Discipline is liberation. – Martha Graham (1894-1991)

“Human reason has a peculiar fate in one kind of its cognitions: it is troubled by questions that it cannot dismiss, because they are posed to it by the nature of reason itself, but that it also cannot answer, because they surpass human reason’s every ability.” – Kant (1724-1804), Critique of Pure Reason, p5

旧城有着长长的历史，还留有四四方方的城墙，近些年来修葺一新。新城在落基山脚下，有一条弯弯的河自此转向东流，南冲北突从来没停过。

English literature: I will die for honour French literature: I will die for love American literature: I will die for freedom Russian literature: I will die

A Change Is Gonna Come, 1964 R&B by Sam Cooke

Check out violinist Charles Yang 2024/2025 version with Dallas symphony orchestra

[Verse 1]
I was born by the river
In a little tent
Oh, and just like the river, I've been runnin'
Ever since

[Chorus]
It's been a long
A long time comin', but I know
A change gon' come
Oh, yes, it will

[Verse 2]
It's been too hard livin'
But I'm afraid to die
'Cause I don't know what's up there
Beyond the sky

[Chorus]

[Verse 3]
I go to the movie
And I go downtown
Somebody keep tellin' me
"Don't hang around"

[Chorus]

[Verse 4]
Then I go to my brother
And I say, "Brother, help me please"
But he winds up
Knockin' me
Back down on my knees
Lor', there been times that I thought
I couldn't last for long
But now, I think I'm able to
Carry on

[Chorus]
It's been a long
A long time comin', but I know
A change gon' come
Oh, yes, it will

history of philosophy by Dr. Leonard Peikoff

  1. Heraclitus

Heraclitus, pre-Socratic around 500BC. the cconcept of change. change requires the existence of contradictions. So everything Heraclitus held is changing. Everything is changing, in every respect, at every instant. Nothing ever remains the same in any way, in any respect for two consecutive instances. No man can ever step twice into the same river. Everything flows, nothing abides. That’s one. And the other is, nothing is, everything is becoming.

  1. Plato

Plato 427 to 347BC. Plato agreed with Heraclitus on many crucial points. He agreed that this world in which we live is a stream of change without entities. He agreed that this world in which we live is riddled with contradictions. He agreed that our senses are invalid and do not yield a knowledge of reality. So on all those respects, Plato was a good Heraclitian.

If there are no entities in this world, there must be another world where we can find stable, enduring entities. If change involves a contradiction, which he granted, he said, well, but contradictions can’t exist in true reality. And therefore, true reality must be a realm without change. It must consist of completely immutable, completely motionless, changeless, and therefore consistent, non-contradictory entities. And he reasoned, since our senses are invalid, if true reality is to be knowable, it can’t be the kind of world that is known by the senses. In other words, it can’t be physical or material in nature, because if it were physical, you could only know it by the senses, and yet the senses are invalid. So, if knowledge of reality is to be possible, he concluded, reality must be completely non-sensory, non-physical, non-material, knowable by some means completely different from sense perception.

In short, he concluded, true reality must be composed of a set of immutable, which means unchanging, immutable non-material entities. Well, now, this raises the question, what sort of entities comprises true reality in Plato’s opinion?

The reality is single, but the image is multiple. The reality is perfect, the image is distorted. The reality is motionless, the image is in constant motion. Well, for Plato, that is essentially the relation of true reality to our physical world. The physical world is just a set of multiple whirling distorted images given off by the true motionless non-material reality, the world of forms. Now, that is a brief summary of Plato’s metaphysics, his view of reality, and it is technically referred to as a metaphysics of idealism. Plato’s world of universals is non-material.

Plato agreed with the skeptics, you couldn’t achieve knowledge of this world, but nevertheless of true reality, of the world of forms or universal. But the question is, how? He had to confront the question, how can we here on earth, limited by our senses and our bodies, ever come into contact with the perfect non-material world of forms or universals?

Well, Plato’s answer is that in this life, we have no direct means of contacting the forms. But he says that is not a problem, because our souls existed prior to this life and inhabited the world of forms. And at that time, each of our souls actually came in contact with and knew all universals and therefore all laws, all principles, they were actually in effect omniscient, each of our souls in this previous life. And all of that knowledge is still in each one of us now. Now, of course, we may not be conscious of the knowledge that we possess, or at least have great portions of it.

