1. Background
For the convenience of posting text messages in succinct forms (in the spirit of discouraging long pieces), Facebook offers a collection of colorful templates for a post shorter than 130 characters, but putting a profound or even complicated content into a short piece within 130 characters is beyond being difficult and already becomes a special ART!
In case the author does have a lot to say for the post which cannot be fit into a few sentences of 130 characters in total, there are two expediencies offered by Facebook that can be further exploited for this. The first is to make a longer text into a graphic image, and then post the image onto the limited space of the allowed size for images. The second is to add a long comment below the post after the sentences of 130 characters are posted, and you might also put the long text into the pre-text of the post when sharing it on your own timeline or in some groups (you cannot add the pre-text when you first post the original short op though).
In the past several months, I have made many shorts OP’s (original posts) on Facebook. Most of them are using the 130-character template, and some of them are made in images, and a couple of them were in plain text. In some cases, a long pre-text (or comment) is added after the short text (or image) is posted.
While all posts on social media are short-lived, the messages that I put into my posts are all of long-lasting validity and could be inspiring contributions to the society. Therefore, here I compile a selection of the short posts (together with any long pre-text or comments) into this article for more readers to access now and in the future, and organize them in the reverse chronicle order with the original posting dates clearly marked.
2. A selection of short OP’s that I (Ron Dai) posted on Facebook before 20200726
July 25, 2020
Pretext:
With the most advanced scientific instrument, by taking the strictest scientific measure, the smartest mind in the avant-garde physics have told us that more and more evidences tell us that the physical reality could be subjective…
However, most scientists in the field that often considered by those smartest avant-garde scientists as not so scientific, and most atheists without much scientific knowledge are still firmly holding their material or physicalism and mechanical determinism worldview…
Main Post:
Hawking was right that if we take the cause as more real than the appearance, then the reality could be subjective according to QM
July 17, 2020
Main Post:
It’s more vital to train the ability to think, read, and write in philosophy through practicing than passing down the knowledge
July 15, 2020
Main Post:
Without a revolution of philosophy and reforming the philosophical system, any other reformation & revolution can be disappointing
July 11, 2020
Main Post (Image):
It took one man to summarize the principles of metaphysics, but more than two thousand years for the rest of the world to learn the principles.
Then after the academia dumped metaphysics in the anti-metaphysics movement, we see the following consequences:
- In the natural and non-philosophical social domains:
The majority has lost the capacity to understand the abstract logic without collected field data or mathematical formula;
- In the social philosophical domain:
Scholars have all lost the capacity of reading relatively difficult writings and the capacity of comprehending difficult logic in real life; instead they have become indulging in a strange logic of reasoning with artificial notions that are created through academic definitions but disconnect from real life.
In so doing, they have practically turned the academic philosophy into a hallucinating game of words, which could be best recognized by its frivolously replacing real issues or meaningful notions with their own logical blocks, i.e. the artificial notions (which are frequently presented as various ism’s), and officiously making deductions using the artificial logical relations between those notions instead of the logical relations between the real issues……
June 23, 2020
Main Post:
The combination of stupidity and confidence is bad, but only with the power over others it will become dangerous to the world!
June 18, 2020
Pretext:
Recently, there is a typical sophistic use of what Einstein said about "if someone cannot explain something in simple terms, then he does not understand it" as a support that people should always be able to write as simple as everyone could understand....but they forgot one thing: although Einstein could explain his GR in very simple terms, 99% of the world populace still don't understand it, especially those who use that example sophistically, I am quite sure about that....
Main Post (Iamge):
Obscurity is relative. Something easy to a mathematician could be very obscure to ordinary people, and the same applies to philosophy writings. What matters is whether the logic involved is difficult or simple. If the logic is simple but the writing is obscure, then the writer need to improve; but the logic is difficult and the reader feels it obscure, then he needs to tune up his reading capacity in order to understand the logic when it is necessary.
June 13, 2020
Main Post:
When applying the Occam's razor, Soul is the best solution to the riddle of consciousness
June 10, 2020
Main Post (Image):
The following is another sad fact about nowadays P.P.:
Some classic works of philosophy have even been famously labeled as “extremely difficult to understand”, and thus the incapability of understanding them could be accepted as reasonable even for professionals who are supposed to be specially devoted to the studies of them.
June 3, 2020
Main Post:
Social acceptance and prestige, instead of truth, is what comforts many most, although the obvious untruth might make many uneasy
May 29, 2020
Main Post:
If B gets the answers of all issues of A, it
means A's issues're too easy, even if looking hard to many, not B knows all things
Interesting Conversation in a Group about this Post:
• SJZ: And C doesnt care.....
• RD: That will exactly be the problem that this one-liner addresses...thanks a lot for pointing it out, whether by accident or by resonance....
The one-liner of FB looks good, that's why I use it....but it limits character count...so I need to adjust the contents back and forth to fit an one-liner.....
If putting it in a bit longer sentence, it should be something like: "if A finds that B could answer all his questions, it would be an alert that his questions are too easy, even if the majority around A consider his questions are very difficult, just like any grownup normally would know the "difficult" answers of all the questions asked by the whole class of kids...so don't take it either as the sign that B knows everything or as offensive by assuming B tries to show off and lets you down".....
Obviously, this is not worth mentioning if only happens to any isolated person....but when it happens in a place like Facebook, especially in the so-called philosophy groups of Facebook that is full of well-educated intellectuals(including many P.P.) , then it would be a very serious alert to the whole community....and what you added "C doesn't care" is exactly what is going on now, and exactly what makes this OP worthing writing and posting.....
The foundation of this civilization, which philosophy, is decaying, and people don't care but just watching the edifice collapsing due to the broken foundation....
Thanks a lot for adding such a critically important complement to this Post...
• SJZ: You are welcome but why bother? ....
• RD: Because I've noticed the collapsing of the edifice....it is like someone walking towards a bridge and see it is collapsing, then he has the responsibility to warn the incoming vehicles lest they hit the bridge and drop into the torrent waters together with the collapsing bridge...
May 26, 2020
Main Post:
Democracy does not apply to truth, although we do need democracy for political tolerance and harmony......
May 21, 2020
Main Post (Image):
One often ignored or even denied truth about telling truth is that it is much easier to tell the truth than to have others to believe what is told as the truth; this difficulty would in turn make it hard to even tell the truth at the first place simply because the potential truth teller would not be confident enough that he could convince the others to agree with him, and hence extra courage might be warranted...
May 18, 2020
Main Post:
3H's of human trustworthiness:
1 Heart: goodwill
2 Head: mental competence
3 Hand: personal&social readiness, more complicated than 1&2
May 9, 2020
Main Post:
In politics, people need to select sides; but in philosophy, one should always be prepared to be in solitude with own positions
April 23, 2020
Main Post (Image):
Some Professional Philosophers (P.P.) are telling us the following:
1) The most important quality of a P.P. is the intelligibility of writing;
2) There is no truth since everything is relative. A 6 can also be read as 9 at the opposite position.
Now the question is: Since good high school students can be very intelligible and can give anyone their positions clearly, why do we need P.P. anymore?
April 22, 2020
Main Post (Image):
If ordinary people do not understand what professional philosophers are saying, that is understandable; but if professional philosophers are NOT able to understand what others are saying, we are just wasting all the social resource to maintain such a profession!
The current tragedy is that professional philosophers are only understand simple contents that are put in the style they have been familiar with! Accordingly, now it has become that the only people that read the work of professional philosophers are other professional philosophers, which is completely disconnected from the development of human civilization, and disconnected from the life of world!
