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In these papers derived from an international conference held in 1992 in Beijing, Chinese and Western philosophers treat current as well as historically situated issues of realism and anti-realism in the understanding of scientific knowledge. There are four sections: (1) philosophical arguments proper (Hilpinen, Krejci, Musgrave, Niiniluoto, Qiu Renzong, Sfendoni-Mentzou, Bahm, Wallner and Peschl); (2) realism and general methodology (James Brown, Franklin, Gavroglu, Kaiser, Chin-Tai Kim, Wartofsky, Watkins, Wright, Wu Qiongbing, Yin Zhengkun); (3) physical sciences (Fan Dainian, Folse, He Zuoxiu, Hong Dingguo, Jin Wulun, Johansson, Li Li, Luo and Hu, Mao Shiying, Schagrin, Schlagel, Zhou Jihong); (4) social and biological sciences (Mäki, Shanahan, Paul Tang and Ralph Brown III, Cohen). The conference was inspired by the late Professor Tscha Hung of Beijing, for many years Director of the Institute of Foreign Philosophy at Beijing University, and a distinguished PhD from the University of Vienna in 1934 under Moritz Schlick.
List of contents
Philosophical Arguments.- On Some Formulations of Realism, or How Many Objects Are There in the World?.- Dissolution of the Realism/Antirealism Problem.- Realism, Truth and Objectivity.- Queries about Internal Realism.- How to Know What Rises Up Is the Moon? - On the Concept of Realism and the Irrelevancy of Quantum Mechanics to the Debate on Realism vs. Antirealism.- The Reality of Thirdness - A Potential-Pragmatic Account of Laws of Nature.- Tentative Realism.- Cognitive Science - An Experiment in Constructive Realism; Constructive Realism - An Experiment in Cognitive Science.- Realism and General Methodology.- Phenomena.- There Are No Antirealists in the Laboratory.- Can Theories of Chemistry Provide an Argument Against Realism?.- Empirical Versus Theoretical Progress in Science.- Science as Ideology.- Three Stages of Constitution: Historical Changes in the Ontological Status of the Scientific Object.- Scientific Realism versus Common-Sense Realism?.- Metaphysical Realism and the Explanation of the Success of Science.- Is Natural Science Free from Morality?.- Truth and Fiction in Scientific Theory.- Physical Sciences.- Niels Bohr and Realism.- The Bohr-Einstein Debate and the Philosophers' Debate over Realism versus Anti-Realism.- On the Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen Paradox and the Relevant Philosophical Problems.- On the Neutral Status of QM in the Dispute of Realism vs. Anti-Realism.- Double Structure of Tao Reality.- Realism and Wave-Particle Duality.- Van Fraassen's Constructive Empiricism - A Critique.- On Complementarity Reality.- Relational Realism on Reform of the View of Physical Reality and Its Logical Manifestation.- A Realistic Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics.- Rumford's Experiments on the Materiality of Light - More Heat ThanLight.- Resolving the Realist-Antirealist Dilemma.- The Mathematicized Practical Attitude.- Social and Biological Sciences.- Scientific Realism and Some Peculiarities of Economics.- Realism and Antirealism in Evolutionary Biology.- Anti-Realism and the Complementarity Model of Mind-Brain.- Name Index.
Summary
Beijing International Conference, 1992
