科学是从问题到问题的不断进步——论波普尔的科学发展观

Science Is in Continuous Progress from Question to Question

二十世纪初叶的科学革命,使波普尔打破了“科学就是真理”这一古老的迷信,指出科学的本质在于它的可错性,即任何科学理论之中都包含着可能错误。科学之所以永恒发展,根源于真理与谬误的矛盾永远不可能最终解决。科学的发展过程为:科学从问题开始,问题促进科学家思考;针对问题,科学家作出各种各样的大胆的尝试性猜测,即理论或假设;在各种各样理论之间展开激烈竞争,互相批判,并经受观察和实验的严格检验;在检验中清除错误并筛选出逼真度最高的新理论;新理论得到确认并不是被证实,而只是暂时没有被证伪;随着科学技术的发展,它终将被证伪而提出新的供探索的问题。

The Scientific revolution in the early twentieth century made Poper break the old superstition that science is truth. He pointed out that the essence of science lies in its possible mistakes which contain in any theory of science. The constant development of science is originated from contradictions which cannot be solved forever between truth and falsehood. The process of scientific development is, Science begins with questions, and questions make scientists think. According to the questions, scientists make all kinds of bold and trial conjectures梩heories or hypotheses. Among all kinds of theories, they have a heated competition, criticize each other, have observations and strictly tests with practice. In the tests, they get rid of errors and select the newest theory. The new theory is confirmed and not testified, and it is not tested false at the present. As science and tecknology develop, the theory will be tested false in the end and people will put forward the new questions which will be explored.