标签：university

On Small-Class Teaching

Teaching & Courses2015.09.20
On Small-Class Teaching
I once supervised the small-group discussion section attached to the course “What Is Science?,” and at the time I also talked about related experiences and thoughts. But I did not say much. Recently, it seems that the Peking University Yuanpei Program hopes to promote small-group teaching across the board, and Teacher Wu hopes that I will once again systematically sort out my thoughts on the matter, so I am writing another piece here. Form By small-group teaching here I mainly mean the form of a small-group discussion class led by teaching assistants as an adjunct to large-class teaching. And unlike the “problem-solving sessions” attached to the usual foundational courses in…
scholarship course education Peking University
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2015年9月20日
Lecture Notes on the General History of Science 7: The Middle Ages and Christian Science

History of Science & Technology2015.04.17
Lecture Notes on the General History of Science 7: The Middle Ages and Christian Science
After finishing with the Arabs and China, let us return to the West and talk about medieval science. As for the Middle Ages, I was wondering whether I should spend two classes on them, because traditionally this period has been rather neglected; people probably know very little about it, yet in fact it is extremely important. To discuss why modern science did not arise in the Arab world or in China, on the one hand we have to talk about what was lacking in Arab and Chinese civilization, and on the other hand we must also make clear what medieval Europe actually had. In this lecture we will mainly talk…
history of science scholarship course education
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2015年4月17日
Lecture Notes on the General History of Science (Introduction)

History of Science & Technology2015.03.04
Lecture Notes on the General History of Science (Introduction)
Course Arrangement Spring 2015 semester, Wednesday evening18:00-19:40, room Shengsiclass now moved to Jiaoba 306. Course requirements: no memorization, no calculations, and no particular background knowledge is required of students; only free reading and independent thinking are expected. Assessment requirements: Class attendance and discussion performance: 20%; (basically free points; active questioning and participation in discussion earn bonus points) Reading report: 30%; (choose from the recommended reading list, or choose other related books you personally like; choosing a good book earns bonus points, choosing a bad book loses points.) Final short paper: 50% (the topic is of your own choosing; it can also be completed on the basis of the…
history of science freedom course Aristotle
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2015年3月4日
Supervisors as the Dissertation’s Imagined Adversary—Odds and Ends on Academic Papers

History of Science & Scholarship2015.01.19
Supervisors as the Dissertation’s Imagined Adversary—Odds and Ends on Academic Papers
I spent the first semester of my postdoctoral stay at BNU without really taking part in much beyond Teacher Tian’s weekly writing class. My sense of presence was zero. Thinking about it, that really wasn’t very becoming, so at Teacher Tian’s suggestion, over the past two weeks I took part in various activities such as the master’s thesis proposal defenses and doctoral pre-defenses in the department’s research office, just to show my face a bit and, at the same time, to get a feel for the style and method of the philosophy of science and technology program at BNU. Listening to all kinds of defense presentations, I have increasingly felt…
philosophy science scholarship Peking University
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2015年1月19日
On Civil Servants

Culture & Public Commentary2014.11.30
On Civil Servants
I’d promised two current-affairs commentaries plus two book reviews every week, but my habitual procrastination put me off for a whole week. Starting today, I’m officially kicking into gear. The commentaries and reviews may be very short in length; their main purpose is to keep me in writing shape. The long-parked conference travelogue will also be produced sometime in the next few days. Today is the day of the national civil service exam. I hear that this year’s number of applicants has fallen to the lowest level in five years. Perhaps that is because civil service pay has declined; perhaps it is because young people nowadays are increasingly opinionated; or…
China culture freedom education
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2014年11月30日
Course Outline: A Guide to Academic Research

Teaching & Courses2014.11.05
Course Outline: A Guide to Academic Research
As I mentioned earlier, next semester I’m planning to teach two courses at BNU. One is the general elective A General History of Science; the second is going to be a specialized course. However, at the Philosophy Department of BNU, one cannot just open a new specialized course at will; one must claim a course that already exists in the pre-established teaching plan. And most of the courses, of course, have already been claimed by one teacher or another, leaving only two and a half uncclaimed. So I chose this one, “Introduction of Academic Research.” Though this course may seem rather expendable, I feel it is still quite meaningful. In…
philosophy scholarship course Peking University
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2014年11月5日
Course Outline: A General History of Science

Teaching & Courses2014.11.05
Course Outline: A General History of Science
Next semester I’m preparing to teach two courses at Beijing Normal University. No one is actually making me do this; I went to Beijing Normal University in the first place because I wanted to teach. Whether I end up staying at Beijing Normal University as a lecturer or not, I might as well first build up some experience—at least then my postdoc won’t have been for nothing. I’m planning to offer one general-education elective and one major course; the general-education elective will be a General History of Science. I listened to Teacher Wu’s lectures on the general history of science in several rounds at Peking University, and I’ve already served…
history of science course Scientific Revolution Wu Guosheng
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2014年11月5日
Postscript to the Doctoral Dissertation

History of Science & Scholarship2014.06.04
Postscript to the Doctoral Dissertation
On June 1 I finally completed my doctoral dissertation defense. At last I’ve set down one major burden, and can gradually begin rebuilding this blog, which has long lain barren. Let me start with a couple of post-defense reflections. My dissertation did not include a “postscript” or “acknowledgments”; instead, in the final paragraph of the conclusion, I embedded a note of gratitude to my teachers and friends in the Wu circle in the form of a reflexive examination. On the one hand, this was part of my dissertation’s design of “self-entanglement”; on the other hand, I also did not really want to stage a deliberately sentimental expression of feeling at…
philosophy scholarship discussion paper
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2014年6月4日
On Delayed Graduation and Looking for a Job

Life & Notes2013.03.21
On Delayed Graduation and Looking for a Job
Last time I was writing my Mumford paper, I posted a writing plan. Going by a pace of one chapter a month, it was obvious that I would only be able to finish the paper roughly after the summer vacation, and at the very least I wouldn’t be graduating until spring 2014. In other words, I have already decided to delay graduation by half a year. Although I also wanted to strive to finish my PhD in three years, I ultimately chose to postpone. This was something I had long anticipated, of course, but it is still worth explaining on the blog~ The reason for postponing is, first and foremost,…
everyday life scholarship education pursuit
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2013年3月21日
The Philosopher’s Profession, or the Professional Philosopher?

Life & Notes2012.04.26
The Philosopher’s Profession, or the Professional Philosopher?
The occasion for writing this piece was yet another email discussion recently. Our class Party secretary forwarded a publicity push for the vote in the “2011 China University Student of the Year” selection, and our department’s 2009 undergraduate student, the “ticket-selling master” Pei Jiyang, had made the shortlist. But the comrade secretary, who has always been quite strong-minded, said that he himself did not support this publicity campaign, on the grounds that “(since Department Chair Wang Bo said) the philosophy department should cultivate philosophers,” and that “promoting him is more suitable for the Railway Institute than for Peking University’s philosophy department. If the Peking University philosophy department actively publicized that…
philosophy education Peking University autobiography
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2012年4月26日