Philosophical Issues and their Implications for the Systems Architect

Many system architects select their system methodologies without explicit consideration of the philosophical perspectives that impact their decisions. This paper describes how the concepts of ontology and epistemology apply in systems science. Ontology is how we specify terms of reference for existence, allowing us to understand the theory of existence via an ‘existence framework’. Epistemology, the theory of knowledge, allows us to explore new models and theories of knowledge acquisition so the best system-based methodologies can be deployed to solve complex system problems. After introducing these concepts, the paper presents system science issues and assesses the impact of ontological, axiological and epistemological perspectives on system methodology selection, research, system design and deployment. An ontological viewpoint such as realism, as an objective view is contrasted versus nationalism, a personal perceptional view. An epistemological viewpoint is explored comparing knowledge as a product of sensory perception or rational reflection. The paper’s significant contribution is that it helps system architects understand that their philosophical views of systems science impact their system methodology choices.     

猜想与选择:由经验到科学知识的主体建构

在知识工具主义、建构主义、经验主义、逻辑主义、实证主义等理论流派见解启发下，以私人知识与公共知识区分为前提，认为知识建构于“概念”形成与结构猜想，结果于主体的工具有效性选择；科学知识不外是符合以实践有效性为核心标准的“科学化之筛”要求的知识；以此对个体知识生产过程给予过程描述。     

巴黎学派的行动者网络理论及其哲学意蕴评析

巴黎学派的行动者网络理论是基于对科学知识社会学“强纲领”的批判而提出的,认为应当对称地看待自然和社会对科学知识的解释功能,并通过法国社会的巴斯德化等经验研究把科学知识看作异质型行动者网络借助转译机制进行建构的结果或产物。这一理论在哲学意义上显然消解了传统的主体/客体、自然/社会二分法,走向了一种科学实践研究的整体论进路,为人们揭示知识与社会的复杂联系提供了一种新的方法和理论平台。     

Incorporating Student Covariates in Cognitive Diagnosis Models

In educational measurement, cognitive diagnosis models have been developed to allow assessment of specific skills that are needed to perform tasks. Skill knowledge is characterized as present or absent and represented by a vector of binary indicators, or the skill set profile. After determining which skills are needed for each assessment item, a model is specified for the relationship between item responses and skill set profiles. Cognitive diagnosis models are often used for diagnosis, that is, for classifying students into the different skill set profiles. Generally, cognitive diagnosis models do not exploit student covariate information. However, investigating the effects of student covariates, such as gender, SES, or educational interventions, on skill knowledge mastery is important in education research, and covariate information may improve classification of students to skill set profiles. We extend a common cognitive diagnosis model, the DINA model, by modeling the relationship between the latent skill knowledge indicators and covariates. The probability of skill mastery is modeled as a logistic regression model, possibly with a student-level random intercept, giving a higher-order DINA model with a latent regression. Simulations show that parameter recovery is good for these models and that inclusion of covariates can improve skill diagnosis. When applying our methods to data from an online tutor, we obtain reasonable and interpretable parameter estimates that allow more detailed characterization of groups of students who differ in their predicted skill set profiles.     

Axiomatization and Models of Scientific Theories

In this paper we discuss two approaches to the axiomatization of scientific theories in the context of the so called semantic approach, according to which (roughly) a theory can be seen as a class of models. The two approaches are associated respectively to Suppes’ and to da Costa and Chuaqui’s works. We argue that theories can be developed both in a way more akin to the usual mathematical practice (Suppes), in an informal set theoretical environment, writing the set theoretical predicate in the language of set theory itself or, more rigorously (da Costa and Chuaqui), by employing formal languages that help us in writing the postulates to define a class of structures. Both approaches are called internal, for we work within a mathematical framework, here taken to be first-order ZFC. We contrast these approaches with an external one, here discussed briefly. We argue that each one has its strong and weak points, whose discussion is relevant for the philosophical foundations of science.     

