科學發現與知識成長：我們能從科學哲學當中學到什麽？

Scientific Discovery and Knowledge Growth: What Can We Learn from Philosophy of Science?

詹志禹(Chih-Yu Chan)

《應用心理研究》 15期 (2002/09) Pp. 105-127

摘要

本文的主要目的在依循科學哲學發展的歷史脈絡，以各派科學哲學的觀點分析「科學發現」與「知識成長」的歷程。經過重新檢視歸納法、邏輯實證論、波普的觀點、孔恩的貢獻、費若本的啟示、圖爾明的模式、以及夏皮爾的論述之後，我們可以得到下列結論：l.歸納法在本質上是一種「假設－驗證」的問題解決歷程；2.不要期待透過簡單、機械性、神秘的、意外的歷程，就能有重要的科學發現；3.科學發現必須以科學創造為前提，沒有創造就沒有發現；4.科學發現雖無邏輯可循，卻有理由可循，是一個理性的歷程；5.典範會幫助創造，也會抑制創造，必須了解典範、尋找異例、偵知錯誤、容忍危機、挑戰典範，才能創造新典範；6.創造思考與批判思考之間、擴散思考與聚斂思考之間、或變異與選擇之間的循環回饋歷程，是知識成長的基本歷程。作者並針對每一條結論提出其在學習、教學或學術研究上的含意。

關鍵字

科學發現 ； 知識成長 ； 科學哲學 ； 創造思考 ； 批判思考 ； 歸納法 ； 實證論 ； 否證論 ； 典範 ； 演化論 ； 自我組織

並列摘要

The aim of the current paper was to analyze the process of knowledge growth and scientific discovery by historically reviewing the philosophy of science. After re-assessing inductivism, logical positivism, falsificationism, Kuhn's contribution, Feyerabend's position, Toulmin's model, and Shapere's theory, the following conclusions were derived. First, the so-called ”inductive reasoning” is essentially a ”hypothesis-testing” process. Second, it should not be expected that important scientific discovery could be achieved simply by mechanistic, mysterious, or accidental process. Third, scientific discovery presupposes scientific creativity. Forth, although there is no logic of scientific discovery, there usually are good reasons for it. In other words, the process of scientific discovery is rational. Fifth, paradigms can facilitate as well as constrain creativity. In order to create new paradigms, learners should be able to understand paradigms, find out counter examples, detect errors, tolerate crisis, and challenge existing paradigms. Sixth, the fundamental process of knowledge growth is basically a dynamic, iterating, bootstrapping, and self-organizing process of creative and critical thinking, i.e., of variation and selection. Some implications of the above conclusions for learning, instruction, and research were also discussed.

並列關鍵字

scientific discovery ； knowledge growth ； philosophy of science ； creative thinking ； critical thinking ； inductivism ； logical positivism ； falsificationism ； paradigms ； evolutionary theory ； self-organizing

參考文獻

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