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标签：reductionism

The Linguistics of the Life Sciences: From Mechanical Analogies to Teleological Analogies—Preface to the Recommended Chinese Translation of The Book of Life

History of Science & Scholarship2025.08.03
The Linguistics of the Life Sciences: From Mechanical Analogies to Teleological Analogies—Preface to the Recommended Chinese Translation of The Book of Life
Philip Ball: *The Book of Life*, translated by Wang Qiaoqi, CITIC Publishing Group, 2025 I was honored to write the recommendation preface for this book. I actually did not read the main text very closely; I mainly wrote from the general perspective of philosophy of science. What I’m posting here is my original draft; the published version may have been revised to some extent. Science and Analogy The genome is the “blueprint” of life, the “instruction manual” of life, and life science deciphers the “code” of life through genetic technology… These are all familiar formulas to us. But Philip Ball’s *The Book of Life* is precisely a critique of these…
philosophy book reading science philosophy of science
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2025年8月3日
What Does the Mobile Phone Have to Do with Cooking? — The One and the Many of Technology

AI & the Future of Technology2015.11.12
What Does the Mobile Phone Have to Do with Cooking? — The One and the Many of Technology
The previous post mentioned one of Wu’s core objections, namely, his view that science is singular, whereas technology is plural. At the time he gave an example: branches of science such as physics, chemistry, and biology ultimately promise that they can be reduced to a unified foundation, and therefore their historical development is also interconnected. But what about the relations among various technologies, such as between mobile phones and cooking technology? If various concrete technologies are mutually independent, then where does their unity in history come from? My brief reply at the time was this: the reason various technologies can be “unified” is that “life” is unified. And I also…
everyday life technology history of science media
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2015年11月12日
Christian Creationism and the Rise of Modern Science

History of Science & Scholarship2012.06.14
Christian Creationism and the Rise of Modern Science
Abstract: The Christian doctrine of creation is the metaphysical foundation of modern science, and an important thread for sorting out the historical relationship between science and religion. Foster’s essay “The Christian Doctrine of Creation and the Rise of Modern Natural Science” represents a typical line of thought: it emphasizes the connection between God’s free will and the empirical tendency of modern science, though its argumentative details are open to question. The key is to clarify the general points of the Christian doctrine of creation and the ways these points correspond to the characteristic features of modern science. The doctrine of creation, at the very least, includes four aspects: 1. There…
science philosophy of science history religion
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2012年6月14日
Why Do We Need Protein? — The Pursuit of Relative Truth

Philosophy & Thought2011.03.14
Why Do We Need Protein? — The Pursuit of Relative Truth
A few days ago, when I was presenting the article “Media Realism—Looking at Scientific Realism from the Perspective of Media Ontology,” Senior Brother Botian mentioned that, in the final analysis, my position is still one of compromise: according to my line of thought, those contemporary scientific theories that have already succeeded are indeed “real,” and I can only compromise with them, unable to put forward a forceful claim like Teacher Tiansong’s “We Simply Do Not Need Protein.” Indeed, my position has always been “weak” from beginning to end, and I fully agree. Ever since my undergraduate days I have tried to reflect on science, but I have never thought of…
philosophy science tradition discussion
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2011年3月14日
Some Thoughts on the Future of Energy

AI & the Future of Technology2010.12.26
Some Thoughts on the Future of Energy
Today the science-technology-philosophy group discussed energy issues. I’ve jotted down some thoughts here. The present energy system cannot possibly be sustained forever; within a few decades major adjustments will have to be made, and this is beyond dispute. But how exactly to adjust it, and how to anticipate and act, remain questions to be explored. The usual modern Western mode of imagining things is Christian + classical mechanics. By the Christian mode of imagining, I mean a messianic complex: the belief that human beings will eventually be saved, that our fallenness and incompetence do not really matter, and that there will always be some savior who comes to save…
philosophy technology Heidegger politics
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2010年12月26日
Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry in Biology—Thoughts on Chang Zengyi’s Lecture

History of Science & Scholarship2010.11.25
Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry in Biology—Thoughts on Chang Zengyi’s Lecture
Today, Teacher Chang Zengyi lectured on “biology driven by physics and chemistry,” discussing the concepts and techniques that physics and chemistry have brought to the life sciences, and introducing the contributions to the life sciences made throughout history by many scientists with backgrounds in physics and chemistry. What Teacher Chang said was relatively superficial; it did not bring out the deeper connections between mathematics, physics, chemistry, and the development of the life sciences as a discipline. In fact, the reason the life sciences were able to develop so extensively under the push of physics and chemistry was not that, by historical accident, there happened to be some interdisciplinary scientists who…
science mathematics Scientific Revolution determinism
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2010年11月25日