科学可以计划吗?——20世纪三四十年代以英国为中心的争论

Can science be planned? the controversy centering on Britain in the 1930s and 1940s

发生于1930年代末的关于科学是要计划还是要自由的贝-波之争,其源流可追溯到第二届国际科学史大会。整个30年代英国科学家中的科学与社会运动,是该争论的过程因素。该争论实非二人之争,而是存在于两个科学家群体之间,Nature杂志在其中起到了推波助澜的作用,若干科学组织牵涉其中,争论所涉及范围远超英国之外,过程比较曲折,历史影响极为深远。科学家们争论的问题包括科学、计划和自由的内涵,科学发展的机制,科学家的责任,科学的社会关系等等问题。它不仅促生了科学学、科学社会学等学科,而且将科学哲学和科学史研究推向一个新的高潮。更为重要的是,这场争论极大地改变了人们的科学观念,它使功利主义科学观从此深入人心,与之后苏联之外各国科学的计划化不无关系。

The Bernal- Polanyi Dispute, which occurred in the late 1930s talking about that science should be planed or to be free, can be traced back to the Second International Conference of History of Science. The Science and Society Movement among scientists throughout the 1930s are the process factors of the dispute. The dispute is actually not between two persons, but between two groups of scientists, in which the magazine Nature played a role in fueling it, and several organizations involved in it. The dispute is far beyond the scope of the United Kingdom. The process of it is a bit twists and turns, and the historical influence of it is far reaching. The controversial questions include the conception of science, the conception of plan and freedom, the mechanism of the development of science, the responsibility of scientists, the social relations of science, etc. It not only sprung up subjects like Science of Science, Sociology of Science, etc, but also promoted researches on Philosophy of Science and History of Science to a new climax. More importantly, this controversy has greatly changed peoples concept of science. It made utilitarian sunk deeper and deeper into people＇s hearts, also it may have contributions to the planning of science outside the Soviet Union thereafter.