自然辩证法何以安身立命——读刘啸霆教授文章的几点认识

主体(实践)哲学有一定的时代意义,但它并不是哲学的全部。缺少自然本体论的哲学不是完整的哲学。恩格斯的《自然辩证法》在现时代不会失去其思想光辉,它并没有受到科学家和哲学家的冷落。自然辩证法是指自然事物的辩证法。无限的世界是由有限事物组成的,而辩证法是"一般有限事物特有的、真实的本性"。自然辩证法在现代哲学、马克思主义哲学和现代(科技)社会中有牢固的根基。     

Main Problems of Diagrammatic Reasoning. Part I: The generalization problem

The paper attempts to analyze in some detail the main problems encountered in reasoning using diagrams, which may cause errors in reasoning, produce doubts concerning the reliability of diagrams, and impressions that diagrammatic reasoning lacks the rigour necessary for mathematical reasoning. The paper first argues that such impressions come from long neglect which led to a lack of well-developed, properly tested and reliable reasoning methods, as contrasted with the amount of work generations of mathematicians expended on refining the methods of reasoning with formulae and predicate calculus. Next, two main groups of problems occurring in diagrammatic reasoning are introduced. The second group, called diagram imprecision, is then briefly summarized, its detailed analysis being postponed to another paper. The first group, called collectively the generalization problem, is analyzed in detail in the rest of the paper. The nature and causes of the problems from this group are explained, methods of detecting the potentially harmful occurrences of these problems are discussed, and remedies for possible errors they may cause are proposed. Some of the methods are adapted from similar methods used in reasoning with formulae, several other problems constitute new, specifically diagrammatic ways of reliable reasoning.     

Reasoning to Hypotheses: Where Do Questions Come?

Detectives and scientists are in the business of reasoning from observations to explanations. This they often do by raising cunning questionsduring their inquiries. But to substantiate this claim we need to know how questions arise and how they are nurtured into more specific hypotheses. I shall discuss what the problem is, and then introduce the so-called interrogative model of inquiry which makes use of an explicit logic of questions. On this view, a discovery processes can be represented as a model-based game in which an inquirer subjects a source of information to a series of strategically organized questions. Strategic principles and why-questions are especially important in heuristical reasoning. Why-questions have their own peculiar nature among questions. They indicate that the inquirer's expectations are somehow disappointed, and that is cognitively challenging. In a finished argument why-questions can be omitted, but in the search for more specific questions they are highly important. As a detetective example I shall analyze Sherlock Holmes reasoning in Silver Blace, the scientific one is A.R. Wallace's discovery of the principle of natural selection. In both of these examples the meaning of questions, especially of well-chosen why-questions, of strategic principles, and of highly structured background knowledge come to the fore. Good questions frequent those who have orderly expectations, based on experience and expertise (detectives!) or highly structured background theories (scientists!).     

论中国逻辑与中国传统数学

中国传统数学受到了中国逻辑尤其是墨家逻辑的影响,形成了自己的推理方法体系--以"以类合类"为方法论基础,以"类"和"分类"为推理的核心成分,以"推类"为主导推理范式.这一方法体系,在相当长的时期内使中国传统数学处于世界的领先地位,因此,可以下这样的结论:中国逻辑不是阻碍中国传统数学进一步发展的因素,中国传统数学自身逻辑思路也不是制约中国传统数学发展的原因.     

Multiple Roles for Analogies in the Genesis of Fluid Mechanics: How Analogies Can Cooperate with Other Heuristic Strategies

When Johann and Daniel Bernoulli founded fluid dynamics they encountered several problems. To go beyond the vision of Newtonian particles, a new set of images was needed in order to deal with the spatial extensibility and lack of form of fluids. I point to evidence that analogy was an essential abductive strategy in the creation of this imagery. But its heuristic behavior is complex: analogy can provide an initial model or proto-model that establishes the starting point of a theoretical process, but it can play other roles as well. The historical genesis analyzed here shows that the participation of analogy in physicists’ creativity is not so restricted and that its richness opens up the field for very different roles and strategies in model-based discovery processes. Analogies can crop up intermittently in the evolution of a theory; and they can cooperate with images, extreme case reasoning and thought experiments, and even activate these processes at origin. Although it may seem that the contributions of analogy are generative in the sense of helping to discover new aspects of reality, we must stress the evaluative function that sometimes is performed by analogical reasoning in order to gain confidence. The study of the Bernoulli’s genesis of the foundations of fluid dynamics generates interesting hypotheses about the multiple roles that analogy can play in scientific model-based reasoning.     

