Embracing the Political in Technology and Transition Studies: A Response to Philip Vergragt and Bram Bos

This article is a short reaction to the comments of Vergragt (Found Sci, 2012) and Bos (Found Sci, 2012) on my article “Sustainability transition and the nature of technology” (Paredis in Found Sci 16(2–3):195–225, Paredis 2011). I start by situating current transition research in the sustainability debate. The relation between the two is simultaneously specific and vague: specific about processes at work during transitions, vague about the content and direction of the change. I then move on to a discussion of how a better conceptualisation of technology could strengthen the transition framework. I want to thank the two reviewers for their critical remarks, that stimulated me to better explain my position.     

论以技术为中介的科学认识的变化

现代科学研究的技术中介日益加重,作者以康德的认识论为参照论述了技术介入后的科学认识的三种变化:一是人对观察的认知体验与对观察的信念巨大的分离;二是科学知识的判断过程完全走向工具的外化阅读之上;三是康德那里自然的合目的性先天调节原则因科学的技术基础的复杂化而转化为技术进化本身的目的性,造成科学变革受技术基础的牵制.     

现象学视野中的技术创新

本文从现象学的视角考察技术创新。没有将意向性结构运用到对技术创新的追问中去：考察了意向性概念的变化，提出它在技术创新的现象学研究中的地位和作用；指出考察技术创新是揭示技术本质的方式之一。技术创新是现代技术得以显现其自身的前提和地平线（horizon）；技术具有清晰的意向性或存在论的结构，即技术“在——技术创新中——存在”。     

Sustainability Transitions and the Nature of Technology

For more than 20?years, sustainable development has been advocated as a way of tackling growing global environmental and social problems. The sustainable development discourse has always had a strong technological component and the literature boasts an enormous amount of debate on which technologies should be developed and employed and how this can most efficiently be done. The mainstream discourse in sustainable development argues for an eco-efficiency approach in which a technology push strategy boosts efficiency levels by a factor 10 and more in industrialised and developing countries. A minority argues for a socio-cultural lifestyle switch, relying on new values, quality of life, sufficiency and redistribution strategies, with calls for appropriate and soft technologies. It is remarkable, however, that the articles, books and policy debates on sustainability seldom explicitly draw in a discussion of the nature of technology, how technology influences and is influenced by society, and what this implies for sustainable development. The mainstream interprets technology as neutral and instrumental: technology is no more than an instrument to reach a goal; it cannot be judged on its intrinsic characteristics, only on its use. The alternative view often builds on an autonomous and substantive interpretation of technology: technology is an autonomous, almost uncontrollable power that fundamentally reshapes our culture. A more balanced approach seems to be growing in the research on socio-technical sustainability transitions where the focus shifts to the co-evolution of technology and society, and to the networks, seamless webs and complex multi-actor processes that may carry a sustainability transition forward. This approach builds on insights from recent traditions in the philosophy and sociology of technology, in particular the social construction of technology (SCOT) and actor-network theory (ANT). While this provides for a better understanding of the nature and potential role of technology in sustainability policies, it remains to be seen whether it will actually influence the choice between technologies. This article investigates the different conceptualisations of technology in the sustainability debate. It first distinguishes between different approaches of sustainability and how these are related to differing views on technology. It then moves on to how the socio-technical transitions research incorporates insights from contemporary philosophy and sociology of technology. It reflects on the potential of transitions research to give guidance in technology choices, suggesting that the transition approach might be strengthened by drawing in insights from critical theory of technology and by taking a more political stance in defining sustainable development.     

Pragmatism, Realism and Hermeneutics

This paper explores themethodological consequences of AmericanPragmatism for the social sciences. It alsocriticises some rival perspectives onmethodology of social research, in particularfalsificationist, realist and someanti-naturalist views. It is argued thatAmerican Pragmatism shows striking affinitieswith the genealogical method of history and thereflexive turn in cultural anthropology. It isalso argued that Pragmatism forces us to thinkdifferently about the relationship betweentheory and empirical research.     