A Theory of Scientific Model Construction: <Emphasis Type="Italic">The Conceptual Process of Abstraction and Concretisation</Emphasis>

The process of abstraction and concretisation is a label used for an explicative theory of scientific model-construction. In scientific theorising this process enters at various levels. We could identify two principal levels of abstraction that are useful to our understanding of theory-application. The first level is that of selecting a small number of variables and parameters abstracted from the universe of discourse and used to characterise the general laws of a theory. In classical mechanics, for example, we select position and momentum and establish a relation amongst the two variables, which we call Newton’s 2nd law. The specification of the unspecified elements of scientific laws, e.g. the force function in Newton’s 2nd law, is what would establish the link between the assertions of the theory and physical systems. In order to unravel how and with what conceptual resources scientific models are constructed, how they function and how they relate to theory, we need a view of theory-application that can accommodate our constructions of representation models. For this we need to expand our understanding of the process of abstraction to also explicate the process of specifying force functions etc. This is the second principal level at which abstraction enters in our theorising and in which I focus. In this paper, I attempt to elaborate a general analysis of the process of abstraction and concretisation involved in scientific- model construction, and argue why it provides an explication of the construction of models of the nuclear structure.     

Thinking Dynamically About Biological Mechanisms: Networks of Coupled Oscillators

Explaining the complex dynamics exhibited in many biological mechanisms requires extending the recent philosophical treatment of mechanisms that emphasizes sequences of operations. To understand how nonsequentially organized mechanisms will behave, scientists often advance what we call dynamic mechanistic explanations. These begin with a decomposition of the mechanism into component parts and operations, using a variety of laboratory-based strategies. Crucially, the mechanism is then recomposed by means of computational models in which variables or terms in differential equations correspond to properties of its parts and operations. We provide two illustrations drawn from research on circadian rhythms. Once biologists identified some of the components of the molecular mechanism thought to be responsible for circadian rhythms, computational models were used to determine whether the proposed mechanisms could generate sustained oscillations. Modeling has become even more important as researchers have recognized that the oscillations generated in individual neurons are synchronized within networks; we describe models being employed to assess how different possible network architectures could produce the observed synchronized activity.     

Spatio-Cultural Evolution as Information Dynamics: Part I

A view of evolution is presented in this paper (a two paper series), intended as a methodological infrastructure for modeling spatio-cultural systems (the design outline of such a model is presented in paper II). A motivation for the re-articulation of evolution as information dynamics is the phenomenologically discovered prerequisite of embedding a meaning-attributing apparatus in any and all models of spatio-cultural systems. An evolution is construed as the dynamics of a complex system comprised of memory devices, connected in an ordered fashion (not randomly) by information-exchanges. An information-exchange transpires when the recipient system adopts a strategy (a continuum of events) that eventually changes its structure; namely, after the exchange, it contains and conveys different information. These memory devices??sub-systems??are also similarly constructed complex system. Only a part of the information is retained by a system in its physical-memory storage, which eventually loses this function too, when the ability to retrieve a common enough structure is lost. The entire amount of information is a system??s structure of connections (information exchanges); it is contained (apparently stored) dynamically when a system is observed in a temporarily stable state. This temporary permanence??robustness and resilience??is attained dynamically; namely, enabled by changes taking place in its sub-systems and in each of their sub-systems. Therefore, for modeling such a system a multi-layer/multi-scale approach is preferable. It enables the addition and subtraction of an interim scale and the consideration of such a scale as a micro or a macro (thus initiating a maneuver up or down scale) according to an ad-hoc requirement of the model, which imitates an envisaged sub system (called an ??Inner World??), to which a certain range of decisions is relegated. This dynamics is driven (in time) by dynamically originated information growth, as defined by Shannon; i.e. by the fact that each of certain state transitions have occurred sometime in the past of the system just so and not otherwise, and by the fact that they have occurred in a certain order. Therefore, each ??history?? and memory retrieval availability of information is unique, and thus can be used to differentiate meanings. Hence, there cannot be a comprehensive solution to the meaning attribution model-design challenge. However, the observation that at the core of each envisaged complex system, moving in time according to a rounded logic, there is an information manipulating device, operating necessarily according to a Boolean logic, can be copied into the design of a model. This observation enables, therefore, the embedding of a specific, locally fitted, meaning attributing device, which is an information manipulating mechanism (it splices/attaches one segment of information to another??its meaning). However, this is just a framework; the actual solution has still to be found locally??for each subject system. Such a solution is demonstrated for the change in location or layout in the Israeli city in paper II.     