20世纪对西方占星术的科学检验

20世纪,一些学者和科学家试图用已有的科学理论和哲学分析将西方占星术(astrology)①排除在科学之外,但真正让西方占星术目前仍没能走入主流科学里的,却是近30年来的几百个对占星术有效性的科学检验.今天从哲学上看,无论是证伪主义所表述的科学是理性的,还是历史主义所表述的科学是非理性的都一致地把占星术拒斥在科学之外.占星术之所以又会在大众中盛行起来,是缘于在20世纪初人们开始对科学万能发生质疑,同时对主要是涉及精神领域的占星术,至今仍没有能很好替代它的科学学科,正如化学、核物理学可以很好地替代炼金术那样.     

世界科学中心转移轨迹的启迪:科技创新与人才团队培育问题浅析

过去400年,世界5个科学中心分别在意大利、英国、法国、德国和美国形成并对人类的生活和生产活动产生了巨大的影响。历史的发展轨迹表明文化振荡、社会变革、经济的快速增长、新型学科群的崛起和科学家的集体流动是科学中心形成的基本成因。在我国目前面临的许多社会发展问题中,科技创新政策、策略和人才队伍建设的保障措施优化是十分关键的环节,如何利用世界科学中心形成的契机提升我国的科技创新能力是我们应该认真对待的。     

从技术思辨到社会哲学——关于虚拟世界研究的方法论转向问题

关于虚拟世界的哲学论争,无论其逻辑起点如何,都步入了一个技术思辨误区。实际上,虚拟技术不仅仅是一种技术工具,更重要的是它嵌入到人类生活的社会文化系统之中,带来了社会关系和人类生活方式的改变。为此,虚拟世界研究的方法论应该从技术思辨转向社会哲学,即在实证基础上对虚拟世界进行形而上的建构。从社会哲学的视野来审视虚拟世界中的一些哲学问题,是有待拓展的新领域。     

Covariance/Invariance: A Cognitive Heuristic in Einstein's Relativity Theory Formation

Relativity Theory by Albert Einstein has been so far littleconsidered by cognitive scientists, notwithstanding its undisputedscientific and philosophical moment. Unfortunately, we don't have adiary or notebook as cognitively useful as Faraday's. But physicshistorians and philosophers have done a great job that is relevant bothfor the study of the scientist's reasoning and the philosophy ofscience. I will try here to highlight the fertility of a `triangulation'using cognitive psychology, history of science and philosophy of sciencein starting answering a clearly very complex question:why did Einstein discover Relativity Theory? Here we arenot much concerned with the unending question of precisely whatEinstein discovered, that still remains unanswered, for we have noconsensus over the exact nature of the theory's foundations(Norton 1993). We are mainly interested in starting to answer the`how question', and especially the following sub-question: what(presumably) were his goals and strategies in hissearch? I will base my argument on fundamental publications ofEinstein, aiming at pointing out a theory-specific heuristic, settingboth a goal and a strategy: covariance/invariance.The result has significance in theory formation in science, especiallyin concept and model building. It also raises other questions that gobeyond the aim of this paper: why was he so confident in suchheuristic? Why didn't many other scientists use it? Where did he keep ? such a heuristic? Do we have any other examples ofsimilar heuristic search in other scientific problemsolving?     

