中国高校BBS的作用

高校的bbs其实是一种很有价值的历史档案，第一手反映了这些年高校学生思想的内容和转变。

以后bbs的历史也会成为一种研究材料。

版面种类的变化
各种类版面相互之间热度的变化
版面自身热度的变化
版面自身主题的变化

或许从这些可以对未来若干年的中国有一定的估计。

西欧成为近代科学产生地的背后机理－1

西欧（西拉丁）一方面在罗马帝国分裂为西拉丁和东希腊后，通过教会将原来保留下来的和分裂前夕翻译的希腊原著继承下来；另外东希腊的希腊原著通过伊斯兰教在西班牙而保留的阿拉伯译本重翻译回拉丁语进入西欧的大学等学术机构。并且这些通过伊斯兰教保存下来的希腊原著由于不能和伊斯兰教的教义很好结合，没有受到宗教的多大影响，这样又使得后来的文艺复兴以及科学摆脱神学在欧洲成为可能。所以伊斯兰教起了一个纽带作用。

root out and replace

Descartes' success in replacing Aristotle as the accepted philosophical authority without shaking up the educational structure within which that authority held sway. I find some similarity when we come to European's replacing Native American.

Draft for History of Science upto 1500s

About 7000 BC the prehistoric culture began. Egypt, Mesopotamia, etc. mathematics, astronomy, etc. People interpreted some natural phenomena via mythology. Oral tradition was passed down. From 3000BC, gradually there came the inventing of writings. At about 800 BC, alphabetic writing showed up and at about 5th BC the alphabetic writing began to be popular in Greece. The Great Alexandra stretched out his power to many other places. Leisure class emerged in Greece and some people in Ionia showed up and tried for the first time to give an interpretation to the natural world without resorting to mythology. It is said that the invention and popularization of writing gave people at that time a new way of organizing thoughts and triggering skepticism by comparing written records. Also since Alexandra took the possession of many other cities, a cultural communication was going on among these cities. There was some kind of education in Greece at 5th BC. It was focused on physical education and music and poetry, and was private. Then people like Thales and Pythagoras are the first natural philosophers. Their emergence was contributed by at least three factors: the invention and popularization of writing, the cultural communication and interaction, the prosperity of the society and the emergence of leisure class. But at that time there were also some other fabulous cities co-existing with Greece. They were Egypt, Babylon, and Mesopotamia. However, for some reason the first natural philosophers did not belong to them. According to Lindberg’s book, they had fabulous mathematics, medicine, and technology. But where is natural philosophy? The Greek Pythagorus once traveled to these places to study mathematics and when he got back he put mathematics into metaphysical issues, not practical issue, as what the other places did. Three issues were concerned in natural philosophy: reality, change, and epistemology. Socrates(died in 399 BC) represents a shift from cosmological concerns to political and ethical concerns. Epicurus (341-270) and Stoic's idea that natural philosophy is the tool of pursuing happiness. Plato (427-348/47). His cosmology, his form and material. Aristotle (born in 384). His form and material, his idea about soul, his eternal heaven, his four courses, his idea about experiment, his biology, his idea about motion, his solution to change, his structure of cosmos and the fifth element-aether. Four schools were set up in Greece-Academy, Lyceum, Stoa, Epicurus. No fee for everyone. Libraries were built. The first museum was set up in Alexandria by Ptolemy's invitation of someone from Lyceum, and was public and royal patronized. Lyceum's library contained not only Aristotle's books but also the books of the leaders of Lyceum after Aristotle. Their works were based on Aristotle's and had some variations and extension. At about 300 BC, Rome (not within Alexandra's territory) had gradually become a strong empire. After the Second Macedonian War (200-197) Rome intervened in Greece. Rome took charge of politics and military, but the intellectual world left to Greece. Roman leisure class began to appreciate Greek intellectual work. Lyceum library 遭遇变故 and most of the books were shipped to Rome. There was no language barrier for the Roman to read in Greek because at Alexandra's time, the communication was very common. Also traveling was very frequent and convenient. Greek scholars traveled to Rome or slaved to Rome. And the Roman went to Greek to study. But the Roman seemed to focus more on practical science, such as medicine, logic and rhetoric, ethics in Epicurean and Stoic philosophy. Many commentators and encyclopedias showed up, such as Pliny (23-79). At the of the 2nd AD, decline of Rome. The split of West Latin and East Greece. Some people did translation from Greek to Latin in order to preserve the Greek intellectual work in Latin world, such as Boethius. In the West, Christianity became stronger and finally the state religion. Due to the decline of the empire, the schools also shrank. Thanks to the Christian. They made use of some part of Greek intellectual to support the Bible. Logic, and Platonic philosophy were helpful tools (St. Augustine's view). But the Christian was still using the existing education system in Rome though it was declining because there was no alternative way of education. Thus other parts of natural philosophy and Aristotelian philosophy were also there and the Christian though disliked them, still could not escape them. Then monasticism emerged at 4th AD as an alternative way of education, aimed for educating the monks. It didn't externalize itself but still became one main education tool. For people at that time, if he was interested with intellectual work, he would then go to the monastery. Monasteries preserved and transmitted the classical tradition. After the West-East split of the great Rome empire, the East formed a Byzantine empire. And it was more stable than the West Latin. The Byzantine Christian was divided to two factions because of the debate on Jesus' humanity and divinity. One faction was forced to move to another safer place—Syria, where they set up church education, and thus spread the classical tradition to Syria. This was the eastward diffusion of the Greek heritage into Asia. At Syria, works were translated between Greek and Syria. In the Arabic peninsula, Christianity at first thrived but latter the influence diminished to a modest level. Muhammad was born about 570 and he preached the new religion there called Islam, and formed Koran. After the death of Muhammad, the 政权was handed to a Syrian. Thus, through Syria, the Islamic world (including Spain) got in tough with the Greek intellectual work. There were some famous translators, such as Hunayn, who was bilingual in Arabic and Syriac. Medicine, mathematics, astronomy, logic, [*] were the first things to be translated (The beginning of the translation was at 8th and the crest of translation was at 9th ). But the Islam religion was not as Christian in that the Islamic saw the Koran as the divine science while the Greek science as the foreign science. They did not cooperate them as well as the Christian did, though the latter made science the handmaiden. Koran did not need logic (Bible, trinity needs logic). Even so, they made contribution to mathematical astronomy (Arabic maths was a direct descendent of Greek and Indian maths.). Islamic science lasted as long to the 14th mainly because their religion narrowed down the utility range and left little things to study in science. Then go again to the Western side, at the end of the 8th, Charlemagne enlarged his kingdom to include the Western Europe. And due to the low level of clerical literacy, clerical education was also at its renewal. The set up of schools, and the revival of classical tradition. And Spain became the center of translation among Greek, Latin, and Arabic. And at about 1003 Western Europe was then at its renewal of politics, economics, and became prosperous. The booming of population and the urbanization, plus the huge amount of translation works led to the emergence of universities with high mobility and uniform curriculum. Science began to be more powerful and people tended to put reason into every practice, such as administration. Thus the faith-reason (mainly Aristotelian) debate. Roger Bacon, Thomas Aquinas (1224-74). They tried to Aristotelianize Christianity. And then in Paris, there was a condemnation in 1277. Aristotelian science began to shake, and gave way to an alternative science.

