标签：science

A Discussion of the Question of Abolishing Traditional Chinese Medicine

History of Science & Scholarship2006.11.08
A Discussion of the Question of Abolishing Traditional Chinese Medicine
Again, this is a comment posted on Professor Liu’s blog: http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/485ea879010005nw Whether Chinese medicine is science, and what kind of science it is, is a major issue in the philosophy of technology, and it always deserves serious thought. Let me now post some preliminary discussion (there was already some discussion in last semester’s Introduction to Philosophy of Science course assignment), Neither Chinese medicine nor Western medicine is “science”; they are “technology,” after all. The technology of medicine is very special indeed, and in the West it too has sources and traditions different from those of science. Medicine exists to cure illness; it is not human biology, not a science pursued…
science philosophy of science pluralism Galileo
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2006年11月8日
A Frog Metaphor for Ancient Chinese Science

History of Science & Scholarship2006.11.02
A Frog Metaphor for Ancient Chinese Science
On whether ancient China had science, what kind of science it had, and how it relates to Western science. Viewpoint one: little frog and big frog — ancient China had the same science as the West, but it was simply undernourished and underdeveloped, not as sturdy and robust as Western science. That is all. Viewpoint two: tadpole and frog — this admits that ancient China did not form a mature science, but it did have the “sprouting” of science; even without outside intervention, it would sooner or later grow into a frog. Although a tadpole and a frog look extremely different, in essence they are the same. Viewpoint three: frog…
philosophy China science history of science
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2006年11月2日
Draft of the First Three Parts of Popper’s Essay on the Philosophy of History

History of Science & Scholarship2006.10.26
Draft of the First Three Parts of Popper’s Essay on the Philosophy of History
Popper Popper… 0 Introduction… 0 What Is Falsification?… 2 What Is Science?… 4 What Is Technology?… 7 What Is Totality?… 8 What Is Revolution?… 9 What Is History?… 12 Other… 13 Bibliography… 16 Introduction Popper’s most influential, and at the same time most controversial, philosophical claims are, first, the doctrine of “falsificationism” in the philosophy of science, and second, the critique of “historicism” in the philosophy of history—or, rather, political philosophy. For Popper, the move from the philosophy of science to political philosophy is “internally consistent”: the philosophy of science is the starting point and foothold of Popper’s thought, and his views on the philosophy of history are in fact…
science philosophy of science Popper
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2006年10月26日
The Basic Features of Hellenistic Science as Seen from Ptolemaic Astronomy

History of Science & Scholarship2006.10.18
The Basic Features of Hellenistic Science as Seen from Ptolemaic Astronomy
Basic Content and Historical Sources of Ptolemaic Astronomy Ptolemy (Claudius Ptolemy, c. 150 CE) lived and worked in Alexandria under Roman rule in the late Hellenistic period. Ancient astronomy reached its summit in Ptolemy’s hands, “Just as Euclid summed up the mathematics of the Greek classical age and wrote the famous Elements, Ptolemy systematically synthesized the outstanding achievements of Greek astronomy and produced the work that would be handed down through the ages, the Almagest. This 13-volume treatise was hailed by the Arabs as ‘greatest of the great,’ and as a result its title became the Almagest (Almagest).”[1] In the Almagest, Ptolemy set out the full set of geometric models…
science mathematics Greece astronomy
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2006年10月18日
The Tautology of “Survival of the Fittest”

History of Science & Scholarship2006.10.04
The Tautology of “Survival of the Fittest”
Having read popular works on neo-Darwinism such as *The Blind Watchmaker*, *River out of Eden*, and *Who Is the Creator?*, as well as other excellent popular books on evolution such as *A Long Argument*, *What Is Evolution?*, and *The History of Evolutionary Thought*, and also anti-Darwinist books such as *Darwin’s Black Box*, *The Darwinian Trial*, and *Icons of Evolution*, I have not become an anti-evolutionist. However, evolution theory, and people’s understanding of evolution theory, do indeed have many problems. First, evolution theory contains many different claims, and those claims are not unified even among evolutionists; there are many kinds of evolutionary doctrine, and Darwinism is only one of them. Second,…
science evolution
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2006年10月4日
A Casual Repost from Teacher Liu’s Blog on Agriculture, Industrial Civilization, and “Progress”

History of Science & Scholarship2006.09.08
A Casual Repost from Teacher Liu’s Blog on Agriculture, Industrial Civilization, and “Progress”
http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/485ea8790100051y Failed Planting 2006-09-10 17:40:00 This year I had two failed planting attempts, one with corn and one with chayote. The seeds of both plants came from Yunnan. The corn grew well at first, but it was too luxuriant, and the plants grew too tall—some even reached 3.4 meters! There were also some stalks without ears, and some were even covered with black mold. The reason may have been inappropriate seed selection. The seeds came from Simao, Yunnan. There, they were not tall either, and not overly luxuriant, but once brought north they changed. My father says that usually seeds from the south, when planted in the north, become too…
culture science Liu Huajie progress
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2006年9月8日
On Patent and Copyright Protection

Culture & Public Commentary2006.09.07
On Patent and Copyright Protection
This was originally a comment in response to the blog http://mistgalaxie.blogspot.com/2006/09/gnu-gnu-gpl.html, but after posting several times I still couldn’t get it through; it kept prompting, “We're sorry, but we were unable to complete your request. ” I don’t know why. Since I’ve already written so much, and it would be a waste not to post it, let me put it here for now: An appropriate system of patents and copyrights makes sense both from the standpoint of justice and from the standpoint of practicality. If a new technology developed by an institution through countless hours and immense effort were given no protection at all, and immediately turned into a public…
culture science economy innovation
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2006年9月7日
A Dialogue on the Fourth Floor of a Building Without a Fourth Floor

History of Science & Scholarship2006.08.01
A Dialogue on the Fourth Floor of a Building Without a Fourth Floor
Oh, God, why is two plus two equal to four? —Alexander Pope Luo Ji: I hear a new bookstore has opened on the 5th floor? Bei Lun: Yes. Luo: Then I must go have a look. Bei: Fine, we’re on the 2nd floor now. Go up three more escalators and we’ll be there…… Luo: Why? Bei: ……Why what? Luo: I’m asking why going up three more escalators gets us there? Bei: ……Because we’re on the 2nd floor now. Luo: I’m asking why going up three floors from the 2nd floor makes the 5th floor? Bei: This…… because…… because 2+3=5! Come on, let’s go, hurry up—I really regret indulging you just…
philosophy science mathematics paradox
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2006年8月1日
Summer Reading Notes, 2006

Life & Notes2006.07.19
Summer Reading Notes, 2006
2006Summer Reading Notes After wasting a good while, the summer reading plan is finally going to get underway in earnest. But even during that utterly wasted stretch, I still read quite a few books; however decadent one may be, it’s not as if one can stop reading altogether, ha. Today I’ll first finish up the notes on the books I read during the wasted period, and tomorrow I’ll begin to get back on track~ [German]Suzanne Paulson: Eating the Sun, translated by Chen Ying, Sanlian Bookstore, December 2005 Just from the title alone, this book is already incredibly lovely, isn’t it? And indeed it is a lovely book: the prose is…
philosophy book reading science notes
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2006年7月19日
Kant’s Significance for the Philosophy of Science

History of Science & Scholarship2006.07.04
Kant’s Significance for the Philosophy of Science
My own view is that Kant’s philosophy has great heuristic significance for the philosophy of science, but among the group of philosophers of science who continue empiricism in the contemporary era, it has been widely neglected. Of course, Kant’s exalted place in the history of philosophy is something very few philosophers would dare to deny, and philosophers of science are no exception. In writings on the philosophy of science, Kant is still often mentioned. But the problem is this: nine times out of ten, when philosophers of science mention Kant, they refer only to his “transcendental theory.” It seems as though Kant’s contribution to the philosophy of science amounted to…
philosophy science philosophy of science Kant
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2006年7月4日