Can the behavioral sciences self-correct? A social epistemic study

Advocates of the self-corrective thesis argue that scientific method will refute false theories and find closer approximations to the truth in the long run. I discuss a contemporary interpretation of this thesis in terms of frequentist statistics in the context of the behavioral sciences. First, I identify experimental replications and systematic aggregation of evidence (meta-analysis) as the self-corrective mechanism. Then, I present a computer simulation study of scientific communities that implement this mechanism to argue that frequentist statistics may converge upon a correct estimate or not depending on the social structure of the community that uses it. Based on this study, I argue that methodological explanations of the “replicability crisis” in psychology are limited and propose an alternative explanation in terms of biases. Finally, I conclude suggesting that scientific self-correction should be understood as an interaction effect between inference methods and social structures.     

Inconsistent idealizations and inferentialism about scientific representation

Inferentialists about scientific representation hold that an apparatus's representing a target system consists in the apparatus allowing “surrogative inferences” about the target. I argue that a serious problem for inferentialism arises from the fact that many scientific theories and models contain internal inconsistencies. Inferentialism, left unamended, implies that inconsistent scientific models have unlimited representational power, since an inconsistency permits any conclusion to be inferred. I consider a number of ways that inferentialists can respond to this challenge before suggesting my own solution. I develop an analogy to exploitable glitches in a game. Even though inconsistent representational apparatuses may in some sense allow for contradictions to be generated within them, doing so violates the intended function of the apparatus's parts and hence violates representational “gameplay”.     

社区居民视角下的乡村旅游影响感知——以重庆市涪陵区武陵山旅游度假区为例

对重庆市涪陵区武陵山旅游度假区的社区居民进行抽样调查，从经济、社会、文化、环境等方面探讨其旅游影响感知.研究结果表明，社区居民认为旅游发展的正面示范效应明显，旅游发展利大于弊；不同人口学特征的居民其影响感知和态度不同，特别是不同文化程度的居民其感知差异明显；少部分家庭环境发生变化的居民，对新的生产生活环境不适应.建议在发展旅游的同时进一步提高居民文化水平，并注重改善居民生产生活环境.     

Silent performances: Are “repertoires” really post-Kuhnian?

Ankeny and Leonelli (2016) propose “repertoires” as a new way to understand the stability of certain research programs as well as scientific change in general. By bringing a more complete range of social, material, and epistemic elements into one framework, they position their work as a correction to the Kuhnian impulse in philosophy of science and other areas of science studies. I argue that this “post-Kuhnian” move is not complete, and that repertoires maintain an internalist perspective. Comparison with an alternative framework, the “sociotechnical imaginaries” of Jasanoff and Kim (2015), illustrates precisely which elements of practice are externalized by Ankeny and Leonelli. Specifically, repertoires discount the role of audience, without whom the repertoires of science are unintelligible, and lack an explicit place for ethical and political imagination, which provide meaning for otherwise mechanical promotion of particular research programs. This comparison reveals, I suggest, two distinct modes of scholarship, one internalist and the other critical. While repertoires can be modified to meet the needs of critical STS scholars and to completely reject Kuhn's internalism, whether or not we do so depends on what we want our scholarship to achieve.     

杂谈新媒体视觉下“微教育”的推广

以新媒体视觉为切入点,以微教育风暴为契合点,以微教育平台为着眼点,借助时尚元素为社区教育添彩,搭乘网络快车为教育工作提速,是当前社区教育直面的时代课题。     

“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。     

基于因果岭回归的多数据源科研主题识别方法

为了有效解决多数据源科研主题的识别问题,基于因果岭回归建立了一种新的多数据源科研主题识别方法.该方法首先给出了多数据源科研主题识别关键参数(如主题词的引用权重、状态密度)的评价指标;同时根据科研主题形态特征建立了特征函数,并基于因果岭回归给出了具体识别方法;最后,通过仿真实验深入研究了影响该识别方法的关键因素.结果显示,与朴素贝叶斯、KNN算法和MGe-LDA算法相比较,该方法在价值引用量、引用权重和前沿主题相似度等方面具有较大优势.     

开放科学及建构的制度逻辑

科学与技术是两种不同的制度模式,前者属于科学共和国"Republic of Science",后者属于技术王国"Realm of Technology",两者具有天生的互补性。开放科学作为一种非市场化的激励制度,提出一套基于优先权的报酬体制,强调在知识产权保护前提下追求创新知识社会福利的最大化,对于催生高质量的研究和创新(Research&Innovation)至关重要。本文在阐述开放科学起源、发展与理论内涵的基础上,重点从公共资助、累积创新、知识产权保护和知识分工四个方面,深入探究了开放科学建构的制度逻辑。     

Extensional scientific realism vs. intensional scientific realism

Extensional scientific realism is the view that each believable scientific theory is supported by the unique first-order evidence for it and that if we want to believe that it is true, we should rely on its unique first-order evidence. In contrast, intensional scientific realism is the view that all believable scientific theories have a common feature and that we should rely on it to determine whether a theory is believable or not. Fitzpatrick argues that extensional realism is immune, while intensional realism is not, to the pessimistic induction. I reply that if extensional realism overcomes the pessimistic induction at all, that is because it implicitly relies on the theoretical resource of intensional realism. I also argue that extensional realism, by nature, cannot embed a criterion for distinguishing between believable and unbelievable theories.