The Foundationalism–Coherentism Opposition Revisited: The Case for Complementarism

In this paper, I show the complementarity of foundationalism and coherentism with respect to any efficient system of beliefs by means of a distinction between two types of proposition drawn from an analogy with an axiomatic system. This distinction is based on the way a given proposition is acknowledged as true, either by declaration (F-proposition) or by preservation (C-proposition). Within such a perspective, i.e., epistemological complementarism, not only can one see how the usual opposition between foundationalism and coherentism is irrelevant, but furthermore one can appreciate the reciprocal relation between these two theories as they refer to two separate epistemological functions involved in the dynamics of constituting and expanding an epistemic system.

The Assassin of Relativity

In his younger years—from the time they were students together at the Zurich Polytechnic—Albert Einstein was good friends with Friedrich Adler. Adler, son of the cultured leader of the Socialist Party in Vienna, was, like Einstein, a physicist very much engaged with both epistemology and politics. They shared a fascination with Ernst Mach.     

The Hottest Job on Earth

The Hottest Job on Earth Kim inched his way along. Heat covered him like ablanket. Cracks alive with fire opened beneath his feet."Maybe this wasn't such a good idea," Kim said to himself. "Maybe I should have left this volcano alone!"     

The Discovery of the Southern Sky

该文题为《南天星空的发现－－对欧洲和中国三份最早的南天星表的研究》。从１５世纪末开始，以哥伦布发现美洲大陆为标志，欧洲进入伟大的地理新发现时代。欧洲航海家们越过赤道，到达了南半球，从而南天极附近的星空开始成为欧洲人能够看到的星空。     

蓝精灵The Smurfs（2011）

导演：拉加·高斯内尔 编剧：J．David Stem／David N．Weiss 主演：尼尔·帕特里克·哈里斯／杰玛·梅斯，汉克·阿扎利亚／乔纳森·温特斯／凯蒂·派瑞／艾伦·卡明，     

The Einstein Papers Project 1955～2005

The publication of the Collected Papers of Albert Einstein has been a long-standing editorial project. So far, nine volumes of Einstein＇s collected writings and correspondence have been published since 1987 （with one double volume）. They cover Einstein＇s life and work from 1879 to 1921. The tenth volume of correspondence is due to appear in fall 2006.     

The Chinese Journal for the History Science and Technology

The Chinese Journal for the History of Science and Technology （known as China Historical Materials of Science and Technology from 1980 to 2004） is the official publication of the Chinese Society for the History of Science and Technology and the Institute for the History of Natural Science, Chinese Academy of Science. It is foremost vehicle for the scholarship of professional historians of science in China, published quarterly by China Science and Technology Press.     

The Art of Living with ICTs: The Ethics–Aesthetics of Vulnerability Coping and Its Implications for Understanding and Evaluating ICT Cultures

This essay shows that a sharp distinction between ethics and aesthetics is unfruitful for thinking about how to live well with technologies, and in particular for understanding and evaluating how we cope with human existential vulnerability, which is crucially mediated by the development and use of technologies such as electronic ICTs. It is argued that vulnerability coping is a matter of ethics and art: it requires developing a kind of art and techne in the sense that it always involves technologies and specific styles of experiencing and dealing with vulnerability, which depend on social and cultural context. It is suggested that we try to find better, perhaps less modern styles of coping with our vulnerability, recognize limits to our attempts to “design” our new forms, and explore what kinds of technologies we need for this project.     

The Chinese Journal for the History of Science and Technology

TheChineseJournalfortheHistoryofScienceandTechnology(knownasChinaHistoricalMaterialsofSci enceandTechnologyfrom1980to2004)istheofficialpublicationoftheChineseSocietyfortheHistoryofSci enceandTechnologyandtheInstitutefortheHistoryofNaturalScience,ChineseAc…     

The Epistemological Functions of Symbolization in Leibniz’s Universal Characteristic

Leibniz’s universal characteristic is a fundamental aspect of his theory of cognition. Without symbols or characters it would be difficult for the human mind to define several concepts and to achieve many demonstrations. In most disciplines, and particularly in mathematics, the mind must then focus on symbols and their combinatorial rules rather than on mental contents. For Leibniz, mental perception is most of the time too confused for attaining distinct notions and valid deductions. In this paper, I argue that the functions of symbolization differ depending upon the kind of concepts that are replaced with characters. In my view, most commentators did not sufficiently underline the distinction between two main functions of formal substitution in Leibniz’s characteristic: either increasing our knowledge or simply structuring it. In the first case, we complete our knowledge because formal substitution makes sensible and imaginary concepts more distinct. In the second case, symbolization helps to organize contents that are already conceived of by reason. Thus the process of substitution is not always identically applicable, for symbols replace different types of concepts.     

