问题驱动:板块构造理论“登陆”与中国学界的回应

Problem Driving:The“Landing”of the Plate Tectonics Theory and the Response from Chinese Academia

问题是科学研究的灵魂,科学史就是提出与解决问题的历史。20世纪六七十年代,美国基于海洋研究提出板块构造理论,掀起一场科学革命,导致地学研究范式发生根本转变。同时,板块构造理论在大陆地区的适用性,即“登陆”问题,成为新常规科学阶段的重大科学问题。围绕该问题,板块构造理论的研究焦点从海洋转向大陆,并传入中国。中国从批判性地学习、应用到发展该理论,为求解其“登陆”问题做出了重要贡献。通过考察中美地震学界在中国大陆地区的理论验证活动,再现科学问题的由来、传播和求解过程,展示科学问题如何决定科学研究的方向、如何获得科学共同体的认可、如何驱动科学的传播与进步,并以实证彰显问题意识在科学研究中的重要性。

Problems are the soul of scientific research,and the history of science is the history of putting forward and solving problems.In the 1960s and 1970s,the theory of plate tectonics based on marine survey completed a scientific revolution,which ushered the earth science into a new conventional science stage.In the new stage,how to use the plate tectonics theory to explain the continental geological phenomenon,namely,the“landing”problem,has become an important scientific problem.With the“landing”problem,the focus of geoscience research has shifted from the ocean to the continent.After the introduction of the theory of plate tectonics,the Chinese academic circles learned,applied and developed the theory,and made contributions to the“landing”of the theory of plate tectonics in China.This paper examines the theoretical verification process of Chinese and American seismological community in the continental region of China.In doing so,it reproduces the origin,dissemination and solution process of scientific problems,and analyzes how scientific problems determine the direction of scientific research,how to obtain the recognition of the scientific community,and how to drive the dissemination and progress of science.The importance of problem consciousness in scientific research is explained through empirical studies.