Model-Based and Manipulative Abduction in Science

What I call theoretical abduction (sentential and model-based)certainly illustrates much of what is important in abductive reasoning, especially the objective of selecting and creating a set of hypotheses that are able to dispense good (preferred) explanations of data, but fails to account for many cases of explanation occurring in science or in everyday reasoning when the exploitation of the environment is crucial. The concept of manipulative abduction is devoted to capture the role of action in many interesting situations: action provides otherwise unavailable information that enables the agent to solve problems by starting and performing a suitable abductive process of generation or selection of hypotheses. Many external things, usually inert from the epistemological point of view, can be transformed into what I callepistemic mediators, which are illustrated in the last part of the paper, together with an analysis of the related notions of ``perceptual and inceptual rehearsal' and of ``external representation'.     

The Commercialization of Research and the Quest for the Objectivity of Science

In this paper, I discuss the objectivity of science in the context of commercialized research. Objectivity has traditionally been associated with the behavior of individual scientists and their willingness and ability to base their reasoning on data and logic. By introducing some examples of problematic practices in current research, I show that this view is insufficient. A view that I call the Social View on objectivity succeeds better in accommodating the way in which commercialization affects research.     

Postgraduate Education and The Changing Interaction With The Pharmaceutical Industry: A Cross-Cultural Perspective

This paper examines therelationship between industry and academia withregard to pharmaceutical research. Thecontinuous technological flux in researchpresents challenges to industry in obtainingadequately prepared scientists withoutinterfering in or disrupting a youngscientists' academic preparation. We presentour recommendations concerning the kinds ofskills required by changing technology andobserve the increasingly collaborativerelationship between academia and industry. Wesuggest the need for broader education forPh.D. and post-graduate students, inducing inthem transferable and productive skills for arapidly changing market. These skills,typically acquired in the liberal arts, wouldprovide young scientists with an awareness oftheir position in the process of scientificdiscovery process. Such scientists will bebetter prepared for making discoveries inscience, as discovery is less the result of anindividual's effort and more the result ofconcerted team efforts.     

Living in Conceivable Worlds

Certain cognitive and philosophical aspects of the concept of conceivability with intended or established diversion from (putative) reality are discussed. The “coherence gap problem” arises when certain fragments of the real world are replaced with imaginary situations while most details are (intentionally or not) ignored. Another issue, “the spectator problem”, concerns the participation of the conceiver himself in the world conceived. Three different examples of conceivability are used to illustrate our points, namely thought experiments in physics, a hypothetical world devoid of consciousness (zombie world), and virtual reality. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Towards a Theory of Mathematical Argument

In this paper, I assume, perhaps controversially, that translation into a language of formal logic is not the method by which mathematicians assess mathematical reasoning. Instead, I argue that the actual practice of analyzing, evaluating and critiquing mathematical reasoning resembles, and perhaps equates with, the practice of informal logic or argumentation theory. It doesn’t matter whether the reasoning is a full-fledged mathematical proof or merely some non-deductive mathematical justification: in either case, the methodology of assessment overlaps to a large extent with argument assessment in non-mathematical contexts. I demonstrate this claim by considering the assessment of axiomatic or deductive proofs, probabilistic evidence, computer-aided proofs, and the acceptance of axioms. I also consider Jody Azzouni’s ‘derivation indicator’ view of proofs because it places derivations—which may be thought to invoke formal logic—at the center of mathematical justificatory practice. However, when the notion of ‘derivation’ at work in Azzouni’s view is clarified, it is seen to accord with, rather than to count against, the informal logical view I support. Finally, I pose several open questions for the development of a theory of mathematical argument.     