The Liar-paradox in a Quantum Mechanical Perspective

In this paper we concentrate on the nature of the liar paradox asa cognitive entity; a consistently testable configuration of properties. We elaborate further on a quantum mechanical model (Aerts, Broekaert and Smets, 1999) that has been proposed to analyze the dynamics involved, and we focus on the interpretation and concomitant philosophical picture. Some conclusions we draw from our model favor an effective realistic interpretation of cognitive reality.     

Mathematics as a Quasi-Empirical Science

The present paper aims at showing that there are times when set theoretical knowledge increases in a non-cumulative way. In other words, what we call ‘set theory’ is not one theory which grows by simple addition of a theorem after the other, but a finite sequence of theories T ₁, ..., T _n in which T _i+1, for 1 ≤ i < n, supersedes T _i . This thesis has a great philosophical significance because it implies that there is a sense in which mathematical theories, like the theories belonging to the empirical sciences, are fallible and that, consequently, mathematical knowledge has a quasi-empirical nature. The way I have chosen to provide evidence in favour of the correctness of the main thesis of this article consists in arguing that Cantor–Zermelo set theory is a Lakatosian Mathematical Research Programme (MRP).     

Foundations and Methodology for an Evolutionary World View: A Review of the Principia Cybernetica Project

The Principia Cybernetica Project was created to develop an integrated philosophy or world view, based on the theories of evolution, self-organization, systems and cybernetics. Its conceptual network has been implemented as an extensive website. The present paper reviews the assumptions behind the project, focusing on its rationale, its philosophical presuppositions, and its concrete methodology for computer-supported collaborative development. Principia Cybernetica starts from a process ontology, where a sequence of elementary actions produces ever more complex forms of organization through the mechanism of variation and selection, and metasystem transition. Its epistemology is constructivist and evolutionary: models are constructed by subjects for their own purposes, but undergo selection by the environment. Its ethics takes fitness and the continuation of evolution as the basic value, and derives more concrete guidelines from this implicit purpose. Together, these postulates and their implications provide answers to a range of age-old philosophical questions.     

In Between Us: On the Transparency and Opacity of Technological Mediation

In recent years several approaches??philosophical, sociological, psychological??have been developed to come to grips with our profoundly technologically mediated world. However, notwithstanding the vast merit of each, they illuminate only certain aspects of technological mediation. This paper is a preliminary attempt at a philosophical reflection on technological mediation as such??deploying the concepts of ??transparency?? and ??opacity?? as heuristic instruments. Hence, we locate a ??theory of transparency?? within several theoretical frameworks??respectively classic phenomenology, media theory, Actor Network Theory, postphenomenology, several ethnographical, psychological, and sociological perspectives, and finally, the ??Critical Theory of Technology.?? Subsequently, we render a general, systematic overview of these theories, thereby conjecturing what a broad analysis of technological mediation in and of itself might look like??finding, at last, an essential contradiction between transparency of ??use?? and transparency of social origins and effects.     

Computational and Biological Analogies for Understanding Fine-Tuned Parameters in Physics

In this philosophical paper, we explore computational and biological analogies to address the fine-tuning problem in cosmology. We first clarify what it means for physical constants or initial conditions to be fine-tuned. We review important distinctions such as the dimensionless and dimensional physical constants, and the classification of constants proposed by Lévy-Leblond. Then we explore how two great analogies, computational and biological, can give new insights into our problem. This paper includes a preliminary study to examine the two analogies. Importantly, analogies are both useful and fundamental cognitive tools, but can also be misused or misinterpreted. The idea that our universe might be modelled as a computational entity is analysed, and we discuss the distinction between physical laws and initial conditions using algorithmic information theory. Smolin introduced the theory of “Cosmological Natural Selection” with a biological analogy in mind. We examine an extension of this analogy involving intelligent life. We discuss if and how this extension could be legitimated.     