'Real' and 'True'

斯宾塞说野蛮人因为梦见死了的父亲，想加以解释，就创造了 一个灵魂世界。可是原始人并没有斯宾塞这种复杂的推理能力。梦境对于他是实在的，也许不象他现在还活着的母亲那样实在，但却不是假的。他并不寻求解释，而 把梦境当做实在加以接受，他的父亲在某种意义上还活着。他感觉自身有一种生命力，他虽然摸不到它，它却是实在的，因而他已死的父亲也必定有这种生命力。父 亲死后，这种生命力不再寄寓在他的肉体内，但它又在梦中回来：这是一种气息、形象、幻影或鬼魂。这是生命本质与可以分离的幽灵的混合体。

巫术，宗教，科学

巫术对宗教的关系和对科学的关系如何，仍然是一个争论的问题。巫术企图迫使外界事物服从人的意志。原始形态的宗教 想依靠上帝和多神的帮助来影响外界的事物。科学比巫术有更清晰的洞察力，它谦卑地学习自然的法则，通过服从这些法则而取得控制自然的能力，这正是巫术误认 为自己已经获得了的能力。无论这三者的实在关系为何，巫术好象终归是宗教与科学的摇篮。

机械论与唯灵论(2)

尽管生物物理学家与生物化学家用物理学和化学的概念解释生命现 象，十分成功，愈来愈成功，作为一种哲学看，机械论也还有错误。从笛卡尔以来，机械论者以为物理科学揭示了实在，其实它只是从一个角度来看实在的抽象概 念。因此，人们才周期性地认识到机械论不是对于实在的完备解释，这就自然要导致活力论，而认为有一种暂时地或永久地与肉体联系着的精神或灵魂，可以控制或 甚至停止物理定律，以达到某种预定的目的。