Points of View Beyond Models: Towards a Formal Approach to Points of View as Access to the World

According to Vázquez and Liz (Found Sci 16(4): 383–391, 2011), Points of View (PoV) can be considered in two different ways. On the one hand, they can be explained following the model of propositional attitudes. This model assumes that the internal structure of a PoV is constituted by a subject, a set of contents, and a set of relations between the subject and those contents. On the other hand, we can analyze points of view taking as a model the notions of location and access. If we choose to follow the second approach, instead of the first one, the internal structure of a PoV is not directly addressed, and the emphasized features of PoV are related to the function that PoV are intended to have. That is, PoV are directly identified by their role and they can solely be understood as ways of accessing the world that bring some kind of perspective about it. Having this in mind, we would like to propose a notation that explains how to understand such access as a sort of models (that can allow the creation of concepts), independently of whether the precise PoV under consideration is impersonal or non-impersonal, its kind of content, and its subjective or objective character. First, we will present an account of some previous approaches to the study of points of view. Then, we will analyze what kind of structure the world is assumed to posses and how the access to it is possible. Third, we will develop a notation that explains PoV as qualitative dimensions by means of which it is possible to valuate objects and states of the world.     

解读袁隆平的科学风格

"杂交水稻之父"袁隆平,打破了水稻等"自花授粉作物没有杂种优势"的传统观念,开创了杂交水稻研究的新领域。袁隆平作为一位世界顶尖级的农学大师,和其他许多著名的科学家一样,他的成功也凸显出其独具特色的科学风格。本文从科学风格的内涵出发,从主体、客体及主客体相互作用三个方面论述了袁隆平科学风格形成的原因,然后从本体上解读了袁隆平科学风格的要素构成。     

归纳推理合理性的心理学辩护

归纳推理在哲学、科学、心理学以及日常生活中都具有重要作用。我们通过归纳推理将知识组织成有用的结构。休谟首先对归纳推理的合理性提出质疑,后来的学者对归纳推理合理性的逻辑辩护都失败了,其根本原因在于数学逻辑不适于描述归纳推理。归纳推理实质上是心理事件而不是数学事件,它所依赖的生活事件集合与数学集合具有完全不同的结构。从心理归纳的角度讲,归纳推理发生在人、知识、情境的三维空间中,其目的是适应性。从适应性的角度,心理归纳的合理性能够得到充要的证明。     

维特根斯坦与梅洛-庞蒂"语言观"的一种尝试比较

维特根斯坦与梅洛一庞蒂对语言都做过深入的研究，语言问题在他们的哲学思考中都占有极其重要的位置。令人惊异的是，这两个分别隶属分析哲学传统和现象学传统的哲学家在语言现上却有着很大的交汇空间：坐落在生活形式中的“语言游戏”和源出于世界之内的“语言之内”其间有着诸多的相似，当然也有不同。它们都可视为是对传统语言观中过度膨胀的理性主义一逻辑主义的不同反动。这或许显示出分析哲学与现象学的某种殊连同归。也预示着西方哲学的一种新方向。     

科学客观性:外在性与内在性的交融

本文试图从内在性与外在性两个层面重建科学客观性。一方面,科学对象的客观实在性并非一种外在于人的自在性,而是主体在自身的对象性活动中与客观世界耦合而得到的结果,是一种属人的现实,是在实践中被确立起来的。科学家们借助于直观方法与理性工具把所捉到实体与过程、类型与结构、解释句与理论模型等等,都在某种程度上独立于我们的主观表象,承载着对象的客观性——外在客观性。它们构成了"科学共同体"的"本体论承诺"。另一方面,这种外在的客观性,是在人类主体的内在化过程中实现的。在现代科学中,科学家们自觉地运用对称性工具实现的"内在化"所得到的"变换下的不变性",使得科学具有了公共可理解性与可接受性。这种在人类旨趣、目的和价值引领下对世界实行的主动干预所实现的公共性,就是内在客观性。因此,科学客观性是一曲由外在性与内在性合奏出来的交响曲。     

Function approximation for incompletely specified regression models

This report extends earlier work by Brailovsky on regression theory and methodology, giving particular emphasis to function approximation for incompletely specified models. The interest here is with situations where the form of the regression relation is not known in advance. We discuss several difficulties that arise in using local approximation and linear regression methods, and propose ways to overcome these problems. To aid the data analyst in developing a suitable model, an illustrative table is derived for determining the number of initial explanatory functions justifiable for a given prespecified confidence level. The general approach formulated here is illustrated with an application to medical data. Relevance to classification and possible extensions are discussed.