分类：History of Science & Scholarship

Ancient Greek Natural Philosophy and the Scientific Spirit

History of Science & Scholarship2006.03.23
Ancient Greek Natural Philosophy and the Scientific Spirit
It is generally believed that the beginning of modern natural science lies in the natural philosophy of ancient Greece, and that the rational spirit of Greek philosophy made science possible. So what, exactly, was distinctive about the speculative reason of the ancient Greek philosophers? And what significance does tracing those features have for the development of modern science? The specialist in the history of ancient science, Professor Lloyd, believes that the two important characteristics that make ancient Greek natural philosophy unique are “the discovery of nature” and “rational critical and debating activity.”[1] By “the discovery of nature,” Lloyd means “learning to distinguish ‘nature’ from ‘the supernatural,’” recognizing that natural phenomena…
science Aristotle nature Wu Guosheng
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2006年3月23日
Starting with Lottery Predictions

History of Science & Scholarship2006.03.21
Starting with Lottery Predictions
In the past two years, if you flip open a newspaper, turn on the television, or click onto a webpage, you will find all kinds of “lottery prediction” programs growing increasingly hot. With the flourishing of the lottery industry, this “discipline” of “lottery prediction” has become lively, and a large group of “probability scientists” have found themselves a livelihood. Lottery prediction programs on television are generally broadcast right after the lottery drawing, and I, in my idle moments, have even watched a few episodes. The professional “lottery scholars” are quite formidable. They can spend dozens of minutes “analyzing” the numbers from the previous draws, know how to use computers to…
science causality
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2006年3月21日
Causality, Premonition, Free Will, Paranormal Powers, Scientific Explanation

History of Science & Scholarship2006.03.19
Causality, Premonition, Free Will, Paranormal Powers, Scientific Explanation
Watching the film Final Destination, I think about what causality is? Can “premonition” be given a “scientific explanation”? Can “supernormal abilities” be justified within scientific epistemology? 1.Laws, causality, time Hume pointed out that causality is only a “habit,” and he was not wrong. When we see “2, 4, 6, 8, ___, …,” even the dullest primary school student knows how to do this kind of “find the pattern and fill in the number” problem; they will unhesitatingly write “10” in the blank, while slightly cleverer students will sum it up into a universal “rule” — “the nth number is 2n.” This problem is far too simple, but its basic principle…
science philosophy of science Aristotle Kant
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2006年3月19日
A Scientific Explanation of Rainbows

History of Science & Scholarship2006.03.15
A Scientific Explanation of Rainbows
A Simple Explanation Excerpted from Baidu Zhidao: http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/4311857.html A rainbow is formed because sunlight strikes small nearly spherical water droplets in the air, causing dispersion and reflection. When sunlight enters a water droplet, it simultaneously enters at different angles and is also reflected within the droplet at different angles. Of these, reflection at angles of 40 to 42 degrees is the strongest, producing the rainbow we see. In producing this reflection, sunlight first undergoes one refraction as it enters the droplet, then reflects off the back of the droplet, and finally undergoes another refraction as it leaves the droplet. Because water disperses light, the refractive indices for light of…
science pluralism scientific explanation
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2006年3月15日
Revering Science

History of Science & Scholarship2006.03.14
Revering Science
Besides “reverence for life” and “reverence for nature,” I wonder whether one can also propose a “reverence for technology.” For scientistic thinkers, in their attitude toward technology, “reverence” is in excess while “awe” is lacking. They regard technology as a power belonging to human beings themselves; their “worship of technology” is in fact self-worship, blind confidence in their own power. Their “reverence” does not really include true respect either, because they do not understand genuine humility. And yet they are immersed in worship of the mighty force displayed by technology, ignoring the fact that the stronger something is, the more dangerous it is. For extreme anti-scientific thinkers, by contrast,…
technology science scientism tech ethics
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2006年3月14日
Finding Life’s Truths in Scientific Laws (I)