活 力论者的谬误，似乎在于他们企图把目的的概念应用于生理学上的有限度的科学问题。这些问题，按其性质，只能用物理学的分析方法去解决，至于目的（如果有所 谓目的的话）只能在整个机体之中起作用，而且或许只有在用形而上学的方法研究实在时才能把这种目的揭示出来，因为只有这种研究才与存在的全体有关。

我们还必须指出：从1925 年开始的物理学的最近的变化，看来很可能削弱了机械决定论的论据。哲学给科学上的决定论找到的最有力的证据，一向是从物理学中得来的，因为人们以为在物理 学中，存在着具有数学必然性的体系。但如后章所述，新的波动力学好象说明测不准原理乃是物质的基本单元即电子的基础，因此要同时精密测定电子的位置与速 度，是绝不可能的事。于是有人说，哲学上的决定论的科学证据已经被打破了，另外一些人则认为测不准原理不过是我们的测量系统无力处理这类实体的表现而已。

机械论与唯灵论

科学每前进一步，机械论的力量总是要被人过高估计，这已经成为当代思想的特色。其实当新知识完全消化后，人们就看出旧问题本质上依然未变；而诗人、先知和神秘主义者也就出来重整旗鼓，以新的言语从更优越的地位向人类宣布他们的永恒的启示。

英国人的习惯

不过当大陆上的伪逻辑学家断言这一有用的假设可以代表实在，而人不过是一架机器时，英国人则凭他们通常的常识见 解，以为这一主张虽然与一套事实相合，却与另一套事实相背；他们完全满足于在生理实验室中把人视为机器，在日常事务上把人视为具有自由意志与责任的个人， 而在教堂礼拜，则把人视为一个不朽的灵魂。既然每一种看法都是适合它的特殊用途的良好的工作假设，为什么不能在适当的时间与地点，把这些假设一并采用？或 许有朝一日按照将来的知识，这些假设可以调和起来，但现时这些假设却各有助于工作的进行。英国人的这种特殊心理态度，不但在牛顿的时代与现代心理学创始之 际表现出来，而且也在十九世纪的与其后的许多科学与哲学问题上表现出来。此种态度在大陆的人看来，或许是不合逻辑的，但仍不失为真正科学的态度。他把某些 理论当作工作假设，只要它们能产生有用的结果；而且只要它们能产生有用的结果，他们也毫不犹疑地同时采用在当时的知识情况下看起来互相矛盾的两种理论。如 果其中之一正明与事实（或与信念）不符，他们可以立刻放弃不用。物理学一向被视为最富于理性的科学，现在却仍旧采用表面上看来有很大矛盾的两种基本理论， 这或许可以证明英国人的心理习惯是有道理的。

马赫关于先验和经验

马赫遵守洛克、休谟与康德的传统，以为科学只能把我们通过感官所能了解的自然界构成模型，力学决不是象有些人所相信的那样当然是自然界的最后真理，而只是 观察上述模型的一个角度。其它角度，如化学、生理学之类，也同样是基本的与重要的。我们无权假定我们对于绝对空间或时间有所认识，因为空与时仅仅是一种感 觉，空间只能参照于恒星的间架，时间只能参照于天文运动。由于黎曼与其他数学家想象出别种空间或类空流形，我们所知的空间，只不过由经验得到的一种概念而 已。“所谓物体乃是触觉与视觉感觉的相对不变的总和。”自然律乃是“简明扼要的规则”。它只能提供过去经验的结果，以指导将来的感官知觉。马赫的意见大多 数都可以在过去的哲学家的著作中找到.

牛顿的哲学

牛顿虽然有异乎寻常的数学才能，但仍保持经验派的态度。他时常说他 不制造假说，意思是指形而上学的、不能证明的假说，或根据权威而形成的理论，而且他从来不发表不能用观测或实验证明的学说。这不是因为他缺乏哲学的或神学 的兴趣，其实事实恰恰相反。他是一位哲学家，也有深挚的宗教信仰；但是他觉得这些问题是从人类知识的顶点才能看到的境界，而不是人类知识的基础；它们是科 学的终点，而不是科学的开始。

从哪个方面看自然界

牛顿假定，就“自然哲学的数学原理”而论，世界是由运动中的物质组成的。这个假定不过是自然界的一个方面的定义而已，动力科学觉得从这个方面去看自然界比较方便。此外还有许多方面，如物理的方面，心理的方面，审美的方面，宗教的方面等，只有把这些方面合并起来加以研究，我们才有希望得到对真实的认识。

