Ultimate Questions of Science and the Theory of System Relations

Summary  Whenever an adequate theory is found in science, we will still be left with two questions: why this theory rather than some other theory, and how should this theory be interpreted? I argue that these questions can be answered by a theory of system relations. The basic idea is that fundamental characteristics of systems, viz. those arising from the general systemic nature of those systems, cannot be comprehended with the aid of discipline-specific methods. The systems theory required should commence with an analysis of the qualitatively different relations possible between systems, because it is precisely the nature of those relations that determines the basic structures of systems. That the theory of the fundamental system relations and their ontological and epistemological implications is indeed able to provide the answers sought is demonstrated in theoretical physics and Plessner’s analysis of the basic structures of plant, animal and human being.     

人类对知识的好奇:认识性好奇心

认识性好奇心是个体对新知识的好奇,可从状态和特质角度理解,其中特质认识性好奇心又区分为兴趣型和剥夺型两种类型。近年来众多证据表明,认识性好奇心受知道感、性别、对信息的偏好模式等因素影响,并在学习、记忆及创造性方面起到积极作用。未来研究有必要着眼于毕生发展的角度进行纵向考察,完善其测量方式,并深入考察认识性好奇心对学习的影响机制,从而为教育实践提供一定启示。     

The Question of God in an Age of Science: Constructions of Reality and Ultimate Reality in Theology and Science

Both science and theology have lately faced a crisis of authority. Their shared realization of the extent to which knowledge is underdetermined by the data and socially constructed provides a kind of common ground for reconsideration of their respective methods of inquiry as well as of the status of the claims they have warrant to make. Both fields are now consciously and critically employing a models approach. This article proposes criteria for assessing models and applies the criteria to one model from each field. The model of understanding evolution as a struggle for existence is considered from the field of science, and the traditional model for understanding the God-world relation as that of a king's relation to his kingdom is considered from the field of theology. Each of these models is evaluated with respect to its credibility, religious viability, and moral adequacy. In each case an alternative analogy is proposed and argued for.     

HIV: How Science Shaped the Ethics

AIDS is a debilitating and fatal disease that was first identified as an infectious disease syndrome in the 1970s. The discovery of a nearly universally fatal infectious and rapidly spreading disease in the post–antibiotics era created apprehension in the medical community and alarm in the general population. Questions about how patients should be handled in medical and nonmedical settings resulted in the ostracizing of many AIDS patients and inappropriate patient management. Scientific investigation into modes of disease transmission and control helped to shape the management of AIDS patient care in such a way that ethical and protective practices could be developed. In this article I discuss some of the ethical questions that were addressed by appropriate scientific inquiry.     

The Rationality of Ultimate Concern: Moral Exemplars,Theological Ethics,and the Science of Moral Cognition

This paper argues that consideration of moral exemplars may provide a means for integrating insights across philosophical ethics, theological ethics, and the scientific study of moral cognition. Key to this endeavor is an understanding of the relation of cognition and emotion in ethical decision-making, a relation that is usually understood to be oppositional but which in proper circumstances may be understood to be quite the opposite. Indeed, a distinctive feature of moral exemplarity may consist in the ability to properly integrate the emotions into the moral life, and reference to and imitation of exemplars may involve a referencing and imitating of the emotions of the exemplar.     

关于进化论的生命科学质疑

现代科学远未弄清楚生命是什么,所以,肯定生命是偶然生成的观点是不符合时代的科学精神的。遗传变异不能产生新的物种,也没有证据表明基因突变导致生物进化产生了新物种。按照小群突变的新达尔文主义来推断人类进化,既缺乏事实根据,也有悖于逻辑推理。     

