From Sustainability to Gravity: The Research Path of an Engineer

My career as a scientist has been a passionate pursuit of knowledge,objective knowledge devoid of ideology,that could prove useful in understanding and transforming the world.As an engineer,I aimed to produce planning solutions which would be economically feasible,technically viable,and socially acceptable.Disappointed by the ineffectiveness of methodology and planning initiatives to attain sustainability,I turned to the history of science to find answers,and finally to physics,searching for an explanation of gravity.I traced a path from social to natural sciences.My attachment to my values and ideals,my commitment to my goals costed me dearly.It led me to quit applied research,to move to a desert island in the Atlantic Ocean,to be consumed for years by a Galileo-like obsession.“I must create a system,or be enslaved by another man’s.I will not reason and compare:my business is to create”(Blake,2002,p.210),has been my life’s motto.Have I succeeded in my self-appointed task or have I just wasted valuable years of creative research building sand castles?I don’t have the answer to this question.What I know for sure is that I do not regret hanging to what I thought to be right.

Against the Authority of Books:Hobbes and the Invention of Political Science

In an age when political thinkers were writing books full of quotations of ancient and modern authors,Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury(1588-1679)developed a philosophical system which was based on scientific method rather than on the authority of books.He emphasized that the absurdities that philosophers fall into are actually due precisely to a lack of method and to the habit of quoting other thinkers as if the truth was to be found in their words.It is certainly not inappropriate to read what philosophers,historians,and poets wrote,whether for pure amusement or to find intellectual spurs useful for one’s own research and speculation;but the written word should not be confused with the truth.In the investigation aimed at discovering the truth in political matters,the philosopher must use his own intellect,relying on the strength of reasoning.Thus,political philosophy becomes a science:the science of“consequences from the accidents of politic bodies”.With his reflections on scientia civilis,Thomas Hobbes may be considered the inventor of political science.

Academic Freedom,Feminism and the Probabilistic Conception of Evidence

There is a current debate about the extent to which Academic Freedom should be permitted in our universities.On the one hand,we have traditionalists who maintain that Academic Freedom should be unrestricted:people who have the appropriate qualifications and accomplishments should be allowed to develop theories about how the world is,or ought to be,as they see fit.On the other hand,we have post-traditional philosophers who argue against this degree of Academic Freedom.I consider a conservative version of post-traditional philosophy that permits restrictions on Academic Freedom only if the following conditions are met,Condition 1:The dissemination of the results of a given research project R must cause significant harm to some people,especially to people from oppressed groups.Condition 2:Condition 1 must possess strong empirical support,and which accepts the following assumptions:(1)there is a world of objective facts that is,in principle,discoverable,(2)rational means are the means of discovering it and,(3)rational means requires strong empirical support.I define strong empirical support for an hypothesis h on evidence e in probabilistic terms,as a ratio of posterior to prior probabilities substantially exceeding 1.I now argue in favour of a research policy that accepts unrestricted Academic Freedom.My argument is that there is a formal and general quandary that arises within the standard theory of probability when we apply this account of empirical support to a set of possible causal hypotheses framed in such a way that the“reverse probabilities”,pr(e/h)are 1.I consider various possible ways to escape this quandary,none of which are without difficulties,concluding that a research policy allowing for unrestricted Academic Freedom is probably the best that we can hope for.

Application of Time and Space Thinking in Civil Engineering

Time and Space Thinking that is composed of time and space thinking is brought up in civil engineering. This paper makes a detailed analysis on application and role of time and space thinking in knowledge system and learning method of civil engineering and put forward time and space thinking to be similar with philosophical view of time and space. Time and space thinking is a scientific method, therefore, it is suggested to make students active in having such idea and strengthen students＇ understanding on time and space thinking, which will helping students recognize knowledge system and stimulate innovative abilities.

Scientific and Practical Bio-analysis Method is Basic for TCM Pharmacokinetic Study

Traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） has an ancient history and unique system, including theory, methodology, prescription, formulation and medicines. There are differences between TCM and chemical drugs. For TCM, the multiple components in vivo are possibly to be detected; the number of components is relatively restricted; they could represent the therapeutic effect of the parent recipe; the concentrations and pharmacokinetics （PK） could affected by the combination of traditional medicines in recipe; the effects of new bioactive compounds （metabolites） related with those of their recipe; and the PK can be affected by body state in TCM treatment significantly. Therefore, the difficulty and challenge are far greater in PK study of TCMs than the chemical drugs.