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JOURNAL OF DIALECTICS OF NATURE
A Comprehensive, Academic Journal of the Philosophy, History, Sociology and Cultural Studies of Science and Technology
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Published ahead of Print
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Author Guidelines
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Knowledge Democracy in Smart Cities: International Practices and the Chinese Approach
Abstract: In the context of smart city development, knowledge democracy has become a critical pathway for public participation in urban governance. Compared to knowledge democracy in the West, China’s approach to it carries unique normative implications and practical significance. This study conducts a comparative analysis of two cases from the two dimensions of “technology application” and “participation mechanism”: FindingPlaces Project in Germany and Donghu Public Participation Project in China. For the former, the international case demonstrates a convenient coding process, efficient information-sharing function, and open software foundation and data sources. For the latter, it reflects a gradual, evidence-based, and orderly deliberative process, as well as a targeted and wellreasoned dynamic feedback process. In contrast, the domestic case adheres to the democratic demands for extensive “consultation”, but falls short in promoting the ability of public participation through technology, and lacks robust deliberation and feedback mechanisms. To advance knowledge democracy in Chinese smart city development, it is recommended to develop technology systems that balance coverage and quality of participation, integrate participation mechanisms into smart city evaluation frameworks, establish effective participation mechanisms in the whole process, and promote urban prosperity and social progress with knowledge democracy. Key Words: Smart cities; Knowledge democracy; Information and communication technology; Public participation; Urban governance
Author:
SHANG Zhicong
WANG Yuli
Issue:Volume 48, lssue 2, February 2026
Page: 1-10
The Technical Opportunities and Democratic Challenges of Large Language Models Empowering Political Participation
Abstract: In the era of artificial intelligence, large language models reshaped the communication structure of public opinion expression and decision-making through instant and personalized information interaction. The dialogue topology after the intervention of this algorithm not only promotes the digital transformation of political participation, but also causes the objectivity of political discourse to face hermeneutics fracture due to the epistemological obfuscation of the algorithm system, as well as the inherent limitations such as value bias and ambiguous ethical boundaries, thus increasing the difficulty of building democratic consensus. To better promote technical and political practice and improve democratic efficiency, it is necessary to establish an ethical framework and technical governance rules, achieve “justice-oriented algorithm calibration” and actively guide it to serve the common well-being of mankind. We should guard against the potential cognitive manipulation risks of the large language models, and ensure that technological progress not only pursues efficiency and interests, but also protects individual rights, promotes social equity, and even safeguards democratic dignity. Key Words: Large language models; Algorithm intervention; Democratic consensus construction; Cognitive manipulation; Justice calibration
Author:
LIAO Wenqi
Issue:Volume 48, lssue 2, February 2026
Page: 11-19
Knowledge Power in the Algorithmic Age: AI’s Reshaping of Scientific Collaboration and Publicness
Abstract: Artificial Intelligence for Science (AI4S) is giving rise to a new form of knowledge power. On the one hand, it is embodied as “computing power hegemony,” whereby “hard” infrastructure, such as large cloud platforms, imposes a technological discipline on scientific practice through their “black box” nature and API lock-in, fostering new technological dependencies. On the other hand, it manifests itself as a “walled garden”, whereby tech giants leverage foundational models to construct “soft” platform ecosystems, enclosing open knowledge resources as paid services and eroding the public nature of science. These two forms of power reinforce each other, simultaneously undermining scientific autonomy and the public character of knowledge while weakening scientific norms represented by Mertonian norms. A clear understanding of the forms and operational mechanisms of this emerging knowledge power will help reconstruct the public nature of science within this new power landscape. Key Words: AI for Science; Power discipline; Walled garden; Digital commons; Open science
Author:
CAO Wei
Issue:Volume 48, lssue 2, February 2026
Page: 20-27
Truthmaker Theory, Correspondence Theory and Identity theory of Truth
Abstract: Armstrong, the main advocator of truthmaker theory, chose “state of affairs” as the ontological ground for truth, to adhere to factualism rather than thingism, and to adhere to correspondence theory of truth rather than identity theory of truth. However, the dispute between factualism and thingism is entangled without specific contexts, and the difference between the two after combining contexts is not important. What is important is the dispute between correspondence theory and identity theory of truth. Wittgenstein, Russell and Frege are all wavering between the two. Through the analysis and evaluation of relevant theories, we achieve a kind of correspondence theory of truth that includes identity theory of truth, namely “double isomorphic correspondence theory”. On this basis, by distinguishing the inductive truthmaker and deductive truthbearer, a new truthmaker theory, namely the inductive-corresponded truthmaker theory, is proposed. Key Words: Truthmaker theory; Correspondence theory of truth; Identity theory of truth; State of affairs; Fact
Author:
CHEN Xiaoping
SHUANG Xiuhai
Issue:Volume 48, lssue 2, February 2026
Page: 28-36
What Mirror Neurons Can Tell Us About Social Affordances?
