Returning to Scientific Practice: A New Reflection on Philosophy of Science

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Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of contents
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Postscript
Introduction: Towards a philosophy of scientific practice
	1 PSP approaches
	2 The hermeneutic background of PSP
	3 Comparison: traditional philosophy of science and PSP
	4 Some unsolved problems within and beyond PSP
1 The origin of the concept of practice
	1.1 The origin of the concept of practice
		1.1.1 Aristotle’s practice
		1.1.2 Practice in Kant
	1.2 Marx’s notion of practice
	1.3 Scientific practice and Marx’s practice: connection and difference
		1.3.1 From Marx to STS:5 practical thoughts embodied in social research of science
		1.3.2 Isomorphism of practical activity and concept of construction9
	1.4 Practical research on SSK in early and late stages
	1.5 The thought of practice in the tradition of hermeneutics in the modern continental philosophy
	Notes
2 Scientific practice: Significance, types, and scopes
	2.1 The concept and significance of practice in PSP
		2.1.1 The conception of scientific practice: as a critique to theory dominance
		2.1.2 Practical character of scientific research activities
		2.1.3 Case studies on scientific practice
	2.2 The main types of scientific practice I: scientific practice, experimental practice, and laboratory practice
		2.2.1 General scientific practice is not abstract
		2.2.2 One of the role of experimental practice is constructing phenomena
		2.2.3 Laboratories and their apparatus are local, contextual, and practical in scientific research
	2.3 Three main types of practice (II): thought experiments, discursive practice, and conceptual practice
		2.3.1 Thought experiments
		2.3.2 Discursive practice
		2.3.3 Conceptual practice6
	Notes
3 The nature of scientific practice
	3.1 The nature of scientific practice or various features
	3.2 The account and interpretation of the hermeneutic nature of scientific practice
		3.2.1 The constitution or becoming of practice
		3.2.2 The relation between practice and patterns of practice
		3.2.3 Patterns of practice and their norms
		3.2.4 The most important issues in practice
		3.2.5 Practice involves not just patterns of action, but also meaningful configurations of the world
		3.2.6 Practice is always simultaneously material and discursive
		3.2.7 Practice is open spatiotemporally
4 The nature of knowledge: Local knowledge
	4.1 The conceptual background of ‘local knowledge’
	4.2 Geertz’s notion of local knowledge
	4.3 Local knowledge and its significance in PSP
	4.4 Why does science seem like universal rather than local knowledge?
	Notes
5 Knowledge and power
	5.1 Alliance of knowledge and power
	5.2 Another dimension of scientific rationality: the power characteristics in practice
	5.3 The dimension of power in scientific knowledge and its characteristic presentation
		5.3.1 Scientific knowledge is constructed by power
		5.3.2 The process of scientific knowledge creation contains power
		5.3.3 Scientific discipline derives from power
		5.3.4 The impact of science on social power is stronger with the expansion of laboratories
	5.4 On the relationship between social knowledge and power in Chinese society: investigations at both macro and micro levels
		5.4.1 The relationship between knowledge and power in traditional Chinese society
		5.4.2 The relationship between knowledge and power in the development of science and technology, from the founding of ...
