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Philosophy and Conceptual History of Science in Taiwan PDF

290 Pages·1993·27.398 MB·English
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PHILOSOPHY AND CONCEPTUAL HISTORY OF SCIENCE IN TAIWAN BOSTON STUDIES IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Editor ROBERT s. COHEN, Boston University Editorial Advisory Board thomas glick, Boston University ADOLF GRUNBAUM, University of Pittsburgh SAHOTRA SARKAR, Boston University SYLVAN S. SCHWEBER, Brandeis University JOHN J. STACHEL, Boston University MARX w. WARTOFSKY, Baruch College of the City University of New York VOLUME 141 PHILOSOPHY AND CONCEPTUAL HISTORY OF SCIENCE IN TAIWAN Edited by CHENG-HUNG LIN (林正弘) Department of Philosophy. National laiwin University, Taipei and DAIWIE FU (傅大爲) Institute of History, National Tsing-Hua University in Taiwan, Hsinchu SPRINGER SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, LLC Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Ph i1osophy and conceptual history of sc tence In Taiwan / ed1 ted by Cheng-hung Lin, Da1wle Fu. p. cm. -- (Boston studies in the phi losophy cf science : v. 141、 Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-94-010-5103-3 ISBN 978-94-011-2500-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-011-2500-0 1. Science■-Taiwan―History. 2. Science一Philosophy. I. Lin. Cheng-hung. II. Fu. Dalwle. Ill. Series. Q174.B67 vol. 141 [□127.T26) 00V .01 s—dc20 1509, 5124*9] 92*12852 ISBN 978-94-010-5103-3 Printed on acid-free paper All Rights Reserved © 1993 by Springer Science+Business Media New York Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1993 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1993 No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner TABLE OF CONTENTS ROBERT S. COHEN / Editorial Preface vii CHENG-HUNG LIN and DAIWIE FU (林正弘,傅大爲)/ Introduction ix PART I / PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE SHIH-CHAO LIU (劉世超)/ On the Analytic and the Synthetic 3 CHAO-TIEN LIN (林照田)/ Solutions to the Paradoxes of Confirmation, Goodman's Paradox, and Two New Theories of Confirmation 15 CHENG-HUNG LIN (林正弘)/ Hempel on Inductive Short­ comings in Craigian Method 21 CHAO-TIEN LIN (林照田)/ Confirmation Logic and Its Applications 33 CHENG-HUNG LIN (林正弘)/ Poppefs Logical Analysis of Basic Statements 61 FU CHANG (511 復)/ The Evolution of Science: Theoretic Recombination as a Selection Process 73 YU-HOUNG HOUNG (洪裕宏)/ Eliminative Materialism and Connectionism 91 PART II / CONCEPTUAL HISTORY OF SCIENCE DAIWIE FU (傅大爲)/ Problem Domain, Taxonomy, and Comparativity in Histories of Science — With a Case Study in the Comparative History of 'Optics' 123 KO-WEI LIH (李國偉)/ From One Gnomon to Two Gnomons: A Methodological Study of the Method of Double Differences 149 vi TABLE OF CONTENTS WANN-SHENG HORNG (洪萬生)/ Chinese Mathematics at the Turn of the 19th Century: Jiao Xun, Wang Lai and Li Rui 167 KO-WEI LIH (李國偉)/ Bao Qi-Shou (保其壽)and His Polyhedral Hun Yuan Tu (•渾圓圖) 209 TSUI-HUA YANG (楊翠華)/ The Development of Geology in Republican China, 1912—1937 221 daiwie FU (傅大爲)/ Local Contexts, Strategies and Sinicization: A Case Study of the Sinicization Formulation in the Social Sciences of Taiwan (1970s—1980s) 245 NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS 265 INDEX 269 Note: The Authors' names in Roman type have the family name last. The Chinese characters present the family name first. EDITORIAL PREFACE Scholarly studies of mathematics and the sciences, carried out by philos­ ophers and historians in Taiwan in recent years, have two main goals: first, positive and critical participation in the logical analysis of scientific theories and scientific explanation; and second, conceptual clarification joined with faithful historical investigation of the sciences of traditional and modem China. In this book, Professors Cheng-hung Lin and Daiwie Fu have gathered fine representative essays from both endeavors. Their two introductory discussions guide the reader in three ways. First, we have insightful remarks concerning the development of science studies in Taiwan during the past three decades. Then we see the place of such studies, particularly those in the logic and methodology of science, in the philosophy of science as that discipline has evolved in the West in recent years. Finally we have an account of the changes that have occurred among philosophers and historians of Chinese science as they have turned away from an assump­ tion of Western definitions of scientific achievement, a turn that is common to Taiwanese, Chinese, Japanese and Western scholars. The two goals may be seen to be distinct, and indeed the seven essays of Part I will be of interest mainly to analytic philosophers of science every­ where. Part II will interest comparativists among historians of science as well as those who deal centrally with Chinese science proper. But these historical inquiries may also interest standard philosophers of science since the Taiwan essays in Part II seem to carry a method which would have pleased the Carnap and Neurath of the Vienna Circle years: thus, to understand the cognitive content of a scientific theory requires a 'rational reconstruction5 of its empirical, conventional, syntactic structure, its presupposed categories, and its criteria of explanation or utility. When faced with science from non­ standard schools of thought and ways of inquiry, such as metaphorically articulated and clinically based psychoanalysis, or causally ambiguous and logically unorthodox quantum mechanics of 1926 and later, or even the empirical logic of medieval astrology, the logical empiricists hoped to combine tolerance with epistemological critique. Here, with Daiwie Fu and vii Cheng-hung Lin and Daiwie Fu (eds.), Philsophy and Conceptual History of Science in Taiwan^ vii-viii. © 1993 Kluwer Academic Publishers. viii EDITORIAL PREFACE others, we see the extension of critical understanding, of this "rational reconstruction\ across cultural and historical boundaries, as in his suggestive account of the comparative history of 'optics'. Following Nelson Goodman, we may extend cognitive tolerance toward the possibility of there being “many different world-versions", and “multiple frames of reference". Whether the development of