Abstract: With the concept of affordance, ecological psychology in the Gibsonian tradition aims to build an ontology that overcomes the “perception-action” dichotomy. The concept of social affordance emphasizes the possibility of social interactions or actions shaped by social practices and norms, helping to positively accommodate social phenomena and expand the ontological boundaries for ecological psychology. Over the past two decades, research in the field of mirror neurons has been devoted to exploring how sensorimotor processes may underlie intentional action choices and aspects of social cognition. According to the “social affordance” hypothesis, tool use, body space, subjective values and moral rules can modulate the activity of mirror neurons. These neurons not only support the process of action selection, but also support our understanding of our own and others’ choices and potential for action in the space of affordance. Future research also needs to focus on the neural-specific characterization of the difference between social affordance and object affordance, as well as the “ecological brain-social brain” underpinning the possibilities for action shaped by ongoing sociocultural practices. Key Words: Social affordance; Mirror neurons; Ecological brain; Peripersonal space; Action understanding
Author:
CHEN Wei
XUE Shaohua
Issue:Volume 48, lssue 2, February 2026
Page: 37-45
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How Could AI Develop Its Self-consciousness?
Abstract: The danger of AI will come from its self-consciousness rather than its capacity. AI would be a challenge to mankind if it develops a capacity for reflection on the system of its own, so that it would know how to remake its system with new rules, especially when it could invent its own language for all purposes, equal in capacity to human natural language, it could do anything it would. And AI would be most dangerous if it would be able to learn human desires, emotions and values, because all hostilities are based upon human desires and values.
From A Man-Machine Relationship to Inter Human Relations: Definition and Strategy of Artificial Intelligence
Abstract: In order to distinguish the intelligent machine as a tool from the robot as a subject, the definition of human must change from essentialism to functionalism. So far, artificial intelligence has gone through three stages of development: formalization, empiricization and rationalization, but it is still not in the structure, but in the function of simulating human thinking. Only a functionalist definition of human beings can be compatible with the future of new species and new humans-"uncontrolled" robots. If "uncontrolled" robots emerge, the relationship between natural person and robot will develop from human-machine relationship to inter-human relationship. This relationship is neither the relationship between man and machine, nor the relationship between man and animal, nor the relationship between natural people. Natural people should not adopt the previous strategy to treat robots. Human supremacism is not self-evident. Natural man's self-re-evolution, man-machine parallel and man-machine fusion are feasible schemes for natural man to avoid being overtaken, replaced and eliminated by robots.
Non-Reductive Explanation in Biology: Context Arguments
Abstract: Biological practice over the last several decades has shown that in many cases we cannot properly explain a higher-level phenomenon of interest only in terms of phenomena or mechanisms provided by lowerlevel explanations; to properly explain the higher-level phenomenon, information provided by the higher-level is also indispensable. One typical case is the context dependence of biological phenomena, namely, the occurrence of a higher-level phenomenon depends on its relevant environmental factors (e.g. cellular environments) which cannot simply be reduced to the lower-level (e.g. molecules) . On the other hand, the occurrence of the higher-level phenomenon can sometimes be independent of its lower-level underpinnings, since a change to the lower-level underpinnings does not necessarily result in corresponding changes in the higher-level. Facts based on these two sides constitute a ground for rejecting explanatory reductionism. This essay, by reference to examples drawn from biological practice, will discuss how contextual facts pose a challenge to explanatory reductionism.
