Physics, Theoretical Knowledge and Weinberg's Grand Reductionism

The two main points of this contribution are the following: (1) Applied mathematical theories might complement physical theories in an essential way; some applied mathematical theories allow us to understand phenomena we are unable to explain by resorting to physical theories alone, (2) In the case of social sciences it might be necessary to account for examined phenomena by resorting to the idea of goal-oriented activity (the causal approach typical for natural science might be unsatisfactory). Weinberg's idea of grand reductionism ignores the two above mentioned facts and hence overestimates the foundational role of physics and its methodology.     

"Białkowski Panel" - Introduction and Acknowledgements

The two main points of this contribution are the following: (1) Applied mathematical theories might complement physical theories in an essential way; some applied mathematical theories allow us to understand phenomena we are unable to explain by resorting to physical theories alone, (2) In the case of social sciences it might be necessary to account for examined phenomena by resorting to the idea of goal-oriented activity (the causal approach typical for natural science might be unsatisfactory). Weinberg's idea of grand reductionism ignores the two above mentioned facts and hence overestimates the foundational role of physics and its methodology. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

朝向一个科学历史性的科学哲学

科学史与科学哲学从概念上来说分属于事实与观念，科学史是事实的搜集，科学哲学则是对科学发展规律的认知。二者的融合与互动，造就了朝向一个科学历史性的科学哲学。科学的归纳推理总不止是单纯的搜集事实，不仅要把事实收集在一起，而且要以新观点审视它们。同时还要引入一种新的精神因素，为了进行归纳需要有一种特殊的精神素质和训练。当代每一学科科学史发展与学科规律认识正在促进科学史与科学哲学的融合与互动以及科学本身的发展。     

社会建构论对技术哲学研究范式的影响

传统技术哲学在其发展过程中陷入了难以自拔的两难困境,社会建构论的技术研究强调从微观技术入手,深入到技术内部,从而对技术哲学研究范式的转换发生了重要影响。第一代法兰克福学派在美国的主要代表安德鲁.费恩伯格的技术批判理论就是运用社会建构论的技术研究,把批判理论从传统的社会批判转向技术批判的一个典型案例。     

On Gene’s Action and Reciprocal Causation

Advancing the reductionist conviction that biology must be in agreement with the assumptions of reductive physicalism (the upward hierarchy of causal powers, the upward fixing of facts concerning biological levels) A. Rosenberg argues that downward causation is ontologically incoherent and that it comes into play only when we are ignorant of the details of biological phenomena. Moreover, in his view, a careful look at relevant details of biological explanations will reveal the basic molecular level that characterizes biological systems, defined by wholly physical properties, e.g., geometrical structures of molecular aggregates (cells). In response, we argue that contrary to his expectations one cannot infer reductionist assumptions even from detailed biological explanations that invoke the molecular level, as interlevel causal reciprocity is essential to these explanations. Recent very detailed explanations that concern the structure and function of chromatin—the intricacies of supposedly basic molecular level—demonstrate this. They show that what seem to be basic physical parameters extend into a more general biological context, thus rendering elusive the concepts of the basic level and causal hierarchy postulated by the reductionists. In fact, relevant phenomena are defined across levels by entangled, extended parameters. Nor can the biological context be explained away by basic physical parameters defining molecular level shaped by evolution as a physical process. Reductionists claim otherwise only because they overlook the evolutionary significance of initial conditions best defined in terms of extended biological parameters. Perhaps the reductionist assumptions (as well as assumptions that postulate any particular levels as causally fundamental) cannot be inferred from biological explanations because biology aims at manipulating organisms rather than producing explanations that meet the coherence requirements of general ontological models. Or possibly the assumptions of an ontology not based on the concept of causal powers stratified across levels can be inferred from biological explanations. The incoherence of downward causation is inevitable, given reductionist assumptions, but an ontological alternative might avoid this. We outline desiderata for the treatment of levels and properties that realize interlevel causation in such an ontology.     