牛顿关于亚里士多德最后因的一段话

在考虑了这一切以后，我觉得好象是这样的：上帝在开头把物质造成固 实、有质、坚硬、不可贯穿、而可活动的质点，它们的大小、形状以及其他性质与其对空间的比例，都最适合于上帝创造它们时所要达到的目的。原始的质点既属固 实，就比用它们造成的有孔物体，要不可比拟的坚硬；它们坚硬到不能损坏或分割；寻常的力量不能分开上帝在最初创造时所造成的单体……我还觉得这些质点不但 有一种惯性以及由此自然产生出来的被动的运动定律，它们并且为一些主动的原理所推动，如象万有引力、发酵的原因以及物体的内聚力等。这些原理，我不看做是 由物体的特殊形式得来的神秘性质，而看做是自然界里决定物体形式的普遍定律；它们所具有的真实性通过现象显现在我们面前，虽然它们的原因还没有发现。因为 这些是明显的特性，它们的原因才是奥秘的。亚里斯多德派并不把明显的特性叫做奥秘的性质，而仅把他们认为隐藏在物体中、成为明显效应的未知原因的一些性 质，叫做奥秘的性质；这些明显的效应有重力、磁、电的吸引原因，发酵的原因等，只要我们假定这些力或作用是由未知而且是不能发现或弄明白的原因所造成的。 这样的奥秘性质阻碍了自然哲学的进步，所以近年以来被人摈弃了。告诉我们每一物种有其天赋的特殊奥秘性质，因而它才能起作用或产生可见的效果，这等于什么 也没有告诉我们。但如果你能从现象中发现两三个普遍性的运动原理，然后再告诉我们一切有形体的物体的性质与作用都是由这些明显的原理中产生的，那在哲学上 就是一个大进步，虽然这些原理的原因还没有发现出来。所以我毫不迟疑地提出以上所说的运动原理——因为它们的范围是很广泛的——而让别人去发现它们的原 因。

波义耳的一些看法

他寻找的是不必追求最后因——不管这些原因是经院哲学的还是数理力学的——直接就可以知觉到的各种性质之间的关系。解释一件事实，只不过是把这件事实从人们了解得比较清楚的另一件事推导出来而已。波义耳接受了（
实际他也必须接受）认为“第二性的质”只是感觉的幻象的见解，但他正确地指出，毕竟“在这世界上，事实上还有某些有感觉、有理性的、我们叫做人的生物”。既然人带了他的感觉，构成宇宙的一部分，所以第二性的质与第一性的质是同样实在的。这里，波义耳从相反的方面，接触到贝克莱所得到的结果，而且他所使用的论据现在好象仍属有效。机械世界与思想世界都是哲学要对付的整个世界的两部分。为了要把问题放在人类理解力的范围内也许必须把这两个世界看做是完全分离的；但是这是由于我们需要从不同的方面对问题挨次加以处理，从而把问题简化。如果有一个比我们的心灵更高的心灵，也许就可以从整体上去凝视世界。

从两个方面来看待几何学

"我们现在可以从两个方面来看待几何学。第一，我们可以把它看做是一门观察和实验科学中的演绎步骤。从埃及土地测量的经验事实中，得到了某些公理和假设。它们好象是不证自明的，但是，事实上，它们是关于空间的性质的假说，是根据所观察到的现象，通过想象归纳的过程得到的。数理几何学就从这些假说中，按照逻辑推理，推演出无数的结论，如欧几里得的书和几何天文学中所载的就是。直到前不久为止，人们发现所有这些推论都是同对自然的观察和实验相符合的。接受了欧几里得空间的牛顿及其追随者的数理天文学，直到亚当斯（Adams）和列维烈（Leverrier）的时代为止，都高度精确地证实了这些假说。我们说过，从这个观点来看，几何学只不过是一门实验科学的演绎部分而已。

但是，我们还可以从另一角度去看它。普通观察给人的暗示是有某种空间。心灵接受了这种暗示，给一种理想的空间下了定义。这种理想的空间其实完全是所观察到的空间在人们心目中的样子。后来，心灵又给别的种类的空间下了定义——非欧几里得空间，这种空间或许是无法用物理学术语加以描写的。心灵既然得到了自己的定义，现在就可以自由地来展开这些定义的逻辑推论了，无需顾及什么符合自然，什么不符合自然。如果我们给空间下的定义说空间有三维，我们就得到一套推论。如果我们假定空间，或者同空间相符合的东西，有n维，我们就得到别的推论。这是一场有趣的智力游戏，但是它必然同自然没有直接关系，也必然同实验科学没有直接关系，虽然在这场游戏中学到的方法以后或许会有用处。"

错误假说的用处

“一个错误的假说如果能成为进一步探讨的向导，在当时也许会比一个至今无法验证的比较正确的假说，更有用处些。”