"The students must be patient and know the original readings by heart," says Deputy Dean Sun Jiazhou. In the past, they were the required reading for Chinese scholars. One of the features of the course is a series of reading courses analyzing about 20 traditional classics, including Lao-Ztu, Chuang-Ztu, Mencius, The Odes of Chu, Yimutology, The History of the Han Dynasty and poetry of different dynasties, all of which were written by China's most distinguished writers, philosophers or historians. Like Liu, many of the students in the school were nurtured on Chinese literature or traditional art. At secondary school, Liu started to compose her own poems. By primary school, she had already read A Dream of the Red Chamber, the most popular Chinese classic novel, almost 20 times. When she was young, Liu's parents asked her to recite Chinese classical poems. "I chose finance because it was a guarantee of a well-paid job on graduation, but I can't say I enjoy it," admits Liu, who is happy with her move to a subject she has loved since childhood. Students chanting works by Confucius at the Confucius Temple in Qufu, Shandong Province. There were even some who abandoned popular majors to take up the new course, such as Liu Fang, who previously majored in finance. Two years ago, Chen was a sophomore of the Chinese Language department at Renmin University, but she transferred to the new school after passing an exam and an interview based on her understanding of Chinese Classics. "As opposed to Chinese language learning, the Chinese Classics is a combination of Chinese literature, history and philosophy as an integrated whole," says Chen Junchan, a senior student at the school. The school set up a four-year bachelor's degree and two-year master's degree, and has enrolled around 130 undergraduates and 30 graduates to date. Ji Baocheng, president of Renmin University, says the rediscovery of Chinese Classics has become "necessary to restoring China's cultural confidence". This marked a renaissance of Chinese Classics in China's universities after decades of neglect. In 2005, Renmin University, noted for its social sciences studies, established a school called Chinese Classics. The students are pursuing their major, Chinese Classics, a two-year labor of love. ![]() Undistracted by noise and the smell of food, they spend four hours reading, debating and sharing views on the ancient poetry, which dates back to the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476BC). Instead, they gather for a Chinese classic, called The Book of Odes. They do not come for food or tea as others do. This is the mark of the field not being scientific (as yet) in the only sense that the word is generally received.Every Saturday afternoon, a dozen students meet at the canteen of Renmin University of China in Beijing. Let me conclude by an empirical observation: every time I ask economists if there are any repeatable facts of economics, unless they say clearly, no, their replies are unclear. He describes the difficulties of empirical testing there is no need for that: the onus is on the theory, Popper rightly observes: one should be able to “read off “ a testable theory how it can be tested. “Notwithstanding much impressive and sophisticated work on econometric methods there are basic difficulties which limit the value of their application “ (pp. Simkin moves on to regression analysis, which is very questionable in many of its applications, namely, those legitimized by the inductivism. The observations may be refuted, but they remain scientific. If one is finicky one can characterize the locations by some observed characteristics and take it from there. The observation that the Japanese are by-and-large shorter than the Australians is repeatable, and hence a putative law of nature. ![]() Universal laws, as height distributions in Japan and Australia differ (p. ![]() Popper’s philosophy is, indeed, not yet understood, but Simkin has not quite overcome the obstacle to understanding it. It is all too understandable, but also it reveals that even Simkin has not absorbed the spirit of disinterestedness that is so characteristic of Popper’s philosophy and is so very liberating, not to say inspiring. Simkin’s claim on the same page that the history of the rise and fall of the Soviet empire are “in line with what he foresaw and so can be regarded as corroborating it “ is a very regrettable slip. Popper has a retort to this simple criticism, of course, but, all the same, he is stuck - until he would consent to make that retort public and subject it to public scrutiny. ![]() Now, Einstein’s theories survived critical examination better than Newton’s, yet technological preference goes the other way. I offer here simple criticism: on page 121 we read that, according to Popper, “The rationality of choosing the best tested theory is that it is the one which has best survived critical examination “. The second chapter is on holistic planning.
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