运筹学在中国的建制化

运筹学在中国的发展历程及其建制化有着计划经济时代的显著特征。就发展历程而言,既有计划性又有政治上的偶然性,就建制化的动力机制而言,呈现“自上而下、中央统筹”的权力系统驱动模式特征。中国运筹学的早期发展受到了政治因素的很大影响,而这种影响虽然在一定程度上推动了运筹学的建制化尽快形成,但却造成了中国运筹学在基础理论研究方面明显偏弱的现实状况。     

What is Sustainable Theory? A Luhmannian Perspective on the Science of Conceptual Systems

Sustainability is an important topic for understanding and developing our society (including business, government, and NGOs). For scholars who want their academic contributions to have an impact, sustainability is important for our conceptual systems (including theories, models, and policies). Because our conceptual systems share similarities with our social systems, we may investigate their characteristics to gain insight into how both may be achieved or at least understood. Theories of the humanities as well as the social/behavioral sciences are changing very rapidly. They are fragile and few seem to have any longevity. At the same time, the theoretical base does not seem to be “advancing.” They are not supporting highly effective results in the real world, so we continue to have seemingly insolvable problems such as crime, war, and poverty. This may be because academia has become inward-focused or, in Luhmann’s terminology, autonomous from the outside world. In seeking to understand how to develop more sustainable theories we found that the concept of sustainability is contested. And, in the process of comparing the sustainability of social systems to the sustainability of theories, we came to realize that neither perspective is viable. Drawing on Luhmann’s insights on the interdependence of theories and society, we came to realize that the two exist in a coevolutionary relationship. Importantly, we present an approach for measuring that evolution and suggest directions for accelerating the coevolutionary advance of society and science.     

The Beauty of General Relativity

The author proposes to add another dichotomy to the list of essential tensions proposed by Professor Duda, namely beauty and ugliness. Physicists believe that only beautiful theories describe the world correctly, and that General Relativity is one of the most beautiful physical theories. The author explains why physicists regard this theory as beautiful.     

Scale Relativity and Fractal Space-Time: Theory and Applications

In the first part of this contribution, we review the development of the theory of scale relativity and its geometric framework constructed in terms of a fractal and nondifferentiable continuous space-time. This theory leads (i) to a generalization of possible physically relevant fractal laws, written as partial differential equation acting in the space of scales, and (ii) to a new geometric foundation of quantum mechanics and gauge field theories and their possible generalisations. In the second part, we discuss some examples of application of the theory to various sciences, in particular in cases when the theoretical predictions have been validated by new or updated observational and experimental data. This includes predictions in physics and cosmology (value of the QCD coupling and of the cosmological constant), to astrophysics and gravitational structure formation (distances of extrasolar planets to their stars, of Kuiper belt objects, value of solar and solar-like star cycles), to sciences of life (log-periodic law for species punctuated evolution, human development and society evolution), to Earth sciences (log-periodic deceleration of the rate of California earthquakes and of Sichuan earthquake replicas, critical law for the arctic sea ice extent) and tentative applications to systems biology.     

科学的地域建构:社会文化因素及其效应——基于“定性与定量综合集成法”的科学活动中心再阐释

基于"定性与定量综合集成法"对社会文化因素影响科学地域建构表明:文艺、哲学、教育三因素是基础性因素具有"启蒙"作用;经济、技术和科学三者结合性强,经济对于科学的发展可能是刚性的;政治因素对科学发展具有"刺激"或"保障"作用。科学活动的地域建构,最好将这些因素作为一个整体效应来理解。     

社会生物学在中国

作为进化生物学的一个分支,社会生物学一问世就在西方学术界乃至社会引起激烈争论。而在我国,对它的反应则没有那么强烈。由于缺乏博物学传统,社会生物学遭遇了和它的先驱达尔文进化论类似的经历,其涉及的学术领域在我国的发展十分薄弱,因此对它关注较多的反而是哲学和社会科学界。社会生物学真正的学科意义被带有意识形态色彩的争论所掩盖,它进入中国并不是科学发展的自然结果,围绕它的争论更多的是当时社会历史背景在我国学术界和思想界的反映。     

