On Spatial and Temporal ex mensura Boundaries

In this paper we will propose an empirical analysis of spatial and temporal boundaries. Unlike other proposals, which deal mainly with the commonsense level of the subject, we will ground our explication on well-established scientific practice and language. In this way we show how to reconsider in an innovative way questions such as the distinction between the bona fide boundaries and the fiat boundaries, the thickness and the ownership of the boundaries. At the same time we propose a division between ex mensura boundaries and qui vulgo dicuntur boundaries. What is it, therefore, that divides the atmosphere from the water? [Leonardo da Vinci, Notebooks]      

The Significance of Context in Comprehension: The `WeCase'

This paper deals with some of the issues raisedabout the use of context in language, that is,the pragmatic side of the problem; morespecifically it aims to stress the significanceand complexity of context. In real life context is exploited both in production and in comprehension.I will deal here mainly with comprehension:after briefly referring to cognitive contextsand their interaction with knowledge andcomprehension, and touching on the relationbetween language and context, I will analyzethe uses of an indexical pronoun, we,which may both include and exclude speaker/sand/or interlocutor/s, and cannot beinterpreted without referring to an`integrated' view of context.     

The Argument(s) for Universal Gravitation

In this paper an analysis of Newton’s argument for universal gravitation is provided. In the past, the complexity of the argument has not been fully appreciated. Recent authors like George E. Smith and William L. Harper have done a far better job. Nevertheless, a thorough account of the argument is still lacking. Both authors seem to stress the importance of only one methodological component. Smith stresses the procedure of approximative deductions backed-up by the laws of motion. Harper stresses “systematic dependencies” between theoretical parameters and phenomena. I will argue that Newton used a variety of different inferential strategies: causal parsimony considerations, deductions, demonstrative inductions, abductions and thought-experiments. Each of these strategies is part of Newton’s famous argument.     

Degenerating Families of Dendrograms

Dendrograms used in data analysis are ultrametric spaces, hence objects of nonarchimedean geometry. It is known that there exist p-adic representations of dendrograms. Completed by a point at infinity, they can be viewed as subtrees of the Bruhat-Tits tree associated to the p-adic projective line. The implications are that certain moduli spaces known in algebraic geometry are in fact p-adic parameter spaces of dendrograms, and stochastic classification can also be handled within this framework. At the end, we calculate the topology of the hidden part of a dendrogram.     

关于张衡的“微星之数”

该文探讨了张衡关于恒星数（微量之数）有１１５２０颗粒一长期令人不解的问题,指出,１１５２０这个数实际上是古人认为的万物之数,张衡所说的是星数与万物之数一一对应的关系;同时指出,“微”字在古代描述日月星象时可作“食”解,此处“微星之数”的“微”字当是“微”字之误。     

西方存在主义哲学语境导出的人类思想镜像

存在主义(Existentialism)是西方20世纪最具特色的哲学思潮,对后现代思潮有决定性的影响.存在主义风行所及,几乎覆盖了20世纪大陆哲学的主流.虽然存在主义哲学代表人物的观点各有见地,但他们都在追寻和诠释人的"存在"(being)意义,说服人、昭示人敢于真诚地面对自身,通过抉择成为自己.     

后现代哲学思维方式的特征--从自组织动力学的观点看

后现代主义哲学思维方式是与自组织动力学理论相一致的动力学思雏方式,具有"二总三分"的特征.在总体特征上,两者都反对线性化和封闭性的静态逻辑,主张从差异子系统间的交互作用出发把握事物的生成发展过程;在具体特征上,两者都重视子系统交互作用中的竞争策略和协同策略,强调事物的发展意味着打破旧的运动模式(结构)对子系统的控制和支配.     

随附性/排除论证的限度

金在权基于随附性/排除论证排除了自主的心理性质。对随附性/排除论证的3种批评意见——该论证存在不自洽性、否定心理性质的因果效力是不合理的、该论证的普遍化将导致一切宏观性质失去因果效力——或者曲解了金在权的本意,或者超出了物理主义的框架,从而超出了论证的前提。随附性/排除论证能够在物理主义内部形成对自主心理性质的消解,但不能形成对突现论的反驳。     

Is Falsification Falsifiable?

This is a response to a claim by Sven Ove Hansson to the effect that Poppers dictum that falsification lies at the heart of all pursuit of science has once and for all been falsified by his study of articles published in Nature during the year 2000. We claim that this is based on a misunderstanding of Poppers philosophy of science interpreting it too literally, and that alternative readings of those papers are fully compliant with falsification. We scrutinize Hansson’s arguments as well as giving an overview of Poppers falsification theory.     

知识论思维方式的希腊源头

泰勒斯提出“万物的本原是水”的哲学命题，是认识世界万物理性观点的开始，其后的思想家在寻求万物本原的思路上逐步形成一种认知世界的思维形式：一种原初形态的“假设一分析”的逻辑思维；赫拉克利特挖掘了思维中“逻各斯”的认知能力；巴门尼德在思维能力与本质存在之间确立一一对应关系，从而建构并确立了具有普遍意义的、获取知识而不是意见的认知模式，后者成为后来西方哲学和科学认知的知识论基础。     

Representation Reloaded: Why Socrates Should Die Again

Are we to get rid with representation after all? Since World War II, political philosophy seems to have devoted itself to either the intellectual sabotage of representation, or its defence against all evidence. Nobody seems to have thought that the problem with political representation might be the fact that the way it was thought was by no means correct. Considered as a fundamental principle of Western democracies, it might be at the very level of what a principle implies that representation must be reloaded. For instance, by admitting that as a principle representation is not something that precedes what for which it provides ground (the government, the State, etc.)—but something that follows, that constitutes the final product of representation itself.     