Organismic Traits and the Explanatory Scope of Natural Selection
Abstract: Could natural selection explain why an individual organism has the traits it does? Debates over this topic have lasted for decades in the philosophy of biology. Indeed, the negative view and the positive view have different interpretations of the very why-question. The two sides have posited different explananda: a whole explicit fact (for the positive view) vs. a particular contrastive focal aspect of the explicit fact (for the negative view). Both explananda are reasonable and acceptable. However, elimination of misinterpretation does not render the negative view true. Rather, I argue that the negative view as a universal proposition is indeed untenable, for there are counterexamples for it in cases of symbiosis, lateral gene transfer, and genic selection. Key Words: Organismic traits; Natural selection; Scientific explanation
Dr. Edward Hume: The Intermediary Who Promoted the Rockefeller Foundation’s Initial Public Health Practice in China
Abstract: The Rockefeller Foundation intended to carry out hookworm disease treatment and prevention campaigns in many countries around the world at its initiation. Dr. Edward Hume, as the founder of the Yali Hospital and the Hsiang-ya Medical College in Hunan, tried to seek financial support from the Rockefeller Foundation in order to fulfill his plan in public health education in China. He used his connections and influence in Hunan to help the Rockefeller Foundation introduce the hookworm disease treatment and prevention project into China. In this transnational undertaking, Dr. Hume essentially played the role of an intermediary, who considerably promoted the Rockefeller Foundation’s earliest public health practice in China.
Kinnosuke Ogura: A Pioneer in The Study of Social History of Mathematics
Abstract: Kinnosuke Ogura was a renowned mathematical historian and educator in modern Japan. He has made outstanding contribution to the study of mathematics education and the history of mathematics. In the filed of mathematical history, he began to study the social problems of mathematics in the late 1920s. He believed that the sociality of mathematics must be concretized in the study of mathematical history, and investigated the relationship between the ideology, the economic foundation and the development of mathematics. He was a pioneer in the social history of mathematics. Key Words: Kinnosuke Ogura; Mathematical history; Sociality
News & Events
Video Playback of the Ninth Session of New Perspectives on the History of British Science from the 17th to the 19th Centuries
On May 8, at 9 p.m. Beijing time, the ninth session of New Perspectives on the History of British Science from the 17th to the 19th Centuries was held online as scheduled.
Video Playback of the Eighth Session of New Perspectives on the History of British Science from the 17th to the 19th Centuries
On April 10, at 9 a.m. Beijing time, the eighth session of New Perspectives on the History of British Science from the 17th to the 19th Centuries was held online as scheduled.
Seminar 8. Empire and Gender(New Perspectives on the History of British Science from the 17th to the 19th Centuries )
Welcome to join the Seminar Seminar 8. Empire and Gender of New Perspectives on the History of British Science from the 17th to the 19th Centuries .
Video Playback of the Seventh Session of New Perspectives on the History of British Science from the 17th to the 19th Centuries
On March 13, at 6 p.m. Beijing time, the seventh session of New Perspectives on the History of British Science from the 17th to the 19th Centuries was held online as scheduled.
Seminar 7. Optics and Astronomy(New Perspectives on the History of British Science from the 17th to the 19th Centuries )
Welcome to join the Seminar Seminar 7. Optics and Astronomy of New Perspectives on the History of British Science from the 17th to the 19th Centuries .
Video Playback of the Sixth Session of New Perspectives on the History of British Science from the 17th to the 19th Centuries
On February 13, at 9 p.m. Beijing time, the sixth session of New Perspectives on the History of British Science from the 17th to the 19th Centuries was held online as scheduled.
