Monday, March 28, 2011
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Advantage of communism
Communism's first big advantage was that it played on two human appetites―the noble desire for justice and the baser hunger for vengeance.
共产主义最大的优点，即是它利用了人类两大需求――对正义的崇高理想，对复仇的更卑贱的渴望。
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
Be what we should be
To choose what human beings should be between what human beings could be and then discuss what human beings would be in spite of what human beings are being currently, namely, how to get human beings to be what they should be in proper way. It is respectively about the natural essence of man, the ethical nature of man and the political nature of human society.
Letter from Hansen
I was moved by the letter from Hansen which showed his deep sympathy of Chinese philosophy and disappointment with the current presentation that just emphasizes the unreflective parts of Chinese philosophy such A's conventionalist Confucianism and religious interpretation of Daoism. His words evoked me to think about what I can do for Chinese philosophy rather than only introducing the most advanced philosophy of west.
I still remember what is my first instinctive reaction to kinds of philosophies when I as a high school student was to get interested in philosophy. The reaction was to directly refuse Confucianism and appeal to Zhuangzi and Nietzsche. The reason I told my friends at the moment is that I have been influenced enough by the Confucian tradition A's I grew up in Shandong where is the birth place of Confucius. However, unfortunately after I entered university what I could get from Chinese philosophy academic sphere is only about Confucianism which was so boring for me. I gave up any wish to involve in Chinese philosophy. Furthermore I inclined to attribute the root of various social problems to traditional culture, regarding it A's the root of the corrupt social environment.
I never met a real Daoist before Hansen except some cowards who just tried to avoid any connection with real society for fears. Now I want to reconsider the heritage of Chinese philosophy.
Topic four
In A Theory of Justice, Rawls maintains that Mill's arguments for liberty will not justify "an equal liberty for all" because "whenever a society sets out to maximize the sum of intrinsic value or the net balance of satisfaction of interests, it is liable to find that the denial of liberty for some is justified in the name of this single end"(p211, 1972). In Polotical Liberalism, Rawls also argues that the maintenance of "one comprehensive religious, philosophical, or moral doctrine" can only be done by the "oppressive use of state power", and that this is true even of a "society united on a reasonable form of utilitarianism, or on the reasonable liberalisms of Kant and Mill"(p.37). Discuss Rawls's comments on Mill's defense of individual liberty and individuality.
Topic three
Mill is opposed to coercive interference with the conduct of individuals which does not harm others, even when such conduct distresses the majority because they dislike or disapprove of it. Can his view be defended in purely utilitarian terms?