德瓦尔论七种人猿界线说及人在动物界的地位

德瓦尔以大量事实证明:猿类也有理性、语言和文化,也制造和使用工具,也搞政治,也能创作具有一定形式美的艺术品,也有道德意识和准则,因而,理性论、工具论、语言论、政治论、艺术论、文化论和道德论的人猿或人兽界线论都是不能成立的。人与其他猿在各方面都只有程度上的差异而没有性能种类上的不同,人是与其他猿相比各有长短又在某些方面具有明显优势的潘属猿中的裸猿。     

从实验生物学向理论生物学迈进的重要一步

本文综述和评论了近40年来国际上众多科学家研究生物能量沿蛋白质分子传递的机理、理论及其实验验证情况。生物能量传递理论是迅速发展的非线性科学和生命科学的交叉和结晶,是生命科学中第一个从微观原子分子水平上建立起来的一个系统理论,也是分子生物学和复杂生命现象作定量描述的第一次试验,从而引起了国际科学界极大和广泛的关注。可以说,生物能量传递理论是生物学向理论生物学迈进的重要一步,它将推动生命科学从实验生物学向理论生物学发展,不但可推动包括生物学、分子生物学、生物物理学、生物信息学、生物电磁学和电磁医学等在内的生命科学的发展,而且能加快高分子物理、波谱学和现代物理仪器的发展步伐,其科学意义和应用价值很大。     

On The Impossibility Of Empirical Controls Of Scientific Theories – From The Point Of View Of A Psychologist

Standard considerations of philosophy of science are reformulated in psychological terms and arguments, suggesting a fundamental change in life perspective: subjective experiences or introspective data are subject to motivational biases and therefore not admitted as objective empirical facts in science, However, we never experience objects or events of the external world, i.e., so called objective facts, but exclusively subjective percepts or mental events. They are merely assumed to, but may or may not be accurate or distorted mental representations of objects or events of an external world. Accordingly, the latter are theoretical constructs, i.e., constructs of the fictitious but most successful predictive (implicit) theory, called external world, which seems to be constructed from regularities observed in mental events and serves as a reference fiction for, erroneously called empirical, tests of predictions of scientific theories.Relevant Publication: Micko, H.C.: 2001, Psychologie: Von der Geistes – zur Naturwissenschaft – und weiter wohin? Erkenntnistheoretische Erwägungen vor und nach dem Aufkommen des philosophischen Konstruktivismus. Ztschr. f. Psychologie, 209: 54–68.     

晚清时期西方物理学在中国的传播及影响

晚清时期,随着第二次鸦片战争的爆发和洋务运动的兴起,西方科学技术再次涌入国门,以牛顿力学为核心的经典物理学得以在华夏大地广泛传播,为中国从传统物理走向近代物理并逐渐融入世界物理学发展的主流奠定了基础.文章探讨了其传播的形式和内容,分析了这一过程的特点及产生的影响.强调指出:加快当前我国科学技术发展进程的关键,不仅仅是引进和吸收西方先进的科技成果,更重要的在于走自主创新之路.     