Seminar 6. Imperial Economies and the Exchange of Natural Knowledge in the 17th and 18th Centuries(New Perspectives on the History of British Science from the 17th to the 19th Centuries )
Welcome to join the Seminar 6. Imperial Economies and the Exchange of Natural Knowledge of New Perspectives on the History of British Science from the 17th to the 19th Centuries .
Video Playback of the Fifth Session of New Perspectives on the History of British Science from the 17th to the 19th Centuries
On January 9, at 9 a.m. Beijing time, the fifth session of New Perspectives on the History of British Science from the 17th to the 19th Centuries was held online as scheduled. The theme is The Chemical Revolution and Climate Change. The first speaker is Jan Golinski, whose speech title is : Climate Change and Society in Britain, 1790-1820. The next speaker is TONG Yichen, whose report title named Between Atomism, Elementalism, and Empiricism: The Chemical Studies of Étienne-François Geoffrey. The meeting was hosted by Professor Bernard Lightman.
Seminar 5. The Chemical Revolution and Climate Change(New Perspectives on the History of British Science from the 17th to the 19th Centuries )
Welcome to join the Seminar 5. The Chemical Revolution and Climate Change(New Perspectives on the History of British Science from the 17th to the 19th Centuries ).
Video Playbacks of the Four Session of New Perspectives on the History of British Science from the 17th to the 19th Centuries
On December 12, at 12 noon Beijing time, the four session of New Perspectives on the History of British Science from the 17th to the 19th Centuries was held online as scheduled.
Seminar 4. Gardens as Scientific Sites in the Early Modern Period(New Perspectives on the History of British Science from the 17th to the 19th Centuries )
Welcome to join the Seminar 4. Gardens as Scientific Sites in the Early Modern Period(New Perspectives on the History of British Science from the 17th to the 19th Centuries ).
Video Playback of the Third Session of New Perspectives on the History of British Science from the 17th to the 19th Centuries
On November 14, at 10 p.m. Beijing time, the third session of New Perspectives on the History of British Science from the 17th to the 19th Centuries was held online as scheduled.
Seminar 3. Darwin and the Big Picture(New Perspectives on the History of British Science from the 17th to the 19th Centuries )
Welcome to join the Seminar 2. Imagination and Innovation in Natural Philosophy of New Perspectives on the History of British Science from the 17th to the 19th Centuries.
Video Playback of the Second Session of New Perspectives on the History of British Science from the 17th to the 19th Centuries
Welcome to join the Seminar 2. Imagination and Innovation in Natural Philosophy of New Perspectives on the History of British Science from the 17th to the 19th Centuries .
Seminar 2. Imagination and Innovation in Natural Philosophy (New Perspectives on the History of British Science from the 17th to the 19th Centuries )
Welcome to join the Seminar 2. Imagination and Innovation in Natural Philosophy of New Perspectives on the History of British Science from the 17th to the 19th Centuries .
Video Playback of the first session of New Perspectives on the History of British Science from the 17th to the 19th Centuries
On September 19, at 9 a.m. Beijing time, the first session of New Perspectives on the History of British Science from the 17th to the 19th Centuries was held online as scheduled. The theme of the first session is Issues in Nineteenth Century Astronomy. The first speaker is Huang Hsiang-Fu, whose speech title is Visual Technology and Religious Sentiment in Nineteenth-Century Popular Astronomy Lecturing. The next speaker is Robert Smith, whose report named The Retellings of the Discovery of Neptune. The seminar is hosted by Professor Bernard Lightman. The following is the video playback of the seminar.
Seminar 1. Issues in Nineteenth Century Astronomy (New Perspectives on the History of British Science from the 17th to the 19th Centuries )
Welcome to join the Seminar 1. Issues in Nineteenth Century Astronomy of New Perspectives on the History of British Science from the 17th to the 19th Centuries
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Robert S. Cohen Commemoration Symposium Held
Starting from the “Springtime for Science”—An Academic Symposium in Celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the Launch of the Journal of Dialectics of Nature and the 40th Anniversary of the Founding of the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
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