超弦/M理论真空及其哲学问题

首先简介20世纪80年代中期以来，超弦/M理论真空研究所取得的重大物理成就，进而对其进行哲学本体性意义的探讨。     

"哲学资本"——布迪厄社会理论的"工具箱"

布迪厄是法国当代著名社会学家,更是法国当代著名哲学家。但由于多种原因,我国学界并没有把他作为法国当代著名哲学家来对待,因此,我国学者对布迪厄的哲学思想了解的不多。布迪厄依靠自己拥有的哲学资本①(哲学博士和哲学教师资格文凭),创造性地运用系统论、普遍联系和认识论等哲学思想,使其社会理论凸现出建构的结构主义或结构的建构主义、关系主义和反思性的哲学特征,布迪厄在创立社会理论的过程中,哲学资本起到了工具箱②的作用。     

从根子上实现气动计算湍流模型的突破

湍流是制约我国航空航天飞行器设计的卡脖子问题。在计算流体动力学（ CFD ）日益成为飞行器设计的主要手段时,如何构建湍流的数学物理模型是最突出的基础科学难题。我们以复杂系统的新认识为基础,从理论、实验、计算等多方面形成一个突破湍流世纪难题的新思路。理论上,我们构建了结构系综理论新框架,在物理思想上将经典的朗道平均场理论推广到非平衡系统,形成基于广义李群变换的多层结构模型;在方法上创新发展了序函数分析方法,从精确数值模拟和实验测量的经验数据中提炼湍流场的物理结构参数。这一工作在探索飞行器相关的壁湍流的物理对称性原理方面取得了圆满的成功,首次获得规范壁湍流的解析解,确认了新的普适卡门常数0.45。同时,我们以钱学森系统工程的思想为指导,组织了湍流实验和计算平台的建设,针对飞行器典型流场实现了实验、计算和理论的联合攻关,并组织实施了工程计算平台的建设。这些努力为新一代工程湍流模型的研制奠定了坚实的基础。     

基于框架术语学理论的北约术语管理

“框架术语学”认知理论是美籍西班牙裔语言学家费伯教授最富有代表性的理论。她采用北约的医学术语作为设计范例,依照概念体系重新构建了原医学术语表,其出发点以语义分析和语料库分析为基础,概念分析结果也经过该领域军事医学专家的验证。整个术语管理模型在“框架”里构建,能更好地反映特定专业领域里典型性知识及其语境。     

情境语义学与可能世界语义学比较研究探析

情境语义学是一种新型语义理论，虽然它在意义和日常推理的哲学解释上获得极大成功，但在形式技术上还不够成熟。模态逻辑的形式技术方面已经发展得相当成熟，但它的可能世界语义学在哲学解释上却存在诸多困难。在这样的情况下，用情境语义学来改造模态逻辑，努力构造一种动态敏感且数学上严格的形式系统，就决定了今后逻辑发展的基本走势之一。     

Mechanistic Explanations and Models in Molecular Systems Biology

Mechanistic models in molecular systems biology are generally mathematical models of the action of networks of biochemical reactions, involving metabolism, signal transduction, and/or gene expression. They can be either simulated numerically or analyzed analytically. Systems biology integrates quantitative molecular data acquisition with mathematical models to design new experiments, discriminate between alternative mechanisms and explain the molecular basis of cellular properties. At the heart of this approach are mechanistic models of molecular networks. We focus on the articulation and development of mechanistic models, identifying five constraints which guide the articulation of models in molecular systems biology. These constraints are not independent of one another, with the result that modeling becomes an iterative process. We illustrate the use of these constraints in the modeling of the mechanism for bistability in the lac operon.     

The Constructive Realist Account of Science and Its Application to Ilya Prigogine’s Conception of Laws of Nature

Sciences are often regarded as providing the best, or, ideally, exact, knowledge of the world, especially in providing laws of nature. Ilya Prigogine, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for his theory of non-equilibrium chemical processes—this being also an important attempt to bridge the gap between exact and non-exact sciences [mentioned in the Presentation Speech by Professor Stig Claesson (nobelprize.org, The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1977)]—has had this ideal in mind when trying to formulate a new kind of science. Philosophers of science distinguish theory and reality, examining relations between these two. Nancy Cartwright’s distinction of fundamental and phenomenological laws, Rein Vihalemm’s conception of the peculiarity of the exact sciences, and Ronald Giere’s account of models in science and science as a set of models are deployed in this article to criticise the common view of science and analyse Ilya Prigogine’s view in particular. We will conclude that on a more abstract, philosophical level, Prigogine’s understanding of science doesn’t differ from the common understanding.