休闲、信仰与对生命意义的追寻

休闲不是简单的放松、娱乐、玩.通过对历史上休闲与宗教之关系的梳理及对休闲之深层意义的探讨能够看到,在更本质的意义上休闲是我们形成自己信仰的一个基础,从而跟人类最高层次的精神生活有着密切的联系.在休闲中建立信仰要求我们对自己的欲望有一定的节制,但这跟休闲理论中经常强调的自由要素并不相悖,甚至可以说是相辅相成的.     

科学规范的内涵、类别、功能、结构和形式

提出科学规范论的十大问题。阐述科学规范的内涵、功能与类别;阐述科学规范系统的逻辑结 构与科学规范的存在和表达形式。     

Gould, Hull, and the Individuation of Scientific Theories

When is conceptual change so significant that we should talk about a new theory, not a new version of the same theory? We address this problem here, starting from Gould’s discussion of the individuation of the Darwinian theory. He locates his position between two extremes: ‘minimalist’—a theory should be individuated merely by its insertion in a historical lineage—and ‘maximalist’—exhaustive lists of necessary and sufficient conditions are required for individuation. He imputes the minimalist position to Hull and attempts a reductio: this position leads us to give the same ‘name’ to contradictory theories. Gould’s ‘structuralist’ position requires both ‘conceptual continuity’ and descent for individuation. Hull’s attempt to assimilate into his general selectionist framework Kuhn’s notion of ‘exemplar’ and the ‘semantic’ view of the structure of scientific theories can be used to counter Gould’s reductio, and also to integrate structuralist and population thinking about conceptual change.     

社会需求、技术缺失与机器的诞生

在肯定前人关于技术发展根奉动力是“需求”的观点基础上,提出了技术改进和技术发明的一般性机制——“技术缺失”的显现和对这种显现的领会,并结合原始手工工具和机器的发明历史予以论证。机器的诞生是资本主义生产需求引发的,没有这种社会需求便不会有“机器缺失”的显现,也就没有弥补“缺失”的发明活动。机器技术的每一步进展,都是从手工工具使用时的局限中发现了改进的方向,前一阶段的技术缺失是后采改进和发明的向导;前一阶段的功能结构,在后一阶段都有一定的保留。现代技术尽管异常复杂,它的发明仍然是以另一个层次的“技术缺失”为基本条件的。     

Newtonian Emanation, Spinozism, Measurement and the Baconian Origins of the Laws of Nature

The first two sections of this paper investigate what Newton could have meant in a now famous passage from “De Graviatione” (hereafter “DeGrav”) that “space is as it were an emanative effect of God.” First it offers a careful examination of the four key passages within DeGrav that bear on this. The paper shows that the internal logic of Newton’s argument permits several interpretations. In doing so, the paper calls attention to a Spinozistic strain in Newton’s thought. Second it sketches four interpretive options: (i) one approach is generic neo-Platonic; (ii) another approach is associated with the Cambridge Platonist, Henry More; a variant on this (ii*) emphasizes that Newton mixes Platonist and Epicurean themes; (iii) a necessitarian approach; (iv) an approach connected with Bacon’s efforts to reformulate a useful notion of form and laws of nature. Hitherto only the second and third options have received scholarly attention in scholarship on DeGrav. The paper offers new arguments to treat Newtonian emanation as a species of Baconian formal causation as articulated, especially, in the first few aphorisms of part two of Bacon’s New Organon. If we treat Newtonian emanation as a species of formal causation then the necessitarian reading can be combined with most of the Platonist elements that others have discerned in DeGrav, especially Newton’s commitment to doctrines of different degrees of reality as well as the manner in which the first existing being ‘transfers’ its qualities to space (as a kind of causa-sui). This can clarify the conceptual relationship between space and its formal cause in Newton as well as Newton’s commitment to the spatial extended-ness of all existing beings. While the first two sections of this paper engage with existing scholarly controversies, in the final section the paper argues that the recent focus on emanation has obscured the importance of Newton’s very interesting claims about existence and measurement in “DeGrav”. The paper argues that according to Newton God and other entities have the same kind of quantities of existence; Newton is concerned with how measurement clarifies the way of being of entities. Newton is not claiming that measurement reveals all aspects of an entity. But if we measure something then it exists as a magnitude in space and as a magnitude in time. This is why in DeGrav Newton’s conception of existence really helps to “lay truer foundations of the mechanical sciences.”     

全球化,科学词汇和生物学的未来

1 Biology for the 21st Century In a recent article in the New York Times (3/23/05), reporting on yet another upset to received views of the ways in which cells make use of their DNA, a prominent geneticist is quoted as remarking, "biologists have gotten used to the unexpected." Indeed, they have, as indeed, they have had to. Over the last few years, our understanding of molecular and developmental genetics has mutated dramatically in response to ever more complex analyses of ever more abundant and more complex data.     