	Notes
6 The contextual normativity of scientific practice
	6.1 Naturalism and its problems in philosophy of science
	6.2 The history and development of normativity
	6.3 Normativity, modality, and importance in scientific practice
	6.4 Concluding remarks
	Note
7 Philosophy of scientific practice and naturalism (I)
	7.1 Naturalism: issues in history
	7.2 Naturalism and philosophy of scientific practice
	7.3 PSP and problem of normativity for naturalism
	7.4 Naturalism and normativity: an open question
	Notes
8 Philosophy of scientific practice and naturalism (II)
	8.1 The Kantian notion of constructivism and normativity
	8.2 Naturalistic criticism of transcendental normativity
	8.3 PSP as a naturalistic approach
	8.4 PSP as quasi-transcendental philosophy
	Notes
9 Philosophy of scientific practice and relativism
	9.1 The problems of relativism and its performance in the philosophy of science
	9.2 The traditional philosophy of science and relativism
	9.3 PSP and realism
	9.4 Relativism and absolutism
10 Partnering the philosophy of  scientific practice: The philosophy of scientific experimentation
	10.1 The significance of the philosophy of scientific experimentation
	10.2 The research themes of PSE
		10.2.1 The material realization of experiments
			10.2.1.1 Ontology significance
			10.2.1.2 Epistemology significance
		10.2.2 Experimentation and causality
		10.2.3 The science–technology relationship
		10.2.4 The role of theory in experimentation
		10.2.5 Related research on experiment, modelling, and (computer) simulation
		10.2.6 The scientific and philosophical significance of instruments
			10.2.6.1 The faults in traditional philosophy and history of science: scientific instruments
			10.2.6.2 Scientific instruments: their philosophical significance
			10.2.6.3 The ontological and epistemological classification of scientific instruments
	10.3 A theory of working knowledge: objective knowledge and practice
		10.3.1 Model knowledge and practice
		10.3.2 Working knowledge and practice
		10.3.3 Measuring knowledge and practice
	10.4 The contribution and deficiency of the new experimentalism
		10.4.1 Three aspects of outstanding contributions of the new experimentalism
		10.4.2 The shortage of new experimentalism
	Notes
11 New empiricism: A close relative of the philosophy of scientific practice
	11.1 Plural local realism: the dappled world
	11.2 Ceteris Paribus: when law is true
	11.3 Knowledge of nature and the law
	11.4 The concrete and the abstract
	11.5 Truth and social construction
	11.6 To what degree the new empiricism supplements PSP
12 The starting point of scientific research: Opportunity, question, or observation?
	12.1 Background
	12.2 The significant difference between starting from opportunity and from observation or question
	12.3 The cases of ‘scientific research begins with opportunity’: the solar neutrino experiment, the complexity study, ...
	12.4 The significance of ‘scientific research begins with opportunity’
	Notes
13 A new solution for an old problem: The relationships of observation, experiment, and theory
	13.1 ‘Theory-ladenness of observation’
	13.2 A strategy for new experimentalist criticism and the implication of an ‘experiment has its own life’
	13.3 New experimentalist achievements and shortcomings in understanding the relation between observation and theory
	13.4 The evolutionary relation between scientific experiment and theory
14 New studies on replicability of scientific experiments
	14.1 Traditional views and challenges
	14.2 The SSK notion of experimental replicability
	14.3 The new experimentalist view of replicability
		14.3.1 ‘The concept of experimental replicability’ reconsidered
		14.3.2 Replicability in experimental practice
		14.3.3 Replicability as a non-local norm
	14.4 Comparing the views of new experimentalism and SSK
	14.5 Conclusion
15 Local knowledge (I): Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)
	15.1 The basic characteristics of Chinese medicine
		15.1.1 Chinese medicine as knowledge: unifying the metaphysics and the physics
		15.1.2 Chinese medicine knowledge is strongly practical
		15.1.3 The locality of Chinese medicine
	15.2 The historical evolution of Chinese medicine
		15.2.1 Period before systemization: accumulation of knowledge through practice
		15.2.2 Period of systemization and autonomy
		15.2.3 Differentiation and development since the eastward transmission of western science
	15.3 The influence of Yin-Yang and Wu-Xing theory on Chinese medicine
		15.3.1 The influence of ancient Chinese culture on the formation of the core concept of traditional Chinese medicine: ‘Yin-Yang
			15.3.2.1 In a changing time
			15.3.2.2 Pressure from the new rising discourse power
			15.3.2.3 Chinese Medicine’s slow development and failure to respond
		15.3.3 The rationality of ‘Yin-Yang and Wu-Xing’ theory
			15.3.3.1 Knowledge contribution to complexity science
			15.3.3.2 Epistemological contribution to scientific methodology
			15.3.3.3 Conceptual contribution to culture diversity
	15.4 The debate around the scientific status of Chinese medicine
	15.5 A local view of the characteristics of Chinese and western medicine
	15.6 The rationality of Chinese medicine
	15.7 The dimension of local knowledge
16 Local knowledge (II): Chinese theory of Fengshui
	16.1 Theories and practices of Fengshui
	16.2 The demarcation of science: a variety of demarcation standard and its changes
	16.3 The Practice and local knowledge of Fengshui
		16.3.1 Fengshui and science as practical knowledge
		16.3.2 Local knowledge and Fengshui
	16.4 The normative framework of Fengshui practice
		16.4.1 The world view of ‘the unity of heaven and human’, and ‘Harmony of Yin and Yang’
		16.4.2 The fortune of the Qi in Fengshui
	16.5 Fengshui in PSP
17 Local knowledge (III): Ethnobotany
	17.1 Local knowledge from the perspective of PSP
	17.2 Mongolian natural knowledge
		17.2.1 Natural knowledge embodied in Mongolian folksongs
		17.2.2 Mongolian botanical and ecological knowledge
		17.2.3 Mongolian knowledge of medicine
		17.2.4 Architecture and geographical knowledge in Mongolian houses
	17.3 Problems and significance
	17.4 Ethnobotany as a combination between natural and social sciences
18 Conclusion: Scientific practice in ongoing and unlimited process
	18.1 Attention or contact with direct science practice
	18.2 New-experimentalism and new-empiricism
	18.3 PSP, phenomenology, and hermeneutics
		18.3.1 Husserl in Rouse’s works
		18.3.2 Follow-up study on the relationship between PSP and phenomenology and hermeneutics
		18.3.3 Relations between modern science, laboratory research, and Husserl phenomenology
References
	English references
	Chinese references
Index