复杂性科学研究中的两个哲学问题思考

复杂性科学研究,在科学方法和应用研究方面已取得不容置疑的进展。然而,科学研究并未因此而进入“澄明”之境。科学界倒是出现了“从复杂性到困惑”这样的情绪。[1]如果说“超越还原论”的革命口号曾让我们激动,科学社会的荣誉动机和批判意向已被牵发,那么我们就应该尝试走出“困惑”。本文拟就复杂性科学研究中的两个哲学问题进行初步思考,以期能抛砖引玉。一整体与部分关系问题作为一对基本哲学范畴,整体与部分的关系是近代以来科学分析方法和现代系统科学方法共同的、最重要的本体论基础。“整体等于部分和”是分析方法的哲学基石。[2]然…     

Escaping the Dark Side of Curiosity

Curiosity as a clinical entity has been a neglected subject in the psychoanalytic literature. Freud never addressed the issue of curiosity systematically. His interest was in trying to account for children's sexual questioning. Nevertheless, hinderance to internal curiosity—this is to say, that which intimidates and abates the appetite for an exploration of one's motives—is part and parcel of psychoanalytic inquiry. And, arguably, there is no greater clinical challenge for the analyst than trying to treat an analysand who appears to lack an interest in the underlying causes of his unhappiness. The problem of impeded self-inquiry is usually exacerbated in people with more serious emotional disturbances. My position here is that in studying the conditions that mitigate against curiosity in a seriously disturbed patient, we gain access to an enlarged version of the curiosity problems of our less disturbed patients. Here I interpret my clinical impressions about problems with curiosity with ideas from the writings of Martin Buber and Albert Camus.     

Loss of Humanness: The Ultimate Trauma

This paper is about chronic illness and its impact on the chronically ill and their loved ones who live through the illness and the eventual death. A new concept is introduced, the concept of "passing": physically ill people may pass as healthy even though they are physically ill. In addition to a discussion about why people choose to pass, two major paradoxes are considered. One concerns the paradox that results from "passing." The paradox is that while the falseness of "passing" keeps the self alive, it also deadens it before death. Specifically, "passing" enables the person with a physical illness to keep his well self alive with others, but results in one feeling dead, disconnected, detached, and inauthentic, before death. The second paradox involves the pressure on the chronically ill person to be heroically agentic in fighting the illness and overcoming it and, also, the pressure for this same person to be totally submissive and compliant with treatment. While in analytic treatment, the ill person can be helped to access authentic emotions and aliveness and to feel the power of authenticity.     

The Wick in the Candle of Learning: Epistemic Curiosity Activates Reward Circuitry and Enhances Memory

ABSTRACT— Curiosity has been described as a desire for learning and knowledge, but its underlying mechanisms are not well understood. We scanned subjects with functional magnetic resonance imaging while they read trivia questions. The level of curiosity when reading questions was correlated with activity in caudate regions previously suggested to be involved in anticipated reward. This finding led to a behavioral study, which showed that subjects spent more scarce resources (either limited tokens or waiting time) to find out answers when they were more curious. The functional imaging also showed that curiosity increased activity in memory areas when subjects guessed incorrectly, which suggests that curiosity may enhance memory for surprising new information. This prediction about memory enhancement was confirmed in a behavioral study: Higher curiosity in an initial session was correlated with better recall of surprising answers 1 to 2 weeks later.     

中国心理科学走向世界的历程

该文回顾了中国心理科学在新中国成立前后的发展情况。新中国成立后 ,在 50— 6 0年代中国心理学家与国际交流甚少。 70年代末 ,中国实行对外改革开放政策后 ,中国心理科学发展很快 ,与世界各国心理学家的交流日益频繁。中国心理科学在国际上已开始产生明显的影响 ,起到了不可忽视的重要作用。     

Questions for a Millennium: Religion and Science from the Perspective of a Scientist

This essay addresses a series of eight questions about what religion can do for science. It explores the secular role of religion in contemporary science and the need for greater synthesis between science and religion. It concludes that, for survival in the twenty-first century, religion cannot exist without acknowledging and using the enormous information pool of science, and science can no longer shun or ignore religion. Humankind will always need the large, synthetic explanations that religion provides of why we are here and what we ought to do and believe. The world needs to mark this new millennium with a sense of respect, cooperation, and even synthesis between science and religion.