April 14, 2020
Pretext:
While the 7 dimensions might never be part of the empirical of 4-dimensional creatures for they are just beyond our reach, are you still calling physicists as scientists or hypocritically making them exceptions but continuing with your empirical science versus speculative metaphysics feud?
This does not mean that we might never enter the extra dimensions by any means...but before that happens, the whole issue would be purely metaphysical, and after that happens, it would be an example of how metaphysics could lead science again...
Main Post:
While the 7 dimensions might never be part of the empirical of 4-dimensional creatures for they are just beyond our reach, are you still calling physicists as scientists or hypocritically making them exceptions but continuing with your empirical science versus speculative metaphysics feud?
This does not mean that we might never enter the extra dimensions by any means...but before that happens, the whole issue would be purely metaphysical, and after that happens, it would be an example of how metaphysics could lead science again...
Utterly Empirical Science vs Utterly Speculative Metaphysics? Face this: the 7-d's might never be part of the empirical of 4-d's.
April 6, 2020
Pretext:
In the past decades, we have often learnt from the news some tragic stories of building collapses around the world either because of the shoddy work and use of inferior material for the original foundations, or because the owners of the buildings illegally added more floors to the buildings...
Unfortunately, that kind of sad news has not served as a warning to the world about the foundation of its civilization (i.e. the mainstream philosophy), which has been entrusted to the corresponding academia bearing its title...
Nonetheless, humans being aware or not, the edifice would collapse when the load exceeds the bearing capacity of the foundation...
Main Post:
When adding more floors to the edifice, its bearing capacity of philosophical foundation has been of little concern to the world..
April 2, 2020
Pretext:
Simulating life, especially simulating the generally unknown but critically important consequences of scientific advancement, is a very meaningful functionality of fiction writing, especially science fiction writing, which unfortunately is seldom appreciated by very few writers, and the situation is getting worse as the publishing industry pushes the writers to pursue the frenzy enthusiasm of entertaining effects...
Main Post:
Science fiction is handy but potent in demonstrating the logical entailment of scientific advances by entertaining the audience..
March 24, 2020
Main Post:
The moment one holds untruth over truth to please the power or his own vanity, he is doing nothing but eroding our civilization...
March 17, 2020
Pretext:
Defaming metaphysics and renaming "Metaphysical Understandings" to "Physical Meanings" would not get rid of metaphysical notions from physics...A complete divorce of physics from metaphysics is simply impossible, no matter how much hard the academia has tried and will try....
Main Post:
Without metaphysical terms:
Time, Space, Matter, Form, Force, Potency, Quantity, Quality, Element ......
Is there still physics?
March 14, 2020
Pretext:
Unfortunately, imagination cannot replace hard reading, even with the psychedelic pill offered by the academia...
Main Post:
Simple but detailed knowledge of all philosophy is an imaginary illusion, which many are indulging with in social media......
March 11, 2020
Main Post:
Why the academia cannot face the reality of collectively low capacity of reading comprehension? Even no journal is dealing with it
March 10, 2020
Main Post:
Professional philosophers, like other professionals, are the most potent hindrance to the advance of their own profession...
February 29, 2020
Post 1
Main Post:
Humans could lie in many ways, or disguise in many ways, but NONE could cheat with the philosophy that they don’t understand...
Post 2
Main Post:
The decline of the academic philosophy starts with the capacity of reading comprehension and honesty
February 28, 2020
Main Post:
Philosophy is the easiest academic place to look great, but the most difficult academic place to be great
February 18, 2020
Main Post:
Formal education in philosophy = knowing philosophy?
If so, why philosophy is dead? Not enough have got education in philosophy?
Rongqing Dai, Ph.D.
Rongqing Dai is an author who comes from a science and engineering background with a Ph.D. from McGill University. For the past decade, I have been devoted to philosophically bent fiction and nonfiction writing to explore the dynamic logic behind the cultural, economic, and political happenings around the world. Currently I am in the transition from my science and engineering background to the philosophically bent literature writing career.
