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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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Home
Browse
Published ahead of Print
Latest Issue
More Content
Purchase
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Sign up/in
Author Guidelines
About Us
About the Journal
Editorial Board
Conference
Latest Articles
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Whether Human Treatment-Enhancement Distinction Holds: An Analysis from the Perspective of Legal Philosophy
Abstract: One of the assumptions often included in many ethical and legal discussions about human enhancement is that enhancement is a concept that can be distinguished from treatment and this concept presents unique ethical and legal challenges. However, some other scholars believe that whether the dichotomy between enhancement and treatment can be established needs reflection. They not only question whether this distinction is feasible from the fuzziness and relativity of the standard, but also question the rationality of this distinction based on the continuum of the practical reasons for pursuing treatment and enhancement. With the help of the conceptual tools and theoretical methods of law philosophy, we examined the various doubts raised about the dichotomy of enhancement and treatment one by one and found that: on the one hand, the Normal Function Model provides a feasible criterion for distinction of treatment and enhancement; and on the other hand, the application of Rawls’ principle of “fair equality of opportunity” in the field of public health also suggests that this dichotomy is of moral and legal importance. Key Words: Treatment; Human enhancement; Continuum; Fair equality of opportunity
Author:
WANG Lin
Issue:Volume 47, lssue 2, February 2025
Page: 1-9
Technological Governance and Moral Governance
Abstract: Technological governance and moral governance are two important models of current social governance. The former advocates the use of scientific methods and technological means to run and govern society, while the latter emphasizes the important role of morality in social operation and governance. As there are many differences in the methods, logic, objectives, characteristics and other aspects of governance, technological governance and moral governance can complement each other in functions. On the one hand, the ethical risks in the operation of technological governance can be dealt with through moral adjustment, such as conducting ethical reviews of algorithmic governance to avoid ethical risks in its operation. On the other hand, scientific methods and technological means can be used to improve the operational efficiency of moral governance, the ideas of moralizing technology and moral enhancement are more representative examples. Key Words: Technological governance; Moral governance; Functional complementation; Moral adjustment; Technological assistance
Author:
LAN Lishan
Issue:Volume 47, lssue 2, February 2025
Page: 36-43
Exploring the Mohist Theoretical System of Experimental Science: The Method of Deviator Removal
Abstract: What kind of experimental theory and methods were used by Mohists to promote their own scientific research has always been a problem concerned in Mohism research but has not been fully discussed. The Mohist experimental science theoretical system of deviator removing can be restored by re-discriminating Mohist scriptures. This system includes the theory of system composition, the theory of functional evaluation, the method of judging the root cause of things, the theory of experimental check, the method of single-step controlled experiment, the knowledge base of deviator, the method of classification research and the method of experimental record management, etc., forming a fairly complete theoretical system of experimental science. Key Words: Mohist; Experiment; Experimental science
Author:
JI Yang
Issue:Volume 47, lssue 2, February 2025
Page: 67-75
Constructing Death: The Shaping of Death Facts in Organ Donation After Brain Death
Abstract: The constructivity of death has attracted increasing attention since the proposition of brain death, and the close combination of brain death and organ donation has created new possibilities for the reconstruction of death. Through an ethnographic study at two hospitals in Beijing and Guangzhou, this article explores how heterogeneous actors in organ donation after brain death observe, understand, and shape the death facts of potential donors, and discusses how the interactions between technology and society play a role in reconstructing death and what problems arise from them. The study illustrates that the deep involvement of technology and the absence of legislation for brain death bring about complex shaping of death facts in organ donation, through which the concept of death gets reconstructed and presents operable and negotiable characteristics, and that the bundling of brain death and organ donation also makes the clinical application of brain death instrumentalized. The study thus argues accelerating the legislation of brain death and unifying the concepts of legal and clinical death can be effective ways to avoid excessive instrumentalization of brain death. Key Words: Death; Death fact; Brain death; Organ donation; Construction
Author:
ZHOU Fan
WANG Pusheng
Issue:Volume 47, lssue 2, February 2025
Page: 90-99
Aleksandrov: Founder of Moscow Topological School
Abstract: Pavel Sergeevich Aleksandrov was an outstanding mathematician in the Soviet Union in the 20th century. His mathematical research began in the field of set theory and real variable function theory, and achieved remarkable results. Later, he devoted himself to the development of topology. He founded the theory of compact space, significantly developed the theory of dimension, and developed the combinatorial research methods of set theory and general property space. Many concepts and theorems of general topology were named after Aleksandrov, which laid a solid foundation for the later mathematical research. Aleksandrov also founded and developed the topological school of Moscow University. Key Words: Aleksandrov; Bicompact space; Homology dimension theory; Moscow Topological School
Author:
XU Nainan
LIU Luying
LIU Pengfei
Issue:Volume 47, lssue 2, February 2025
Page: 117-124
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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.
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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