Embodied Anomaly Resolution in Molecular Genetics: A Case Study of RNAi

Scientific anomalies are observations and facts that contradict current scientific theories and they are instrumental in scientific theory change. Philosophers of science have approached scientific theory change from different perspectives as Darden (Theory change in science: Strategies from Mendelian genetics, 1991) observes: Lakatos (In: Lakatos, Musgrave (eds) Criticism and the growth of knowledge, 1970) approaches it as a progressive “research programmes” consisting of incremental improvements (“monster barring” in Lakatos, Proofs and refutations: The logic of mathematical discovery, 1976), Kuhn (The structure of scientific revolutions, 1996) observes that changes in “paradigms” are instigated by a crisis from some anomaly, and Hanson (In: Feigl, Maxwell (eds) Current issues in the philosophy of science, 1961) proposes that discovery does not begin with hypothesis but with some “problematic phenomena requiring explanation”. Even though anomalies are important in all of these approaches to scientific theory change, there have been only few investigations into the specific role anomalies play in scientific theory change. Furthermore, much of these approaches focus on the theories themselves and not on how the scientists and their experiments bring about scientific change (Gooding, Experiment and the making of meaning: Human agency in scientific observation and experiment, 1990). To address these issues, this paper approaches scientific anomaly resolution from a meaning construction point of view. Conceptual integration theory (Fauconnier and Turner, Cogn Sci 22:133–187, 1996; The way we think: Conceptual blending and mind’s hidden complexities, 2002) from cognitive linguistics describes how one constructs meaning from various stimuli, such as text and diagrams, through conceptual integration or blending. The conceptual integration networks that describe the conceptual integration process characterize cognition that occurs unconsciously during meaning construction. These same networks are used to describe some of the cognition while resolving an anomaly in molecular genetics called RNA interference (RNAi) in a case study. The RNAi case study is a cognitive-historical reconstruction (Nersessian, In: Giere (ed) Cognitive models of science, 1992) that reconstructs how the RNAi anomaly was resolved. This reconstruction traces four relevant molecular genetics publications in describing the cognition necessary in accounting for how RNAi was resolved through strategies (Darden 1991), abductive reasoning (Peirce, In: Hartshorne, Weiss (eds) Collected papers, 1958), and experimental reasoning (Gooding 1990). The results of the case study show that experiments play a crucial role in formulating an explanation of the RNAi anomaly and the integration networks describe the experiments’ role. Furthermore, these results suggest that RNAi anomaly resolution is embodied. It is embodied in a sense that cognition described in the cognitive-historical reconstruction is experientially based.

高平子的天文历学研究

简单介绍了高平子的学术经历和著述概况，指出了以《高平子天文历学论著选》各篇为代表的高平子天文历学研究中所贯穿着的一条“以今译古”和“以今释古”的总方略，并具体分析了其深得西学精髓的“因图见证，设象求真”的分析方法，以及与现代天文学知识相结合的考据方法，评述了高平子站在现代天文学高处以一种融通中西古今的宏伟视野对古代天文历法问题做出的冷静判断和客观评价，并从高平子天文历学研究的具体内容和近现代天文学史的学术传统两个方面评价了高平子论著“继轨前贤，津梁后学”的重要意义.     

"现实性概念的分裂"与自然科学基本范畴的确立

数学方法和实验方法就像科学强劲的双腿,而其坚实的立足点,则是自然科学基本范畴.古希腊哲学体系化时期,"现实性概念的分裂"对于自然科学基本范畴的确立具有至关重要的意义.这种分裂所产生的张力推动西方科学思想分别在关注"一般原则"和"无情事实"两股思潮中前进并寻找新的交汇.自然科学基本范畴的提出,促进了数学方法和实验手段的有机结合,从而确立了自然科学的近代形态.     

Scientific Discovery: Between Incommensurability of Paradigms and Historical Continuity

Discoveries in physics imply two elements. The firstone is the belief that formal tools, already foundedin the framework of existing mathematical theories,may offer the solution to a puzzling anomaly. Thesecond one is the ability to assign a physical meaningto the adopted formalism, and to consider all itstheoretical implications.Discussing an historical case where the adoption of aparticular formalism represents the real motor of thecreative intuition, we mean to delineate scientificdiscovery both as a discontinuous change with respectto previous achievements and as a linear process ofknowledge enrichment.On March 1948, during the Pocono conference thatfollowed the one held in Shelter Island, Feynmananalysed the electron-photon interaction formulatingit in terms of the Lagrangian formalism. Thedevelopment of Feynman's idea draws attention to thepoint that novel theoretical discoveries may be theresult of applying existing formal tools. They may bethe result of giving different interpretations toprevious scientific thinking (according to thehermeneutical point that not even scientific textshave a single, absolute meaning but are given amultiplicity of possible readings by different peoplein different contexts).