The Usage of the Word“伴随矩阵”(bansuijuzhen)

一、张肇炽先生在<一个常用矩阵命名与记法的商榷>一文中指出,在许多中文数学文献中,对两个意义完全不同的矩阵都使用"伴随矩阵"这一名称.第一种情况是把矩阵A=(aij)n×n的伴随矩阵定义为由A的元素aij的代数余子式Aij所构成的矩阵A*:     

The Problem about the English Translation of“优生优育”(youshengyouyu)

蔡敬先生就<科技术语研究>2000年第2期上我写的<关于"优生优育"英译名的问题>一文提出了名词审定要注意历史和现有工具书的问题,我很同意这个观点.     

‘The Economic’ According to Aristotle: Ethical, Political and Epistemological Implications

A renewed concern with Aristotle’s thought about the economic aspects of human life and society can be observed. Aristotle dealt with the economic issues in his practical philosophy. He thus considered ‘the economic’ within an ethical and political frame. This vision is coherent with a specific ontology of ‘the economic’ according to Aristotle. In a recent paper, I analysed this ontology and left its consequences, especially for Ethics and Politics, for another paper. In this article, I firstly summarise the reasoning and conclusions of the aforementioned paper. Then, I extract the ethical and political “lessons” of the Aristotelian conception. I finally add a section with epistemological “lessons”, and consequences for the teaching of Economics.     

The Issue of “Closure” in Jagers op Akkerhuis’s Operator Theory

Attempts to define life should focus on the transition from molecules to cells and the “closure” aspects of this event. Rather than classifying existing objects into living and non-living entities I believe the challenge is to understand how the transition from non-life to life can take place, that is, the how the closure in Jagers op Akkerhuis’s hierarchical classification of operators, comes about.     

The Classification Society’s Bibliography Over Four Decades: History and Content Analysis

The Classification Literature Automated Search Service, an annual bibliography based on citation of one or more of a set of around 80 book or journal publications, ran from 1972 to 2012. We analyze here the years 1994 to 2012. The Classification Society’s Service, as it was termed, was produced by the Classification Society. In earlier decades it was distributed as a diskette or CD with the Journal of Classification. Among our findings are the following: an enormous increase in scholarly production in this area post approximately 2000; and another big increase in quantity of publications from approximately 2004. The over 93,000 bibliographic records used is the basis for determining the research disciplines that we analyze. We make all this data available for download, formatted in text and in XML, with an accompanying Apache Lucene/Solr search interface.     

The Reality Doesn't Correspond to Its Appellation of“无氟冰箱”(wufubingxiang)

当代最大的环境问题之一就是大气臭氧层的破坏.各新闻媒体对这个问题进行了大量的报道,主要目的在于唤醒广大公众的环境意识,其功绩不小.但是在宣传报道中对于臭氧层破坏的问题有的提法不科学,形成了某些误解,其中"无氟冰箱"就是最明显的实例之一.     

The Art of Living with Technology: Turning Over Philosophy of Technology’s Empirical Turn

In this article we seek to lay bare a couple of potential conceptual and methodological issues that, we believe, are implicitly present in contemporary philosophy of technology (PhilTech). At stake are (1) the sustained pertinence of and need for coping strategies as to ‘how to live with technology (in everyday life)’ notwithstanding PhilTech’s advancement in its non-essentialist analysis of ‘technology’ as such; (2) the issue of whether ‘living with technology’ is a technological affair or not (or both); and (3) the tightly related question concerning the status of the methodological bedrock of contemporary PhilTech, the ‘empirical turn.’ These matters are approached from the perspective of the philosophical notion of the ‘art of living,’ and our argumentation is developed both as a context for and on the basis of the contributions to the special issue ‘The Art of Living with Technology.’