  1. Aristole

韵争

南来客:
韵争近体古今间，一部金科重若山
意境非关平水事，风流未过水平关

M君：
痴心不敢误诗名，诸事中年摆未平。
转向书灯穷白首，耳边能起古潮声。

南来客:
诗词不在一虚名，言志抒情道不平。
君看如斯东逝水，滔滔非是旧时声。

M君：
网上一逢心自倾，九年衣带废皴平。
肯将长夜推敲事，换得字中唐宋声。

张岳琦

张岳琦，1989年时任赵紫阳秘书，同时兼任中共中央办公厅副主任，赵紫阳下台后，被停止一段时间工作，1993年下半年，被安排到吉林省任省委副书记、后转任省政协副主席。晚年写诗，有诗云：

梦里不知人已老，犹回早岁历忧欢。
红棉沐雨岭南暖，白雪扬风塞北寒。
偶遇故交年尚少，辄迷归路日将残。
醒来自问身何处，恍换时空夜色阑。

文摘

  • 王彬彬: 茨威格在回忆录《昨日的世界》中，对十九世纪末二十世纪初维也纳禁欲主义的道德风尚有深刻的剖析。茨威格说，那是一个用尽种种手段“掩盖和隐藏性爱”的时代，以致一个女子根本不可能把“裤子”这个词说出口。然而，“凡是受到压抑的东西，总要到处为自己寻找迂回曲折的出路。

  • 潘汉年的百喙莫辩与在劫难逃: 1943年初夏潘汉年从淮南到了上海。他此行的目的是亲自与李士群见面。李士群突然提出，汪精卫想见见潘汉年。潘汉年当然愣住了。但稍事考虑后，还是在胡均鹤的陪同下到了汪公馆。潘汉年之所以不敢在整人整得热火朝天的整风运动中向饶漱石汇报擅自见汪一事，更因为自己本是与王明、博古关系密切的人，本就被正在得势的毛泽东一派视作是王明集团的人。换句话说，在毛泽东眼里，他潘汉年本就是有历史旧账的人，本就是“不能信用”的人。潘汉年如果向饶漱石说明擅自见汪一事，饶漱石当然会立即向延安汇报。毛泽东极可能拍桌大怒。又一次抓到了潘汉年切实把柄的毛泽东，很可能要新账老账一起算，那时就下令铲除王明、博古的这个“党羽”，而他也就同扬帆一样镣铐加身。正是这重原因，让潘汉年有了深重的顾虑，并终于把见汪一事瞒了下来。1954年9月，胡均鹤被逮捕，潘汉年的心一定提到了嗓子眼上。1955年3月下旬，潘汉年随上海代表团到北京出席中共全国代表会议。这次会议的议程之一，是通报所谓“高岗、饶漱石反党联盟”的问题。饶漱石是潘汉年的老熟人、老上级，他的落难，自然也会令潘汉年惊心。

  • 我，沙叶新――上海人民艺术院院长――暂时的（笑声）。剧作家――长久的。某某理事，某某委员，某某教授，某某主席――都是挂名的（笑声）。

沙叶新: 张艺谋是不用介绍的，天下谁人不识君。张艺谋也不希望别人去夸奖他，一夸奖张艺谋就成了‘夸张’了（笑声）。张艺谋是中国电影界的‘大红灯笼’，是得奖专业户。他以前得奖是‘一个和八个’，现在他是‘一个都不能少’。你想呀，他得过表演奖，得过导演奖，还得过摄影奖。不是“一个也不能少”吗？

  • 萧军：可以是奴隶，绝不当奴才

陕甘宁边区“衣分三色，食分五等”。

鲁迅: 奴隶总比奴才强，因为奴隶是要反抗的。

鲁迅杂文《漫与》一个活人，当然是总想活下去的，就是真正老牌的奴隶，也还在打熬著要活下去。然而自己明知道是奴隶，打熬著，并且不平著，挣扎著，一面“意图”挣脱以至实行挣脱的，即使暂时失败，还是套上了镣铐罢，他却不过是单单的奴隶。如果从奴隶生活中寻出“美”来，赞叹，抚摩，陶醉，那可简直是万劫不复的奴才了！他使自己和别人永远安住于这生活。

“奴隶”和“奴才”的差别，是一道分开了人与非人的鸿沟。这个差别不就是康德所说的独立人格dignity？

ich bin ein Berliner, by JFK, 1963

Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us.

自由有许多困难，民主亦非完美，然而我们从来不用建造一堵墙把我们的人民关在里面，不准他们离开我们。

All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words “Ich bin ein Berliner.”

一切自由人，不论他们住在何方，皆是柏林市民，所以作为一个自由人，我为“Ich bin ein Berliner”这句话感到自豪。

MACD

Kant on moral laws: an end in itself

  • One should only act according to maxims that can become universal laws.

  • In fact, a human being is an end in itself; from this a human being can have only an inner value, i.e., have dignity.

It would only have moral value if he had also helped someone who was not a friend but for the sole reason that that person needed help.

ArcGIS

audio players

books

  • The Obamians: The Struggle Inside the White House to Redefine American Power, by James Mann

  • Virginia Giuffre’s posthumous memoir, ‘Nobody’s Girl’

  • Capitalism: A Global History by Sven Beckert

  • The Almighty Dollar: 500 Years of the World’s Most Powerful Money, by Brendan Greeley

  • Capital as power