论达米特反实在论思想的基础

达米特通过对直觉主义数学和逻辑方法的重新改造和推进,发展出一套相对完善的辩护主义意义理论,本文正是由此详细分析和论证了其反实在论思想的形成基础,并指出达米特反实在论策略所存在的一些问题。     

伯格曼的技术哲学及其启示

伯格曼是当今世界最有影响的技术哲学家之一。他通过“器具范式”“聚焦物”、“聚焦活动”等概念，论证和说明现代技术在改善人们生活的过程中具有本质上的局限性。他同时还把对技术的形而上学和认识论的分析与对技术的社会学、经济学、历史学等学科的分析结合起来，试图全面地把握技术和当代生活的特点。     

从自主的技术到技术的政治--L.温纳(Langdon Winner)的技术哲学思想及启示

本文考察了温纳的技术哲学思想.从研究自主技术出发,分析了温纳自主技术观的根基、表现,并在研究技术作为政治现象的两种方式的基础上,探讨了温纳所提出的技术的政治,包括技术的内在政治性本质、技术作为政治现象的特征以及控制技术的可能.在此基础上,本文认为,技术已经成为我们的生活方式,技术的民主控制问题值得我们思考.     

Error, Error-Statistics and Self-Directed Anticipative Learning

Error is protean, ubiquitous and crucial in scientific process. In this paper it is argued that understanding scientific process requires what is currently absent: an adaptable, context-sensitive functional role for error in science that naturally harnesses error identification and avoidance to positive, success-driven, science. This paper develops a new account of scientific process of this sort, error and success driving Self-Directed Anticipative Learning (SDAL) cycling, using a recent re-analysis of ape-language research as test example. The example shows the limitations of other accounts of error, in particular Mayo’s (Error and the growth of experimental knowledge, 1996) error-statistical approach, and SDAL cycling shows how they can be fruitfully contextualised.     

Gordon Pask's Conversation Theory: A Domain Independent Constructivist Model of Human Knowing

Although it is conceded (as argued by many)that distinct knowledge domains do presentparticular problems of coming to know, in thispaper it is argued that it is possible (anduseful) to construct a domain independent modelof the processes of coming to know, one inwhich observers share understandings and do soin agreed ways. The model in question is partof the conversation theory (CT) of Gordon Pask. CT, as a theory of theory construction andcommunication, has particular relevance forfoundational issues in science and scienceeducation. CT explicitly propounds a ``radicalconstructivist' (RC) epistemology. A briefaccount is given of the main tenets of RC andCT's place in that tradition and the traditionsof cybernetics. The paper presents a briefnon-technical account of the main concepts ofCT including elaborations by Laurillard andHarri-Augstein and Thomas. As part of CT, Pask also elaborated a methodology – knowledgeand task analysis – for analysing the structureof different knowledge domains; thismethodology is sketched in outline.     

知识文明和创新意识

本文探索知识文明和创新意识的本质关联.今天,随着高技术日渐在社会发展中占据支配地位,时代正从工业文明向知识文明过渡.同时,创新意识已然成为时代的主旋律.知识文明和创新意识同步形成和发展,并非偶然,两者本质关联的纽带是知识观念之更新.     

术语管理工具的应用

文章依据描述派的方法,以术语数据库的构建模式为切入点,对什么是术语工具及其相关的问题做出回答,目的是探讨技术对于术语工作的影响。术语工具应用带来的启示是,技术改变了术语工作与研究的方法,在构建中文的术语库时需要充分利用国内外的术语工具,并研发自己的术语管理工具。     

论《史记》反映的中国古代科学思想传统

《史记》是一部史学巨著，其中包含了许多科学技术内容。该文从科学思想的角度探讨评述司马迁在《史记》中对中国古代人天关系的创造性理解和运用，以及司马迁在批判继承前人思想基础上的独到的见解和发挥，并对《史记》中记载的一些科学技术史实进行了研究，指出它们为科学技术史的研究提供了线索。     

