变形记:反思《科学、真理与民主》

METAMORPHOSIS:Some Reflections on Science,Truth,and Democracy

本文回顾了自2001年《科学,真理与民主》出版以来,我对科学、民主和相关问题的思考演变。本书出版后我很快意识到“良序科学”的概念需要进一步延展,因为其只关注了科学与社会互动的一个方向。气候变化的例子迅速促使我思考如何将科学信息合理地传递给公众。在阐述我的观点时,我发现古典实用主义的传统,特别是约翰·杜威的工作很有意义,我开始意识到在讨论科学时不应该事后才考虑到价值的问题,应该将我们对科学研究的理解嵌入对价值的精心描述中。到目前为止,我的研究基于一种杜威式的实用主义,形成了:一个更宽泛的科学哲学概念、一种对所谓纯知识的怀疑论立场、以及对于“改造哲学”的重要性的信念。

“Metamorphosis” charts the evolution of my thinking about science,democracy,and related issues,since the publication of Science,Truth,and Democracy (STD) in 2001.I quickly realized that the notion of Well-ordered Science,focus of most of the attention on the book,needed further development.That need arose chiefly because STD had only looked at one direction of traffic between the sciences and society.The example of climate change quickly prompted me to reflect on healthy transmission of scientific information to the public.In elaborating my ideas,I found the tradition of classical pragmatism,particularly the works of John Dewey,valuable,and I began to realize that consideration of values ought not to be an afterthought in discussions of the sciences.We should embed our understanding of scientific research in a well-worked-out account of what is most valuable.The end result of my investigations (so far) has been a Deweyan pragmatism,issuing in a far broader conception of the philosophy of science than has been customary,a serious skepticism about allegedly pure knowledge,and a conviction of the importance of “reconstruction in philosophy.”