The Surveyability of Long Proofs

The specific characteristics of mathematical argumentation all depend on the centrality that writing has in the practice of mathematics, but blindness to this fact is near universal. What follows concerns just one of those characteristics, justification by proof. There is a prevalent view that long proofs pose a problem for the thesis that mathematical knowledge is justified by proof. I argue that there is no such problem: in fact, virtually all the justifications of mathematical knowledge are ‘long proofs’, but because these real justifications are distributed in the written archive of mathematics, proofs remain surveyable, hence good.     

论影响科技传播效果的障碍因素

传播的最终归宿是传播效果的实现,科技传播承载着知识传播和文化传通的双重使命,尤其注重传播效果的实现和传播者主观意图的完成.但是在实际操作过程中,由于种种因素造成传播效果实现困难,本文着重分析这些影响科技传播的障碍因素,由此试图解决科技传播实践中所遭遇的种种尴尬和问题.     

试论逻辑哲学的中心问题

波普尔曾经指出,科学哲学的诸多问题中存在着一个中心问题,这就是科学知识增长的问题。在我们看来,逻辑哲学中同样存在一个中心问题。那就是形式系统内的推理有效性是否恰当地符合非形式原型的问题,亦即恰当性问题。整个逻辑哲学都是围绕着逻辑系统内有效的形式推理如何与系统外的非形式原型恰当相符这个问题展开的,其他问题都是由此派生出来的。     

Leibniz’s Theory of Space

In this paper I offer a fresh interpretation of Leibniz’s theory of space, in which I explain the connection of his relational theory to both his mathematical theory of analysis situs and his theory of substance. I argue that the elements of his mature theory are not bare bodies (as on a standard relationalist view) nor bare points (as on an absolutist view), but situations. Regarded as an accident of an individual body, a situation is the complex of its angles and distances to other co-existing bodies, founded in the representation or state of the substance or substances contained in the body. The complex of all such mutually compatible situations of co-existing bodies constitutes an order of situations, or instantaneous space. Because these relations of situation change from one instant to another, space is an accidental whole that is continuously changing and becoming something different, and therefore a phenomenon. As Leibniz explains to Clarke, it can be represented mathematically by supposing some set of existents hypothetically (and counterfactually) to remain in a fixed mutual relation of situation, and gauging all subsequent situations in terms of transformations with respect to this initial set. Space conceived in terms of such allowable transformations is the subject of Analysis Situs. Finally, insofar as space is conceived in abstraction from any bodies that might individuate the situations, it encompasses all possible relations of situation. This abstract space, the order of all possible situations, is an abstract entity, and therefore ideal.     

全球生态可持续发展的墨家智慧——对墨家"兼相爱,交相利"思想的当代解读

生态可持续发展是一个全球性问题。中国古代墨家的相关智慧对有效地解决这一问题提供了颇具现实性的思路。墨家“兼相爱,交相利”的思想不仅为问题的解决提供了构建“兼爱”共同体的总体范式,而且其“志功合一”、“爱无差等”、“取其大者”的思想还为全球生态的可持续发展提供了具体的实现路径。     

明天启六年王恭厂灾变之气象成因探析

通过对公元1626年5月30日发生在北京王恭厂大灾难有关的历史记载归纳整理,从灾变系统的外型、伴随现象的特点分析,发现这是一次强对流小尺度天气系统——强龙卷风天气过程的袭击引起。龙卷风天气过程的解释使天启大灾难中低温无火、荡尽衣物等一系列困惑着人们多年的问题迎刃而解。     

“中层性质”的因果力与稳健性论证

"中层性质",例如化学、生物学、生态学等特殊科学关涉的物的性质,是否具有因果力,向来是科学哲学中还原主义与反还原主义争论的焦点问题。在为中层性质拥有自发的、不可还原的因果力辩护的论证当中,基于干预主义因果理论的稳健性论证,相较于传统论证具有一定的优势:中层性质的因果力来自于中层的因果共变的稳健性,因而独立于底层,进而能够回应因果排他问题。但进一步分析稳健性论证所提供的案例表明,事实上,稳健性所依赖的中层性质对底层性质的反馈性约束作用才是中层性质具有因果力的关键理由,然而该反馈性约束作用不普遍适用于所有的中层性质;换言之,并非所有中层性质都具有独特的因果力。     

从解构主义角度看不可通约性

解构主义者力挺发端于古代的怀疑论、近代的二元论和当代科学哲学中普遍流行的不可通约论;认为一切理论话语都是人为地使其具有某种结构、意义和本质,并不能完善地再现和把握现实,以至他们试图消解这样的本质结构;确信语言不是描述现实和经验的手段,只是从能指到能指的游戏。现实中没有什么东西能够充分存在于概念中,以至我们既不能把自己所说写的东西呈现给别人,甚至也不能呈现给自己,因为我们反观内心时,仍需使用远离指谓对象的语言符号。为此德里达等人主张:一切文本都只具有意向性、互涉性和主观创造的意义。人们不仅对不同的理论很难进行通约,就是针对同一理论也很难进行比对。     

《测圆海镜》的构造性

数学的构造性有两个层次：内容的构造性与体系的构造性。《测圆海镜》的研究对象可用数学手段构造出来，因为所有问题都和圆城图式有关，未知量总是圆的直径，而已知量则是某些线段。显然，这些量是可以作出的。此外，解题步骤均形成完整结构，没有试猜的成分和经验性结果。所以《测圆海镜》的内容是构造性的。从书的体系来看，各卷的问题解法均可由卷一“识别杂记”中的定义、定理、公式推导出来，全书成一整体结构。由此可见，《测圆海镜》是一个构造性体系。