Beyond Politization of Technology and Sustainability: A Plea for Visioning

Most protagonists of sustainable development ignore modern insights in the nature of technology, which has led to an emphasis on technological solutions. The notable exception is transition management. However, both social construction of technology and transition management have been criticized as ignoring distributions of power in society, and for not offering guidance in the choice of the most sustainable technologies. The reviewer criticizes this approach: the issue is not to choose the right technologies, but to address the root causes of unsustainability in society. In addition to politization of transition management the reviewer argues that strong visions are necessary to lead the way. Technologies could help to develop those visions.     

Falsificationism Falsified

A conceptual analysis of falsificationism is performed, in which the central falsificationist thesis is divided into several components. Furthermore, an empirical study of falsification in science is reported, based on the 70 scientific contributions that were published as articles in Nature in 2000. Only one of these articles conformed to the falsificationist recipe for successful science, namely the falsification of a hypothesis that is more accessible to falsification than to verification. It is argued that falsificationism relies on an incorrect view of the nature of scientific inquiry and that it is, therefore, not a tenable research methodology.     

镜像神经元与他心认知

镜像神经元的经验发现,被部分发现者和模拟论者解读为基于模拟的心理阅读的神经基础,即亚个人水平的隐模拟过程或映像过程,支撑着个人水平的、有意识内省的显心理模拟。本文分析考察这种哲学解读,认为镜像神经元的相关功能表明了它应该是人们对他人心理阅读能力的神经基础,但还不足以判定其到底支持ST还是TT的心理阅读方式。     

基于科技产出的纳滤膜技术国际比较研究

纳滤膜技术作为一种新型的膜分离技术，已经在水处理和过程分离领域得到了广泛应用，并成为我国未来科技发展的专项技术。本研究以SCI讲论文和专利这两种重要的科技产出形式为主要研究对象，通过对这些文献进行计量学分析，主要研究了纳滤膜技术在基础研究和技术创新方面的发展情况，并通过国际对比，研究了我国在该项技术领域的发展特点，研究结果可为相关的科技发展规划提供政策支撑。     

试论科学知识生产的组织学分析

考察了惠特利(Richard Whitley)的“科学场域”视角和沃恩(Diane Vaughan)的“组织特征”视角,指出作为中观层面的科学知识生产的组织学分析框架中应该整合两种类型的研究,并纳入更广泛的社会与境。     

近年来大数据技术前沿与热点研究——基于2015—2021年VOSviewer相关文献的高频术语可视化分析

文章以Web of Science 数据库为基础,以2015—2021年大数据领域高被引论文为样本,运用知识图谱软件VOSviewer对样本中的关键词频次进行统计,对关键词数据进行手动预处理后生成科学知识图谱,然后从研究热点、研究前沿以及演进路径对大数据技术进行量化和聚类分析。结果表明,大数据技术前沿有三个研究方向,分别是大数据开发与挖掘技术、大数据分析与管理技术、大数据运维与云计算技术。数字化、智能化、网络化是大数据技术的未来发展方向,大数据运维与云计算是大数据技术的研究前沿,数据安全是大数据技术的未来研究热点。随着人们对大数据技术研究的不断深入,大数据理论体系和大数据治理体系会更加完善和成熟,人类将进入信息技术引领下的万物互联新时代。     

在工程与哲学之间

通过评析工程师和哲学家对工程与哲学交叉领域的代表性观点,表明工程师完全有能力通过思考工程哲学问题,帮助我们更好地理解工程,更好地建构工程/塑造社会;哲学家们应该切入工程实践塑造出来的社会现实,重建自我认同以赢得社会的承认.中国自然辩证法研究会的"三结合"传统仍然是促进"工程走向哲学"和"哲学走向工程"的现实依托.