Suixuan

标签：violence

On the Diaoyu Islands

Culture & Public Commentary2012.09.14
On the Diaoyu Islands
Recently the internet has been filled with cries for killing and slaughter, with rancor spilling everywhere; it’s heartbreaking to watch, and I can’t help but state my own position as well. First, I have always clearly leaned toward the “traitor to the nation” camp. I do not think that so-called “sovereignty” is anything particularly important, especially “territory.” Unless it is a place like Qufu, which is indeed a cultural or religious shrine, territory is nothing “sacred” at all. The foundation of a country is its people; land without people is at most just some property, and in diplomacy it is a bargaining chip in a game of strategy, nothing more….
culture China commentary state
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2012年9月14日
Solving Problems and Institutional Reform

Culture & Public Commentary2012.07.28
Solving Problems and Institutional Reform
The previous article mentioned that a despotic system constantly needs imminent crises to overcome, with hatred and struggle as its basic posture. Of course, a democratic system too must keep solving immediate problems; “solving problems” is the normal state of governance. However, the basic paradigms for solving problems differ under different systems. This is not merely a matter of keeping pace with the times or adapting measures to local conditions—for example, Chinese people solving China’s special problems, Americans solving America’s problems, and so on. The difference in paradigms is not limited to that kind of distinction; it also includes differences in standards of judgment, such as what counts as a…
philosophy culture China history of science
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2012年7月28日
Violent Sanctions Are a Helpless Compensation for the Limits of Reason

Culture & Public Commentary2008.09.09
Violent Sanctions Are a Helpless Compensation for the Limits of Reason
I once said, “Violent revolution is unreasonable”—because “violence” is always non-rational, and revolution is always illegal. Yet this gives rise to a still more severe problem: if violence may be lawful, then how is the rationality of law possible? We know that laws are made by the government (whether that so-called government represents God, the emperor, or all citizens), and the implementation of law often has to appeal to violence. It is hard to imagine a rule-of-law society maintained without violent institutions such as police and prisons. Even if a social order established without bodily violent sanctions is at least conceivable in theory, once a public “law” is instituted, it…
culture politics public sphere reason
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2008年9月9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
How to “Persuade” Extreme Irrationalists?

Culture & Public Commentary2008.01.20
How to “Persuade” Extreme Irrationalists?
Does this kind of “extreme irrationalist” simply not exist at all, merely a target I’ve erected for myself? Not necessarily. Although no great philosopher has been so absurd, such tendencies are not uncommon among general theorists. Many people do indeed take irrationalism as a “refuge” in order to evade their intellectual laziness. Every utterly and extremely radical position is an impregnable fortress: those outside cannot break in, but those inside cannot fight their way out either. For a completely irrationalist, how can one be persuaded? A completely irrationalist cannot be “persuaded,” because “persuasion” means “arguing reasonably,” “convincing by reason”; but if the other party is completely irrational, then no amount…
philosophy culture reason violence
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2008年1月20日