“第二种哲学”:杨振宁科研成功的决定性因素

The second philosophy:the decisive factor that help Chen Ning Yang to win in scientific research

杨振宁认为,在他所处的科学时期,“第一种哲学”(即哲学家的哲学)不再能给理论物理学家的研究工作提供有效帮助;与对待“第一种哲学”的态度相反,杨振宁指出理论物理学家自己的“第二种哲学”却对其专业研究具有关键的决定性作用.研究表明杨振宁的这一思想经历了“风格”说、“taste”说与“第二种哲学”等逐步清晰、愈加准确的3个阶段.辨析杨振宁在不同场合的表述,从哲学视角审视后可以发现,杨振宁的“第二种哲学”是基于物理现象的科学“经验论”;隶属于以归纳法为基础的证实论哲学范畴.杨振宁强调“第二种哲学”本身不是思想方法,但它却具备选择有价值研究题目及选择相应研究方法的功能;这一功能往往是在潜意识状态靠直觉实现的,是理论物理学家不可或缺的创造之源.“第二种哲学”与“知识世界”相对独立又良性互动,二者不能彼此取代,合理的知识储备是“第二种哲学”发挥作用的重要保障.

Chen Ning Yang believes that in his scientific period,“the first philosophy”(that is,the philosophy of philosophers)can not provide effective assistance to the research work of theoretical physicists anymore;by contrast,Chen Ning Yang pointed out that“the second philosophy”of theoretical physicists’has a key decisive role in their professional research work.Research shows that Chen Ning Yang’s thoughts have gone through three stages:style,taste,and“the second philosophy”,in which it gradually became more clearer and more accurate.Discriminating Chen Ning Yang s statements on different occasions,from philosophical perspective,could find out that Chen Ning Yang s“the second philosophy”is a scientific“empirical theory”based on physical phenomena;it belongs to the category of validation theory philosophy which based on induction.Chen Ning Yang emphasized that“the second philosophy”is not method,but it has the function of choosing valuable research topics and choosing corresponding research methods;this function often works in the subconscious state by intuition,and is source for creation of theoretical physicists.“The second philosophy”and the“world of knowledge”are relatively independent,and also have positive interactions.The two cannot replace each other,a reasonable reserve of knowledge is an important guarantee for“the second philosophy”to play its role.