Suixuan

标签：science

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
[Draft] Several Issues in the Philosophy of Science from the Perspective of Media Ontology—Scientific Method, Causality, and Realism

History of Science & Scholarship2011.02.17
[Draft] Several Issues in the Philosophy of Science from the Perspective of Media Ontology—Scientific Method, Causality, and Realism
I had originally planned to write a paper that would re-interpret some issues in traditional philosophy of science from the perspective of media ontology (phenomenology). I tried to “translate” certain discussions in traditional philosophy of science from the standpoint of media theory, and thereby raise the questions anew. Roughly speaking, there were several lines of inquiry: first, realism (and so-called instrumentalism); second, causality and scientific explanation; third, scientific method and the demarcation of science. But in actual writing I dragged on for N long, and to this day still have nowhere to start. With the first report of the new term looming, I am frankly uneasy, so I decided to…
science philosophy of science media Heidegger
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2011年2月17日
Some Thoughts on the Elements of History of Science in the Primary School “Science” Curriculum

History of Science & Scholarship2011.01.23
Some Thoughts on the Elements of History of Science in the Primary School “Science” Curriculum
It is a great honor to have the opportunity to offer suggestions for the writing of primary school science textbooks. However, because my own level is limited and I have a habitual tendency to drag my feet, I may not be able to offer many constructive opinions; I can only jot down some very scattered thoughts. I will divide them into two parts: first, the overall significance of elements from the history of science; second, following the framework of the textbook, some ideas about how to interweave historical material into each grade. The original plan also had a third part, which would have selected some usable cases along the thread…
science history of science history education
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2011年1月23日
The Blind Spots of Modern Medicine as Seen from “Double-Blind Experiments”

History of Science & Scholarship2010.12.30
The Blind Spots of Modern Medicine as Seen from “Double-Blind Experiments”
Is medicine a science? The usual answer is yes, or at least that “medicine is not merely a science,” but in any case, one believes that medicine is first of all a science, or at least “scientific.” Like other modern sciences, the “scientificness” of medicine is embodied in its goals and methods: the goal of science is to reveal the (natural, reductionist) causes and laws of things; the method of science is quantitative and experimental. The scientificness of modern medicine is first grounded in biology and physiology. But even the most stubborn reductionists will admit that medicine is not physiology, and that besides studying physiological phenomena, the basic theme…
culture science history of science philosophy of science
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2010年12月30日
The Tower of Babel and the Accelerator — Reflections on Ma Boqiang’s Lecture

History of Science & Scholarship2010.12.17
The Tower of Babel and the Accelerator — Reflections on Ma Boqiang’s Lecture
Today Professor Ma brought us a lecture in popular frontier science, mainly introducing the scientific achievements and latest developments in particle physics and cosmology. People build ever more precise astronomical instruments and vast particle accelerators in order to probe the mysteries of the universe. The still unobserved particle left over in gauge theory—the Higgs particle—has also been called the God particle. Why go looking for such particles? In a certain sense, physicists really are searching for “God.” The Higgs particle is used to patch up the defects of the current theory, playing a role similar to that of God: “The Higgs field once represented all the energy that created…
science religion pursuit God
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2010年12月17日
The Practice-of-Medicine Model as the Modern Significance of Traditional Chinese Medicine — Reflections on Zhang Daqing’s Lecture

History of Science & Scholarship2010.12.10
The Practice-of-Medicine Model as the Modern Significance of Traditional Chinese Medicine — Reflections on Zhang Daqing’s Lecture
Today Teacher Zhang Daqing talked about the modernization process of Chinese medicine; yesterday’s class on “What Is Science?” happened to also be taught by Teacher Zhang, on the transformation of medical paradigms past and present; and tonight’s discussion class was about the modernizing problem of Chinese medicine. Taken together, let me talk a bit about my thoughts. What Teacher Zhang referred to as the modernization process of Chinese medicine was not the modernization of Chinese medicine itself, but rather the process by which Western modern medicine was introduced. The concept of “modernizing Chinese medicine” is different from “Westernizing” or “scientizing” it. Modernization first of all means a kind of boundary-drawing:…
philosophy science modernity traditional Chinese medicine
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2010年12月10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
Bioethics and Legal System Building — Reflections on a Lecture by Zhang Daqing

History of Science & Scholarship2010.11.18
Bioethics and Legal System Building — Reflections on a Lecture by Zhang Daqing
Today Teacher Zhang Daqing talked about the birth and development of bioethics, introducing many of the ethical dilemmas brought about by modern medicine. What I paid particular attention to was the relationship between bioethics and legal system building. Teacher Zhang said that the development of bioethics in the West has, to a very large extent, been worked out through one lawsuit after another. In China, by contrast, this area is still quite lacking. Teacher Zhang encouraged hospitals and doctors to dare to “eat lawsuits”: when facing things that, although they violate existing rules, ought to be insisted upon on ethical grounds, then they should be done—even if one loses the…
China science law life
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2010年11月18日
Natural History as a Historiographical Program—Reflections on Liu Huajie’s Lecture

History of Science & Scholarship2010.11.12
Natural History as a Historiographical Program—Reflections on Liu Huajie’s Lecture
Just after finishing a paper arguing that “natural history” should be translated as 自然史, today happened to be the day when Professor Liu came to speak on natural history and its methods of historiography, so I might as well continue and write a couple more thoughts. Like historiographical programs such as Whig history, intellectual history, and social history, “natural history,” as a program of historiography, is a pun. On the one hand, “scientific natural history” can be read as some kind of “scientific chronicle” or “scientific record.” The feature of natural history lies in its emphasis on classificatory description, but not on temporal narration, especially not on constructing causal chains…
science Liu Huajie historiography Whig history
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2010年11月12日
Reexamining Medicine, Reexamining Human Nature—Reflections on Wang Yifang’s Lecture

History of Science & Scholarship2010.11.05
Reexamining Medicine, Reexamining Human Nature—Reflections on Wang Yifang’s Lecture
Today, Teacher Wang spoke about many aspects centered on the question “What is medicine?”, with the emphasis on reflecting on the contemporary situation of medicine under the influence of modern science and technology. How medicine is defined is bound up with what role it plays in contemporary society. Is medicine a science? Or is it a technology? Or should one say that medicine is a combination of science and technology? These definitions are probably all inadequate. Medicine is not something that can be defined simply by the concepts of science, or science + technology—especially since science and technology in the modern sense of “big science” and “high technology” are very…
science tradition value human nature
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2010年11月5日