On the Virtues and Disadvantage of Quantification for Democratic Life

In this paper, a response to Ed Levy's discussion of medical quantification, I reflect on the ambitions of my book Trust in Numbers. I explore the idealized method of randomized clinical trials, revealed in his case study, as a social technology, one endowed with a persuasive scientific rationale but shaped also by political and social demands. The scholarly study of quantification requires not a choice between blind admiration and sweeping rejection, but a nuanced understanding. This should take into account not only the cognitive aspects of science, but also its role in relation to institutions and customs, examined with some specificity. While history is narrowed and distorted when it is written to support a position on some present issue, historical and social studies of science should at least provide tools of criticism. For this, the historian of science must look beyond narrow communities of specialists, and seek a wider perspective on science as an administrative tool and a bearer of cultural and political values.     

CA收录浙江省高校学报的新变化暨《浙江师范大学学报(自然科学版)》入选统计

截止2005年10月中旬,浙江省累积有14种高校学报入选美国<化学文摘>(CA)收录期刊源数据库,<浙江师范大学学报(自然科学版)>(ISSN 1001-5051)2003年被CA数据库列为收录期刊源,已经有56篇论文被CA数据库收录,2005年收录量在全国师范大学学报中位于第17名.     

SPSL-PBL结合教学法在中药炮制学教学中的应用

本文的目的是探索中药炮制学SPSL-PBL结合教学法的可行性。通过对中药炮制学教学内容和教学方法研究背景的分析,实施多种教学方法有机融合的SPSL-PBL结合教学法,并对该教学方法进行考核评价。结果表明书面考试成绩和教学法综合评分均以SPSL-PBL结合教学法为高,该教学法优于传统教学法。SPSL-PBL结合教学法适应了当今教学的需要,为进一步建立完善SPSL-PBL结合教学体系提供参考,同时,为中药炮制学的教学质量考评提供了一种更为科学的方法,提高了中药炮制学学科的教学质量和效率,促进本学科的发展。     

History of Science through Koyré's Lenses

Alexandre Koyré was one of the most prominent historians of science of the twentieth century. The standard interpretation of Koyré is that he falls squarely within the internalist camp of historians of science—that he focuses on the history of the ideas themselves, eschewing cultural and sociological interpretations regarding the influence of ideologies and institutions on the development of science. When we read what Koyré has to say about his historical studies (and most of what others have said about them), we find him embracing and championing this Platonic view of his work. Ultimately I think this interpretation of Koyré's history of science is lopsided and in need of correction. I claim, rather, that a careful reading of Koyré's work suggests that a tension exists between internal and external methodological considerations. The external considerations stem from Koyré's commitment to the unity of human thought and the influence he admits that the ‘transscientifiques’ (philosophy, metaphysics, religion) have on the development of science. I suggest in conclusion then, that if we are to put a philosophical label on his work, rather than ‘Platonist’, as has been the custom, ‘Hegelian’ makes a better fit.     

科技保险在技术创新活动中的应用与思考

科技保险是一项全新的工作，国内外都没有成熟的经验可借鉴。叙述了国家有关科技保险的政策措施，科技保险产生的背景和现状，为地区科技保险工作的开展提出了一些建议。     

《科学技术基础》课程建设的经验

科学与技术是有着不同目的和性质的两类活动。作为高等职业技术教育通识类课程的《科学技术基础》介绍物理科学、生命科学、科学方法和现代技术等内容,对学生进行科学常识、科学思想、科学方法和科学精神教育;在初步了解当代自然科学前沿知识和高新技术领域概貌的基础上提高科学素养、培育人文情怀。课程建设在内容、思想、手法三方面努力创新。     

Why does the Chinese public accept evolution?

A substantial proportion of Chinese nationals seem to accept evolution, and the country is sometimes held up to show that the sorry state of evolution acceptance in the United States is not inevitable. Attempts to improve evolution acceptance generally focus on improving communication, curricular reform, and even identifying cognitive mechanisms that bias people against evolution. What is it that the Chinese scientific community did so well, and can it be generalized? This paper argues that evolution acceptance in China has a very specific history, one that other countries are very unlikely to emulate. We show that the interactions among science, education, mass media, social and political movements, and ideological arguments about evolution greatly influenced the Chinese public's understanding and acceptance of evolution. We find that it was not just formal education, but many more ideologically motivated methods of evolution exposure that contributed to the high rate of acceptance. But since the purpose of evolution dissemination has moved beyond merely teaching biology, the Chinese public persists with substantial misunderstandings of the theory. Thus, bottom line percentage of acceptance figures can be misleading; the details and the history really matter.     

The National Science Foundation and philosophy of science's withdrawal from social concerns

At some point during the 1950s, mainstream American philosophy of science began increasingly to avoid questions about the role of non-cognitive values in science and, accordingly, increasingly to avoid active engagement with social, political and moral concerns. Such questions and engagement eventually ceased to be part of the mainstream. Here we show that the eventual dominance of ‘value-free’ philosophy of science can be attributed, at least in part, to the policies of the U.S. National Science Foundation's “History and Philosophy of Science” sub-program. In turn, the sub-program's policies were set by logical empiricists who espoused value-free philosophy of science; these philosophers' actions, we also point out, fit a broad pattern, one in which analytic philosophers used institutional control to marginalize rival approaches to philosophy. We go on to draw on existing knowledge of this pattern to suggest two further, similar, contributors to the withdrawal from value-laden philosophy of science, namely decisions by the editors of Philosophy of Science and by the editors of The Journal of Philosophy. Political climate was, we argue, at most an indirect contributor to the withdrawal and was neither a factor that decided whether it occurred nor one that was sufficient to bring it about. Moreover, we argue that the actions at the National Science Foundation went beyond what was required by its senior administrators and are better viewed as part of what drove, rather than as what was being driven by, the adoption of logical empiricism by the philosophy of science community.     

蔬菜花卉科技助力精准扶贫--以中国农业科学院蔬菜花卉研究所为例

近年来,中国农业科学院蔬菜花卉研究所充分发挥蔬菜花卉国家队在脱贫攻坚方面的“头雁”作用,整合全所在蔬菜花卉领域技术、人才、成果等方面的科技优势,聚焦精准发力,举全所之力做好脱贫攻坚工作。本文详细阐述了研究所在脱贫攻坚工作的主要做法、工作成效及对策建议,以期为农业科研院所打赢脱贫攻坚战提供参考及依据。     

新建本科高校的办学定位思考与实践——以华北科技学院为个案

新建本科高校科学定位要立足于自身实际,找准位置,不断创新发展。华北科技学院作为国家安全生产监督管理总局惟一直属本科高校,在发展规划、教学改革、人才培养等方面不断探索和实践,定位为具有安全科技特色的多科性现代大学、一流安全生产培训基地。