studying Philosophy

Philosophy & Thought2008.02.15
The Benefits of Mathematical and Logical Training for Studying Philosophy
Although I entered the philosophy department as an undergraduate, I still unabashedly identify myself as “from a science background.” Of course, the current Chinese practice of splitting high school students into arts and sciences is very bad; the so-called “science students” in high school are not necessarily all that “scientific” in any meaningful sense—after all, most of them choose physics. And it is even harder to say how much “literature” arts students have actually come into contact with—how can middle-school history, politics, and the like be called “literature”? But when I say I am “from a science background,” I do not mean that I was a high school science student;…
philosophy scholarship mathematics analytic philosophy
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2008年2月15日
Lecture 42 of the Science Forum: Science Matters (November 9)

History of Science & Scholarship2007.11.09
Lecture 42 of the Science Forum: Science Matters (November 9)
Science Forum Lecture No. 42: Science Matters (November 9) 2007.11.07 Peking University Forum on the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, Lecture No. 42 Time: Friday, November 9, 2007, 2:00–4:00 p.m. Venue: Academic Lecture Hall, Center for the Study of Science and Society, Chengzeyuan Speaker: Lin Lei (Professor, Department of Physics, San Jose State University, California, USA) Topic: Science Matters: The Newest and Largest Interdisciplinary Field Commentator: Wu Guosheng Brief introduction to the talk: What is science? The answer is: “everything in the natural world is part of science.” What are generally called the “natural sciences” are in fact sciences of simple systems; the humanities/social sciences—fields of learning related…
science philosophy of science history humanities
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2007年11月9日
On Feminism

Philosophy & Thought2007.03.08
On Feminism
It has been quite a while since I last really put pen to paper. The two books I finished reading, I was too lazy to jot down even notes on them; it seems my state has again fallen into a slump… Today is March 8, International Women’s Day, so let me write down some thoughts. I have said before that I am a kind of “female feminism of a male chauvinist sort.” If one were to look at some of the concrete views I call feminist, they might still seem, in the eyes of many women, to be utterly male chauvinist; yet I believe that male chauvinism is still this…
philosophy culture The Two Cultures women
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2007年3月8日