标签：Wu Fei

In Memory of Professor Ye Xiushan

Life & Notes2016.09.10
In Memory of Professor Ye Xiushan
叶秀山老师has passed away. On the occasion of Teachers’ Day, I am writing a few words in remembrance. Teacher Ye and I had two layers of relationship. First, he was Teacher Wu’s advisor—in other words, my academic grand-teacher. The other layer was that Teacher Ye was the teacher for my first philosophy course in college, namely Introduction to Philosophy. The relationship of seniority did not give me much direct feeling; the image of Teacher Ye in my memory was mainly formed in that Introduction to Philosophy class. When I heard the sad news, what kept flashing through my mind was the scene of him pinching an orchid-finger gesture while reading Da~sein….
philosophy everyday life scholarship phenomenology
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2016年9月10日
What Does the Mobile Phone Have to Do with Cooking? — The One and the Many of Technology

AI & the Future of Technology2015.11.12
What Does the Mobile Phone Have to Do with Cooking? — The One and the Many of Technology
The previous post mentioned one of Wu’s core objections, namely, his view that science is singular, whereas technology is plural. At the time he gave an example: branches of science such as physics, chemistry, and biology ultimately promise that they can be reduced to a unified foundation, and therefore their historical development is also interconnected. But what about the relations among various technologies, such as between mobile phones and cooking technology? If various concrete technologies are mutually independent, then where does their unity in history come from? My brief reply at the time was this: the reason various technologies can be “unified” is that “life” is unified. And I also…
everyday life technology history of science media
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2015年11月12日
The Two Falls of the Concept of “Nature” and Nature as “Anti-Normative” in Its Original Sense

History of Science & Scholarship2012.12.21
The Two Falls of the Concept of “Nature” and Nature as “Anti-Normative” in Its Original Sense
Today Professor Wu gave a talk, “The Discovery of Nature,” at the Friday philosophy forum of the Institute of Foreign Philosophy. Although the topic was something Professor Wu has always thought about, and I am already fairly familiar with it, it is quite rare to hear him speak at the Institute of Foreign Philosophy; especially with Liu Zhe, Wu Zengding, and Wu Fei all taking part in the questions, it was extremely interesting to listen to. Professor Wu mentioned that “the discovery of nature” actually contains two “falls” of the concept of nature: first, nature as “nature, origin”; second, the emergence of “the natural world” as a special domain of…
philosophy technology science media
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2012年12月21日
The Flush Toilet: City, Civilization, Modernity

AI & the Future of Technology2012.05.26
The Flush Toilet: City, Civilization, Modernity
Yesterday, Professor Jiang Jinsong came to Chengze Garden to give a talk titled “Observations and Reflections on the Flush Toilet,” and Professor Tian Song offered comments. Professor Jiang did not say very much, and Professor Tian’s comments were also rather hurried, but the discussion was still very lively. Indeed, the flush toilet can be counted as one of the greatest achievements of modern civilization. It is not only a device that makes “going to the bathroom” more convenient, but also a hub that helped assemble the whole modern urban way of life and the entire urban system. Professor Wu commented that Professor Jiang’s presentation should be divided into the issue…
technology value human nature modernity
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2012年5月26日
Love of Wisdom and Patriotism

Life & Notes2011.12.17
Love of Wisdom and Patriotism
Yesterday the two Wu teachers had a gathering, and Old Wu [Bei Wu laoshi] got quite drunk and launched into a grand speech. Unlike when he is drunk in other settings, he said many things that he would only say in front of his disciples. Teacher Wu mentioned that, during his lifetime, he would certainly PUSH us; gold always shines in the end, but don’t count on Teacher Wu living too long—we have to make a name for ourselves within fifteen years… (Although Teacher Wu said drunkenness means speaking logically, in fact there were still some problems at the level of logic.) In the end, Teacher Wu came to the…
philosophy China scholarship freedom
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2011年12月17日
Access Statistics of the History of Science, Philosophy, and Technology BBS Since Its Launch..

Site Matters2011.08.05
Access Statistics of the History of Science, Philosophy, and Technology BBS Since Its Launch..
The History of Science, Technology, and Philosophy Forum was launched around July 12, and it’s now almost been a month. The number of visitors has been declining in a straight line; at this rate, it will probably drop to zero in a few days…… There haven’t been any new posts recently, though there are still a few new users registering. The vast majority of registrants, including the contact person who helped organize this conference, have been so miserly that they won’t even post a single check-in thread. To be honest, that’s pretty disheartening. Of course, the BBS is my own wishful construction, but after all, everyone did support it during…
China blog website conference review
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2011年8月5日
Why Post Grades?

History of Science & Scholarship2010.06.22
Why Post Grades?
The course in the history of science has always posted the grades for homework and the final exam online. When I took it back then, I checked my grades on Professor Wu’s personal homepage, whereas now they are usually posted on the BBS. Every time grades are posted, there is inevitably some questioning: by making classmates’ information public like this, what about their privacy and so on? Here I might as well explain the reasons for doing it. First of all, the very notion of “privacy” is strange. Why are grades a student’s privacy? I have only heard that the exam scores of primary and secondary school students cannot be…
scholarship education Peking University Wu Fei
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2010年6月22日
Notes from Today’s Xindao Salon, 09-06-06 [and Part Two of the Announcement for the Next Round of Salons]

Life & Notes2009.06.06
Notes from Today’s Xindao Salon, 09-06-06 [and Part Two of the Announcement for the Next Round of Salons]
Today there weren’t many people who came, but the good thing was that at last a newcomer dropped by again. From our initial contact, judging by things like his motivation for study, academic background, interests, and personality, he belongs to the type I look favorably upon. I hope you’ll continue to take part in my salon or other activities next semester. As for the specific conversation, it mainly included my asking about his situation, and my restating some of my own basic ideas, introducing a bit about philosophy of technology, as well as talking about philosophy department courses and other casual chatter. I won’t go into that further here. As…
philosophy everyday life history of science Wu Fei
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2009年6月6日
On the Olympics on the Blogs of Two Teacher Wus

Site Matters2008.05.14
On the Olympics on the Blogs of Two Teacher Wus
I don’t really follow Professor Wu Fei’s blog; I only heard that the latest issue of Qingquanyuan was going to organize a discussion meeting on the Olympics, with Professor Wu Fei as the central figure and his two articles as the focus. I’ve always paid close attention to the Olympic spirit, so I went to read them too. The result was that I found I didn’t appreciate Professor Wu Fei’s way of putting things. Online, of course, I’m under no restraints, so if I wanted to criticize, I criticized. As for the specific consequences and how that discussion meeting ultimately went, I won’t concern myself with that~ Recently, I also…
everyday life Wu Guosheng Greece Olympics
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2008年5月14日
Comeback Preview~

Life & Notes2008.05.03
Comeback Preview~
Locking the blog was pretty pointless; it didn’t help change my way of life as I had expected. Rather, it has made my life even less regular, and there’s even the danger that it will sap my vitality. By the way, my mood lately has been very complicated, with all kinds of emotions mixed together, but on the whole I’m a bit exhilarated, with a strong urge to write; writing with a pen is no longer enough to vent it all~ And then, hey, even Wu Laoshi has started blogging too, wahahaha~~ wahahahahaha~~ So I’m planning to come back earlier than expected, though it will probably be about a month…
philosophy everyday life writing Wu Fei
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2008年5月3日