Title
Author
Keywords
JOURNAL OF DIALECTICS OF NATURE
A Comprehensive, Academic Journal of the Philosophy, History, Sociology and Cultural Studies of Science and Technology
English
Chinese
Home
Browse
Published ahead of Print
Latest Issue
More Content
Purchase
Submit
Sign up/in
Author Guidelines
About Us
About the Journal
Editorial Board
Conference
Home
Browse
Published ahead of Print
Latest Issue
More Content
Purchase
Submit
Sign up/in
Author Guidelines
About Us
About the Journal
Editorial Board
Conference
Latest Articles
View all
Isaac Newton and the Knowledge of the Ancients
Abstract: Isaac Newton is rightly credited with the discovery of the laws of gravity, the development of mathematical calculus, and the transformation of natural philosophy into modern-day classical physics. Yet Newton himself firmly believed that he created nothing new. Instead, he considered of all knowledge as ancient, revealed to mankind by God at the beginning of time. Although man’s fall from grace and his subsequent idolatrous practices meant much of that knowledge had become obscured or lost, throughout history sages such as Zoroaster, Hermes, and Plato, had passed on their knowledge to those who studied their writings diligently. In this paper, I argue that exactly this underlying belief in the antiquity of knowledge connects Newton’s various studies in domains that seem very disconnected today, such as mathematics, alchemy, and the study of mythology and chronology. Through a close examination of Newton’s manuscript legacy and the use of Newton’s notes by one of his disciples, the Scottish mathematician David Gregory, I explore these connections and show how in order to understand Newton’s thinking in areas such as natural philosophy, we must take very seriously his studies of ancient writings, because Newton took these studies very seriously himself. Key Words: Isaac Newton; Ancient knowledge; David Gregory; Principia
Author:
Cornelis J. Schilt
Issue:Volume 47, lssue 5, May 2025
Page: 1-10
Newton in the Calendar: Multidimensional Translation and Introduction of Newtonian Theories in the Chinese and Western Almanac
Abstract: The Chinese and Western Almanac (1852-1866) introduced various aspects of Newton’s theories, marking a crucial phase in the introduction of Newtonian thought to China. However, related research has been relatively weak, mainly due to limited source materials. The 1853 almanac introduced Newton’s theories of conic sections and precession, and listed his major scientific discoveries. The “Theory of Universal Attraction” published in the 1854 almanac presented the first complete introduction of the law of universal gravitation and its astronomical applications, while the “Essentials of Optics” in the same volume provided an early introduction to Newton’s optical experiments and theories. The “Elementary Fluid Mechanics” serialized in the almanac from 1855 to 1857 contained Newton’s principles of fluid dynamics. The original source texts for these translations have also been verified through textual research.
Author:
WAN Zhaoyuan
Issue:Volume 47, lssue 5, May 2025
Page: 11-18
A Study of the First Chinese Manuscript Translation of Newton’s Principia: Its Content, Source Text, and Translation Features
Abstract: The first Chinese translation of Newton’s Principia represents a pioneering effort in the translation of scientific and technical texts during Late Qing. In the 1850s, Li Shanlan and Alexander Wylie collaborated on translating the Principia, producing the Naiduan Shuli manuscript. The manuscript covers the “Definitions” “Laws of Motion” and the first four chapters of Book I of the Principia, encompassing the fundamental concepts and laws of Newton’s mechanics. This paper systematically examines the manuscript’s content, identifies Motte’s English translation as its source text, and analyzes its translation features through historical materials, focusing on translation motivation, textual structure, terminology, mathematical notation, and illustrations. Key Words: Naiduan Shuli; Li Shanlan; Alexander Wylie; Newton; Principia; Chinese translation
Author:
WANG Jiaman
Issue:Volume 47, lssue 5, May 2025
Page: 19-26
From Data to Evidence: The Debate Between Representationalism and Relationalism
Abstract: Data plays a crucial role in scientific research, with its core value lying in its ability to provide evidence for related phenomena, hypotheses, or theories. Regarding how data serves as evidence, representationalism emphasizes that data itself has inherent representational value, while relationalism highlights its contextual relativity. The apparent opposition between the two arises from misinterpretations with too strong standpoints. Strong representationalism insists that data itself contains fixed informational content, thus possessing an evidential status beyond any specific context of inquiry. In contrast, strong relationalism argues that the evidential status of data depends entirely on the context of inquiry, even claiming that only data serving as evidence qualifies as data. However, representationalism does not necessarily lead to the strong version, and neither does relationalism. Representationalism and relationalism are not contradictory but can be compatible with each other. They focus on different stages of inquiry and research fields, and they can reach a consensus on points such as the representational value of data, its context-dependence, as well as its public and social nature. Key Words: Data; Evidence; Representationalism; Relationalism
Author:
HU Ruibin
Issue:Volume 47, lssue 5, May 2025
Page: 27-34
The Concept of “Game” and Its Theoretical Roles in Evolutionary Game Theory
Abstract: As an interdisciplinary theoretical framework, evolutionary game theory (EGT) has been widely applied in the study of biology and social sciences. Chuang Liu has argued that the concept of “game” in its full sense is indispensable in the study of EGT in social sciences such as economics, but has no place in scientific explanations in biology; since the replicator equations used in EGT are mathematically equivalent to the Lotka-Volterra (LV) equations in theoretical ecology, EGT in biology had better give way to theories that do not rely on the concept of “game” and use tools such as the LV equations. This article argues that, in both biology and social sciences, EGT adopts the same technical “thin” definition of the “game” concept, which provides a unified analytical framework for EGT. Given the differences in scope of application and representational capacity, EGT in biology cannot be replaced by theories using tools such as the LV equations. Key Words: Evolutionary game theory; Game; Replicator equations; LV equations; Representational capacity
Author:
ZHANG Mingjun
Issue:Volume 47, lssue 5, May 2025
Page: 35-42
Hot Articles
View all
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.
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
New Perspectives on the History of British Science from the 17th to the 19th Centuries AGENDA
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
View all >
Outside Links
Peer Publications
View all >
Institutions and Societies
View all >
JOURNAL OF DIALECTICS OF NATURE
About the Journal
Submit
Author Guidelines
Purchase Information
Help
Contact Us
Address: No.19A Yuquan Road, Beijing, 100049, China
Phone: +86-10-88256007
Email:
jdn@ucas.ac.cn
Follow Us
© 2014 Copyright of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
© 2014 Copyright of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences