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本文选自《无知百科全书》。作者是英国著名的天文学家、宇宙学家,现任剑桥大学理论天文学教授。他以一位实际科学家的身分来谈论这种几乎是纯粹的认识论问题,是很耐人寻味的。这表明,现代科学发展本身确实不断提出一点重大的认识论问题。文章一开始就提出一个尖锐的问题:科学向何处去?或者说科学的目的是什么?可惜,对这个重大问题,实际科学家很少有时间去考虑,结果,科学界中只能听任一些传统观念的流行。人们以为,一些天才科学家已经建立了基本理论,我们只要认真进行观察和实验,就可以使科学不断前进。但是,科学发展的历史却提出一个誖理:观察激发人们去建立理论,但又只有建立了理论才能更好地观察到事实。因此,那种表面上可以解释一切观察现象的表面理论,是称不上真正的科学理论的。科学理论不仅是描述已有的事实,更重要的是预测未来的事实。要超越现实而预测未来,就不能保证不犯错误,就要求任何理论不能僵化,要根据变化的事实加以调整。由此,对待一切科学理论应保持一种明智的、灵活的、清醒的科学态度。作者为此提出了一个“珠子模型”。他要求科学家使珠子保持在0、1区间的线段上,不要陷入0(绝对不信任)或者1(绝对信任)的深渊之中。这也就是说,人类总是在知与不知的两个极端之间活动,总是不断地力求向知的方面有所进展。人类永远也不能陷到任何一个极端之中。知之本性,总是同无知相联系。只有这样,人类才能保持科学想象力,不为已有成见所束缚,使科学理论不断受到科学实践的调整,保持最大的解释现实、预测未来的能力。在作者看来,这就是科学的目的,也是科学发展的总的方向。如果许多人因衣衫褴褛和家俱破旧而感到耻辱,那么,让我们因思想卑劣和哲学庸俗而倍感耻辱吧! 阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦
This article is from “Encyclopedia of ignorance.” The author is a famous British astronomer, cosmologist, the current professor of theoretical astronomy at Cambridge University. It is intriguing to talk about this almost purely epistemological issue as an actual scientist. This shows that the development of modern science does raise a few major epistemological issues. The article starts with a sharp question from the outset: Where does science go or what is the purpose of science? Unfortunately, for this major issue, actual scientists rarely have time to think about it. As a result, only some traditions can be respected in the scientific community The prevalence of ideas. People think that some gifted scientists have established basic theories that we can move science forward as long as we observe and experiment carefully. However, the history of scientific development raises a paradox: observation stimulates people to build up the theory, but only if theory is established can the facts be better observed. Therefore, the superficial theory that can ostensibly explain all observed phenomena can not be called a real scientific theory. Scientific theories not only describe existing facts, but more importantly predict future facts. To surpass reality and predict the future, we can not guarantee that we will not make any mistakes, and we will require that any theory can not be rigidified and should be adjusted according to changing facts. Therefore, to treat all scientific theories should maintain a wise, flexible and sober scientific attitude. The author proposed a “bead model” for this purpose. He asked scientists to keep the beads in the 0, 1 interval of the line, do not fall into 0 (absolute distrust) or 1 (absolute trust) abyss. That is to say, mankind always acts between the two extremes known and unknown, and constantly strives to make progress toward knowledge. Mankind can never fall into any extreme. The nature of knowing is always associated with ignorance. Only in this way will mankind be able to maintain its scientific imagination and be bound by the existing preconceived notions so that scientific theories will continually be adjusted by scientific practice and maintain the greatest ability to explain reality and predict the future. In the author's opinion, this is the scientific goal and the general direction of scientific development. If many people are ashamed of raggedness and dilapidated furniture, let us be ashamed of melancholy and philosophical vulgarity! Albert Einstein