mathematics, natural sciences, and indeed all of disciplined learning, in China can be clarified by scholarly participation within the stages of Chinese ways of thought, and concurrently by comparative analysis, is open to examination. At any rate, Professor Wann-Sheng Homg's elucidation of the works of Wang Lai, Jiao Xun and Li Rui, and Professor Ko-Wei Lihs9 account of Liu Hui and the two gnomons are beautifully persuasive essays in that spirit. * * * We are grateful to the original publishers of several of these papers for permission to include them in this collection in order to be representative of the best work of scholars in Taiwan. Specific acknowledgments will be found in the notes to the papers by Shih-Chao Liu, Chao-Tien Lin, Ko-Wei Lih, and Tsui-Hua Yang. We look forward to further publications in English by Chinese philosophers and historians of science, in Taiwan and elsewhere. Now in preparation for the Boston Studies are two volumes from scholars in the P.R. China, edited respectively by Fan Dainian and R.S.C. and by Jian Tianji, Qiu Renzhong and Fan Dainian; and a third volume of papers from the 1992 Beijing International Conference on Philosophy of Science, with contributions from Chinese and Western participants. * * * Optimism in scientific work should include optimism fbr work on the historical and philosophical understanding of the modes and methods of scientists and mathematicians. Wann-Sheng Homg cites (p. 169) a lovely motto of Wang Lai: to discover what our predecessors had not yet dis­ covered. July 1992 Robert S. Cohen INTRODUCTION PART I: PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Since modern science was introduced into China, many questions have been raised concerning the subject. Some scholars, e.g., Shih Hu and Wen-chiang Tin, considered science not only as systematic knowledge, but more importantly also as a way of thinking and knowing, or even as an attitude or way of life. Those who held this position usually rejected metaphysics, religion, traditional Chinese medicine and the traditional Chinese way of life as unscientific and hence harmful. They also claimed that the humanities and social sciences should also be studied with scientific method. On the other hand, some scholars insisted that the above scientific position is unacceptable. The controversy is still alive. Although most contemporary Chinese accept modern science without any hesitation, questions concerning the nature of science and the attitude towards science remain unsettled. During the Japanese occupation (1895—1945), the scientific educa­ tion and research in Taiwan were of a high quality. Some research on medical science and physical anthropology were truly excellent. How­ ever, it seems that there were very few, if any, studies in the philosophy or history of science. When the Chinese nationalist government moved to Taiwan in 1949, the abovementioned scientific viewpoint was also introduced into Taiwan. The first philosophy of science course in Taiwan was taught by Professor Hai-kuang Yin at National Taiwan University in around 1960. Professor Yin wrote several introductory articles on logical positivism. He also made use of the teachings of the logical positivists and the techniques of logical analysis in his severe criticisms of traditional Chinese philosophy, communism and the ideol­ ogy of the Nationalist government. Thus he was disliked by both the Communist and the Nationalist Chinese governments. At one time, the Nationalist government in Taiwan considered logic, logical positivism and analytic philosophy as anti-government doctrine. Since Professor Yin's untimely death in 1969, some of his former students have continued to work on logic, analytic philosophy and ix Cheng-hung Lin and Daiwie Fu (Eds.), Philosophy and Conceptual History of Science in Taiwan, ix—xiv. © 1993 Kluwer Academic Publishers. X CHENG-HUNG LIN AND DAIWIE FU philosophy of science. Professor Shih-Chao Liu, the eldest of Professor Yin's students, had a paper bOn the Analytic and the Synthetic5 pub­ lished in The Philosophical Review (1956) and earned a Ph.D. degree in mathematical logic from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. To the best of my knowledge, Professor Liu was the first Taiwanese scholar to gain a Ph.D in logic and the abovementioned paper was the first article by a Taiwanese scholar to be published in a major philo­ sophical journal. Later on, some other former students of Professor Yin and several younger scholars also obtained their doctorates in logic, philosophy of science or other related fields (e.g., cognitive science) from the United States or Canada. Most of them have returned to Taiwan and are teaching or conducting research in universities or academic institutes. Their research topics include those discussed by the logical positivists (e.g., Hempel), Popper and the so-called "new philosophers of science' (e.g., Kuhn, Lakatos, Feyerabend, Laudan). As far as I know, no one has specialized in philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of physics or philosophy of biology. Seven articles by five authors in this volume do not cover the entire range of the work done by Taiwanese scholars in the field of phi­ losophy of science. But they more or less indicate the tendencies and the main concerns of their research. Among these articles, one (by Professor Shih-Chao Liu) is on the analytic and the synthetic, three (two by Professor Chao-ten Lin, one by Professor Cheng-hung Lin) on confirmation theory, one (by Professor Cheng-hung Lin) on Popper, one (by Professor Chang Fu) on Kuhn, and one (by Professor Yu- houng Houng) on connectionism. Cheng-hung Lin PART II: CONCEPTUAL HISTORY OF SCIENCE The notion of a conceptual history of science is a difficult one for Chinese or Taiwanese historians of science. Considering the studies of history of science as a historical research activity which has close relationships with philosophy of science, with 'epistemology' in history of science of a French style, or at least with the internal logic' of the ancient science in question is a more or less foreign notion to Chinese or Taiwanese historians of science working before the 1960s. For them, to do history of science is mostly to select from Chinese ancient texts

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