"生物积累"等三个术语概念的探讨

对辞书术语的定义格式作了查证,并通过与教材中的术语定义的对比,探讨两种定义格式的特点。根据参与术语翻译和标准评审的点滴积累与正反体验,将翻译定名中的常见问题尝试概括为十种。每种问题都举出实例,从逻辑、语法与格式三方面加以分析。文中举例虽取自信息技术和对定义的翻译,但所概括的定义的特点和常见问题适用于科学技术其他学科,适用于自行撰写定义。     

“磷、膦、钅粦”“氨、胺、铵”系列名词辨析

系统分析和归纳了“磷、膦、钅粦”“氨、胺、铵”系列名词的定义和知识点,探讨了易混淆、错用的各类情况,为科技编辑及其他技术人员正确、规范使用该系列名词术语提供借鉴。     

Towards a Hierarchical Definition of Life,the Organism,and Death

Despite hundreds of definitions, no consensus exists on a definition of life or on the closely related and problematic definitions of the organism and death. These problems retard practical and theoretical development in, for example, exobiology, artificial life, biology and evolution. This paper suggests improving this situation by basing definitions on a theory of a generalized particle hierarchy. This theory uses the common denominator of the “operator” for a unified ranking of both particles and organisms, from elementary particles to animals with brains. Accordingly, this ranking is called “the operator hierarchy”. This hierarchy allows life to be defined as: matter with the configuration of an operator, and that possesses a complexity equal to, or even higher than the cellular operator. Living is then synonymous with the dynamics of such operators and the word organism refers to a select group of operators that fit the definition of life. The minimum condition defining an organism is its existence as an operator, construction thus being more essential than metabolism, growth or reproduction. In the operator hierarchy, every organism is associated with a specific closure, for example, the nucleus in eukaryotes. This allows death to be defined as: the state in which an organism has lost its closure following irreversible deterioration of its organization. The generality of the operator hierarchy also offers a context to discuss “life as we do not know it”. The paper ends with testing the definition’s practical value with a range of examples.     

从外控到内控—论认知—行为疗法的形成

产生于五十年代的行为疗法，在经历了一段卓有成效的发展时期后，由于过分强调外在的行为控制而陷入困境，在人本主义、信息加工心理学和认知疗法的强烈冲击下，行为治疗家们吸收，接纳了中介认知的理论，形成了以调整变化内在认知过程为核心的认知－行为疗法。尽管它自身存在一些问题，但却显示出了极大的发展潜力。     

论战克隆人:意义、观点与评测

对克隆人问题进行讨论有重要的现实意义。就“要不要克隆人”的问题，国内学界有赞成派与反对派之争。本文在对两派的观点和论战过程加以追述之后，对这场论战存在的问题、目前的态势以及将来的前景，做出了评析与预测。     

Emergence,Evolution, and the Geometry of Logic: Causal Leaps and the Myth of Historical Development

After sketching the historical development of “emergence” and noting several recent problems relating to “emergent properties”, this essay proposes that properties may be either “emergent” or “mergent” and either “intrinsic” or “extrinsic”. These two distinctions define four basic types of change: stagnation, permanence, flux, and evolution. To illustrate how emergence can operate in a purely logical system, the Geometry of Logic is introduced. This new method of analyzing conceptual systems involves the mapping of logical relations onto geometrical figures, following either an analytic or a synthetic pattern (or both together). Evolution is portrayed as a form of discontinuous change characterized by emergent properties that take on an intrinsic quality with respect to the object(s) or proposition(s) involved. Causal leaps, not continuous development, characterize the evolution of human life in a developing foetus, of a thought out of certain brain states, of a new idea (or insight) out of ordinary thoughts, and of a great person out of a set of historical experiences. The tendency to assume that understanding evolutionary change requires a step-by-step explanation of the historical development that led to the appearance of a certain emergent property is thereby discredited.     

On the Association for Foundations of Science,Language and Cognition,AFOS

Varia

On the Association for Foundations of Science, Language and Cognition, AFOSSome facts about AFOS     

美国国家科学基金会2012财年价值评议

统计分析2012财年关国国家科学基金会项目申请和资助（包括项目申请人和项目负责人性别、种族和机构分布等）情况，以及项目评议（包括评议方式、评议专家、评议组织者等）相关情况，并简要介绍其评议程序、评议准则以及资助变革性研究和学科交叉研究的机制。     

无私的探索、公有的财富--"科学社会学之父"默顿的生平与成就

默顿虽出身寒门,但从未产生"被剥夺感".从孩童开始,就善于利用各种"公共资本"--从费城的卡内基图书馆,到哈佛的名师益友,到哥伦比亚的同事弟子.漫长的一生充满着"偶发奇缘",不懈的探索,丰富了人类知识的宝库.     

On the Association for Foundations of Science,Language and Cognition,AFOS

On the Association for Foundations of Science, Language and Cognition, AFOSSome facts about AFOS     

道德的双重作用与自然界的权利、利益和价值

本文从道德的第一重作用：“维护人的利益”出发，认为尊重自然界及其中物种和其他组分的权利就是维护生态平衡。物种、生态系及地球生物圈其他组分的内在价值也就是对系统稳定性的价值。利益也就是物种的需要、习性。从道德的第二重作用：“满足人精神需求和实现自身价值”出发，认为自然界及其中的生态系统、物种、动植物个体的权利、利益和价值就是热爱生命、满足精神需求和实现自身价值的依据。并针对非人类中心主义环境伦理学把“是”等同于“应该”这一难点问题，认为这些流派提出的权利、利益、价值的依据就是寻求动植物个体、物种、生态系统、自然界中与人相似的特征把他们当做人来爱护。     

在奥运体育项目名词发布会上的讲话

1996年笔者在英国访问期间,英国爆发了疯牛病,这使人们对疯牛病的病原体prion产生了广泛的关注,其中也包括prion的中文定名。为此,笔者曾在《生命的化学》1997年第4期上写了一篇短文《建议将Prion译为朊病毒》,文中简要地叙述了