History of Science & Scholarship2006.03.13
Finding Life’s Truths in Scientific Laws (I)
Gleaning Life Lessons from Scientific Laws Why I Started Writing This I had planned long ago to write a long essay on “science and value,” but when exactly I will finish such an essay is anyone’s guess. In any case, it will take at least until I am in graduate school, because this topic deserves at least a book, and it also requires a great deal of accumulated work. Philosophy is not merely epistemology, and even less merely linguistic analysis; philosophy should at least include three parts: ontology, epistemology, and axiology. So-called “philosophy of science” should of course not be limited to “what is science,” and even less should it…
science philosophy of science Newton morality
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2006年3月13日
Exercises for Philosophy of Science: Chapter One

History of Science & Scholarship2006.03.09
Exercises for Philosophy of Science: Chapter One
[U.S.]Alex Rosenberg: *Philosophy of Science—A Contemporary Advanced Text*, trans. Liu Huajie, Shanghai Scientific & Technical Education Press, November 2004 Chapter 1 1 This chapter begins with a potentially controversial philosophical definition. Please propose another definition of philosophy, one that can reveal the unity of the different parts of this field, such as metaphysics, epistemology, logic, ethics and political philosophy, aesthetics, and so on. The “definition” at the beginning of this chapter is: “… philosophy of science is necessarily a central issue of concern to both philosophers and scientists. According to this definition, philosophy mainly considers questions that science cannot currently answer or perhaps can never answer, and further considers why…
philosophy China science history of science
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2006年3月9日
Four Ways of Understanding the Question of Whether Traditional Chinese Medicine Is Scientific

History of Science & Scholarship2006.03.04
Four Ways of Understanding the Question of Whether Traditional Chinese Medicine Is Scientific
The topic of whether Chinese medicine is scientific involves far too much; every one of the “small topics” involved is big enough in itself! Before talking about it, it may be worth reflecting a little first. On what understanding of the question itself does one actually base one’s discussion? If everyone is approaching it from different points of focus and discussing the issue from their own angles, it is very easy to get tangled up. I think that, regarding “whether Chinese medicine is scientific,” there are at least four different perspectives: The first angle is something like asking whether psychology is scientific, whether astrology is scientific, whether the ancient Chinese…
culture science philosophy of science Tian Song
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2006年3月4日
I read a crank-science paper… @_@

History of Science & Scholarship2006.03.03
I read a crank-science paper… @_@
Today I finally, astonishingly, read through an entire paper by a “popular-science crank”: http://hk.netsh.com/eden/bbs/6214/html/tree_7386694.html Alas, every paper by a popular-science crank is a classic. They have quite distinctive features: their first-order research is a mess, but their second-order research is actually quite meaningful. Since reading 《Four-Dimensional Mechanics》 back in high school, this is once again the chance encounter that has led me to a complete popular-science-crank article; revisiting it a bit is fine too, fortunately I still remember what a popular-science crank is all about…… First let me quote a few funny lines: This paper is the product of the author’s many years of thought, and has recently been thoroughly…
book reading notes Scientific Revolution Liu Huajie
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2006年3月3日
Medicine and Science—A Reflection on the Question of Whether Traditional Chinese Medicine Is Scientific

History of Science & Scholarship2006.02.28
Medicine and Science—A Reflection on the Question of Whether Traditional Chinese Medicine Is Scientific
Reflecting on the question of whether Chinese medicine is scientific, I found myself, quite involuntarily, drawn into the dispute over whether there was science in ancient China. That is not really off the point; many articles discussing whether there was science in ancient China also mention Chinese medicine. However, getting caught up in the discussion of Needham’s problem is not the only way to approach the question “Is Chinese medicine scientific?” In fact, even those who believe there was science in ancient China may still think Chinese medicine is “unscientific,” or at least “not scientific enough.” In discussing whether Chinese medicine is scientific, because of a difference in perspective, another…
China science history of science traditional Chinese medicine
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2006年2月28日